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31,844,314 |
Indian Head eagle
| 1,161,178,794 |
United States $10 gold piece
|
[
"Currencies introduced in 1907",
"Eagles on coins",
"Goddess of Liberty on coins",
"Native Americans on coins",
"Sculptures by Augustus Saint-Gaudens",
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The Indian Head eagle is a \$10 gold piece or eagle that was struck by the United States Mint continuously from 1907 until 1916, and then irregularly until 1933. The obverse and reverse were designed by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, originally commissioned for use on other denominations. He was suffering from cancer and did not survive to see the coins released.
Beginning in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed new, more artistic designs on US coins, prompting the Mint to hire Saint-Gaudens to create them. Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens at first considered a uniform design for the four denominations of coins which were struck in gold, but in 1907 Roosevelt decided to use a model for the obverse of the eagle that the sculptor had meant to use for the cent. For the reverse of the \$10 coin, the President decided on a design featuring a standing bald eagle that had been developed for the Saint-Gaudens double eagle \$20 coin, while the obverse features a left-facing bust of Liberty wearing an Indian feather headdress.
The coin as sculpted by Saint-Gaudens was too high in relief for the Mint to strike readily, and it took months to modify the design so that the coin could be struck by one blow of the Mint's presses. Saint-Gaudens died on August 3, 1907, and Roosevelt insisted that the new eagle be finished and struck that month. New pieces were given to the President on August 31 which differ from the coins struck later for circulation.
The omission of the motto "In God We Trust" on the new coins caused public outrage, and prompted Congress to pass a bill mandating its inclusion. Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber added the words and made minor modifications to the design. The Indian Head eagle was struck regularly until 1916, and then intermittently until President Franklin Roosevelt directed the Mint to stop producing gold coins in 1933. Its termination ended the series of eagles struck for circulation begun in 1795. Many Indian Head eagles were melted by the government in the late 1930s; the 1933 issue is a particular rarity, as few were distributed.
## Inception
In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Secretary of the Treasury Leslie Mortier Shaw complaining that U.S. coinage lacked artistic merit. He suggested that the treasury engage a private artist to prepare new coin designs, such as sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. At Roosevelt's direction, the Mint hired Saint-Gaudens to redesign the cent and the four gold pieces: the double eagle (\$20), eagle (\$10), half eagle (\$5), and quarter eagle (\$2.50). The Liberty Head design had been first struck for the eagle in 1838; the last addition to the Liberty Head gold series was the double eagle, first struck for circulation in 1850. The designs of those pieces had remained unchanged for more than 25 years, and they could be changed without an act of Congress.
In 1905, Mint Engraver Charles E. Barber engraved the obverse of Roosevelt's inauguration medal, while his assistant George T. Morgan engraved the reverse. Roosevelt disliked the work and engaged Saint-Gaudens to design an unofficial medal commemorating the inauguration. Saint-Gaudens foresaw resistance from Barber on the question of the new coinage; he wrote to his brother Louis, "Barber is a S.O.A.B. [son of a bitch] but I had a talk with the President who ordered Secretary Shaw in my presence to cut Barber's head off if he didn't do our bidding".
Roosevelt was impressed by some models that Saint-Gaudens had prepared for the cent showing a head of Liberty. In early 1907, he wrote to Saint-Gaudens proposing that an Indian war bonnet be added to the obverse of the cent: "I feel very strongly that on at least one coin we ought to have the Indian feather headdress. It is distinctly American, and very picturesque. Couldn't you have just such a head as you have now, but with the feather headdress?" Numismatic historian Walter Breen describes this as "the absurd addition of a feathered warbonnet", and art historian Cornelius Vermeule states that the Indian Head eagle "missed being a great coin because Roosevelt interfered" with its design. Nonetheless, Saint-Gaudens added the headdress to the head of Liberty in February 1907. He was undecided about which design to use for the gold pieces, which were still intended to have a uniform appearance, and he proposed using the headdress Liberty for the double eagle. Roosevelt tentatively decided to use different designs on the eagle and double eagle, with the eagle to bear the headdress Liberty. The double eagle would show a Liberty striding forward, with a flying eagle on the reverse. The President was prepared to meet personally with Saint-Gaudens if he objected, but the sculptor was seriously ill with cancer and no meeting took place.
Mint Director George E. Roberts wrote to Saint-Gaudens on May 25, 1907: "It is now settled ... the design for the Eagle shall be the feather head of Liberty with the standing eagle". Saint-Gaudens and his assistants moved quickly on the revision, and he sent models of the new coin on June 1 with a letter stating that the relief of the new models should be coinable by the Mint. The double eagles were then being delayed because Saint-Gaudens had twice sent the Mint models with too high a relief that could not be struck in one blow, as required for circulating coinage. His letter was forwarded to the Philadelphia Mint, where Superintendent John Landis had Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber read and initial it. On June 7, Barber responded to Landis:
> I beg to report that I have received two models in plaster and also a copy of a letter from Mr. Saint-Gaudens to the Director, in which there are certain statements that are somewhat misleading ... the relief of the design must conform to the fixed conditions and therefore, the only relief that I knew of was coin relief; the models now sent are not coin relief. ... The date of the year is in Roman notation, there is no provision made for even next year, there being no place left, and as these coins have to stand for twenty-five years before another change can be made, I feel it necessary to state that within a few years it would be impossible to date the dies.
Roberts wrote to Saint-Gaudens on June 11 suggesting that there might be problems with the date and the relief; he received no response and wrote again on June 18. This time the sculptor responded, writing that he had been awaiting the return of his assistant Henry Hering, who had handled much of the dealings with the Mint. He agreed that Roman numerals were ill-advised for the eagle, and he sent new models to the Mint on June 24. Barber used these models to prepare a die, along with a bronze casting which was produced privately, and the Mint struck experimental pieces on July 19. These "high relief" pieces required multiple strikes of the press to fully bring up the design. Saint-Gaudens wrote to the Mint in mid-July, "I am waiting to know about this in order to proceed with the other reliefs", and he was sent one of the new pieces, along with a Liberty Head eagle for comparison.
On July 19, Roberts sent a similar pair of coins to Secretary of the Treasury George Cortelyou, noting that Saint-Gaudens used a smooth finish to the design rather than the sharp die work characteristic of the Liberty gold pieces, and he suggested that this might encourage counterfeiting. Roberts communicated these concerns to Saint-Gaudens, who requested casts of the dies used to strike the new pieces; the casts were sent to his house in Cornish, New Hampshire on July 28. Saint-Gaudens died there of cancer on August 3, 1907, and Roosevelt wrote to his widow Augusta, "I count it as one of the privileges of my administration to have had him make two of our coins".
## Preparations
Roberts left office on July 31, 1907 to become president of the Commercial National Bank of Chicago. As his successor, San Francisco Mint Superintendent Frank A. Leach, did not take office until November 1, former Mint Director Robert Preston served as acting director in the interim.
On August 7, Roosevelt ordered Secretary Cortelyou to have the designs for the eagle and double eagle finalized and in production by September 1. With Landis on vacation, Cortelyou passed the President's letter on to the acting Philadelphia Mint superintendent, Dr. Albert A. Norris, instructing him to "have this matter taken up at once and the President's instructions carried out; and everything possible must be done to expedite the work." Preston wrote to Roberts, asking for information about the new coinage, and the former Mint director responded on August 12, outlining the correspondence with Saint-Gaudens, and noting that "no instructions have been received from the President as to the half and quarter eagle, but I expected that the eagle design would be used upon them ... The President concluded to leave the One Cent piece unchanged, and there has been no discussion about any change in the Nickel piece."
In response to the President's instructions, Barber wrote to Norris informing him that the design for the eagle had been awaiting approval since July, making no mention of the Mint's desire for sharper die work. Norris noted in his subsequent letter to Acting Director Preston that the Mint had been having trouble with the collar, which would strike the edge of the coin and impress 46 stars, representing the number of states there would be after Oklahoma's already scheduled admission to the Union later in 1907. Mint authorities had turned unsuccessfully to their counterparts in Paris for advice, but the Mint's machine shop was able to perfect the collar. Norris defended Barber in his letter to Preston,
> I think the President does Mr. Barber an injustice when he speaks of "a certain cumbersomeness of mind and inability to do the speediest modern work, as shown by these delays," here. The making of the models for these coins was given to Saint Gaudens, who was a sculptor and had no experience with coinage designs. When the models were received, the Bureau [of the Mint] was notified that the dies made from them would not work in the coining press ... the models were returned to Saint Gaudens, at his request and a modified set furnished after some time. The Bureau was informed that even these would not make dies satisfactory for coinage, but the dies were made and it was found they could not be used in the coining press. How are we going to strike coins from these for the President?
In late August, Augusta Saint-Gaudens sent new models for the eagle to Acting Director Preston. When Barber examined them, he noted, "dies made from these models would be a great improvement over those already made" and stated that with these models, the Mint could have the eagle in full production within a month. Homer Saint-Gaudens, the sculptor's son, wrote to Preston, "Mr. Hering has finally finished the eagle at a relief slightly lower than that on the French [gold] coin by Chaplin, [sic, actually Chaplain] which is the lowest relief that Mr. Hering knew my father would abide by, and which I understand Mr. Barber can mint." In the meantime, Cortelyou ordered 500 pieces struck on the Mint's high-pressure medal press from the dies the Mint had from Saint-Gaudens's earlier efforts, thus complying with the letter of the President's August 7 order. Preston sent a note to Norris, warning that the President would likely order 100 pieces and suggesting that he have the coins available "so you can furnish them without a moment's delay". According to numismatic historian Roger Burdette, "these were an 'insurance policy', put in place by Cortelyou against additional presidential rage". The President viewed sample eagle coins on August 31, and expressed his satisfaction with them and his desire to see more struck.
As Saint-Gaudens's design did not include a rim (the raised surface which surrounds each side of a coin), excess metal was forming a "fin" or extrusion from the coin. The fin was easily broken off, and there was a threat that the eagles would quickly become underweight, diminishing their usefulness as a trade coin. Barber engraved a rim onto the die, eliminating the problem.
About five hundred pieces had been struck from Saint-Gauden's original dies; these were struck on the medal press and were for the most part distributed to government officials. They are referred to as "wire rim" pieces, denoting the sharp angle at which the field of the coin meets the edge without the intermediary of a rim. They remained available for purchase from the Mint for face value at least until 1912. One sold at auction in January 2011 for \$230,000. A total of 32,000 eagles were struck using the Barber-modified Saint-Gaudens dies, for the most part using ordinary coinage presses. These are known as the "rounded rim" pieces. On November 9, 1907, with the dies made from the low relief Saint-Gaudens models in full production, Frank Leach, the new Mint director, decided to have 31,950 of the rounded rim specimens melted, saving only fifty. According to Leach in his memoirs, these "were given to museums of art and officials and others connected with the work". The surviving rounded rim specimens can be readily distinguished from later 1907 strikes, as they have dots before, between, and after the words "Ten Dollars" on the reverse. One, which had been in the possession of the Leach family for a century, sold in January 2011 for \$2,185,000.
Mint Director Leach described the pieces in a report to Cortelyou summarizing the redesign project:
> The obverse of the eagle bears the feathered head of Liberty which was originally intended for the one cent piece. The President was so pleased with this design that he decided to have it placed on the eagle. The head, the artist stated, was designed in accordance with the suggestions of the President. The reverse bears the standing eagle, and on the edge of the coins there are forty-six stars, one for each State.
## Design
Saint-Gaudens based his head of Liberty on a model that he had sculpted but not used for the statue of Victory in the William Tecumseh Sherman Monument in New York City, still believing that the design would be considered for the cent. The bust of Harriet Eugenia Anderson also inspired Saint-Gaudens in his model and bas-relief ΝΙΚΗ ΕΙΡΗΝΗ (Greek for victory and peace). His reverse design was an eagle standing on a sheaf of arrows with an olive branch at its feet; this was his original concept for the reverse of the double eagle, and it bears a close similarity to his reverse for the inaugural medal. His ultimate inspiration for the reverse, by one account, was a coin of Ptolemy I of Egypt portraying a standing eagle which was illustrated in a book that he owned and had lent to Roosevelt.
Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth call the details of the coin "a trifle fantastic". They point to the unlikeliness of any female wearing a head-dress only donned by a male warrior, and they describe the word "LIBERTY" on the headdress as "placed incongruously".
## Release and production
The new eagles entered circulation around November 4, 1907, although Leach did not receive formal approval to issue the pieces until December 19.
As early as November 7, articles were appearing in newspapers noting the omission of the motto "In God We Trust" on the eagle, and the Mint soon began to receive many complaints. Roosevelt believed that using God's name on coins was sacrilegious, and had confirmed with government lawyers that no law required the motto's use. Saint-Gaudens wanted to include only the minimum of lettering on the new coins, and was content to omit the motto. According to his son Homer, as Saint-Gaudens considered "the motto 'In God We Trust' as an artistic intrusion not required by law, he wholly discarded [it] and thereby drew down on himself the lightning of public comment". The House of Representatives passed a bill ordering the use of the motto on the new eagle and double eagle (which also lacked the phrase) in March 1908; the Senate followed suit in May. Roosevelt, finding public opinion against him, signed the bill into law that month. Barber duly placed the motto on the reverse, to the left of the eagle's breast. On the "No Motto pieces" struck at the Denver Mint in 1908 (catalogued as 1908-D), the mintmark "D" appears above the leaves near the eagle's feet on the reverse; on the pieces with motto struck both at Denver and at San Francisco (mintmark S) beginning in 1908, the mintmark appears to the left of the arrow on which the bird stands. Barber also made other, minor changes in the coin; according to Breen, "Aside from the addition of the motto, none of Barber's niggling changes are defensible as improvements, unless one insists that more of the first U of UNUM had to show. Nor is striking quality increased."
Denver mintmarks from 1908 to 1910 are much larger than those in subsequent years; San Francisco mintmarks are consistently small. With the admission of New Mexico and Arizona as states in 1912, the number of stars on the edge was increased from 46 to 48.
The coin was struck every year from 1907 to 1916. During World War I, with gold coins commanding a premium above face value and many gold pieces returning from Europe to pay for war materials, there was little need for new gold coins; coinage of eagles was discontinued after 1916. Subsequently, Indian Head eagles were struck only in 1920 (at San Francisco), 1926 (at Philadelphia), 1930 (at San Francisco), and final Philadelphia issues in 1932 and 1933. In March 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered that no more gold in the form of coins be released from the Treasury; the Mint subsequently stopped its production of gold coins, ending the eagle series that had begun in 1795.
On December 28, 1933, Acting Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau ordered Americans to turn in all gold coins and gold certificates, with limited exceptions, receiving paper money in payment. Millions of gold coins were melted down by the Treasury in the following years. Many of the gold coins seen today had been exported to Europe before 1933 and repatriated once restrictions on holding gold were ended.
## Collecting
With the exception of the 1907 high relief pieces, no date or mintmark of the circulation strikes of the Indian Head eagle before 1920 is particularly rare. The 1911-D, with a mintage of 30,100 commands a significant premium in mint state or uncirculated condition, but only a modest one in circulated grades. Despite its mintage of 126,500, the 1920-S is a major rarity. It was little collected at the time, and with Europe still recovering from the war, few coins were exported there; accordingly, most were melted post-1933. Only a handful of 1933 eagles were distributed before Roosevelt ended the paying out of gold, and virtually the entire mintage of 312,500 was melted. One sold in 2004, graded MS-66 (the finest example of this date known) for \$718,750. Approximately forty 1933 eagles are known to have survived.
Proof coins were struck from 1907 until 1915, all at Philadelphia. Not all quantities are known, but the highest for which the number struck is known is 1910, with a mintage of 204 (one sold for \$80,500 in 2006). One of the surviving specimens of the mostly melted rounded rim pieces is in proof; this unique specimen is in private hands. Numismatic expert Mike Fuljenz, in his book on the gold pieces with Indian designs struck in the early 20th century, suggests that this coin was a trial piece, resulting from the test of new dies. Different finishes are known for the proof coins. The unique 1907 piece is in satin proof (the raised designs appear like satin), but later proof eagles were struck in a dark matte finish. Some 1908–1910 proof eagles were struck in a lighter "Roman finish".
|
11,015,252 |
Vladimir Lenin
| 1,173,754,027 |
Leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924
|
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist who served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. He was the founder and leader of the Bolsheviks, which led the October Revolution that established the world's first socialist state. Over the course of the Russian Civil War, Lenin's government centralised power in a one-party state governed by the Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, his developments of the ideology, particularly its theories of party, imperialism, the state, and revolution, are known as Leninism.
Born to an upper-middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brother's execution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empire's tsarist government, he devoted the following years to a law degree before moving to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and emerging as a senior Marxist activist. In 1897, Lenin was arrested for sedition and exiled for three years to Shushenskoye in Siberia. He moved to Western Europe after his release and became a leading member of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1903, Lenin played a central role in the party's main schism, leading his Bolshevik faction against Julius Martov's Mensheviks. He briefly returned to Russia during the failed 1905 Revolution, and during the First World War campaigned for the "imperialist war" to be transformed into a Europe-wide proletarian revolution to overthrow capitalism and replace it with socialism. After the February Revolution of 1917, which overthrew the tsar and established a Provisional Government, Lenin returned to Russia and issued his "April Theses", which called for "all power to the soviets", then helped lead the October Revolution in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the new regime.
Lenin's Bolshevik government redistributed land to the peasantry, nationalised banks and industry, withdrew from the First World War by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which ceded territory to the Central Powers, and promoted world revolution through the Communist International. It initially allowed elections to the multi-party Constituent Assembly and shared power with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, but during the civil war suppressed opposition and consolidated power in the renamed Communist Party. Under Lenin, the Soviet state implemented temporary economic policies known as "war communism" (including forced requisitioning of grain from the peasants) and carried out the Red Terror, a violent campaign of the Cheka by which tens of thousands of "class enemies" were killed or detained in prison camps. Responding to widespread economic devastation, a major famine in 1921–1922, and anti-Bolshevik revolts (including the Tambov and Kronstadt rebellions), in 1921 Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy and a ban on intra-party factionalism. After a series of wars between pro-independence forces and the Red Army, several briefly-independent nations of the former empire were re-united in the Soviet Union in 1922. His health failing by late 1921, Lenin suffered two strokes in 1922, and that year allied with Leon Trotsky against the party's growing bureaucratisation and the influence of Joseph Stalin. After a third and incapacitating stroke in early 1923, Lenin died at his Gorki mansion in 1924, with Stalin succeeding him as the leader of the Soviet government after a power struggle.
Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Lenin was the subject of a posthumous personality cult within the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991, and under Stalin's leadership became a figurehead of the state ideology of Marxism–Leninism, which exerted a major influence on the international communist movement. A controversial figure with a highly divisive legacy, Lenin is viewed by his supporters as a champion of the working class whose government established soviet democracy and a "dictatorship of the proletariat" which took steps towards socialism and introduced progressive policies including universal education, universal healthcare, and equal rights for women. Critics argue that his regime was characterized by authoritarianism, political repression, concentration of power, and the development of an oppressive state apparatus, and accuse him of leading or preparing the way for a totalitarian dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
## Early life
### Childhood: 1870–1887
Lenin was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov in Streletskaya Ulitsa, Simbirsk, now Ulyanovsk, on 22 April 1870, and baptised six days later; as a child, he was known as Volodya, a diminutive of Vladimir. He was the third of eight children, having two older siblings, Anna (born 1864) and Alexander (born 1866). They were followed by three more children, Olga (born 1871), Dmitry (born 1874), and Maria (born 1878). Two later siblings died in infancy. His father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church and baptised his children into it, although his mother, Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova (née Blank), a Lutheran by upbringing, was largely indifferent to Christianity, a view that influenced her children.
Ilya Ulyanov was from a family of former serfs; Ilya's father's ethnicity remains unclear, while his mother, Anna Alexeyevna Smirnova, was half-Kalmyk and half-Russian. Despite a lower-class background, he had risen to middle-class status, studying physics and mathematics at Kazan University before teaching at the Penza Institute for the Nobility. In mid-1863, Ilya married Maria, the well-educated daughter of a wealthy Swedish Lutheran mother, and a Russian Jewish father who had converted to Christianity and worked as a physician. According to historian Petrovsky-Shtern, it is likely that Lenin was unaware of his mother's half-Jewish ancestry, which was only discovered by Anna after his death. According to another version, Maria's father came from a family of German colonists invited to Russia by Catherine the Great.
Soon after their wedding, Ilya obtained a job in Nizhny Novgorod, rising to become Director of Primary Schools in the Simbirsk district six years later. Five years after that, he was promoted to Director of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of over 450 schools as a part of the government's plans for modernisation. In January 1882, his dedication to education earned him the Order of Saint Vladimir, which bestowed on him the status of hereditary nobleman.
Both of Lenin's parents were monarchists and liberal conservatives, being committed to the emancipation reform of 1861 introduced by the reformist Tsar Alexander II; they avoided political radicals and there is no evidence that the police ever put them under surveillance for subversive thought. Every summer they holidayed at a rural manor in Kokushkino. Among his siblings, Lenin was closest to his sister Olga, whom he often bossed around; he had an extremely competitive nature and could be destructive, but usually admitted his misbehaviour. A keen sportsman, he spent much of his free time outdoors or playing chess, and excelled at school, the disciplinarian and conservative Simbirsk Classical Gymnasium.
In January 1886, when Lenin was 15, his father died of a brain haemorrhage. Subsequently, his behaviour became erratic and confrontational and he renounced his belief in God. At the time, Lenin's elder brother Alexander, whom he affectionately knew as Sasha, was studying at Saint Petersburg University. Involved in political agitation against the absolute monarchy of the reactionary Tsar Alexander III, Alexander studied the writings of banned leftists and organised anti-government protests. He joined a revolutionary cell bent on assassinating the Tsar and was selected to construct a bomb. Before the attack could take place, the conspirators were arrested and tried, and Alexander was executed by hanging in May. Despite the emotional trauma of his father's and brother's deaths, Lenin continued studying, graduated from school at the top of his class with a gold medal for exceptional performance, and decided to study law at Kazan University.
### University and political radicalisation: 1887–1893
Upon entering Kazan University in August 1887, Lenin moved into a nearby flat. There, he joined a zemlyachestvo, a form of university society that represented the men of a particular region. This group elected him as its representative to the university's zemlyachestvo council, and he took part in a December demonstration against government restrictions that banned student societies. The police arrested Lenin and accused him of being a ringleader in the demonstration; he was expelled from the university, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs exiled him to his family's Kokushkino estate. There, he read voraciously, becoming enamoured with Nikolay Chernyshevsky's 1863 pro-revolutionary novel What Is to Be Done?
Lenin's mother was concerned by her son's radicalisation, and was instrumental in convincing the Interior Ministry to allow him to return to the city of Kazan, but not the university. On his return, he joined Nikolai Fedoseev's revolutionary circle, through which he discovered Karl Marx's 1867 book Capital. This sparked his interest in Marxism, a socio-political theory that argued that society developed in stages, that this development resulted from class struggle, and that capitalist society would ultimately give way to socialist society and then communist society. Wary of his political views, Lenin's mother bought a country estate in Alakaevka village, Samara Oblast, in the hope that her son would turn his attention to agriculture. He had little interest in farm management, and his mother soon sold the land, keeping the house as a summer home.
In September 1889, the Ulyanov family moved to the city of Samara, where Lenin joined Alexei Sklyarenko's socialist discussion circle. There, Lenin fully embraced Marxism and produced a Russian language translation of Marx and Friedrich Engels's 1848 political pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto. He began to read the works of the Russian Marxist Georgi Plekhanov, agreeing with Plekhanov's argument that Russia was moving from feudalism to capitalism and so socialism would be implemented by the proletariat, or urban working class, rather than the peasantry. This Marxist perspective contrasted with the view of the agrarian-socialist Narodnik movement, which held that the peasantry could establish socialism in Russia by forming peasant communes, thereby bypassing capitalism. This Narodnik view developed in the 1860s with the People's Freedom Party and was then dominant within the Russian revolutionary movement. Lenin rejected the premise of the agrarian-socialist argument, but was influenced by agrarian-socialists like Pyotr Tkachev and Sergei Nechaev, and befriended several Narodniks.
In May 1890, Maria, who retained societal influence as the widow of a nobleman, persuaded the authorities to allow Lenin to take his exams externally at the University of St Petersburg, where he obtained the equivalent of a first-class degree with honours. The graduation celebrations were marred when his sister Olga died of typhoid. Lenin remained in Samara for several years, working first as a legal assistant for a regional court and then for a local lawyer. He devoted much time to radical politics, remaining active in Sklyarenko's group and formulating ideas about how Marxism applied to Russia. Inspired by Plekhanov's work, Lenin collected data on Russian society, using it to support a Marxist interpretation of societal development and counter the claims of the Narodniks. He wrote a paper on peasant economics; it was rejected by the liberal journal Russian Thought.
## Revolutionary activity
### Early activism and imprisonment: 1893–1900
In late 1893, Lenin moved to Saint Petersburg. There, he worked as a barrister's assistant and rose to a senior position in a Marxist revolutionary cell that called itself the Social-Democrats after the Marxist Social Democratic Party of Germany. Publicly championing Marxism within the socialist movement, he encouraged the founding of revolutionary cells in Russia's industrial centres. By late 1894, he was leading a Marxist workers' circle, and meticulously covered his tracks, knowing that police spies tried to infiltrate the movement. He began a romantic relationship with Nadezhda "Nadya" Krupskaya, a Marxist schoolteacher. He also authored the political tract What the "Friends of the People" Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats criticising the Narodnik agrarian-socialists, based largely on his experiences in Samara; around 200 copies were illegally printed in 1894.
Lenin hoped to cement connections between his Social-Democrats and Emancipation of Labour, a group of Russian Marxist émigrés based in Switzerland; he visited the country to meet group members Plekhanov and Pavel Axelrod. He proceeded to Paris to meet Marx's son-in-law Paul Lafargue and to research the Paris Commune of 1871, which he considered an early prototype for a proletarian government. Financed by his mother, he stayed in a Swiss health spa before travelling to Berlin, where he studied for six weeks at the Staatsbibliothek and met the Marxist activist Wilhelm Liebknecht. Returning to Russia with a stash of illegal revolutionary publications, he travelled to various cities distributing literature to striking workers. While involved in producing a news sheet, Rabochee delo (Workers' Cause), he was among 40 activists arrested in St. Petersburg and charged with sedition.
Refused legal representation or bail, Lenin denied all charges against him but remained imprisoned for a year before sentencing. He spent this time theorising and writing. In this work he noted that the rise of industrial capitalism in Russia had caused large numbers of peasants to move to the cities, where they formed a proletariat. From his Marxist perspective, Lenin argued that this Russian proletariat would develop class consciousness, which would in turn lead them to violently overthrow tsarism, the aristocracy, and the bourgeoisie and to establish a proletariat state that would move toward socialism.
In February 1897, Lenin was sentenced without trial to three years' exile in eastern Siberia. He was granted a few days in Saint Petersburg to put his affairs in order and used this time to meet with the Social-Democrats, who had renamed themselves the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. His journey to eastern Siberia took 11 weeks, for much of which he was accompanied by his mother and sisters. Deemed only a minor threat to the government, he was exiled to a peasant's hut in Shushenskoye, Minusinsky District, where he was kept under police surveillance; he was nevertheless able to correspond with other revolutionaries, many of whom visited him, and permitted to go on trips to swim in the Yenisei River and to hunt duck and snipe.
In May 1898, Nadya joined him in exile, having been arrested in August 1896 for organising a strike. She was initially posted to Ufa, but persuaded the authorities to move her to Shushenskoye, claiming that she and Lenin were engaged; they married in a church on 10 July 1898. Settling into a family life with Nadya's mother Elizaveta Vasilyevna, in Shushenskoye the couple translated English socialist literature into Russian. Keen to keep up with developments in German Marxism, where there had been an ideological split, with revisionists like Eduard Bernstein advocating a peaceful, electoral path to socialism, Lenin remained devoted to violent revolution, attacking revisionist arguments in A Protest by Russian Social-Democrats. He also finished The Development of Capitalism in Russia (1899), his longest book to date, which criticised the agrarian-socialists and promoted a Marxist analysis of Russian economic development. Published under the pseudonym of Vladimir Ilin, upon publication it received predominantly poor reviews.
### Munich, London, and Geneva: 1900–1905
After his exile, Lenin settled in Pskov in early 1900. There, he began raising funds for a newspaper, Iskra (Spark), a new organ of the Russian Marxist party, now calling itself the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). In July 1900, Lenin left Russia for Western Europe; in Switzerland he met other Russian Marxists, and at a Corsier conference they agreed to launch the paper from Munich, where Lenin relocated in September. Containing contributions from prominent European Marxists, Iskra was smuggled into Russia, becoming the country's most successful underground publication for 50 years. He first adopted the pseudonym Lenin in December 1901, possibly based on the Siberian River Lena; he often used the fuller pseudonym of N. Lenin, and while the N did not stand for anything, a popular misconception later arose that it represented Nikolai. Under this pseudonym, he published the political pamphlet What Is to Be Done? in 1902; his most influential publication to date, it dealt with Lenin's thoughts on the need for a vanguard party to lead the proletariat to revolution.
His wife Nadya joined Lenin in Munich and became his personal secretary. They continued their political agitation, as Lenin wrote for Iskra and drafted the RSDLP programme, attacking ideological dissenters and external critics, particularly the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR), a Narodnik agrarian-socialist group founded in 1901. Despite remaining a Marxist, he accepted the Narodnik view on the revolutionary power of the Russian peasantry, accordingly penning the 1903 pamphlet To the Village Poor. To evade Bavarian police, Lenin moved to London with Iskra in April 1902. He became friends with fellow Russian-Ukrainian Marxist Leon Trotsky. Lenin fell ill with erysipelas and was unable to take such a leading role on the Iskra editorial board; in his absence, the board moved its base of operations to Geneva.
The second RSDLP Congress was held in London in July 1903. At the conference, a schism emerged between Lenin's supporters and those of Julius Martov. Martov argued that party members should be able to express themselves independently of the party leadership; Lenin disagreed, emphasising the need for a strong leadership with complete control over the party. Lenin's supporters were in the majority, and he termed them the "majoritarians" (bol'sheviki in Russian; Bolsheviks); in response, Martov termed his followers the "minoritarians" (men'sheviki in Russian; Mensheviks). Arguments between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks continued after the conference; the Bolsheviks accused their rivals of being opportunists and reformists who lacked discipline, while the Mensheviks accused Lenin of being a despot and autocrat. Enraged at the Mensheviks, Lenin resigned from the Iskra editorial board and in May 1904 published the anti-Menshevik tract One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. The stress made Lenin ill, and to recuperate he went on a hiking holiday in rural Switzerland. The Bolshevik faction grew in strength; by spring 1905, the whole RSDLP Central Committee was Bolshevik, and in December they founded the newspaper Vpered (Forward).
### Revolution of 1905 and its aftermath: 1905–1914
In January 1905, the Bloody Sunday massacre of protesters in St. Petersburg sparked a spate of civil unrest in the Russian Empire known as the Revolution of 1905. Lenin urged Bolsheviks to take a greater role in the events, encouraging violent insurrection. In doing so, he adopted SR slogans regarding "armed insurrection", "mass terror", and "the expropriation of gentry land", resulting in Menshevik accusations that he had deviated from orthodox Marxism. In turn, he insisted that the Bolsheviks split completely with the Mensheviks; many Bolsheviks refused, and both groups attended the Third RSDLP Congress, held in London in April 1905 at the Brotherhood Church. Lenin presented many of his ideas in the pamphlet Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, published in August 1905. Here, he predicted that Russia's liberal bourgeoisie would be sated by a transition to constitutional monarchy and thus betray the revolution; instead he argued that the proletariat would have to build an alliance with the peasantry to overthrow the Tsarist regime and establish the "provisional revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry."
In response to the revolution of 1905, which had failed to overthrow the government, Tsar Nicholas II accepted a series of liberal reforms in his October Manifesto. In this climate, Lenin felt it safe to return to St. Petersburg. Joining the editorial board of Novaya Zhizn (New Life), a radical legal newspaper run by Maria Andreyeva, he used it to discuss issues facing the RSDLP. He encouraged the party to seek out a much wider membership, and advocated the continual escalation of violent confrontation, believing both to be necessary for a successful revolution. Recognising that membership fees and donations from a few wealthy sympathisers were insufficient to finance the Bolsheviks' activities, Lenin endorsed the idea of robbing post offices, railway stations, trains, and banks. Under the lead of Leonid Krasin, a group of Bolsheviks began carrying out such criminal actions, the best known taking place in June 1907, when a group of Bolsheviks acting under the leadership of Joseph Stalin committed an armed robbery of the State Bank in Tiflis, Georgia.
Although he briefly supported the idea of reconciliation between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, Lenin's advocacy of violence and robbery was condemned by the Mensheviks at the Fourth RSDLP Congress, held in Stockholm in April 1906. Lenin was involved in setting up a Bolshevik Centre in Kuokkala, Grand Duchy of Finland, which was at the time an autonomous state within the Russian Empire, before the Bolsheviks regained dominance of the RSDLP at its Fifth Congress, held in London in May 1907. As the Tsarist government cracked down on opposition, both by disbanding Russia's legislative assembly, the Second Duma, and by ordering its secret police, the Okhrana, to arrest revolutionaries, Lenin fled Finland for Switzerland. There, he tried to exchange those banknotes stolen in Tiflis that had identifiable serial numbers on them.
Alexander Bogdanov and other prominent Bolsheviks decided to relocate the Bolshevik Centre to Paris; although Lenin disagreed, he moved to the city in December 1908. Lenin disliked Paris, lambasting it as "a foul hole", and while there he sued a motorist who knocked him off his bike. Lenin became very critical of Bogdanov's view that Russia's proletariat had to develop a socialist culture in order to become a successful revolutionary vehicle. Instead, Lenin favoured a vanguard of socialist intelligentsia who would lead the working-classes in revolution. Furthermore, Bogdanov, influenced by Ernest Mach, believed that all concepts of the world were relative, whereas Lenin stuck to the orthodox Marxist view that there was an objective reality independent of human observation. Bogdanov and Lenin holidayed together at Maxim Gorky's villa in Capri in April 1908; on returning to Paris, Lenin encouraged a split within the Bolshevik faction between his and Bogdanov's followers, accusing the latter of deviating from Marxism.
In May 1908, Lenin lived briefly in London, where he used the British Museum Reading Room to write Materialism and Empirio-criticism, an attack on what he described as the "bourgeois-reactionary falsehood" of Bogdanov's relativism. Lenin's factionalism began to alienate increasing numbers of Bolsheviks, including his former close supporters Alexei Rykov and Lev Kamenev. The Okhrana exploited his factionalist attitude by sending a spy, Roman Malinovsky, to act as a vocal Lenin supporter within the party. Various Bolsheviks expressed their suspicions about Malinovsky to Lenin, although it is unclear if the latter was aware of the spy's duplicity; it is possible that he used Malinovsky to feed false information to the Okhrana.
According to the transcribed recollections of Nikolay Vladimirovich Veselago, a former Okhrana officer and relative of the director of the Russian police department Stepan Petrovich Beletsky, both Malinovsky and Stalin reported on Lenin as well as on each other although Stalin was unaware that Malinovosky was also a penetration agent.
In August 1910, Lenin attended the Eighth Congress of the Second International, an international meeting of socialists, in Copenhagen as the RSDLP's representative, following this with a holiday in Stockholm with his mother. With his wife and sisters he then moved to France, settling first in Bombon and then Paris. Here, he became a close friend to the French Bolshevik Inessa Armand; some biographers suggest that they had an extra-marital affair from 1910 to 1912. Meanwhile, at a Paris meeting in June 1911, the RSDLP Central Committee decided to move their focus of operations back to Russia, ordering the closure of the Bolshevik Centre and its newspaper, Proletari. Seeking to rebuild his influence in the party, Lenin arranged for a party conference to be held in Prague in January 1912, and although 16 of the 18 attendants were Bolsheviks, he was heavily criticised for his factionalist tendencies and failed to boost his status within the party.
Moving to Kraków in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a culturally Polish part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he used Jagiellonian University's library to conduct research. He stayed in close contact with the RSDLP, which was operating in the Russian Empire, convincing the Duma's Bolshevik members to split from their parliamentary alliance with the Mensheviks. In January 1913, Stalin, whom Lenin referred to as the "wonderful Georgian", visited him, and they discussed the future of non-Russian ethnic groups in the Empire. Due to the ailing health of both Lenin and his wife, they moved to the rural town of Biały Dunajec, before heading to Bern for Nadya to have surgery on her goitre.
### First World War: 1914–1917
Lenin was in Galicia when the First World War broke out. The war pitted the Russian Empire against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and due to his Russian citizenship, Lenin was arrested and briefly imprisoned until his anti-Tsarist credentials were explained. Lenin and his wife returned to Bern, before relocating to Zürich in February 1916. Lenin was angry that the German Social-Democratic Party was supporting the German war effort, which was a direct contravention of the Second International's Stuttgart resolution that socialist parties would oppose the conflict, and saw the Second International as defunct. He attended the Zimmerwald Conference in September 1915 and the Kienthal Conference in April 1916, urging socialists across the continent to convert the "imperialist war" into a continent-wide "civil war" with the proletariat pitted against the bourgeoisie and aristocracy. In July 1916, Lenin's mother died, but he was unable to attend her funeral. Her death deeply affected him, and he became depressed, fearing that he too would die before seeing the proletarian revolution.
In September 1917, Lenin published Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, which argued that imperialism was a product of monopoly capitalism, as capitalists sought to increase their profits by extending into new territories where wages were lower and raw materials cheaper. He believed that competition and conflict would increase and that war between the imperialist powers would continue until they were overthrown by proletariat revolution and socialism established. He spent much of this time reading the works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Aristotle, all of whom had been key influences on Marx. This changed Lenin's interpretation of Marxism; whereas he once believed that policies could be developed based on predetermined scientific principles, he concluded that the only test of whether a policy was correct was its practice. He still perceived himself as an orthodox Marxist, but he began to diverge from some of Marx's predictions about societal development; whereas Marx had believed that a "bourgeoisie-democratic revolution" of the middle-classes had to take place before a "socialist revolution" of the proletariat, Lenin believed that in Russia the proletariat could overthrow the Tsarist regime without an intermediate revolution.
### February Revolution and the July Days: 1917
In February 1917, the February Revolution broke out in St. Petersburg, renamed Petrograd at the beginning of the First World War, as industrial workers went on strike over food shortages and deteriorating factory conditions. The unrest spread to other parts of Russia, and fearing that he would be violently overthrown, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated. The State Duma took over control of the country, establishing the Russian Provisional Government and converting the Empire into a new Russian Republic. When Lenin learned of this from his base in Switzerland, he celebrated with other dissidents. He decided to return to Russia to take charge of the Bolsheviks but found that most passages into the country were blocked due to the ongoing conflict. He organised a plan with other dissidents to negotiate a passage for them through Germany, with which Russia was then at war. Recognising that these dissidents could cause problems for their Russian enemies, the German government agreed to permit 32 Russian citizens to travel by train through their territory, among them Lenin and his wife. For political reasons, Lenin and the Germans agreed to a cover story that Lenin had travelled by sealed train carriage through German territory, but in fact the train was not truly sealed, and the passengers were allowed to disembark to, for example, spend the night in Frankfurt. The group travelled by train from Zürich to Sassnitz, proceeding by ferry to Trelleborg, Sweden, and from there to the Haparanda–Tornio border crossing and then to Helsinki before taking the final train to Petrograd in disguise.
Arriving at Petrograd's Finland Station in April, Lenin gave a speech to Bolshevik supporters condemning the Provisional Government and again calling for a continent-wide European proletarian revolution. Over the following days, he spoke at Bolshevik meetings, lambasting those who wanted reconciliation with the Mensheviks and revealing his "April Theses", an outline of his plans for the Bolsheviks, which he had written on the journey from Switzerland. He publicly condemned both the Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionaries, who dominated the influential Petrograd Soviet, for supporting the Provisional Government, denouncing them as traitors to socialism. Considering the government to be just as imperialist as the Tsarist regime, he advocated immediate peace with Germany and Austria-Hungary, rule by soviets, the nationalisation of industry and banks, and the state expropriation of land, all with the intention of establishing a proletariat government and pushing toward a socialist society. By contrast, the Mensheviks believed that Russia was insufficiently developed to transition to socialism, and accused Lenin of trying to plunge the new Republic into civil war. Over the coming months Lenin campaigned for his policies, attending the meetings of the Bolshevik Central Committee, prolifically writing for the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, and giving public speeches in Petrograd aimed at converting workers, soldiers, sailors, and peasants to his cause.
Sensing growing frustration among Bolshevik supporters, Lenin suggested an armed political demonstration in Petrograd to test the government's response. Amid deteriorating health, he left the city to recuperate in the Finnish village of Neivola. The Bolsheviks' armed demonstration, the July Days, took place while Lenin was away, but upon learning that demonstrators had violently clashed with government forces, he returned to Petrograd and called for calm. Responding to the violence, the government ordered the arrest of Lenin and other prominent Bolsheviks, raiding their offices, and publicly alleging that he was a German agent provocateur. Evading arrest, Lenin hid in a series of Petrograd safe houses. Fearing that he would be killed, Lenin and fellow senior Bolshevik Grigory Zinoviev escaped Petrograd in disguise, relocating to Razliv. There, Lenin began work on the book that became The State and Revolution, an exposition on how he believed the socialist state would develop after the proletariat revolution, and how from then on the state would gradually wither away, leaving a pure communist society. He began arguing for a Bolshevik-led armed insurrection to topple the government, but at a clandestine meeting of the party's central committee this idea was rejected. Lenin then headed by train and by foot to Finland, arriving at Helsinki on 10 August, where he hid away in safe houses belonging to Bolshevik sympathisers.
### October Revolution: 1917
In August 1917, while Lenin was in Finland, General Lavr Kornilov, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, sent troops to Petrograd in what appeared to be a military coup attempt against the Provisional Government. Premier Alexander Kerensky turned to the Petrograd Soviet, including its Bolshevik members, for help, allowing the revolutionaries to organise workers as Red Guards to defend the city. The coup petered out before it reached Petrograd, but the events had allowed the Bolsheviks to return to the open political arena. Fearing a counter-revolution from right-wing forces hostile to socialism, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries who dominated the Petrograd Soviet had been instrumental in pressuring the government to normalise relations with the Bolsheviks. Both the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries had lost much popular support because of their affiliation with the Provisional Government and its unpopular continuation of the war. The Bolsheviks capitalised on this, and soon the pro-Bolshevik Marxist Trotsky was elected leader of the Petrograd Soviet. In September, the Bolsheviks gained a majority in the workers' sections of both the Moscow and Petrograd Soviets.
Recognising that the situation was safer for him, Lenin returned to Petrograd. There he attended a meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee on 10 October, where he again argued that the party should lead an armed insurrection to topple the Provisional Government. This time the argument won with ten votes against two. Critics of the plan, Zinoviev and Kamenev, argued that Russian workers would not support a violent coup against the regime and that there was no clear evidence for Lenin's assertion that all of Europe was on the verge of proletarian revolution. The party began plans to organise the offensive, holding a final meeting at the Smolny Institute on 24 October. This was the base of the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC), an armed militia largely loyal to the Bolsheviks that had been established by the Petrograd Soviet during Kornilov's alleged coup.
In October, the MRC was ordered to take control of Petrograd's key transport, communication, printing and utilities hubs, and did so without bloodshed. Bolsheviks besieged the government in the Winter Palace, and overcame it and arrested its ministers after the cruiser Aurora, controlled by Bolshevik seamen, fired a blank shot to signal the start of the revolution. During the insurrection, Lenin gave a speech to the Petrograd Soviet announcing that the Provisional Government had been overthrown. The Bolsheviks declared the formation of a new government, the Council of People's Commissars, or Sovnarkom. Lenin initially turned down the leading position of Chairman, suggesting Trotsky for the job, but other Bolsheviks insisted and ultimately Lenin relented. Lenin and other Bolsheviks then attended the Second Congress of Soviets on 26 and 27 October, and announced the creation of the new government. Menshevik attendees condemned the illegitimate seizure of power and the risk of civil war. In these early days of the new regime, Lenin avoided talking in Marxist and socialist terms so as not to alienate Russia's population, and instead spoke about having a country controlled by the workers. Lenin and many other Bolsheviks expected proletariat revolution to sweep across Europe in days or months.
## Lenin's government
### Organising the Soviet government: 1917–1918
The Provisional Government had planned for a Constituent Assembly to be elected in November 1917; against Lenin's objections, Sovnarkom agreed for the vote to take place as scheduled. In the constitutional election, the Bolsheviks gained approximately a quarter of the vote, being defeated by the agrarian-focused Socialist-Revolutionaries. Lenin argued that the election was not a fair reflection of the people's will, that the electorate had not had time to learn the Bolsheviks' political programme, and that the candidacy lists had been drawn up before the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries split from the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Nevertheless, the newly elected Russian Constituent Assembly convened in Petrograd in January 1918. Sovnarkom argued that it was counter-revolutionary because it sought to remove power from the soviets, but the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks denied this. The Bolsheviks presented the Assembly with a motion that would strip it of most of its legal powers; when the Assembly rejected the motion, Sovnarkom declared this as evidence of its counter-revolutionary nature and forcibly disbanded it.
Lenin rejected repeated calls, including from some Bolsheviks, to establish a coalition government with other socialist parties. Although refusing a coalition with the Mensheviks or Socialist-Revolutionaries, Sovnarkom partially relented; they allowed the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries five posts in the cabinet in December 1917. This coalition only lasted four months until March 1918, when the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries pulled out of the government over a disagreement about the Bolsheviks' approach to ending the First World War. At their 7th Congress in March 1918, the Bolsheviks changed their official name from the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party to the Russian Communist Party, as Lenin wanted to both distance his group from the increasingly reformist German Social Democratic Party and to emphasise its ultimate goal, that of a communist society.
Although ultimate power officially rested with the country's government in the form of Sovnarkom and the Executive Committee (VTSIK) elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets (ARCS), the Communist Party was de facto in control in Russia, as acknowledged by its members at the time. By 1918, Sovnarkom began acting unilaterally, claiming a need for expediency, with the ARCS and VTSIK becoming increasingly marginalised, so the soviets no longer had a role in governing Russia. During 1918 and 1919, the government expelled Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries from the soviets. Russia had become a one-party state.
Within the party was established a Political Bureau (Politburo) and Organisation Bureau (Orgburo) to accompany the existing Central Committee; the decisions of these party bodies had to be adopted by Sovnarkom and the Council of Labour and Defence. Lenin was the most significant figure in this governance structure as well as being the Chairman of Sovnarkom and sitting on the Council of Labour and Defence, and on the Central Committee and Politburo of the Communist Party. The only individual to have anywhere near this influence was Lenin's right-hand man, Yakov Sverdlov, who died in March 1919 during a flu pandemic. In November 1917, Lenin and his wife took a two-room flat within the Smolny Institute; the following month they left for a brief holiday in Halila, Finland. In January 1918, he survived an assassination attempt in Petrograd; Fritz Platten, who was with Lenin at the time, shielded him and was injured by a bullet.
Concerned that the German Army posed a threat to Petrograd, in March 1918 Sovnarkom relocated to Moscow, initially as a temporary measure. There, Lenin, Trotsky, and other Bolshevik leaders moved into the Kremlin, where Lenin lived with his wife and sister Maria in a first floor apartment adjacent to the room in which the Sovnarkom meetings were held. Lenin disliked Moscow, but rarely left the city centre during the rest of his life. He survived a second assassination attempt, in Moscow in August 1918; he was shot following a public speech and injured badly. A Socialist-Revolutionary, Fanny Kaplan, was arrested and executed. The attack was widely covered in the Russian press, generating much sympathy for Lenin and boosting his popularity. As a respite, he was driven in September 1918 to the luxurious Gorki estate, just outside Moscow, recently nationalized for him by the government.
### Social, legal, and economic reform: 1917–1918
Upon taking power, Lenin's regime issued a series of decrees. The first was a Decree on Land, which declared that the landed estates of the aristocracy and the Orthodox Church should be nationalised and redistributed to peasants by local governments. This contrasted with Lenin's desire for agricultural collectivisation but provided governmental recognition of the widespread peasant land seizures that had already occurred. In November 1917, the government issued the Decree on the Press that closed many opposition media outlets deemed counter-revolutionary. They claimed the measure would be temporary; the decree was widely criticised, including by many Bolsheviks, for compromising freedom of the press.
In November 1917, Lenin issued the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, which stated that non-Russian ethnic groups living inside the Republic had the right to secede from Russian authority and establish their own independent nation-states. Many nations declared independence (Finland and Lithuania in December 1917, Latvia and Ukraine in January 1918, Estonia in February 1918, Transcaucasia in April 1918, and Poland in November 1918). Soon, the Bolsheviks actively promoted communist parties in these independent nation-states, while at the Fifth All-Russian Congress of the Soviets in July 1918 a constitution was approved that reformed the Russian Republic into the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Seeking to modernise the country, the government officially converted Russia from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar used in Europe.
In November 1917, Sovnarkom issued a decree abolishing Russia's legal system, calling on the use of "revolutionary conscience" to replace the abolished laws. The courts were replaced by a two-tier system, namely the Revolutionary Tribunals to deal with counter-revolutionary crimes, and the People's Courts to deal with civil and other criminal offences. They were instructed to ignore pre-existing laws, and base their rulings on the Sovnarkom decrees and a "socialist sense of justice." November also saw an overhaul of the armed forces; Sovnarkom implemented egalitarian measures, abolished previous ranks, titles, and medals, and called on soldiers to establish committees to elect their commanders.
In October 1917, Lenin issued a decree limiting work for everyone in Russia to eight hours per day. He also issued the Decree on Popular Education that stipulated that the government would guarantee free, secular education for all children in Russia, and a decree establishing a system of state orphanages. To combat mass illiteracy, a literacy campaign was initiated; an estimated 5 million people enrolled in crash courses of basic literacy from 1920 to 1926. Embracing the equality of the sexes, laws were introduced that helped to emancipate women, by giving them economic autonomy from their husbands and removing restrictions on divorce. Zhenotdel, a Bolshevik women's organisation, was established to further these aims. Under Lenin, Russia became the first country to legalize abortion on demand in the first trimester. Militantly atheist, Lenin and the Communist Party wanted to demolish organised religion. In January 1918, the government decreed the separation of church and state, and prohibited religious instruction in schools.
In November 1917, Lenin issued the Decree on Workers' Control, which called on the workers of each enterprise to establish an elected committee to monitor their enterprise's management. That month they also issued an order requisitioning the country's gold, and nationalised the banks, which Lenin saw as a major step toward socialism. In December, Sovnarkom established a Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh), which had authority over industry, banking, agriculture, and trade. The factory committees were subordinate to the trade unions, which were subordinate to VSNKh; the state's centralised economic plan was prioritised over the workers' local economic interests. In early 1918, Sovnarkom cancelled all foreign debts and refused to pay interest owed on them. In April 1918, it nationalised foreign trade, establishing a state monopoly on imports and exports. In June 1918, it decreed nationalisation of public utilities, railways, engineering, textiles, metallurgy, and mining, although often these were state-owned in name only. Full-scale nationalisation did not take place until November 1920, when small-scale industrial enterprises were brought under state control.
A faction of the Bolsheviks known as the "Left Communists" criticised Sovnarkom's economic policy as too moderate; they wanted nationalisation of all industry, agriculture, trade, finance, transport, and communication. Lenin believed that this was impractical at that stage and that the government should only nationalise Russia's large-scale capitalist enterprises, such as the banks, railways, larger landed estates, and larger factories and mines, allowing smaller businesses to operate privately until they grew large enough to be successfully nationalised. Lenin also disagreed with the Left Communists about the economic organisation; in June 1918, he argued that centralised economic control of industry was needed, whereas Left Communists wanted each factory to be controlled by its workers, a syndicalist approach that Lenin considered detrimental to the cause of socialism.
Adopting a left-libertarian perspective, both the Left Communists and other factions in the Communist Party critiqued the decline of democratic institutions in Russia. Internationally, many socialists decried Lenin's regime and denied that he was establishing socialism; in particular, they highlighted the lack of widespread political participation, popular consultation, and industrial democracy. In late 1918, the Czech-Austrian Marxist Karl Kautsky authored an anti-Leninist pamphlet condemning the anti-democratic nature of Soviet Russia, to which Lenin published a vociferous reply, The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky. German Marxist Rosa Luxemburg echoed Kautsky's views, while Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin described the Bolshevik seizure of power as "the burial of the Russian Revolution."
### Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: 1917–1918
Upon taking power, Lenin believed that a key policy of his government must be to withdraw from the First World War by establishing an armistice with the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. He believed that ongoing war would create resentment among war-weary Russian troops, to whom he had promised peace, and that these troops and the advancing German Army threatened both his own government and the cause of international socialism. By contrast, other Bolsheviks, in particular Nikolai Bukharin and the Left Communists, believed that peace with the Central Powers would be a betrayal of international socialism and that Russia should instead wage "a war of revolutionary defence" that would provoke an uprising of the German proletariat against their own government.
Lenin proposed a three-month armistice in his Decree on Peace of November 1917, which was approved by the Second Congress of Soviets and presented to the German and Austro-Hungarian governments. The Germans responded positively, viewing this as an opportunity to focus on the Western Front and stave off looming defeat. In November, armistice talks began at Brest-Litovsk, the headquarters of the German high command on the Eastern Front, with the Russian delegation being led by Trotsky and Adolph Joffe. Meanwhile, a ceasefire until January was agreed. During negotiations, the Germans insisted on keeping their wartime conquests, which included Poland, Lithuania, and Courland, whereas the Russians countered that this was a violation of these nations' rights to self-determination. Some Bolsheviks had expressed hopes of dragging out negotiations until proletarian revolution broke out throughout Europe. On 7 January 1918, Trotsky returned from Brest-Litovsk to St. Petersburg with an ultimatum from the Central Powers: either Russia accept Germany's territorial demands or the war would resume.
In January and again in February, Lenin urged the Bolsheviks to accept Germany's proposals. He argued that the territorial losses were acceptable if it ensured the survival of the Bolshevik-led government. The majority of Bolsheviks rejected his position, hoping to prolong the armistice and call Germany's bluff. On 18 February, the German Army launched Operation Faustschlag, advancing further into Russian-controlled territory and conquering Dvinsk within a day. At this point, Lenin finally convinced a small majority of the Bolshevik Central Committee to accept the Central Powers' demands. On 23 February, the Central Powers issued a new ultimatum: Russia had to recognise German control not only of Poland and the Baltic states but also of Ukraine, or face a full-scale invasion.
On 3 March, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. It resulted in massive territorial losses for Russia, with 26% of the former Empire's population, 37% of its agricultural harvest area, 28% of its industry, 26% of its railway tracks, and three-quarters of its coal and iron deposits being transferred to German control. Accordingly, the Treaty was deeply unpopular across Russia's political spectrum, and several Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries resigned from Sovnarkom in protest. After the Treaty, Sovnarkom focused on trying to foment proletarian revolution in Germany, issuing an array of anti-war and anti-government publications in the country; the German government retaliated by expelling Russia's diplomats. The Treaty nevertheless failed to stop the Central Powers' defeat; in November 1918, the German Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated and the country's new administration signed the Armistice with the Allies. As a result, Sovnarkom proclaimed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk void.
### Anti-Kulak campaigns, Cheka, and Red Terror: 1918–1922
By early 1918, many cities in western Russia faced famine as a result of chronic food shortages. Lenin blamed this on the kulaks, or wealthier peasants, who allegedly hoarded the grain that they had produced to increase its financial value. In May 1918, he issued a requisitioning order that established armed detachments to confiscate grain from kulaks for distribution in the cities, and in June called for the formation of Committees of Poor Peasants to aid in requisitioning. This policy resulted in vast social disorder and violence, as armed detachments often clashed with peasant groups, helping to set the stage for the civil war. A prominent example of Lenin's views was his August 1918 telegram to the Bolsheviks of Penza, which called upon them to suppress a peasant insurrection by publicly hanging at least 100 "known kulaks, rich men, [and] bloodsuckers."
The requisitions disincentivised peasants from producing more grain than they could personally consume, and thus production slumped. A booming black market supplemented the official state-sanctioned economy, and Lenin called on speculators, black marketeers and looters to be shot. Both the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries condemned the armed appropriations of grain at the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets in July 1918. Realising that the Committees of the Poor Peasants were also persecuting peasants who were not kulaks and thus contributing to anti-government feeling among the peasantry, in December 1918 Lenin abolished them.
Lenin repeatedly emphasised the need for terror and violence in overthrowing the old order and ensuring the success of the revolution. Speaking to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets in November 1917, he declared that "the state is an institution built up for the sake of exercising violence. Previously, this violence was exercised by a handful of moneybags over the entire people; now we want [...] to organise violence in the interests of the people." He strongly opposed suggestions to abolish capital punishment. Fearing anti-Bolshevik forces would overthrow his administration, in December 1917 Lenin ordered the establishment of the Emergency Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, or Cheka, a political police force led by Felix Dzerzhinsky.
In September 1918, Sovnarkom passed a decree that inaugurated the Red Terror, a system of repression orchestrated by the Cheka secret police. Although sometimes described as an attempt to eliminate the entire bourgeoisie, Lenin did not want to exterminate all members of this class, merely those who sought to reinstate their rule. The majority of the Terror's victims were well-to-do citizens or former members of the Tsarist administration; others were non-bourgeois anti-Bolsheviks and perceived social undesirables such as prostitutes. The Cheka claimed the right to both sentence and execute anyone whom it deemed to be an enemy of the government, without recourse to the Revolutionary Tribunals. Accordingly, throughout Soviet Russia the Cheka carried out killings, often in large numbers. For example, the Petrograd Cheka executed 512 people in a few days. There are no surviving records to provide an accurate figure of how many perished in the Red Terror; later estimates of historians have ranged between 10,000 and 15,000, and 50,000 to 140,000.
Lenin never witnessed this violence or participated in it first-hand, and publicly distanced himself from it. His published articles and speeches rarely called for executions, but he regularly did so in his coded telegrams and confidential notes. Many Bolsheviks expressed disapproval of the Cheka's mass executions and feared the organisation's apparent unaccountability. The Communist Party tried to restrain its activities in February 1919, stripping it of its powers of tribunal and execution in those areas not under official martial law, but the Cheka continued as before in swathes of the country. By 1920, the Cheka had become the most powerful institution in Soviet Russia, exerting influence over all other state apparatus.
A decree in April 1919 resulted in the establishment of concentration camps, which were entrusted to the Cheka, later administered by a new government agency, Gulag. By the end of 1920, 84 camps had been established across Soviet Russia, holding about 50,000 prisoners; by October 1923, this had grown to 315 camps and about 70,000 inmates. Those interned in the camps were used as slave labour. From July 1922, intellectuals deemed to be opposing the Bolshevik government were exiled to inhospitable regions or deported from Russia altogether; Lenin personally scrutinised the lists of those to be dealt with in this manner. In May 1922, Lenin issued a decree calling for the execution of anti-Bolshevik priests, causing between 14,000 and 20,000 deaths. The Russian Orthodox Church was worst affected; the government's anti-religious policies also harmed Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, Jewish synagogues, and Islamic mosques.
### Civil War and the Polish–Soviet War: 1918–1920
Lenin expected Russia's aristocracy and bourgeoisie to oppose his government, but he believed that the numerical superiority of the lower classes, coupled with the Bolsheviks' ability to effectively organise them, guaranteed a swift victory in any conflict. In this, he failed to anticipate the intensity of the violent opposition to Bolshevik rule in Russia. A long and bloody Civil War ensued between the Bolshevik Reds and the anti-Bolshevik Whites, starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the Reds' victory. It also encompassed ethnic conflicts on Russia's borders, and anti-Bolshevik peasant and left-wing uprisings throughout the former Empire. Accordingly, various historians have seen the civil war as representing two distinct conflicts: one between the revolutionaries and the counter-revolutionaries, and the other between different revolutionary factions. The war included foreign intervention, the murder of the former Emperor and his family, and the famine of 1921–1922, triggered by Lenin's war communism policies, which killed about five million people.
The White armies were established by former Tsarist military officers, and included Anton Denikin's Volunteer Army in South Russia, Alexander Kolchak's forces in Siberia, and Nikolai Yudenich's troops in the newly independent Baltic states. The Whites were bolstered when 35,000 members of the Czech Legion, who were prisoners of war from the conflict with the Central Powers, turned against Sovnarkom and allied with the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), an anti-Bolshevik government established in Samara. The Whites were also backed by Western governments who perceived the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a betrayal of the Allied war effort and feared the Bolsheviks' calls for world revolution. In 1918, Great Britain, France, United States, Canada, Italy, and Serbia landed 10,000 troops in Murmansk, seizing Kandalaksha, while later that year British, American, and Japanese forces landed in Vladivostok. Western troops soon pulled out of the civil war, instead only supporting the Whites with officers, technicians and armaments, but Japan remained because they saw the conflict as an opportunity for territorial expansion.
Lenin tasked Trotsky with establishing a Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and with his support, Trotsky organised a Revolutionary Military Council in September 1918, remaining its chairman until 1925. Recognising their valuable military experience, Lenin agreed that officers from the old Tsarist army could serve in the Red Army, although Trotsky established military councils to monitor their activities. The Reds held control of Russia's two largest cities, Moscow and Petrograd, as well as most of Great Russia, while the Whites were located largely on the former Empire's peripheries. The latter were therefore hindered by being both fragmented and geographically scattered, and because their ethnic Russian supremacism alienated the region's national minorities. Anti-Bolshevik armies carried out the White Terror, a campaign of violence against perceived Bolshevik supporters which was typically more spontaneous than the state-sanctioned Red Terror. Both White and Red Armies were responsible for attacks against Jewish communities, prompting Lenin to issue a condemnation of anti-Semitism, blaming prejudice against Jews on capitalist propaganda.
In July 1918, Sverdlov informed Sovnarkom that the Ural Regional Soviet had overseen the murder of the former Tsar and his immediate family in Yekaterinburg to prevent them from being rescued by advancing White troops. Although lacking proof, biographers and historians like Richard Pipes and Dmitri Volkogonov have expressed the view that the killing was probably sanctioned by Lenin; conversely, historian James Ryan cautioned that there was "no reason" to believe this. Whether Lenin sanctioned it or not, he still regarded it as necessary, highlighting the precedent set by the execution of Louis XVI in the French Revolution.
After the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had abandoned the coalition and increasingly viewed the Bolsheviks as traitors to the revolution. In July 1918, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Yakov Blumkin assassinated the German ambassador to Russia, Wilhelm von Mirbach, hoping that the ensuing diplomatic incident would lead to a relaunched revolutionary war against Germany. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries then launched a coup in Moscow, shelling the Kremlin and seizing the city's central post office before being stopped by Trotsky's forces. The party's leaders and many members were arrested and imprisoned, but were treated more leniently than other opponents of the Bolsheviks.
By 1919, the White armies were in retreat and by the start of 1920 were defeated on all three fronts. Although Sovnarkom were victorious, the territorial extent of the Russian state had been reduced, for many non-Russian ethnic groups had used the disarray to push for national independence. In March 1921, during a related war against Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia sought to re-conquer all newly independent nations of the former Empire, although their success was limited. Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania all repelled Soviet invasions, while Ukraine, Belarus (as a result of the Polish–Soviet War), Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were occupied by the Red Army. By 1921, Soviet Russia had defeated the Ukrainian national movements and occupied the Caucasus, although anti-Bolshevik uprisings in Central Asia lasted until the late 1920s.
The Red Army pioneered the concept of barrier troops that first arose in August 1918 with the formation of the заградительные отряды (zagraditelnye otriady), translated as "blocking troops" or "anti-retreat detachments" (Russian: заградотряды, заградительные отряды, отряды заграждения). The barrier troops comprised personnel drawn from Cheka punitive detachments or from regular Red Army infantry regiments. The first use of the barrier troops by the Red Army occurred in the late summer and fall of 1918 in the Eastern front during the Russian Civil War, when People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs (War Commissar) Leon Trotsky of the Bolshevik government authorized Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the commander of the 1st Army, to station blocking detachments behind unreliable Red Army infantry regiments in the 1st Red Army, with orders to shoot if front-line troops either deserted or retreated without permission. The barrier troops were also used to enforce Bolshevik control over food supplies in areas controlled by the Red Army, a role which soon earned them the hatred of the Russian civilian population.
After the German Ober Ost garrisons were withdrawn from the Eastern Front following the Armistice, both Soviet Russian armies and Polish ones moved in to fill the vacuum. The newly independent Polish state and the Soviet government each sought territorial expansion in the region. Polish and Russian troops first clashed in February 1919, with the conflict developing into the Polish–Soviet War. Unlike the Soviets' previous conflicts, this had greater implications for the export of revolution and the future of Europe. Polish forces pushed into Ukraine and by May 1920 had taken Kiev from the Soviets. After forcing the Polish Army back, Lenin urged the Red Army to invade Poland itself, believing that the Polish proletariat would rise up to support the Russian troops and thus spark European revolution. Trotsky and other Bolsheviks were sceptical, but agreed to the invasion. The Polish proletariat did not rise, and the Red Army was defeated at the Battle of Warsaw. The Polish armies pushed the Red Army back into Russia, forcing Sovnarkom to sue for peace; the war culminated in the Peace of Riga, in which Russia ceded territory to Poland.
### Comintern and world revolution: 1919–1920
After the Armistice on the Western Front, Lenin believed that the breakout of the European revolution was imminent. Seeking to promote this, Sovnarkom supported the establishment of Béla Kun's soviet government in Hungary in March 1919, followed by the soviet government in Bavaria and various revolutionary socialist uprisings in other parts of Germany, including that of the Spartacus League. During Russia's Civil War, the Red Army was sent into the newly independent national republics on Russia's borders to aid Marxists there in establishing soviet systems of government. In Europe, this resulted in the creation of new communist-led states in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, all of which were nominally independent from Russia but in fact controlled from Moscow, while further east it led to the creation of communist governments in Outer Mongolia. Various senior Bolsheviks wanted these absorbed into the Russian state; Lenin insisted that national sensibilities should be respected, but reassured his comrades that these nations' new Communist Party administrations were under the de facto authority of Sovnarkom.
In late 1918, the British Labour Party called for the establishment of an international conference of socialist parties, the Labour and Socialist International. Lenin saw this as a revival of the Second International, which he had despised, and formulated his own rival international socialist conference to offset its impact. Organised with the aid of Zinoviev, Nikolai Bukharin, Trotsky, Christian Rakovsky, and Angelica Balabanoff, the First Congress of this Communist International (Comintern) opened in Moscow in March 1919. It lacked global coverage; of the 34 assembled delegates, 30 resided within the countries of the former Russian Empire, and most of the international delegates were not recognised by any socialist parties in their own nations. Accordingly, the Bolsheviks dominated proceedings, with Lenin subsequently authoring a series of regulations that meant that only socialist parties endorsing the Bolsheviks' views were permitted to join Comintern. During the first conference, Lenin spoke to the delegates, lambasting the parliamentary path to socialism espoused by revisionist Marxists like Kautsky and repeating his calls for a violent overthrow of Europe's bourgeoisie governments. While Zinoviev became Comintern's president, Lenin retained significant influence over it.
The Second Congress of the Communist International opened in Petrograd's Smolny Institute in July 1920, representing the last time that Lenin visited a city other than Moscow. There, he encouraged foreign delegates to emulate the Bolsheviks' seizure of power and abandoned his longstanding viewpoint that capitalism was a necessary stage in societal development, instead, encouraging those nations under colonial occupation to transform their pre-capitalist societies directly into socialist ones. For this conference, he authored "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder, a short book articulating his criticism of elements within the British and German communist parties who refused to enter their nations' parliamentary systems and trade unions; instead he urged them to do so to advance the revolutionary cause. The conference had to be suspended for several days due to the ongoing war with Poland, and was relocated to Moscow, where it continued to hold sessions until August. Lenin's predicted world revolution did not materialise, as the Hungarian communist government was overthrown and the German Marxist uprisings suppressed.
### Famine and the New Economic Policy: 1920–1922
Within the Communist Party, there was dissent from two factions, the Group of Democratic Centralism and the Workers' Opposition, both of which accused the Russian state of being too centralised and bureaucratic. The Workers' Opposition, which had connections to the official state trade unions, also expressed the concern that the government had lost the trust of the Russian working class. They were angered by Trotsky's suggestion that the trade unions be eliminated. He deemed the unions to be superfluous in a "workers' state", but Lenin disagreed, believing it best to retain them; most Bolsheviks embraced Lenin's view in the 'trade union discussion'. To deal with the dissent, at the Tenth Party Congress in February 1921, Lenin introduced a ban on factional activity within the party, under pain of expulsion.
Caused in part by a drought, the Russian famine of 1921 was the most severe that the country had experienced since that of 1891, resulting in around five million deaths. The famine was exacerbated by government requisitioning, as well as the export of large quantities of Russian grain. To aid the famine victims, the US government established the American Relief Administration to distribute food; Lenin was suspicious of this aid and had it closely monitored. At its peak, the ARA employed 300 Americans, more than 120,000 Russians and fed 10.5 million people daily. During the famine, Patriarch Tikhon called on Orthodox churches to sell unnecessary items to help feed the starving, an action endorsed by the government. In February 1922, Sovnarkom went further by calling on all valuables belonging to religious institutions to be forcibly appropriated and sold. Tikhon opposed the sale of items used within the Eucharist and many clergy resisted the appropriations, resulting in violence.
In 1920 and 1921, local opposition to requisitioning resulted in anti-Bolshevik peasant uprisings breaking out across Russia, which were suppressed. Among the most significant was the Tambov Rebellion, which was put down by the Red Army. In February 1921, workers went on strike in Petrograd, resulting in the government proclaiming martial law in the city and sending in the Red Army to quell demonstrations. In March, the Kronstadt rebellion began when sailors in Kronstadt revolted against the Bolshevik government, demanding that all socialists be allowed to publish freely, that independent trade unions be given freedom of assembly and that peasants be allowed free markets and not be subject to requisitioning. Lenin declared that the mutineers had been misled by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and foreign imperialists, calling for violent reprisals. Under Trotsky's leadership, the Red Army put down the rebellion on 17 March, resulting in thousands of deaths and the internment of survivors in labour camps.
In February 1921, Lenin introduced a New Economic Policy (NEP) to the Politburo; he convinced most senior Bolsheviks of its necessity and it passed into law in April. Lenin explained the policy in a booklet, On the Food Tax, in which he stated that the NEP represented a return to the original Bolshevik economic plans; he claimed that these had been derailed by the civil war, in which Sovnarkom had been forced to resort to the economic policies of war communism, which involved the nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive or forced requisition of agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate money circulation, private enterprises and free trade, leading to the severe economic collapse. The NEP allowed some private enterprise within Russia, permitting the reintroduction of the wage system and allowing peasants to sell produce on the open market while being taxed on their earnings. The policy also allowed for a return to privately owned small industry; basic industry, transport and foreign trade remained under state control. Lenin termed this "state capitalism", and many Bolsheviks thought it to be a betrayal of socialist principles. Lenin biographers have often characterised the introduction of the NEP as one of his most significant achievements, and some believe that had it not been implemented then Sovnarkom would have been quickly overthrown by popular uprisings.
In January 1920, the government brought in universal labour conscription, ensuring that all citizens aged between 16 and 50 had to work. Lenin also called for a mass electrification project of Russia, the GOELRO plan, which began in February 1920; Lenin's declaration that "communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country" was widely cited in later years. Seeking to advance the Russian economy through foreign trade, Sovnarkom sent delegates to the Genoa Conference; Lenin had hoped to attend but was prevented by ill health. The conference resulted in a Russian agreement with Germany, which followed on from an earlier trade agreement with the United Kingdom. Lenin hoped that by allowing foreign corporations to invest in Russia, Sovnarkom would exacerbate rivalries between the capitalist nations and hasten their downfall; he tried to rent the oil fields of Kamchatka to an American corporation to heighten tensions between the US and Japan, who desired Kamchatka for their empire.
### Declining health and conflict with Stalin: 1920–1923
To Lenin's embarrassment and horror, in April 1920 the Bolsheviks held a large party to celebrate his 50th birthday, which was also marked by widespread celebrations across Russia and the publication of poems and biographies dedicated to him. Between 1920 and 1926, twenty volumes of Lenin's Collected Works were published; some material was omitted. During 1920, several prominent Western figures visited Lenin in Russia; these included the author H. G. Wells and the philosopher Bertrand Russell, as well as the anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Lenin was also visited at the Kremlin by Armand, who was in increasingly poor health. He sent her to a sanatorium in Kislovodsk in the Northern Caucasus to recover, but she died there in September 1920 during a cholera epidemic. Her body was transported to Moscow, where a visibly grief-stricken Lenin oversaw her burial beneath the Kremlin Wall.
Lenin became seriously ill by the latter half of 1921, experiencing hyperacusis, insomnia, and regular headaches. At the Politburo's insistence, in July he left Moscow for a month's leave at his Gorki mansion, where he was cared for by his wife and sister. Lenin began to contemplate the possibility of suicide, asking both Krupskaya and Stalin to acquire potassium cyanide for him. Twenty-six physicians were hired to help Lenin during his final years; many of them were foreign and had been hired at great expense. Some suggested that his sickness could have been caused by metal oxidation from the bullets that were lodged in his body from the 1918 assassination attempt; in April 1922 he underwent a surgical operation to successfully remove them. The symptoms continued after this, with Lenin's doctors unsure of the cause; some suggested that he had neurasthenia or cerebral arteriosclerosis. In May 1922, he had his first stroke, temporarily losing his ability to speak and being paralysed on his right side. He convalesced at Gorki, and had largely recovered by July. In October, he returned to Moscow; in December, he had a second stroke and returned to Gorki.
Despite his illness, Lenin remained keenly interested in political developments. When the Socialist Revolutionary Party's leadership was found guilty of conspiring against the government in a trial held between June and August 1922, Lenin called for their execution; they were instead imprisoned indefinitely, only being executed during the Great Purge of Stalin's leadership. With Lenin's support, the government also succeeded in virtually eradicating Menshevism in Russia by expelling all Mensheviks from state institutions and enterprises in March 1923 and then imprisoning the party's membership in concentration camps. Lenin was concerned by the survival of the Tsarist bureaucratic system in Soviet Russia, particularly during his final years. Condemning bureaucratic attitudes, he suggested a total overhaul to deal with such problems, in one letter complaining that "we are being sucked into a foul bureaucratic swamp".
In October 1922, Lenin proposed that Trotsky should become first deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars at a meeting of the Central Committee, but Trotsky declined the position. This has been interpreted as evidence that Lenin designated Trotsky as a successor as head of government. During December 1922 and January 1923, Lenin dictated "Lenin's Testament", in which he discussed the personal qualities of his comrades, particularly Trotsky and Stalin. He recommended that Stalin be removed from the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party, deeming him ill-suited for the position. Instead he recommended Trotsky for the job, describing him as "the most capable man in the present Central Committee"; he highlighted Trotsky's superior intellect but at the same time criticised his self-assurance and inclination toward excess administration. During this period he dictated a criticism of the bureaucratic nature of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, calling for the recruitment of new, working-class staff as an antidote to this problem, while in another article he called for the state to combat illiteracy, promote punctuality and conscientiousness within the populace, and encourage peasants to join co‐operatives.
In Lenin's absence, Stalin had begun consolidating his power both by appointing his supporters to prominent positions, and by cultivating an image of himself as Lenin's closest intimate and deserving successor. In December 1922, Stalin took responsibility for Lenin's regimen, being tasked by the Politburo with controlling who had access to him. Lenin was increasingly critical of Stalin; while Lenin was insisting that the state should retain its monopoly on international trade during mid-1922, Stalin was leading other Bolsheviks in unsuccessfully opposing this. There were personal arguments between the two as well; Stalin had upset Krupskaya by shouting at her during a phone conversation, which in turn greatly angered Lenin, who sent Stalin a letter expressing his annoyance.
The most significant political division between the two emerged during the Georgian Affair. Stalin had suggested that both the forcibly Sovietized Georgia and neighbouring countries like Azerbaijan and Armenia, which were all invaded and occupied by the Red Army, should be merged into the Russian state, despite the protestations of their local Soviet-installed governments. Lenin saw this as an expression of Great Russian ethnic chauvinism by Stalin and his supporters, instead calling for these nation-states to join Russia as semi-independent parts of a greater union, which he suggested be called the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia. After some resistance to the proposal, Stalin eventually accepted it but, with Lenin's agreement, he changed the name of the newly proposed state to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Lenin sent Trotsky to speak on his behalf at a Central Committee plenum in December, where the plans for the USSR were sanctioned; these plans were then ratified on 30 December by the Congress of Soviets, resulting in the formation of the Soviet Union. Despite his poor health, Lenin was elected chairman of the new government of the Soviet Union.
### Death and funeral: 1923–1924
In March 1923, Lenin had a third stroke and lost his ability to speak; that month, he experienced partial paralysis on his right side and began exhibiting sensory aphasia. By May, he appeared to be making a slow recovery, regaining some of his mobility, speech, and writing skills. In October, he made a final visit to the Kremlin. In his final weeks, Lenin was visited by Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Bukharin; the latter visited him at his Gorki mansion on the day of his death. On 21 January 1924, Lenin fell into a coma and died later that day at age 53. His official cause of death was recorded as an incurable disease of the blood vessels.
The Soviet government publicly announced Lenin's death the following day. On 23 January, mourners from the Communist Party, trade unions, and Soviets visited his Gorki home to inspect the body, which was carried aloft in a red coffin by leading Bolsheviks. Transported by train to Moscow, the coffin was taken to the House of Trade Unions, where the body lay in state. Over the next three days, around a million mourners came to see the body, many queuing for hours in the freezing conditions. On 26 January, the eleventh All-Union Congress of Soviets met to pay respects, with speeches by Kalinin, Zinoviev, and Stalin. Notably, Trotsky was absent; he had been convalescing in the Caucasus, and he later claimed that Stalin sent him a telegram with the incorrect date of the planned funeral, making it impossible for him to arrive in time. Lenin's funeral took place the following day, when his body was carried to Red Square, accompanied by martial music, where assembled crowds listened to a series of speeches before the corpse was placed into the vault of a specially erected mausoleum. Despite the freezing temperatures, tens of thousands attended.
Against Krupskaya's protestations, Lenin's body was embalmed to preserve it for long-term public display in the Red Square mausoleum. During this process, Lenin's brain was removed; in 1925 an institute was established to dissect it, revealing that Lenin had had severe sclerosis. In July 1929, the Politburo agreed to replace the temporary mausoleum with a permanent one in granite, which was finished in 1933. His sarcophagus was replaced in 1940 and again in 1970. For safety amid the Second World War, from 1941 to 1945 the body was temporarily moved to Tyumen. As of 2023, his body remains on public display in Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square.
## Political ideology
### Marxism and Leninism
Lenin was a devout Marxist, and believed that his interpretation of Marxism, first termed "Leninism" by Martov in 1904, was the sole authentic and orthodox one. According to his Marxist perspective, humanity would eventually reach pure communism, becoming a stateless, classless, egalitarian society of workers who were free from exploitation and alienation, controlled their own destiny, and abided by the rule "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." According to Volkogonov, Lenin "deeply and sincerely" believed that the path he was setting Russia on would ultimately lead to the establishment of this communist society.
Lenin's Marxist beliefs led him to the view that society could not transform directly from its present state to communism, but must first enter a period of socialism, and so his main concern was how to convert Russia into a socialist society. To do so, he believed that a "dictatorship of the proletariat" was necessary to suppress the bourgeoisie and develop a socialist economy. He defined socialism as "an order of civilized co-operators in which the means of production are socially owned", and believed that this economic system had to be expanded until it could create a society of abundance. To achieve this, he saw bringing the Russian economy under state control to be his central concern, with "all citizens" becoming "hired employees of the state" in his words. Lenin's interpretation of socialism was centralised, planned, and statist, with both production and distribution strictly controlled. He believed that all workers throughout the country would voluntarily join to enable the state's economic and political centralisation. In this way, his calls for "workers' control" of the means of production referred not to the direct control of enterprises by their workers, but the operation of all enterprises under the control of a "workers' state." This resulted in what some perceive as two conflicting themes within Lenin's thought: popular workers' control, and a centralised, hierarchical, coercive state apparatus.
Before 1914, Lenin's views were largely in accordance with mainstream European Marxist orthodoxy. Although he derided Marxists who adopted ideas from contemporary non-Marxist philosophers and sociologists, his own ideas were influenced not only by Russian Marxist theory but also by wider ideas from the Russian revolutionary movement, including those of the Narodnik agrarian-socialists. He adapted his ideas according to changing circumstances, including the pragmatic realities of governing Russia amid war, famine, and economic collapse. As Leninism developed, Lenin revised the established Marxist orthodoxy and introduced innovations in Marxist thought.
In his theoretical writings, particularly Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin discussed what he regarded as developments in capitalism since Marx's death; in his view, it had reached the new stage of state monopoly capitalism. He believed that although Russia's economy was dominated by the peasantry, the presence of monopoly capitalism in Russia meant that the country was sufficiently materially developed to move to socialism. Leninism adopted a more absolutist and doctrinaire perspective than other variants of Marxism, and distinguished itself by the emotional intensity of its liberationist vision. It also stood out by emphasising the role of a vanguard who could lead the proletariat to revolution, and elevated the role of violence as a revolutionary instrument. Bertrand Russell, on his meeting with Lenin in 1920, said: "[He (Lenin) was possessed with] absolute orthodoxy. He thought a proposition could be proved by quoting a text in Marx. And he was quite incapable of supposing that there could be anything in Marx that wasn't right."
### Democracy and the national question
Lenin believed that the representative democracy of capitalist countries gave the illusion of democracy while maintaining the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie"; describing the representative democratic system of the United States, he referred to the "spectacular and meaningless duels between two bourgeois parties", both of whom were led by "astute multimillionaires" that exploited the American proletariat. He opposed liberalism, exhibiting a general antipathy toward liberty as a value, and believing that liberalism's freedoms were fraudulent because it did not free labourers from capitalist exploitation.
Lenin declared that "Soviet government is many millions of times more democratic than the most democratic-bourgeois republic", the latter of which was simply "a democracy for the rich." He regarded his "dictatorship of the proletariat" as democratic because, he claimed, it involved the election of representatives to the soviets, workers electing their own officials, and the regular rotation and involvement of all workers in the administration of the state. Lenin's belief as to what a proletariat state should look like nevertheless deviated from that adopted by the Marxist mainstream; European Marxists like Kautsky envisioned a democratically elected parliamentary government in which the proletariat had a majority, whereas Lenin called for a strong, centralised state apparatus that excluded any input from the bourgeois.
Lenin was an internationalist and a keen supporter of world revolution, deeming national borders to be an outdated concept and nationalism a distraction from class struggle. He believed that in a socialist society, the world's nations would inevitably merge and result in a single world government. He believed that this socialist state would need to be a centralised, unitary one, and regarded federalism as a bourgeois concept. In his writings, Lenin espoused anti-imperialist ideas and stated that all nations deserved "the right of self-determination." He supported wars of national liberation, accepting that such conflicts might be necessary for a minority group to break away from a socialist state, because socialist states are not "holy or insured against mistakes or weaknesses."
Prior to taking power in 1917, he was concerned that ethnic and national minorities would make the Soviet state ungovernable with their calls for independence; according to the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, Lenin thus encouraged Stalin to develop "a theory that offered the ideal of autonomy and the right of secession without necessarily having to grant either." On taking power, Lenin called for the dismantling of the bonds that had forced minority ethnic groups to remain in the Russian Empire and espoused their right to secede but also expected them to reunite immediately in the spirit of proletariat internationalism. He was willing to use military force to ensure this unity, resulting in armed incursions into the independent states that formed in Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states. Only when its conflicts with Finland, the Baltic states, and Poland proved unsuccessful did Lenin's government officially recognise their independence.
## Personal life and characteristics
Lenin saw himself as a man of destiny and firmly believed in the righteousness of his cause and his own ability as a revolutionary leader. Biographer Louis Fischer described him as "a lover of radical change and maximum upheaval", a man for whom "there was never a middle-ground. He was an either-or, black-or-red exaggerator". Highlighting Lenin's "extraordinary capacity for disciplined work" and "devotion to the revolutionary cause", Pipes noted that he exhibited much charisma. Similarly, Volkogonov believed that "by the very force of his personality, [Lenin] had an influence over people". Conversely, Lenin's friend Gorky commented that in his physical appearance as a "baldheaded, stocky, sturdy person", the communist revolutionary was "too ordinary" and did not give "the impression of being a leader".
Historian and biographer Robert Service asserted that Lenin had been an intensely emotional young man, who exhibited strong hatred for the Tsarist authorities. According to Service, Lenin developed an "emotional attachment" to his ideological heroes, such as Marx, Engels, and Chernyshevsky; he owned portraits of them, and privately described himself as being "in love" with Marx and Engels. According to Lenin biographer James D. White, Lenin treated their writings as "holy writ", a "religious dogma", which should "not be questioned but believed in". In Volkogonov's view, Lenin accepted Marxism as "absolute truth", and accordingly acted like "a religious fanatic". Similarly, Bertrand Russell felt that Lenin exhibited "unwavering faith—religious faith in the Marxian gospel". Biographer Christopher Read suggested that Lenin was "a secular equivalent of theocratic leaders who derive their legitimacy from the [perceived] truth of their doctrines, not popular mandates". Lenin was nevertheless an atheist and a critic of religion, believing that socialism was inherently atheistic; he thus considered Christian socialism a contradiction in terms.
Service stated that Lenin could be "moody and volatile", and Pipes deemed him to be "a thoroughgoing misanthrope", a view rejected by Read, who highlighted many instances in which Lenin displayed kindness, particularly toward children. According to several biographers, Lenin was intolerant of opposition and often dismissed outright opinions that differed from his own. He could be "venomous in his critique of others", exhibiting a propensity for mockery, ridicule, and ad hominem attacks on those who disagreed with him. He ignored facts that did not suit his argument, abhorred compromise, and very rarely admitted his own errors. He refused to change his opinions, until he rejected them completely, after which he would treat the new view as if it was just as unchangeable. Lenin showed no sign of sadism or of personally desiring to commit violent acts, but he endorsed the violent actions of others and exhibited no remorse for those killed for the revolutionary cause. Adopting a utilitarian stance, in Lenin's view the end always justified the means; according to Service, Lenin's "criterion of morality was simple: does a certain action advance or hinder the cause of the Revolution?"
Ethnically, Lenin identified as Russian. Service described Lenin as "a bit of a snob in national, social and cultural terms". The Bolshevik leader believed that other European countries, especially Germany, were culturally superior to Russia, describing the latter as "one of the most benighted, medieval and shamefully backward of Asian countries". He was annoyed at what he perceived as a lack of conscientiousness and discipline among the Russian people, and from his youth had wanted Russia to become more culturally European and Western.
Despite his revolutionary politics, Lenin disliked revolutionary experimentation in literature and the arts, expressing his dislike of expressionism, futurism, and cubism, and conversely favouring realism and Russian classic literature. Lenin also had a conservative attitude towards sex and marriage. Throughout his adult life, he was in a relationship with Krupskaya, a fellow Marxist whom he married. Lenin and Krupskaya both regretted that they never had children, and they enjoyed entertaining their friends' offspring. Read noted that Lenin had "very close, warm, lifelong relationships" with his close family members; he had no lifelong friends, and Armand has been cited as being his only close, intimate confidante.
Aside from Russian, Lenin spoke and read French, German, and English. Concerned with physical fitness, he exercised regularly, enjoyed cycling, swimming, and hunting, and also developed a passion for mountain walking in the Swiss peaks. He was also fond of pets, in particular cats. Tending to eschew luxury, he lived a spartan lifestyle, and Pipes noted that Lenin was "exceedingly modest in his personal wants", leading "an austere, almost ascetic, style of life." Lenin despised untidiness, always keeping his work desk tidy and his pencils sharpened, and insisted on total silence while he was working. According to Fischer, Lenin's "vanity was minimal", and for this reason he disliked the cult of personality that the Soviet administration began to build around him; he nevertheless accepted that it might have some benefits in unifying the communist movement.
## Legacy
Volkogonov said, while renouncing Leninist ideology, that "there can scarcely have been another man in history who managed so profoundly to change so large a society on such a scale." Lenin's administration laid the framework for the system of government that ruled Russia for seven decades and provided the model for later Communist-led states that came to cover a third of the inhabited world in the mid-20th century. As a result, Lenin's influence was global. A controversial figure, Lenin remains both reviled and revered, a figure who has been both idolised and demonised. Even during his lifetime, Lenin "was loved and hated, admired and scorned" by the Russian people. This has extended into academic studies of Lenin and Leninism, which have often been polarised along political lines.
The historian Albert Resis suggested that if the October Revolution is considered the most significant event of the 20th century, then Lenin "must for good or ill be considered the century's most significant political leader." White described Lenin as "one of the undeniably outstanding figures of modern history", while Service noted that the Russian leader was widely understood to be one of the 20th century's "principal actors." Read considered him "one of the most widespread, universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century", while Ryan called him "one of the most significant and influential figures of modern history." Time magazine named Lenin one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century, and one of their top 25 political icons of all time.
In the Western world, biographers began writing about Lenin soon after his death; some such as Christopher Hill were sympathetic to him, and others such as Richard Pipes and Robert Gellately expressly hostile. Some later biographers such as Read and Lars Lih sought to avoid making either hostile or positive comments about him, thereby evading politicised stereotypes. Among sympathisers, he was portrayed as having made a genuine adjustment of Marxist theory that enabled it to suit Russia's particular socio-economic conditions. The Soviet view characterised him as a man who recognised the historically inevitable and accordingly helped to make the inevitable happen. Conversely, the majority of Western historians have perceived him as a person who manipulated events in order to attain and then retain political power, moreover considering his ideas as attempts to ideologically justify his pragmatic policies. Later, revisionists in both Russia and the West highlighted the impact that pre-existing ideas and popular pressures exerted on Lenin and his policies.
Various historians and biographers have characterised Lenin's administration as totalitarian, and as a police state, and many have described it as a one-party dictatorship. Several such scholars have described Lenin as a dictator; Ryan stated that he was "not a dictator in the sense that all his recommendations were accepted and implemented", for many of his colleagues disagreed with him on various issues. Fischer noted that while "Lenin was a dictator, [he was] not the kind of dictator Stalin later became." Volkogonov believed that whereas Lenin established a "dictatorship of the Party", it would only be under Stalin that the Soviet Union became the "dictatorship of one man." Moshe Lewin presented a differing view and argued that "The Soviet regime underwent a long period of "Stalinism", which in its basic features was diametrically opposed to the recommendations of [Lenin's] testament". Other scholars have highlighted the progressive nature of his policies such as universal education, healthcare, and equal rights for women.
Conversely, various Marxist observers, including Western historians Hill and John Rees, argued against the view that Lenin's government was a dictatorship, viewing it instead as an imperfect way of preserving elements of democracy without some of the processes found in liberal democratic states. Ryan contends that the leftist historian Paul Le Blanc "makes a quite valid point that the personal qualities that led Lenin to brutal policies were not necessarily any stronger than in some of the major Western leaders of the twentieth century." Ryan also posits that for Lenin revolutionary violence was merely a means to an end, namely the establishment of a socialist, ultimately communist world—a world without violence. Historian J. Arch Getty remarked, "Lenin deserves a lot of credit for the notion that the meek can inherit the earth, that there can be a political movement based on social justice and equality." Some left-wing intellectuals, among them Slavoj Žižek, Alain Badiou, Lars T. Lih, and Fredric Jameson, advocate reviving Lenin's uncompromising revolutionary spirit to address contemporary global problems. Russian historian Vadim Rogovin attributed the establishment of the one-party system to the conditions which were "imposed on Bolshevism by hostile political forces". Rogovin highlighted the fact that the Bolsheviks made strenuous efforts to preserve the Soviet parties such as the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and other left parties within the bounds of Soviet legality and their participation in the Soviets on the condition of abandoning armed struggle against the Bolsheviks.
### Within the Soviet Union
In the Soviet Union, a cult of personality devoted to Lenin began to develop during his lifetime, but was only fully established after his death. According to historian Nina Tumarkin, it represented the world's "most elaborate cult of a revolutionary leader" since that of George Washington in the United States, and has been repeatedly described as "quasi-religious" in nature. Busts or statues of Lenin were erected in almost every village, and his face adorned postage stamps, crockery, posters, and the front pages of Soviet newspapers Pravda and Izvestia. The places where he had lived or stayed were converted into museums devoted to him. Libraries, streets, farms, museums, towns, and whole regions were named after him, with the city of Petrograd being renamed "Leningrad" in 1924, and his birthplace of Simbirsk becoming Ulyanovsk. The Order of Lenin was established as one of the country's highest decorations. All of this was contrary to Lenin's own desires, and was publicly criticised by his widow.
Various biographers have stated that Lenin's writings were treated in a manner akin to holy scripture within the Soviet Union, while Pipes added that "his every opinion was cited to justify one policy or another and treated as gospel." Stalin systematised Leninism through a series of lectures at the Sverdlov University, which were then published as Questions of Leninism. Stalin also had much of the deceased leader's writings collated and stored in a secret archive in the Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute. Material such as Lenin's collection of books in Kraków was also collected from abroad for storage in the institute, often at great expense. During the Soviet era, these writings were strictly controlled and very few had access. All of Lenin's writings that proved useful to Stalin were published, but the others remained hidden, and knowledge of both Lenin's non-Russian ancestry and his noble status was suppressed. In particular, knowledge of his Jewish ancestry was suppressed until the 1980s, perhaps out of Soviet antisemitism, and so as not to undermine Stalin's Russification efforts, and perhaps so as not to provide fuel for anti-Soviet sentiment among international antisemites. After the discovery of Lenin's Jewish ancestry, this aspect was repeatedly emphasised by the Russian far-right, who claimed that his inherited Jewish genetics explained his desire to uproot traditional Russian society. Under Stalin's regime, Lenin was actively portrayed as a close friend of Stalin's who had supported Stalin's bid to be the next Soviet leader. During the Soviet era, five separate editions of Lenin's published works were published in Russian, the first beginning in 1920 and the last from 1958 to 1965; the fifth edition was described as "complete", but in reality had much omitted for political expediency.
After Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Union and began a process of de-Stalinisation, citing Lenin's writings, including those on Stalin, to legitimise this process. When Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985 and introduced the policies of glasnost and perestroika, he too cited these actions as a return to Lenin's principles. In late 1991, amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered the Lenin archive be removed from Communist Party control and placed under the control of a state organ, the Russian Centre for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Recent History, at which it was revealed that over 6,000 of Lenin's writings had gone unpublished. These were declassified and made available for scholarly study. Since 1991, there has been some discussion about moving Lenin's body from the mausoleum to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis and burying it there. President Boris Yeltsin, with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, intended to close the mausoleum and bury Lenin next to his mother, Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, at the Volkov Cemetery in St. Petersburg. His successor, Vladimir Putin, opposed this, stating that a reburial of Lenin would imply that generations of citizens had observed false values during seventy years of Soviet rule.
In Russia in 2012, a proposal from a deputy belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, with the support of some members of the governing United Russia party, proposed the removal of Lenin monuments in Russia. The proposal was strongly opposed by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and was never considered. Russia retained the vast majority of the 7,000 Lenin statues extant in 1991; as of 2022, there were approximately 6,000 monuments to Lenin in Russia.
In Ukraine, during the 2013–14 Euromaidan protests, Lenin statues were damaged or destroyed by protesters in various cities across the country, and in April 2015 the Ukrainian government ordered that all others be dismantled to comply with decommunisation laws. During the Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many Lenin statues which had been taken down by Ukrainian activists in the preceding years, were re-erected by Russian occupiers in Russian-controlled areas. These actions have less to do with communist propaganda and more with Lenin symbolizing Russia's domination over Ukraine.
### In the international communist movement
According to Lenin biographer David Shub, writing in 1965, it was Lenin's ideas and example that "constitutes the basis of the Communist movement today." Socialist states following Lenin's ideas appeared in various parts of the world during the 20th century. Writing in 1972, the historian Marcel Liebman stated that "there is hardly any insurrectionary movement today, from Latin America to Angola, that does not lay claim to the heritage of Leninism."
After Lenin's death, Stalin's administration established an ideology known as Marxism–Leninism, a movement that came to be interpreted differently by various contending factions in the communist movement. After being forced into exile by Stalin's administration, Trotsky argued that Stalinism was a debasement of Leninism, which was dominated by bureaucratism and Stalin's own personal dictatorship.
Trotskyist theoreticians have disputed the view that the Stalinist dictatorship was a natural outgrowth of Lenin's actions as most of the central committee members from 1917 were later eliminated by Stalin. George Novack stressed the initial efforts by the Bolsheviks to form a government with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and bring other parties such as the Mensheviks into political legality. Tony Cliff argued the Bolshevik-Left Socialist Revolutionary coalition government dissolved the Constituent Assembly due to a number of reasons. They cited the outdated voter-rolls which did not acknowledge the split among the Socialist Revolutionary party and the assemblies conflict with the Congress of the Soviets as an alternative democratic structure.
Marxism–Leninism was adapted to many of the 20th century's most prominent revolutionary movements, forming into variants such as Stalinism, Maoism, Juche, Ho Chi Minh Thought, and Castroism. Conversely, many later Western communists, such as Manuel Azcárate and Jean Ellenstein, who were involved in the Eurocommunist movement, expressed the view that Lenin and his ideas were irrelevant to their own objectives, thereby embracing a Marxist but not Marxist–Leninist perspective.
## See also
- Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
- Lenin Peace Prize
- Lenin Prize
- Lenin's Testament
- Marxist–Leninist atheism
- National delimitation in the Soviet Union
- Old Bolsheviks
- Soviet Decree
- The Study of Vladimir Lenin's brain
- Tampere Lenin Museum
- Lenin's Mausoleum
- Vladimir Lenin bibliography
- Ten Days That Shook the World
|
3,692,798 |
Phallus indusiatus
| 1,170,477,155 |
Widespread species of stinkhorn fungus
|
[
"Chinese edible mushrooms",
"Edible fungi",
"Fungi described in 1798",
"Fungi in cultivation",
"Fungi of Africa",
"Fungi of Asia",
"Fungi of Australia",
"Fungi of Central America",
"Fungi of Mexico",
"Fungi of Oceania",
"Fungi of South America",
"Fungi without expected TNC conservation status",
"Medicinal fungi",
"Phallales",
"Taxa named by Étienne Pierre Ventenat"
] |
Phallus indusiatus, commonly called the bamboo mushrooms, bamboo pith, long net stinkhorn, crinoline stinkhorn, bridal veil, or veiled lady, is a fungus in the family Phallaceae, or stinkhorns. It has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical areas, and is found in southern Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia, where it grows in woodlands and gardens in rich soil and well-rotted woody material. The fruit body of the fungus is characterised by a conical to bell-shaped cap on a stalk and a delicate lacy "skirt", or indusium, that hangs from beneath the cap and reaches nearly to the ground. First described scientifically in 1798 by French botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat, the species has often been referred to a separate genus Dictyophora along with other Phallus species featuring an indusium. P. indusiatus can be distinguished from other similar species by differences in distribution, size, color, and indusium length.
Mature fruit bodies are up to 25 centimetres (10 inches) tall with a conical to bell-shaped cap that is 1.5–4 cm (1⁄2–1+1⁄2 in) wide. The cap is covered with a greenish-brown spore-containing slime, which attracts flies and other insects that eat the spores and disperse them. An edible mushroom featured as an ingredient in Chinese haute cuisine, it is used in stir-fries and chicken soups. The mushroom, grown commercially and commonly sold in Asian markets, is rich in protein, carbohydrates, and dietary fiber. The mushroom also contains various bioactive compounds, and has antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. P. indusiatus has a recorded history of use in Chinese medicine extending back to the 7th century CE, and features in Nigerian folklore.
## Description
Immature fruit bodies of P. indusiatus are initially enclosed in an egg-shaped to roughly spherical subterranean structure encased in a peridium. The "egg" ranges in color from whitish to buff to reddish-brown, measures up to 6 centimetres (2+1⁄4 inches) in diameter, and usually has a thick mycelial cord attached at the bottom. As the mushroom matures, the pressure caused by the enlargement of the internal structures cause the peridium to tear and the fruit body rapidly emerges from the "egg". The mature mushroom is up to 25 cm (10 in) tall and girded with a net-like structure called the indusium (or less technically a "skirt") that hangs down from the conical to bell-shaped cap. The netlike openings of the indusium may be polygonal or round in shape. Well-developed specimens have an indusium that reaches to the volva and flares out somewhat before collapsing on the stalk. The cap is 1.5–4 cm (1⁄2–1+1⁄2 in) wide and its reticulated (pitted and ridged) surface is covered with a layer of greenish-brown and foul-smelling slime, the gleba, which initially partially obscures the reticulations. The top of the cap has a small hole. The stalk is 7–25 cm (3–10 in) long, and 1.5–3 cm (1⁄2–1+1⁄4 in) thick. The hollow stalk is white, roughly equal in width throughout its length, sometimes curved, and spongy. The ruptured peridium remains as a loose volva at the base of the stalk. Fruit bodies develop during the night, and require 10–15 hours to fully develop after emerging from the peridium. They are short-lived, typically lasting no more than a few days. At that point the slime has usually been removed by insects, leaving the pale off-white, bare cap surface exposed. Spores of P. indusiatus are thin-walled, smooth, elliptical or slightly curved, hyaline (translucent), and measure 2–3 by 1–1.5 μm.
### Similar species
Phallus multicolor is similar in overall appearance, but it has a more brightly coloured cap, stem and indusium, and it is usually smaller. It is found in Australia, Guam, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Papua New Guinea, Zaire, and Tobago as well as Hawaii. The cap of the Indo-Pacific species P. merulinus appears smooth when covered with gleba, and is pale and wrinkled once the gleba has worn off. In contrast, the cap surface of P. indusiatus tends to have conspicuous reticulations that remain clearly visible under the gleba. Also, the indusium of P. merulinus is more delicate and shorter than that of P. indusiatus, and is thus less likely to collapse under its own weight. Common in eastern North America and Japan, and widely recorded in Europe, the species P. duplicatus has a smaller indusium that hangs 3–6 cm (1+1⁄4–2+1⁄4 in) from the bottom of the cap, and sometimes collapses against the stalk.
Found in Asia, Australia, Hawaii, southern Mexico, and Central and South America, P. cinnabarinus grows to 13 cm (5 in) tall, and has a more offensive odor than P. indusiatus. It attracts flies from the genus Lucilia (family Calliphoridae), rather than the house flies of the genus Musca that visit P. indusiatus. P. echinovolvatus, described from China in 1988, is closely related to P. indusiatus, but can be distinguished by its volva that has a spiky (echinulate) surface, and its higher preferred growth temperature of 30 to 35 °C (86 to 95 °F). P. luteus, originally considered a form of P. indusiatus, has a yellowish reticulate cap, a yellow indusium, and a pale pink to reddish-purple peridium and rhizomorphs. It is found in Asia and Mexico.
## Taxonomy
Phallus indusiatus was initially described by French naturalist Étienne Pierre Ventenat in 1798, and sanctioned under that name by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1801. One author anonymously gave his impressions of Ventenat's discovery in an 1800 publication:
> This beautiful species, which is sufficiently characterised to distinguish it from every other individual of the class, is copiously produced in Dutch Guiana, about 300 paces from the sea, and nearly as far from the left bank of the river of Surinam. It was communicated to me by the elder Vaillant, who discovered it in 1755 on some raised ground which was never overflowed by the highest tides, and is formed of a very fine white sand, covered with a thin stratum of earth. The prodigious quantity of individuals of this species which grow at the same time, the very different periods of their expansion, the brilliancy and the varied shades of their colours, present a prospect truly picturesque.
The fungus was later placed in a new genus, Dictyophora, in 1809 by Nicaise Auguste Desvaux; it was then known for many years as Dictyophora indusiata. Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck placed the species in Hymenophallus in 1817, as H. indusiatus. Both genera were eventually returned to synonyms of Phallus and the species is now known again by its original name.
Curtis Gates Lloyd described the variety rochesterensis in 1909, originally as a new species, Phallus rochesterensis. It was found in Kew, Australia. A form with a pink-coloured indusium was reported by Vincenzo de Cesati in 1879 as Hymenophallus roseus, and later called Dictyophora indusiata f. rosea by Yosio Kobayasi in 1965; it is synonymous with Phallus cinnabarinus. A taxon described in 1936 as Dictyophora lutea and variously known for years as Dictyophora indusiata f. lutea, D. indusiata f. aurantiaca, or Phallus indusiatus f. citrinus, was formally transferred to Phallus in 2008 as a distinct species, Phallus luteus.
### Etymology
The specific epithet is the Latin adjective indūsǐātus, "wearing an undergarment". The former generic name Dictyophora is derived from the Ancient Greek words δίκτυον (diktyon, "net"), and φέρω (pherō, "to bear"), hence "bearing a net". Phallus indusiatus has many common names based on its appearance, including long net stinkhorn, crinoline stinkhorn, basket stinkhorn, bridal veil fungus, and veiled lady. The Japanese name Kinugasatake (衣笠茸 or キヌガサタケ), derived from the word kinugasa, refers to the wide-brimmed hats that featured a hanging silk veil to hide and protect the wearer's face. A Chinese common name that alludes to its typical growth habitat is "bamboo mushroom" (simplified Chinese: 竹荪; traditional Chinese: 竹蓀; pinyin: zhúsūn).
## Distribution
The range of Phallus indusiatus is tropical, including Africa (Congo, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zaire) South America (Brazil Guyana, and Venezuela), Central America (Costa Rica), and Tobago. In North America, its range is restricted to Mexico. Asian localities include Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, India, Southern China, Japan, and Taiwan. It has also been collected in Australia.
## Ecology
Like all Phallus species, P. indusiatus is saprobic—deriving nutrients from breaking down wood and plant organic matter. The fruit bodies grow singly or in groups in disturbed ground and among wood chips. In Asia, it grows among bamboo forests, and typically fruits after heavy rains. The method of reproduction for stinkhorns, including P. indusiatus, is different from most agaric mushrooms, which forcibly eject their spores. Stinkhorns instead produce a sticky spore mass that has a sharp, sickly-sweet odor of carrion. The cloying stink of mature fruit bodies—detectable from a considerable distance—is attractive to certain insects. Species recorded visiting the fungus include stingless bees of the genus Trigona, and flies of the families Drosophilidae and Muscidae. Insects assist in spore dispersal by consuming the gleba and depositing excrement containing intact spores to germinate elsewhere. Although the function of the indusium is not known definitively, it may visually entice insects not otherwise attracted by the odour, and serve as a ladder for crawling insects to reach the gleba.
## Uses
### Culinary
In eastern Asia, P. indusiatus is considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac. Previously only collected in the wild, where it is not abundant, it was difficult to procure. The mushroom's scarcity meant that it was usually reserved for special occasions. In the time of China's Qing dynasty, the species was collected in Yunnan Province and sent to the Imperial Palaces to satisfy the appetite of Empress Dowager Cixi, who particularly enjoyed meals containing edible fungi. It was one of the eight featured ingredients of the "Bird's Nest Eight Immortals Soup" served at a banquet to celebrate her 60th birthday. This dish, served by descendants of the Confucius family in celebrations and longevity banquets, contained ingredients that were "all precious food, delicacies from land and sea, fresh, tender, and crisp, appropriately sweet and salty". Another notable use was a state banquet held for American diplomat Henry Kissinger on his visit to China to reestablish diplomatic relations in the early 1970s. One source writes of the mushroom: "It has a fine and tender texture, fragrance and is attractive, beautiful in shape, fresh and crispy in taste." The dried fungus, commonly sold in Asian markets, is prepared by rehydrating and soaking or simmering in water until tender. Sometimes used in stir-frys, it is traditionally used as a component of rich chicken soups. The rehydrated mushroom can also be stuffed and cooked.
Phallus indusiatus has been cultivated on a commercial scale in China since 1979. In the Fujian Province of China—known for a thriving mushroom industry that cultivates 45 species of edible fungi—P. indusiatus is produced in the counties of Fuan, Jianou, and Ningde. Advances in cultivation have made the fungus cheaper and more widely available; in 1998, about 1,100 metric tons (1,100 long tons; 1,200 short tons) were produced in China. The Hong Kong price for a kilogram of dried mushrooms reached around US \$770 in 1982, but had dropped to US \$100–200 by 1988. Additional advances led to it dropping further to US \$10–20 by 2000. The fungus is grown on agricultural wastes—bamboo-trash sawdust covered with a thin layer of non-sterilised soil. The optimal temperature for the growth of mushroom spawn and fruit bodies is about 24 °C (75 °F), with a relative humidity of 90–95%. Other substrates that can be used for the cultivation of the fungus include bamboo leaves and small stems, soybean pods or stems, corn stems, and willow leaves.
### Medicinal
Medicinal properties have been ascribed to Phallus indusiatus from the time of the Chinese Tang dynasty when it was described in pharmacopoeia. The fungus was used to treat many inflammatory, stomach, and neural diseases. Southern China's Miao people continue to use it traditionally for a number of afflictions, including injuries and pains, cough, dysentery, enteritis, leukemia, and feebleness, and it has been prescribed clinically as a treatment for laryngitis, leucorrhea, fever, and oliguria (low urine output), diarrhea, hypertension, cough, hyperlipidemia, and in anticancer therapy. Modern science has probed the biochemical basis of these putative medicinal benefits.
The fruit bodies of the fungus contain biologically active polysaccharides. A β-D-glucan called T-5-N and prepared from alkaline extracts has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. Its chemical structure is a linear chain backbone made largely of α-1→3 linked D-mannopyranosyl residues, with traces of 1→6 linked D-mannopyrosyl residues. The polysaccharide has tumour-suppressing activity against subcutaneously implanted sarcoma 180 (a transplantable, non-metastasizing connective tissue tumour often used in research) in mice.
Another chemical of interest found in P. indusiatus is hydroxymethylfurfural, which has attracted attention as a tyrosinase inhibitor. Tyrosinase catalyzes the initial steps of melanogenesis in mammals, and is responsible for the undesirable browning reactions in damaged fruits during post-harvest handling and processing, and its inhibitors are of interest to the medical, cosmetics, and food industries. Hydroxymethylfurfural, which occurs naturally in several foods, is not associated with serious health risks. P. indusiatus also contains a unique ribonuclease (an enzyme that cuts RNA into smaller components) possessing several biochemical characteristics that differentiate it from other known mushroom ribonucleases.
Two novel sesquiterpenes, dictyophorine A and B, have been identified from the fruit bodies of the fungus. These compounds, based on the eudesmane skeleton (a common structure found in plant-derived flavours and fragrances), are the first eudesmane derivatives isolated from fungi and were found to promote the synthesis of nerve growth factor in astroglial cells. Related compounds isolated and identified from the fungus include three quinazoline derivatives (a class of compounds rare in nature), dictyoquinazol A, B, and C. These chemicals were shown in laboratory tests to have a protective effect on cultured mouse neurons that had been exposed to neurotoxins. A total synthesis for the dictyoquinazols was reported in 2007.
The fungus has long been recognised to have antibacterial properties: the addition of the fungus to soup broth was known to prevent it from spoiling for several days. One of the responsible antibiotics, albaflavenone, was isolated in 2011. It is a sesquiterpenoid that was already known from the soil bacterium Streptomyces albidoflavus. Experiments have shown that extracts of P. indusiatus have antioxidant in addition to antimicrobial properties.
A 2001 publication in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms attempted to determine its efficacy as an aphrodisiac. In the trial involving sixteen women, six self-reported the experience of a mild orgasm while smelling the fruit body, and the other ten, who received smaller doses, self-reported an increased heart rate. All of the twenty men tested considered the smell displeasing. The study used fruit bodies found in Hawaii, not the edible variety cultivated in China. The study has received criticism. A way to achieve instant orgasms would be expected to gain much attention and many attempts to reproduce the effect, but none has succeeded. No major science journal has published the study, and there are no studies where the results have been reproduced.
## In culture
According to ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson, P. indusiatus was consumed in Mexican divinatory ceremonies on account of its suggestive shape. On the other side of the globe, New Guinea natives consider the mushroom sacred. In Nigeria, the mushroom is one of several stinkhorns given the name Akufodewa by the Yoruba people. The name is derived from a combination of the Yoruba words ku ("die"), fun ("for"), ode ("hunter"), and wa ("search"), and refers to how the mushroom's stench can attract hunters who mistake its odour for that of a dead animal. The Yoruba have been reported to have used it as a component of a charm to make hunters less visible in times of danger. In other parts of Nigeria, they have been used in the preparation of harmful charms by ethnic groups such as the Urhobo and the Ibibio people. The Igbo people of east-central Nigeria called stinkhorns éró ḿma, from the Igbo words for "mushroom" and "beauty".
|
24,593,095 |
Bronwyn Bancroft
| 1,166,716,397 |
Australian artist (born 1958)
|
[
"1958 births",
"20th-century Australian artists",
"20th-century Australian women artists",
"21st-century Australian artists",
"21st-century Australian women artists",
"Artists from New South Wales",
"Australian Aboriginal artists",
"Australian people of Polish descent",
"Australian people of Scottish descent",
"Bundjalung people",
"Living people",
"People from New England (New South Wales)",
"Textile designers"
] |
Bronwyn Bancroft (born 1958) is an Aboriginal Australian artist, administrator, book illustrator, and among the first three Australian fashion designers to show their work in Paris. She was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, and trained in Canberra and Sydney.
In 1985, Bancroft established a shop called Designer Aboriginals, selling fabrics made by Aboriginal artists, including herself. She was a founding member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative. Her artwork is held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of Western Australia. She illustrated 20 children's books, including Stradbroke Dreamtime by activist Oodgeroo Noonuccal, and books by artist Sally Morgan. Her design commissions include one for the exterior of a Sydney sports centre.
Bancroft has a long history of involvement in community activism and arts administration, and has served as a board member for the National Gallery of Australia. Her painting Prevention of AIDS (1992) was used in a campaign to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in Australia. She served on the boards of copyright collection agency Viscopy, the Australian Society of Authors and Tranby Aboriginal College, and the Artists Board at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) in Sydney.
## Early life
A Bundjalung woman, Bancroft was born in Tenterfield, a town in rural New South Wales, in 1958. She was the youngest of seven children of Owen Cecil Joseph Bancroft, known as "Bill"—an Aboriginal Australian from the Djanbun clan—and Dot, who is of Scottish and Polish ancestry. Bancroft has said that her great-great-great-grandmother Pemau was one of only two or three survivors from her clan, the rest murdered when their land was settled by a white farmer. Her grandfather and uncle worked in local goldmines. She recalled that her father's education was obstructed by discrimination because he was Aboriginal. His lack of formal training meant that he had to work away from home cutting railway sleepers, while her mother worked at home as a dressmaker. Bancroft's father was an engineer during World War II, managing barges at Madang and Rabaul.
Following her father's advice on the importance of getting an education or a trade, Bancroft completed high school in Tenterfield before moving to Canberra in 1976 with her husband-to-be Ned Manning, who had also been her teacher. There Bancroft completed a Diploma of Visual Communications through the Canberra School of Art, followed by a Master of Studio Practice and a Master of Visual Arts (Paintings) at the University of Sydney. She never returned to live in Tenterfield, although her three sisters were living there in 2004. Her father died around 1990. Bancroft has three children: Jack was born in 1985, Ella in 1988. She separated from Manning when they were very young; her third child Rubyrose was born in 1999. Jack was awarded NSW Young Australian of the Year in 2010 for his work arranging the mentoring of Indigenous school students.
## Career
### Art and design
Bancroft was a founding member of the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, one of Australia's oldest Indigenous-run artists' organisations, established in 1987. She served in the roles of chairperson, director, and treasurer during its first two decades. In 1985, she opened a shop in Sydney called Designer Aboriginals, selling the work of designers including her own fabrics, and staffed by her Indigenous female students. Bancroft, Euphemia Bostock and Mini Heath were the first Australian fashion designers invited to show their works in Paris, where Bancroft's painted designs on cloth were exhibited at the 1987 Printemps Fashion Parade. Two years later, in 1989, she contributed to a London exhibition, Australian Fashion: The Contemporary Art. Despite these successes, she moved away from the fashion industry, telling an interviewer in 2005 that she had not done fabric design for 15 years. Described as "an instinctive colourist", Bancroft has since worked primarily as a painter, and has developed "a glowing style reminiscent of stained glass windows". She has cited as influences the American painter Georgia O'Keeffe, European painters Joan Miró, Wassily Kandinsky, and Marc Chagall, and Australian Indigenous artists such as Emily Kngwarreye, Rover Thomas, and Mary MacLean.
Although initially known as a fabric and textile designer, Bancroft has worked with many artistic media, including "jewellery design, painting, collage, illustration, sculpture and interior decoration". Art works by Bancroft are held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Queensland Art Gallery. The National Gallery holds one of her screenprints, Entrapped, created in 1991. Between 1989 and 2006, Bancroft held eight solo exhibitions and participated in at least 53 group exhibitions, including shows at the Australian Museum in Sydney, the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, and the National Gallery of Victoria. Her art has been exhibited in Indonesia, New Zealand, the US, France and Germany.
In 2004, Bancroft was commissioned to design a large mural covering the exterior of a sports centre housing two basketball courts at Tempe Reserve in Marrickville, New South Wales. The mural depicts a snake, a man, and a woman, representing both biblical and Indigenous Australian creation stories. It also includes the goanna, the ancestral totem of the Marrickville area's original inhabitants, the Wangal people.
Bancroft ventured into illustrating children's books in 1993, when she provided the artwork for Fat and Juicy Place written by Dianna Kidd. The book was shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year and won the Australian Multicultural Children's Book Award. In the same year, she illustrated Stradbroke Dreamtime by Indigenous activist and writer Oodgeroo Noonuccal. She was the third artist to have provided images for successive editions of the book, of which the first edition was released in 1972. Bancroft has since contributed artwork for over 20 children's books, including some by prominent Australian writer and artist Sally Morgan, whom she regards as a mentor and friend. These books include Dan's grandpa (1996) and Sam's bush journey (2009). The two artists collaborated on an exhibition of prints at Warrnambool Art Gallery in Victoria in 1991. Researcher and museum curator Margo Neale has described the art of both Bancroft and Morgan as depicting "their relationship to country and family in generally high-keyed works, celebrating and commemorating through personal or collective stories in mainly figurative narratives."
As well as working with established writers, Bancroft has created a number of children's books in her own right, including An Australian 1 2 3 of Animals and An Australian ABC of Animals, which have been favourably reviewed as imaginative and well-illustrated. Her style of illustration has been described as "bold and mysterious", and as "traditional Australian Aboriginal representation rendered in bright, eye-catching colors." In 2009 Bancroft received the Dromkeen Medal for her contribution to children's literature. In May 2010, the Governor-General of Australia Quentin Bryce launched Bancroft's latest book, Why I Love Australia. A long-time supporter of Bancroft's work, Ms Bryce said: "Why I love Australia is a work and title that, again, speaks volumes of its author and illustrator. It simply and exquisitely rejoices in telling a story of this magnificent, sacred land we share: the mountains, rivers and gorges; seas and coral reefs; grasslands and bushlands; saltpans and snow; houses and streets; the jeweled night sky, and so much more."
Bancroft's art has also appeared in the publications of a number of other individuals and organisations, including as cover art for books from the Australian Museum and the New South Wales Education Department, for Larissa Behrendt's novel Home, and for Roberta Sykes's controversial autobiographical narratives Snake Cradle and Snake Dancing, among others.
### Administration and activism
Bancroft has been active in arts organisations, and served two terms on the board of the National Gallery of Australia during the 1990s. She was chair of the Visual Arts Board of the New South Wales Ministry for the Arts, and of the National Indigenous Arts Advocacy Organisation from 1993 to 1996. In the lead-up to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Bancroft was a member of the design committee that advised on the development of the games' official logo, and has acted as a judge for the \$35,000 Country Energy Art Prize. Bancroft was a member of the board of directors of the Australian copyright collection agency, Viscopy, and while serving in that position has been an advocate of resale royalty rights for artists. She has observed that "resale royalties are an intrinsic link to the improvement of the inherent rights of Australian artists to a fair income". She was a member of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia's Artist Advisory Group in 2005, and is a member of the museum's artists board. She has served on the board of the Indigenous training organisation, Tranby Aboriginal College.
Within and beyond her artistic works, Bancroft has demonstrated concern for a range of social issues, particularly those affecting Indigenous Australians. Her painting Prevention of AIDS (1992) was reproduced on posters and postcards aimed at raising awareness of HIV/AIDS, and was one of several of her images commissioned by the federal Department of Health to highlight issues regarding the disease in the Indigenous community. In 2000, two years after the death of activist Mum (Shirl) Smith, Bancroft and the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative organised a fund-raising exhibition of art works in Smith's honour.
As of 2009 Bancroft was a director of the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to increase senior high school and university admission rates for Indigenous students. She has taught and mentored Indigenous school students such as Jessica Birk, a winner of the Australia Council's inaugural Emerging and Young Artist Award in May 2009.
In 2021, Bancroft was inaugural recipient of the A\$30,000 NSW Aboriginal Creative Fellowship.
As of February 2023 she is a board member of the Australian Society of Authors.
## Selected published works
- Walking the boundaries (illustrator), Angus & Robertson, 1993,
- Stradbroke dreamtime (illustrator), Angus & Robertson, 1993,
- Dirrangun (illustrator), Angus & Robertson, 1994,
- Dan's Grandpa (illustrator), Fremantle Press, 1996,
- Leaving (illustrator), Roland Harvey, 2000,
- The Outback (illustrator), with Annaliese Porter, Magabala Books, 2005,
- An Australian ABC of Animals, Little Hare Books, 2005,
- Ready to Dream (illustrator), Bloomsbury, 2008,
- An Australian 1, 2, 3 of animals, Little Hare Books, 2009,
- W is for wombat: my first Australian word book, Little Hare Books, 2009,
- Why I love Australia, Little Hare Books, 2010,
- Colours of Australia, Hardie Grant Egmont, 2016, 742976914
- Shapes of Australia, Little Hare Books, 2017,
- Clever crow = Wäk L̲iya-Djambatj, Magabala Books, 2018,
- 1, 2, 3 of Australian animals, Little Hare Books, 2019,
- Coming Home to Country, Little Hare Books, 2020,
## Major collections
- Artbank
- Art Gallery of New South Wales
- State Library of New South Wales
- Art Gallery of Western Australia
- Australian Museum
- Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia)
- National Gallery of Australia
- National Museum of Australia
- New York Public Library Print Collection
- Newark Museum
- Parliament House Art Collection
- Queensland Art Gallery
## See also
- Contemporary Indigenous Australian art
|
31,837,227 |
Drymoreomys
| 1,114,266,325 |
A rodent genus with one species in the family Cricetidae from the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.
|
[
"Mammals described in 2011",
"Mammals of Brazil",
"Monotypic rodent genera",
"Oryzomyini",
"Taxa named by Alexandre Reis Percequillo",
"Taxa named by Leonora Pires Costa",
"Taxa named by Marcelo Weksler"
] |
Drymoreomys is a rodent genus in the tribe Oryzomyini that lives in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. The single species, D. albimaculatus, is known only from the states of São Paulo and Santa Catarina and was not named until 2011. It lives in the humid forest on the eastern slopes of the Serra do Mar and perhaps reproduces year-round. Although its range is relatively large and includes some protected areas, it is patchy and threatened, and the discoverers recommend that the animal be considered "Near Threatened" on the IUCN Red List. Within Oryzomyini, Drymoreomys appears to be most closely related to Eremoryzomys from the Andes of Peru, a biogeographically unusual relationship, in that the two populations are widely separated and each is adapted to an arid or a moist environment.
With a body mass of 44–64 g (1.6–2.3 oz), Drymoreomys is a medium-sized rodent with long fur that is orange to reddish-buff above and grayish with several white patches below. The pads on the hindfeet are very well developed and there is brown fur on the upper sides of the feet. The tail is brown above and below. The front part of the skull is relatively long and the ridges on the braincase are weak. The palate is short, with its back margin between the third molars. Several traits of the genitals are not seen in any other oryzomyine rodent.
## Taxonomy
Drymoreomys was first recorded in 1992 by Meika Mustrangi in the state of São Paulo. The animal was not, however, formally described until 2011, when Alexandre Percequillo and colleagues named it as a new genus and species within the tribe Oryzomyini: Drymoreomys albimaculatus. The generic name, Drymoreomys, combines the Greek δρυμός (drymos), meaning "forest", ὄρειος (oreios), meaning "mountain-dwelling", and μῦς (mys), meaning "mouse". The name refers to the animal's occurrence in mountain forest. The specific name, albimaculatus, derives from the Latin albus, meaning "white", and maculatus, meaning "spotted", a reference to the spots of white in the animal's fur. Percequillo and colleagues found little geographic variation among samples of Drymoreomys, although a few traits differ in frequency between populations from the states of São Paulo and Santa Catarina.
According to a phylogenetic analysis of evidence from morphology, the nuclear gene IRBP, and the mitochondrial gene cytochrome b, Drymoreomys albimaculatus is most closely related to Eremoryzomys polius, an oryzomyine from northern Peru and the only species in the genus Eremoryzomys. Together, Drymoreomys and Eremoryzomys are part of Marcelo Weksler's clade D, one of four main clades within Oryzomyini. Some subsequent studies did not support a relationship between the Drymoreomys–Eremoryzomys clade and the rest of clade D, but this is probably due to saturation of the phylogenetic signal in mitochondrial data. Oryzomyini includes well over a hundred species distributed mainly in South America, including nearby islands such as the Galápagos Islands and some of the Antilles. It is one of several tribes recognized within the subfamily Sigmodontinae, which encompasses hundreds of species found across South America and into southern North America. Sigmodontinae is the largest subfamily of the family Cricetidae, other members of which include voles, lemmings, hamsters, and deermice, all mainly from Eurasia and North America.
## Description
### External morphology
Drymoreomys albimaculatus is a medium-sized, long-tailed, short-eared, short-footed rodent. It is quite distinct from other oryzomyines and has a number of unique traits. In 11 adults from Parque Natural Municipal Nascentes do Garcia in Santa Catarina, head and body length was 122 to 139 mm (4.8 to 5.5 in), tail length was 140 to 175 mm (5.5 to 6.9 in), hindfoot length was 25.8 to 30.5 mm (1.02 to 1.20 in), ear length was 16 to 22 mm (0.63 to 0.87 in), and body mass was 44 to 64 g (1.6 to 2.3 oz). The fur is long and dense and consists of thin, short, woolly underfur and long, thick overfur. Overall, the fur of the upperparts is orange to reddish-buff. In the closely related Eremoryzomys, the upperparts are grayish. The hairs of the underfur, which are 12 to 14 mm (0.47 to 0.55 in) long, are grayish for most of their length and orange or brown at the tip. In the overfur, the cover hairs (which form the main body of the fur), are 14 to 17 mm (0.55 to 0.67 in) long and brown at the tip, with an orange band below the tip, and the longer, sparse guard hairs are red to dark brown in the half closest to the tip and are 17 to 21 mm (0.67 to 0.83 in) long. The sides are reddish brown. On the underparts, the hairs are grayish at the base and white at the tip, except on the throat, chest, and (in some specimens) groin, where the hairs are entirely white—a trait unique among the oryzomyines. In overall appearance, the underparts are grayish, with white spots where the hairs are completely white.
The small, rounded ears are covered with dense golden hairs on the outer and with reddish brown hairs on the inner surface. The mystacial vibrissae (whiskers on the upper lip) are long, usually extending a little beyond the ears when laid back against the head, but the superciliary vibrissae (whiskers above the eyes) are short and do not extend beyond the ears. The upper surface on the forefeet is covered with brown fur, and there is white or silvery fur on the digits. Ungual tufts (fur around the bases of the claws) are present on the second through fourth digits. On the short, fairly broad hindfeet, the upper side is covered densely with silvery to white hairs near the tips of the feet and toes, and with brown fur otherwise. No other oryzomyine has such brown fur on its hindfeet. The second through fourth digits have long silvery-white ungual tufts, but those on the first digit are short. On the sole, the pads are very large. Among oryzomyines, only Oecomys and the extinct Megalomys have similarly large pads between their digits. There is a dense cover of short brown hairs on both the upper and lower sides of the tail. Unlike in Eremoryzomys, the tail is the same color above and below. The tail ends in a tuft, an unusual feature among oryzomyines.
### Skull
In the skull, the rostrum (front part) is relatively long. The nasal and premaxillary bones extend in front of the incisors, forming a rostral tube, which is shared among oryzomyines only with Handleyomys. The zygomatic notch (a notch formed by a projection at the front of the zygomatic plate, a bony plate at the side of the skull) is shallow. The interorbital region (between the eyes) is narrow and long, with the narrowest part towards the front. The crests on the braincase and interorbital region are weakly developed. Eremoryzomys has larger crests on its interorbital region.
The incisive foramina (openings in the front part of the palate) are long, sometimes extending to between the first molars (M1). The bony palate is broad and short, with the posterior margin between the third molars (M3). Nephelomys levipes is the only other oryzomyine with such a short palate, although that of Eremoryzomys polius is only slightly longer. The posterolateral palatal pits (openings in the back part of the palate near the M3) vary from small to fairly large and are located in slight fossas (depressions). In Eremoryzomys, these fossas are deeper. The roof of the mesopterygoid fossa, the opening behind the palate, is completely closed or contains small sphenopalatine vacuities. The vacuities are much larger in Eremoryzomys. The alisphenoid strut, a piece of bone that separates two foramina (openings), is present in all Drymoreomys specimens examined, except in one juvenile specimen.
The mandible (lower jaw) is long and low. The coronoid process, the frontmost of the three main processes (projections) at the back of the jawbone, is large and about as high as the condyloid process behind it. The angular process, below the condyloid, is fairly short and does not extend further backwards than the condyloid. There is no noticeable capsular process (a raising at the back of the jaw that houses the root of the lower incisor).
### Dentition
The upper incisors are opisthodont (with the cutting surface oriented backwards) and have orange to yellow enamel. The upper molar rows are either almost parallel or slightly convergent with each other toward the front. Holochilus and Lundomys are the only other oryzomyines with non-parallel molar rows. The valleys between the cusps of the upper molars extending from the inner and outer sides overlap slightly across the midlines of the teeth. The molars are high-cusped, almost hypsodont. On M1, the anterocone (the front cusp) is divided into two cuspules on the lingual (inner, towards the tongue) and labial (outer, towards the lips) sides of the teeth. The mesoloph, a crest near the middle of the labial side of the tooth, is long and well developed on each of the three upper molars. On the lower molars (m1 to m3), the cusps on the labial side are located slightly in front of their lingual counterparts. The anteroconid, the front cusp on the m1, is divided in two. The m1, m2, and usually m3 have a mesolophid, a crest corresponding to the mesoloph but located on the lingual side. Each of the lower molars has two roots.
### Other anatomy
There are 12 ribs and 19 thoracolumbar (chest and abdomen), four sacral, and 36 to 38 caudal (tail) vertebrae. There are three digits at the tip of the penis, of which the central one is the largest. The two lateral digits are not supported by mounds of the baculum (penis bone). There is only one spine on the papilla (nipple-like projection) on the upper side of the penis. On the urethral process, located in the crater at the end of the penis, a fleshy process at the side, the lateral lobule, is present. The preputial glands (glands in front of the genitals) are large. The lack of lateral bacular mounds, presence of a lateral lobule, and size of the preputial glands are all unique traits among the oryzomyines.
### Karyotype
The karyotype of Drymoreomys albimaculatus is 2n=62, FN=62: the animal has 62 chromosomes, and 29 pairs of autosomes (non-sex chromosomes) are acrocentric (with one arm so short as to be almost invisible) and one small pair is metacentric (with two equally long arms). Both sex chromosomes are submetacentric (with one arm noticeably longer than the other), and X is larger than Y. Blocks of heterochromatin are present on all autosomes and the long arm of Y. Telomeric sequences are found near the centromeres of the sex chromosomes. Aspects of this karyotype—with a high number of mostly acrocentric chromosomes and the presence of heterochromatin on the Y chromosome—are consistent with the pattern seen in other oryzomyines. However, no other oryzomyine has exactly the same karyotype as D. albimaculatus. Other species in clade D have fewer chromosomes, down to 16 in Nectomys palmipes, although the karyotype of Eremoryzomys polius is unknown. This suggests an evolutionary trend of decreasing chromosome number within the clade.
## Distribution and ecology
Drymoreomys albimaculatus occurs in the Atlantic Forest on the eastern slopes of the Serra do Mar in the Brazilian states of São Paulo and Santa Catarina, at 650 to 1,200 m (2,130 to 3,940 ft) above sea level. It has not been found in the intervening state of Paraná, but is likely to occur there. The biogeographical pattern indicated by the relationship between Drymoreomys and the Andean Eremoryzomys is unusual. While there are some similar cases of relationships between Andean and Atlantic Forest animals, these involve inhabitants of humid forests in the Andes; Eremoryzomys, by contrast, lives in an arid area.
Drymoreomys albimaculatus appears to be a specialist of dense, moist, montane and premontane forest. It has been found in disturbed and secondary forests as well as in pristine forest, but probably needs contiguous forest to survive. Reproductive activity has been observed in females in June, November, and December and in males in December, suggesting that the species breeds year-round. Although some of its morphological traits, such as the very large pads, are suggestive of arboreal (tree-dwelling) habits, most specimens were collected in pitfall traps on the ground.
## Conservation status
The range of Drymoreomys albimaculatus is relatively large and the species occurs in several protected areas, but it has only been found in seven localities and its habitat is threatened by deforestation and fragmentation. Therefore, Percequillo and colleagues suggest that the species be assessed as "Near Threatened" under the IUCN Red List criteria.
|
18,170,706 |
Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins
| 1,166,553,359 |
2008 television film directed by Mike Slee
|
[
"2000s American films",
"2000s British films",
"2000s English-language films",
"2008 documentary films",
"2008 films",
"2008 television films",
"American documentary television films",
"American films based on actual events",
"American prequel films",
"Discovery Films films",
"Films about meerkats",
"Films based on television series",
"Films set in 2000",
"Films set in the Kalahari Desert",
"Meerkat Manor",
"Television prequel films"
] |
Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins is a 2008 television film created by Discovery Films and Oxford Scientific Films as a prequel to the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor. A scripted documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, the film details the life of a meerkat named Flower from birth to her becoming the leader of a meerkat group called the Whiskers. The film is based on the research notes of the Kalahari Meerkat Project and primarily uses wild meerkat "actors" to represent those in the story. Shot over two years at the Kuruman River Reserve in Northern Cape, South Africa, the film employed a much larger crew than the series. Some scenes were shot at a wildlife park in the United Kingdom, while others were created using camera tricks and trained film animals.
The 75-minute film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival before its television premiere on Animal Planet on 25 May 2008. While it was praised for its cinematography, for maintaining the depth of coverage of the television series, and for its accessibility to newcomers to the series, it was criticized for not offering anything new to fans. The Kalahari Meerkat Project noted that the film was not completely accurate but praised it overall and recommended against analyzing it. Several reviewers praised Goldberg's narration, but the script was criticized as being too simplistic for adult viewers.
## Synopsis
The meerkat Flower is born in the Kalahari Desert on 15 March 2000, to Holly, the leader of a meerkat group called the Whiskers. After an attack by a rival group, the Lazuli, the Whiskers are forced to surrender their territory and move to a new home.
A hawk kills Holly when Flower is a year old, and her father abandons the group to find a new mate. Flower's sister Viale becomes the group's matriarch and chooses Youssarian, a roving male from the Lazuli, as her mate. Flower mates with Yossarian's brother, Zaphod, but Viale kills the resulting pups and banishes Flower from the group, allowing her to return later.
During a time of starvation and drought, Viale attempts to lead the group across a road to forage. As she crosses, she is struck and killed by a passing truck. As the Whiskers attempt to adjust to the loss of their leader, a snake approaches the group. Flower steps in to lead an attack to drive it off. In doing so, she becomes the new leader of the group. Zaphod returns to the group to be her mate, while Yossarian steps aside and leaves the group. Flower leads the Whiskers back to their original home, and after a brief battle, the Whiskers reclaim it from the Lazuli. At end of the film, an on-screen note describes Flower's death during the third season of Meerkat Manor and the children she left behind.
## Production
Created by Oxford Scientific Films for Discovery Films, Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins is a prequel biography of Flower, the central meerkat of the highly rated documentary series Meerkat Manor. Caroline Hawkins, creator of the series, wrote the script using notes taken by Kalahari Meerkat Project researchers, including head researcher Tim Clutton-Brock. Hawkins notes that Oxford Scientific Films believes the film is the first natural history prequel to be created. The film was directed by Chris Barker and Mike Slee, while Whoopi Goldberg, a known Meerkat Manor fan, provided the narration.
Meerkat Manor normally films episodes using a crew of only two or three people to avoid disturbing the meerkats; the film was shot over two years at the Kuruman River Reserve, where the Kalahari Meerkat Project that the meerkats are a part of is based, and employed a much larger crew. Breaking from the series' pure documentary format, the film does not include footage of the project meerkats depicted in the story. Instead, wild meerkat "actors" represented Flower and her family; Flower was depicted by approximately eight female meerkats. The camera crew sought out appropriately aged meerkats for each scene, then filmed them until they behaved in ways the script required.
While the majority of the meerkats filmed were partially habituated, the cinematographers had to move carefully to avoid scaring the animals. The crew used radios to keep in contact with one another as they followed the meerkat groups around. Although the park normally prohibits low-flying aircraft, the production crew was given permission to film for three days using a low-flying helicopter. Mounted to its front underside was a new type of camera that was not affected by the shaking of the helicopter. Colour scenes depicting the birth of meerkat pups were obtained by filming captive meerkats at the Cotswold Wildlife Park in the United Kingdom.
Because of the viewer backlash Animal Planet received for allowing meerkats from the Meerkat Manor series to die, the producers of the film debated including the filmed death of a young meerkat who was bitten by a snake. They questioned whether viewers would understand that the meerkats were wild animals and that human interference would disrupt the animals' natural life cycles. In addition, to avoid disrupting the research, crews are only allowed to film within the research area under a strictly enforced agreement not to interfere with the meerkats' lives. The producers ultimately included the scene, but the meerkat's cries for help as it lay dying were edited out. Other meerkat deaths depicted were reenactments. For Viale's death scene, the crew rigged a camera mounted on a platform on the side of a truck. Robin Smith, the film and series main cinematographer, hung partially out of the truck to hold the camera steady, giving the visual impression of a truck bearing down on a meerkat. To provide bird and snake footage, professional handlers were employed, ensuring the meerkats were not deliberately put in danger.
In 2007, the real Flower was killed by a snake bite—before the film and the third series of Meerkat Manor had finished shooting. According to Executive producer Mick Kaczorowski, Flower's death imposed the need for a "bigger" ending to the film than the producers originally planned; Flower's death was addressed and the coda added.
## Distribution
The film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival on 30 April in the Spotlight section, before airing in the United States on Animal Planet on May 25. Its television premiere was followed by the 30-minute Making of Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins special. The film was screened at the 2008 Festival du film britannique de Dinard in France, as The Meerkats, and at the Wildscreen Festival in Bristol on 18 October and 24 October 2008.
It was released to Region 1 DVD in North America on 3 June 2008, with the Making of ... special included as an extra. The DVD also includes another special, The Science of Meerkat Manor, giving viewers a look at how the Kalahari Meerkat Project researchers work with the meerkats. It is scheduled for Region 2 DVD release in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2009.
## Reception
In 2009, the film was nominated by the Cinema Audio Society for an award in the "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for DVD Original Programming" category, losing out to the music documentary If All Goes Wrong. Variety's Ronnie Scheib did not think that Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins offered anything new for viewers of the television series, feeling that it was a "re-edited, re-scored, re-narrated" version of the existing series. While he found Goldberg's narration to be higher quality than in most documentaries of this type, he also felt that it "pales after a while." Scheib praised the film for its cinematography and the depth and quality of coverage of the meerkats, and said their activities "constantly amaze", while noting that the film was a condensed and embellished version of actual events that did not distort the meerkats' story. The Friends of the Kalahari Meerkat Project, a sponsorship for the research group studying the meerkats, thought the film was a "heart-touching tribute to Flower, with amazing meerkat, landscape and wildlife footage". Though the group noted that the film changes some details from the life history reports it was based on, they felt the film should be enjoyed rather than analyzed. Common Sense Media reviewer Emily Ashby felt the film was accessible to fans and newcomers to the series; she praised the story's scope and emotional impact, calling it a "captivating journey" that did not avoid depicting the "harsh facts of life in the wild".
|
48,571 |
Æthelwulf, King of Wessex
| 1,158,771,323 |
9th-century King of Wessex
|
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"858 deaths",
"9th-century English monarchs",
"Anglo-Saxon warriors",
"Burials at Winchester Cathedral",
"House of Wessex",
"Husbands of Judith of Flanders",
"West Saxon monarchs",
"Year of birth unknown"
] |
Æthelwulf (; Old English for "Noble Wolf"; died 13 January 858) was King of Wessex from 839 to 858. In 825, his father, King Ecgberht, defeated King Beornwulf of Mercia, ending a long Mercian dominance over Anglo-Saxon England south of the Humber. Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf with an army to Kent, where he expelled the Mercian sub-king and was himself appointed sub-king. After 830, Ecgberht maintained good relations with Mercia, and this was continued by Æthelwulf when he became king in 839, the first son to succeed his father as West Saxon king since 641.
The Vikings were not a major threat to Wessex during Æthelwulf's reign. In 843, he was defeated in a battle against the Vikings at Carhampton in Somerset, but he achieved a major victory at the Battle of Aclea in 851. In 853, he joined a successful Mercian expedition to Wales to restore the traditional Mercian hegemony, and in the same year his daughter Æthelswith married King Burgred of Mercia. In 855 Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome. In preparation he gave a "decimation", donating a tenth of his personal property to his subjects; he appointed his eldest surviving son Æthelbald to act as King of Wessex in his absence, and his next son Æthelberht to rule Kent and the south-east. Æthelwulf spent a year in Rome, and on his way back he married Judith, the daughter of the West Frankish king Charles the Bald.
When Æthelwulf returned to England, Æthelbald refused to surrender the West Saxon throne, and Æthelwulf agreed to divide the kingdom, taking the east and leaving the west in Æthelbald's hands. On Æthelwulf's death in 858 he left Wessex to Æthelbald and Kent to Æthelberht, but Æthelbald's death only two years later led to the reunification of the kingdom. In the 20th century Æthelwulf's reputation among historians was poor: he was seen as excessively pious and impractical, and his pilgrimage was viewed as a desertion of his duties. Historians in the 21st century see him very differently, as a king who consolidated and extended the power of his dynasty, commanded respect on the continent, and dealt more effectively than most of his contemporaries with Viking attacks. He is regarded as one of the most successful West Saxon kings, who laid the foundations for the success of his son, Alfred the Great.
## Background
At the beginning of the 9th century, England was almost completely under the control of the Anglo-Saxons, with Mercia and Wessex the most important southern kingdoms. Mercia was dominant until the 820s, and it exercised overlordship over East Anglia and Kent, but Wessex was able to maintain its independence from its more powerful neighbour. Offa, king of Mercia from 757 to 796, was the dominant figure of the second half of the 8th century. King Beorhtric of Wessex (786–802), married Offa's daughter in 789. Beorhtric and Offa drove Æthelwulf's father Ecgberht into exile, and he spent several years at the court of Charlemagne in Francia. Ecgberht was the son of Ealhmund, who had briefly been King of Kent in 784. Following Offa's death, King Coenwulf of Mercia (796–821) maintained Mercian dominance, but it is uncertain whether Beorhtric ever accepted political subordination, and when he died in 802 Ecgberht became king, perhaps with the support of Charlemagne. For two hundred years three kindreds had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. Ecgberht's best claim was that he was the great-great-grandson of Ingild, brother of King Ine (688–726), and in 802 it would have seemed very unlikely that he would establish a lasting dynasty.
Almost nothing is recorded of the first twenty years of Ecgberht's reign, apart from campaigns against the Cornish in the 810s. The historian Richard Abels argues that the silence of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was probably intentional, concealing Ecgberht's purge of Beorhtric's magnates and suppression of rival royal lines. Relations between Mercian kings and their Kentish subjects were distant. Kentish ealdormen did not attend the court of King Coenwulf, who quarrelled with Archbishop Wulfred of Canterbury (805–832) over the control of Kentish monasteries; Coenwulf's primary concern seems to have been to gain access to the wealth of Kent. His successors Ceolwulf I (821–823) and Beornwulf (823–826) restored relations with Archbishop Wulfred, and Beornwulf appointed a sub-king of Kent, Baldred.
England had suffered Viking raids in the late 8th century, but no attacks are recorded between 794 and 835, when the Isle of Sheppey in Kent was ravaged. In 836, Ecgberht was defeated by the Vikings at Carhampton in Somerset, but in 838, he was victorious over an alliance of Cornishmen and Vikings at the Battle of Hingston Down, reducing Cornwall to the status of a client kingdom.
## Family
Æthelwulf's father Ecgberht was king of Wessex from 802 to 839. His mother's name is unknown, and he had no recorded siblings. He is known to have had two wives in succession, and so far as is known, Osburh, the senior of the two, was the mother of all his children. She was the daughter of Oslac, described by Asser, biographer of their son Alfred the Great, as "King Æthelwulf's famous butler", a man who was descended from Jutes who had ruled the Isle of Wight. Æthelwulf had six known children. His eldest son, Æthelstan, was old enough to be appointed King of Kent in 839, so he must have been born by the early 820s, and he died in the early 850s. The second son, Æthelbald, is first recorded as a charter witness in 841, and if, like Alfred, he began to attest when he was around six, he would have been born around 835; he was King of Wessex from 858 to 860. Æthelwulf's third son, Æthelberht, was probably born around 839 and was king from 860 to 865. The only daughter, Æthelswith, married Burgred, King of Mercia, in 853. The other two sons were much younger: Æthelred was born around 848 and was king from 865 to 871, and Alfred was born around 849 and was king from 871 to 899. In 856, Æthelwulf married Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, King of West Francia and future Carolingian Emperor, and his wife Ermentrude. Osburh had probably died, although it is possible that she had been repudiated. There were no children from Æthelwulf's marriage to Judith, and after his death, she married his eldest surviving son and successor, Æthelbald.
## Early life
Æthelwulf was first recorded in 825, when Ecgberht won the crucial Battle of Ellandun in Wiltshire against King Beornwulf of Mercia, ending the long Mercian ascendancy over southern England. Ecgberht followed it up by sending Æthelwulf with Eahlstan, Bishop of Sherborne, and Wulfheard, Ealdorman of Hampshire, with a large army into Kent to expel sub-king Baldred. Æthelwulf was descended from kings of Kent, and he was sub-king of Kent, and of Surrey, Sussex and Essex, which were then included in the sub-kingdom, until he inherited the throne of Wessex in 839. His sub-kingship is recorded in charters, in some of which King Ecgberht acted with his son's permission, such as a grant in 838 to Bishop Beornmod of Rochester, and Æthelwulf himself issued a charter as King of Kent in the same year. Unlike their Mercian predecessors, who alienated the Kentish people by ruling from a distance, Æthelwulf and his father successfully cultivated local support by governing through Kentish ealdormen and promoting their interests. In Abels' view, Ecgberht and Æthelwulf rewarded their friends and purged Mercian supporters. Historians take differing views on the attitude of the new regime to the Kentish church. At Canterbury in 828, Ecgberht granted privileges to the bishopric of Rochester, and according to the historian Simon Keynes, Ecgberht and Æthelwulf took steps to secure the support of Archbishop Wulfred. However, Nicholas Brooks argues that Wulfred's Mercian origin and connections proved a liability. Æthelwulf seized an estate in East Malling from the Canterbury church on the ground that it had only been granted by Baldred when he was in flight from the West Saxon forces; the issue of archiepiscopal coinage was suspended for several years; and the only estate Wulfred was granted after 825 he received from King Wiglaf of Mercia.
In 829, Ecgberht conquered Mercia, only for Wiglaf to recover his kingdom a year later. The scholar David Kirby sees Wiglaf's restoration in 830 as a dramatic reversal for Ecgberht, which was probably followed by his loss of control of the London mint and the Mercian recovery of Essex and Berkshire, and the historian Heather Edwards states that his "immense conquest could not be maintained". However, in the view of Keynes:
> It is interesting ... that both Ecgberht and his son Æthelwulf appear to have respected the separate identity of Kent and its associated provinces, as if there appears to have been no plan at this stage to absorb the southeast into an enlarged kingdom stretching across the whole of southern England. Nor does it seem to have been the intention of Ecgberht and his successors to maintain supremacy of any kind over the kingdom of Mercia ... It is quite possible that Ecgberht had relinquished Mercia of his own volition; and there is no suggestion that any residual antagonism affected relations between the rulers of Wessex and Mercia thereafter.
In 838, King Ecgberht held an assembly at Kingston in Surrey, where Æthelwulf may have been consecrated as king by the archbishop. Ecgberht restored the East Malling estate to Wulfred's successor as Archbishop of Canterbury, Ceolnoth, in return for a promise of "firm and unbroken friendship" for himself and Æthelwulf and their heirs, and the same condition is specified in a grant to the see of Winchester. Ecgberht thus ensured support for Æthelwulf, who became the first son to succeed his father as West Saxon king since 641. At the same meeting, Kentish monasteries chose Æthelwulf as their lord, and he undertook that, after his death, they would have freedom to elect their heads. Wulfred had devoted his archiepiscopate to fighting against secular power over Kentish monasteries, but Ceolnoth now surrendered effective control to Æthelwulf, whose offer of freedom from control after his death was unlikely to be honoured by his successors. Kentish ecclesiastics and laymen now looked for protection against Viking attacks to West Saxon rather than Mercian royal power.
Ecgberht's conquests brought him wealth far greater than his predecessors had enjoyed, and enabled him to purchase the support which secured the West Saxon throne for his descendants. The stability brought by the dynastic succession of Ecgberht and Æthelwulf led to an expansion of commercial and agrarian resources, and to an expansion of royal income. The wealth of the West Saxon kings was also increased by the agreement in 838–839 with Archbishop Ceolnoth for the previously independent West Saxon minsters to accept the king as their secular lord in return for his protection. However, there was no certainty that the hegemony of Wessex would prove more permanent than that of Mercia.
## King of Wessex
When Æthelwulf succeeded to the throne of Wessex in 839, his experience as sub-king of Kent had given him valuable training in kingship, and he in turn made his own sons sub-kings. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, on his accession "he gave to his son Æthelstan the kingdom of the people of Kent, and the kingdom of the East Saxons [Essex] and of the people of Surrey and of the South Saxons [Sussex]". However, Æthelwulf did not give Æthelstan the same power as his father had given him, and although Æthelstan attested his father's charters as king, he does not appear to have been given the power to issue his own charters. Æthelwulf exercised authority in the south-east and made regular visits there. He governed Wessex and Kent as separate spheres, and assemblies in each kingdom were only attended by the nobility of that country. The historian Janet Nelson says that "Æthelwulf ran a Carolingian-style family firm of plural realms, held together by his own authority as father-king, and by the consent of distinct élites." He maintained his father's policy of governing Kent through ealdormen appointed from the local nobility and advancing their interests, but gave less support to the church. In 843 Æthelwulf granted ten hides at Little Chart to Æthelmod, the brother of the leading Kentish ealdorman Ealhere, and Æthelmod succeeded to the post on his brother's death in 853. In 844 Æthelwulf granted land at Horton in Kent to Ealdorman Eadred, with permission to transfer parts of it to local landowners; in a culture of reciprocity, this created a network of mutual friendships and obligations between the beneficiaries and the king. Archbishops of Canterbury were firmly in the West Saxon king's sphere. His ealdormen enjoyed a high status, and were sometimes placed higher than the king's sons in lists of witnesses to charters. His reign is the first for which there is evidence of royal priests, and Malmesbury Abbey regarded him as an important benefactor, who is said to have been the donor of a shrine for the relics of Saint Aldhelm.
After 830, Ecgberht had followed a policy of maintaining good relations with Mercia, and this was continued by Æthelwulf when he became king. London was traditionally a Mercian town, but in the 830s it was under West Saxon control; soon after Æthelwulf's accession it reverted to Mercian control. King Wiglaf of Mercia died in 839 and his successor, Berhtwulf, revived the Mercian mint in London; the two kingdoms appear to have struck a joint issue in the mid-840s, possibly indicating West Saxon help in reviving Mercian coinage, and showing the friendly relations between the two powers. Berkshire was still Mercian in 844, but by 849 it was part of Wessex, as Alfred was born in that year at the West Saxon royal estate in Wantage, then in Berkshire. However, the local Mercian ealdorman, also called Æthelwulf, retained his position under the West Saxon kings. Berhtwulf died in 852 and cooperation with Wessex continued under Burgred, his successor as King of Mercia, who married Æthelwulf's daughter Æthelswith in 853. In the same year Æthelwulf assisted Burgred in a successful attack on Wales to restore the traditional Mercian hegemony over the Welsh.
In 9th-century Mercia and Kent, royal charters were produced by religious houses, each with its own style, but in Wessex there was a single royal diplomatic tradition, probably by a single agency acting for the king. This may have originated in Ecgberht's reign, and it becomes clear in the 840s, when Æthelwulf had a Frankish secretary called Felix. There were strong contacts between the West Saxon and Carolingian courts. The Annals of St Bertin took particular interest in Viking attacks on Britain, and in 852 Lupus, the Abbot of Ferrières and a protégé of Charles the Bald, wrote to Æthelwulf congratulating him on his victory over the Vikings and requesting a gift of lead to cover his church roof. Lupus also wrote to his "most beloved friend" Felix, asking him to manage the transport of the lead. Unlike Canterbury and the south-east, Wessex did not see a sharp decline in the standard of Latin in charters in the mid-9th century, and this may have been partly due to Felix and his continental contacts. Lupus thought that Felix had great influence over the King. Charters were mainly issued from royal estates in counties which were the heartland of ancient Wessex, namely Hampshire, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset, with a few in Kent.
An ancient division between east and west Wessex continued to be important in the 9th century; the boundary was Selwood Forest on the borders of Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire. The two bishoprics of Wessex were Sherborne in the west and Winchester in the east. Æthelwulf's family connections seem to have been west of Selwood, but his patronage was concentrated further east, particularly on Winchester, where his father was buried, and where he appointed Swithun to succeed Helmstan as bishop in 852–853. However, he made a grant of land in Somerset to his leading ealdorman, Eanwulf, and on 26 December 846, he granted a large estate to himself in South Hams in west Devon. He thus changed it from royal demesne, which he was obliged to pass on to his successor as king, to bookland, which could be transferred as the owner pleased, so he could make land grants to followers to improve security in a frontier zone.
## Viking threat
Viking raids increased in the early 840s on both sides of the English Channel, and in 843 Æthelwulf was defeated by the companies of 35 Danish ships at Carhampton in Somerset. In 850 sub-king Æthelstan and Ealdorman Ealhhere of Kent won a naval victory over a large Viking fleet off Sandwich in Kent, capturing nine ships and driving off the rest. Æthelwulf granted Ealhhere a large estate in Kent, but Æthelstan is not heard of again, and probably died soon afterwards. The following year the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records five different attacks on southern England. A Danish fleet of 350 Viking ships took London and Canterbury, and when King Berhtwulf of Mercia went to their relief he was defeated. The Vikings then moved on to Surrey, where they were defeated by Æthelwulf and his son Æthelbald at the Battle of Aclea. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the West Saxon levies "there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen that we have heard tell of up to the present day". The Chronicle frequently reported victories during Æthelwulf's reign won by levies led by ealdormen, unlike the 870s when royal command was emphasised, reflecting a more consensual style of leadership in the earlier period.
In 850, a Danish army wintered on Thanet, and in 853, ealdormen Ealhhere of Kent and Huda of Surrey were killed in a battle against the Vikings, also on Thanet. In 855, Danish Vikings stayed over the winter on Sheppey, before carrying on their pillaging of eastern England. However, during Æthelwulf's reign, Viking attacks were contained and did not present a major threat.
## Coinage
The silver penny was almost the only coin used in middle and later Anglo-Saxon England. Æthelwulf's coinage came from a main mint in Canterbury and a secondary one at Rochester; both had been used by Ecgberht for his own coinage after he gained control of Kent. During Æthelwulf's reign, there were four main phases of the coinage distinguishable at both mints, though they are not exactly parallel and it is uncertain when the transitions took place. The first issue at Canterbury carried a design known as Saxoniorum, which had been used by Ecgberht for one of his own issues. This was replaced by a portrait design in about 843, which can be subdivided further; the earliest coins have cruder designs than the later ones. At the Rochester mint, the sequence was reversed, with an initial portrait design replaced, also in about 843, by a non-portrait design carrying a cross-and-wedges pattern on the obverse.
In about 848, both mints switched to a common design known as Dor ̄b ̄/Cant – the characters "Dor ̄b ̄" on the obverse of these coins indicate either Dorobernia (Canterbury) or Dorobrevia (Rochester), and "Cant", referring to Kent, appeared on the reverse. It is possible that the Canterbury mint continued to produce portrait coins at the same time. The Canterbury issue seems to have been ended in 850–851 by Viking raids, though it is possible that Rochester was spared, and the issue may have continued there. The final issue, again at both mints, was introduced in about 852; it has an inscribed cross on the reverse and a portrait on the obverse. Æthelwulf's coinage became debased by the end of his reign, and though the problem became worse after his death it is possible that the debasement prompted the changes in coin type from as early as 850.
Æthelwulf's first Rochester coinage may have begun when he was still sub-king of Kent, under Ecgberht. A hoard of coins deposited at the beginning of Æthelwulf's reign in about 840, found in the Middle Temple in London, contained 22 coins from Rochester and two from Canterbury of the first issue of each mint. Some numismatists argue that the high proportion of Rochester coins means that the issue must have commenced before Ecgberht's death, but an alternative explanation is that whoever hoarded the coins simply happened to have access to more Rochester coins. No coins were issued by Æthelwulf's sons during his reign.
Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury throughout Æthelwulf's reign, also minted coins of his own at Canterbury: there were three different portrait designs, thought to be contemporary with each of the first three of Æthelwulf's Canterbury issues. These were followed by an inscribed cross design that was uniform with Æthelwulf's final coinage. At Rochester, Bishop Beornmod produced only one issue, a cross-and-wedges design which was contemporary with Æthelwulf's Saxoniorum issue.
In the view of the numismatists Philip Grierson and Mark Blackburn, the mints of Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia were not greatly affected by changes in political control: "the remarkable continuity of moneyers which can be seen at each of these mints suggests that the actual mint organisation was largely independent of the royal administration and was founded in the stable trading communities of each city".
## Decimation Charters
The early 20th-century historian W. H. Stevenson observed that: "Few things in our early history have led to so much discussion" as Æthelwulf's Decimation Charters; a hundred years later the charter expert Susan Kelly described them as "one of the most controversial groups of Anglo-Saxon diplomas". Both Asser and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle say that Æthelwulf gave a decimation, in 855, shortly before leaving on pilgrimage to Rome. According to the Chronicle "King Æthelwulf conveyed by charter the tenth part of his land throughout all his kingdom to the praise of God and to his own eternal salvation". However, Asser states that "Æthelwulf, the esteemed king, freed the tenth part of his whole kingdom from royal service and tribute, and as an everlasting inheritance he made it over on the cross of Christ to the triune God, for the redemption of his soul and those of his predecessors." According to Keynes, Asser's version may just be a "loose translation" of the Chronicle, and his implication that Æthelwulf released a tenth of all land from secular burdens was probably not intended. All land could be regarded as the king's land, so the Chronicle reference to "his land" does not necessarily refer to royal property, and since the booking of land – conveying it by charter – was always regarded as a pious act, Asser's statement that he made it over to God does not necessarily mean that the charters were in favour of the church.
The Decimation Charters are divided by Susan Kelly into four groups:
1. Two dated at Winchester on 5 November 844. In a charter in the Malmesbury archive, Æthelwulf refers in the proem to the perilous state of his kingdom as the result of the assaults of pagans and barbarians. For the sake of his soul and in return for masses for the king and ealdormen each Wednesday, "I have decided to give in perpetual liberty some portion of hereditary lands to all those ranks previously in possession, both to God's servants and handmaidens serving God and to laymen, always the tenth hide, and where it is less, then the tenth part."
2. Six dated at Wilton on Easter Day, 22 April 854. In the common text of these charters, Æthelwulf states that "for the sake of his soul and the prosperity of the kingdom and [the salvation of] the people assigned to him by God, he has acted upon the advice given to him by his bishops, comites, and all his nobles. He has granted the tenth part of the lands throughout his kingdom, not only to the churches, but also to his thegns. The land is granted in perpetual liberty, so that it will remain free of royal services and all secular burdens. In return there will be liturgical commemoration of the king and of his bishops and ealdormen."
3. Five from Old Minster, Winchester, connected with the Wilton meeting but generally considered spurious.
4. One from Kent dated 855, the only one to have the same date as the decimation according to Chronicle and Asser. The king grants to his thegn Dunn property in Rochester "on account of the decimation of lands which by God's gift I have decided to do". Dunn left the land to his wife with reversion to Rochester Cathedral.
None of the charters are original, and Stevenson dismissed all of them as fraudulent apart from the Kentish one of 855. Stevenson saw the decimation as a donation of royal demesne to churches and laymen, with those grants which were made to laymen being on the understanding that there would be reversion to a religious institution. Up to the 1990s, his view on the authenticity of the charters was generally accepted by scholars, with the exception of the historian H. P. R. Finberg, who argued in 1964 that most are based on authentic diplomas. Finberg coined the terms the 'First Decimation' of 844, which he saw as the removal of public dues on a tenth of all bookland, and the 'Second Decimation' of 854, the donation of a tenth of "the private domain of the royal house" to the churches. He considered it unlikely that the First Decimation had been carried into effect, probably due to the threat from the Vikings. Finberg's terminology has been adopted, but his defence of the First Decimation generally rejected. In 1994, Keynes defended the Wilton charters in group 2, and his arguments have been widely accepted.
Historians have been divided on how to interpret the Second Decimation, and in 1994, Keynes described it as "one of the most perplexing problems" in the study of 9th-century charters. He set out three alternatives:
1. It conveyed a tenth of the royal demesne – the lands of the crown as opposed to the personal property of the sovereign – into the hands of churches, ecclesiastics and laymen. In Anglo-Saxon England property was either folkland or bookland. The transmission of folkland was governed by the customary rights of kinsmen, subject to the king's approval, whereas bookland was established by the grant of a royal charter, and could be disposed of freely by the owner. Booking land thus converted it by charter from folkland to bookland. The royal demesne was the crown's folkland, whereas the king's bookland was his own personal property which he could leave by will as he chose. In the decimation, Æthelwulf may have conveyed royal folkland by charter to become bookland, in some cases to laymen who already leased the land.
2. It was the booking of a tenth of folkland to its owners, who would then be free to convey it to a church.
3. It was a reduction of one tenth in the secular burdens on lands already in the possession of landowners. The secular burdens would have included the provision of supplies for the king and his officials, and payment of various taxes.
Some scholars, for example Frank Stenton, author of the standard history of Anglo-Saxon England, along with Keynes and Abels, see the Second Decimation as a donation of royal demesne. In Abels' view, Æthelwulf sought loyalty from the aristocracy and church during the king's forthcoming absence from Wessex, and displayed a sense of dynastic insecurity also evident in his father's generosity towards the Kentish church in 838, and in an "avid attention" in this period to compiling and revising royal genealogies. Keynes suggests that "Æthelwulf's purpose was presumably to earn divine assistance in his struggles against the Vikings", and the mid-20th-century historian Eric John observes that "a lifetime of medieval studies teaches one that an early medieval king was never so political as when he was on his knees". The view that the decimation was a donation of the king's own personal estate is supported by the Anglo-Saxonist Alfred P. Smyth, who argues that these were the only lands the king was entitled to alienate by book. The historian Martin Ryan prefers the view that Æthelwulf freed a tenth part of land owned by laymen from secular obligations, who could now endow churches under their own patronage. Ryan sees it as part of a campaign of religious devotion. According to the historian David Pratt, it "is best interpreted as a strategic 'tax cut', designed to encourage cooperation in defensive measures through a partial remission of royal dues". Nelson states that the decimation took place in two phases, in Wessex in 854 and Kent in 855, reflecting that they remained separate kingdoms.
Kelly argues that most charters were based on genuine originals, including the First Decimation of 844. She says: "Commentators have been unkind [and] the 844 version has not been given the benefit of the doubt". In her view, Æthelwulf then gave a 10% tax reduction on bookland, and ten years later he took the more generous step of "a widespread distribution of royal lands". Unlike Finberg, she believes that both decimations were carried out, although the second one may not have been completed due to opposition from Æthelwulf's son Æthelbald. She thinks that the grants of bookland to laymen in the Second Decimation were unconditional, not with reversion to religious houses as Stevenson had argued. However, Keynes is not convinced by Kelly's arguments, and thinks that the First Decimation charters were 11th or early 12th century fabrications.
## Pilgrimage to Rome and later life
In 855, Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome. According to Abels: "Æthelwulf was at the height of his power and prestige. It was a propitious time for the West Saxon king to claim a place of honour among the kings and emperors of christendom." His eldest surviving sons Æthelbald and Æthelberht were then adults, while Æthelred and Alfred were still young children. In 853 Æthelwulf sent his younger sons to Rome, perhaps accompanying envoys in connection with his own forthcoming visit. Alfred, and probably Æthelred as well, were invested with the "belt of consulship". Æthelred's part in the journey is only known from a contemporary record in the liber vitae of San Salvatore, Brescia, as later records such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle were only interested in recording the honour paid to Alfred. Abels sees the embassy as paving the way for Æthelwulf's pilgrimage, and the presence of Alfred, his youngest and therefore most expendable son, as a gesture of goodwill to the papacy; confirmation by Pope Leo IV made Alfred his spiritual son, and thus created a spiritual link between the two "fathers". Kirby argues that the journey may indicate that Alfred was intended for the church, while Nelson on the contrary sees Æthelwulf's purpose as affirming his younger sons' throneworthiness, thus protecting them against being tonsured by their elder brothers, which would have rendered them ineligible for kingship.
Æthelwulf set out for Rome in the spring of 855, accompanied by Alfred and a large retinue. The King left Wessex in the care of his oldest surviving son, Æthelbald, and the sub-kingdom of Kent to the rule of Æthelberht, and thereby confirmed that they were to succeed to the two kingdoms. On the way the party stayed with Charles the Bald in Francia, where there were the usual banquets and exchange of gifts. Æthelwulf stayed a year in Rome, and his gifts to the Diocese of Rome included a gold crown weighing 4 pounds (1.8 kg), two gold goblets, a sword bound with gold, four silver-gilt bowls, two silk tunics and two gold-interwoven veils. He also gave gold to the clergy and leading men and silver to the people of Rome. According to the historian Joanna Story, his gifts rivalled those of Carolingian donors and the Byzantine emperor and "were clearly chosen to reflect the personal generosity and spiritual wealth of the West Saxon king; here was no Germanic 'hillbilly' from the backwoods of the Christian world but, rather, a sophisticated, wealthy and utterly contemporary monarch". The post-Conquest chronicler William of Malmesbury stated that he helped to pay for the restoration of the Saxon quarter, which had recently been destroyed by fire, for English pilgrims.
The pilgrimage puzzles historians and Kelly comments that "it is extraordinary that an early medieval king could consider his position safe enough to abandon his kingdom in a time of extreme crisis". She suggests that Æthelwulf may have been motivated by a personal religious impulse. Ryan sees it as an attempt to placate the divine wrath displayed by Viking attacks, whereas Nelson thinks he aimed to enhance his prestige in dealing with the demands of his adult sons. In Kirby's view:
> Æthelwulf's journey to Rome is of great interest for it did not signify abdication and a retreat from the world as their journeys to Rome had for Cædwalla and Ine and other Anglo-Saxon kings. It was more a display of the king's international standing and a demonstration of the prestige his dynasty enjoyed in Frankish and papal circles.
On his way back from Rome Æthelwulf again stayed with King Charles the Bald, and may have joined him on a campaign against a Viking warband. On 1 October 856 Æthelwulf married Charles's daughter, Judith, aged 12 or 13, at Verberie. The marriage was considered extraordinary by contemporaries and by modern historians. Carolingian princesses rarely married and were usually sent to nunneries, and it was almost unknown for them to marry foreigners. Judith was crowned queen and anointed by Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims. Although empresses had been anointed before, this is the first definitely known anointing of a Carolingian queen. In addition West Saxon custom, described by Asser as "perverse and detestable", was that the wife of a king of Wessex could not be called queen or sit on the throne with her husband – she was just the king's wife.
Æthelwulf returned to Wessex to face a revolt by Æthelbald, who attempted to prevent his father from recovering his throne. Historians give varying explanations for both the rebellion and the marriage. In Nelson's view, Æthelwulf's marriage to Judith added the West Saxon king to the family of kings and princely allies which Charles was creating. Charles was under attack both from Vikings and from a rising among his own nobility, and Æthelwulf had great prestige due to his victories over the Vikings; some historians such as Kirby and Pauline Stafford see the marriage as sealing an anti-Viking alliance. The marriage gave Æthelwulf a share in Carolingian prestige, and Kirby describes the anointing of Judith as "a charismatic sanctification which enhanced her status, blessed her womb and conferred additional throne-worthiness on her male offspring." These marks of a special status implied that a son of hers would succeed to at least part of Æthelwulf's kingdom, and explain Æthelbald's decision to rebel. The historian Michael Enright denies that an anti-Viking alliance between two such distant kingdoms could serve any useful purpose, and argues that the marriage was Æthelwulf's response to news that his son was planning to rebel; his son by an anointed Carolingian queen would be in a strong position to succeed as king of Wessex instead of the rebellious Æthelbald. Abels suggests that Æthelwulf sought Judith's hand because he needed her father's money and support to overcome his son's rebellion, but Kirby and Smyth argue that it is extremely unlikely that Charles the Bald would have agreed to marry his daughter to a ruler who was known to be in serious political difficulty. Æthelbald may also have acted out of resentment at the loss of patrimony he suffered as a result of the decimation.
Æthelbald's rebellion was supported by Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne, and Eanwulf, ealdorman of Somerset, even though they appear to have been two of the king's most trusted advisers. According to Asser, the plot was concerted "in the western part of Selwood", and western nobles may have backed Æthelbald because they resented the patronage Æthelwulf gave to eastern Wessex. Asser also stated that Æthelwulf agreed to give up the western part of his kingdom in order to avoid a civil war. Some historians such as Keynes and Abels think that his rule was then confined to the south-east, while others such as Kirby think it is more likely that it was Wessex itself which was divided, with Æthelbald keeping Wessex west of Selwood, Æthelwulf holding the centre and east, and Æthelberht keeping the south-east. Æthelwulf insisted that Judith should sit beside him on the throne until the end of his life, and according to Asser this was "without any disagreement or dissatisfaction on the part of his nobles".
## King Æthelwulf's ring
King Æthelwulf's ring was found in a cart rut in Laverstock in Wiltshire in about August 1780 by one William Petty, who sold it to a silversmith in Salisbury. The silversmith sold it to the Earl of Radnor, and the earl's son, William, donated it to the British Museum in 1829. The ring, together with a similar ring of Æthelwulf's daughter Æthelswith, is one of two key examples of nielloed 9th-century metalwork. They appear to represent the emergence of a "court style" of West Saxon metalwork, characterised by an unusual Christian iconography, such as a pair of peacocks at the Fountain of Life on the Æthelwulf ring, associated with Christian immortality. The ring is inscribed "Æthelwulf Rex", firmly associating it with the King, and the inscription forms part of the design, so it cannot have been added later. Many of its features are typical of 9th-century metalwork, such as the design of two birds, beaded and speckled borders, and a saltire with arrow-like terminals on the back. It was probably manufactured in Wessex, but was typical of the uniformity of animal ornament in England in the 9th century. In the view of Leslie Webster, an expert on medieval art: "Its fine Trewhiddle style ornament would certainly fit a mid ninth-century date." In Nelson's view, "it was surely made to be a gift from this royal lord to a brawny follower: the sign of a successful ninth-century kingship". The art historian David Wilson sees it as a survival of the pagan tradition of the generous king as the "ring-giver".
## Æthelwulf's will
Æthelwulf's will has not survived, but Alfred's has and it provides some information about his father's intentions. He left a bequest to be inherited by whichever of Æthelbald, Æthelred, and Alfred lived longest. Abels and Yorke argue that this meant the whole of his personal property in Wessex, and probably that the survivor was to inherit the throne of Wessex as well, while Æthelberht and his heirs ruled Kent. Other historians disagree. Nelson states that the provision regarding the personal property had nothing to do with the kingship, and Kirby comments: "Such an arrangement would have led to fratricidal strife. With three older brothers, Alfred's chances of reaching adulthood would, one feels, have been minimal." Smyth describes the bequest as provision for his youngest sons when they reached manhood. Æthelwulf's moveable wealth, such as gold and silver, was to be divided among "children, nobles and the needs of the king's soul". For the latter, he left one tenth of his hereditary land to be set aside to feed the poor, and he ordered that three hundred mancuses be sent to Rome each year, one hundred to be spent on lighting the lamps in St Peter's at Easter, one hundred for the lights of St Paul's, and one hundred for the pope.
## Death and succession
Æthelwulf died on 13 January 858. According to the Annals of St Neots, he was buried at Steyning in Sussex, but his body was later transferred to Winchester, probably by Alfred. As Æthelwulf had intended, he was succeeded by Æthelbald in Wessex and Æthelberht in Kent and the south-east. The prestige conferred by a Frankish marriage was so great that Æthelbald then wedded his step-mother Judith, to Asser's retrospective horror; he described the marriage as a "great disgrace", and "against God's prohibition and Christian dignity". When Æthelbald died only two years later, Æthelberht became King of Wessex as well as Kent, and Æthelwulf's intention of dividing his kingdoms between his sons was thus set aside. In the view of Yorke and Abels, this was because Æthelred and Alfred were too young to rule, and Æthelberht agreed in return that his younger brothers would inherit the whole kingdom on his death, whereas Kirby and Nelson think that Æthelberht just became the trustee for his younger brothers' share of their father's bequest.
After Æthelbald's death, Judith sold her possessions and returned to her father, but two years later she eloped with Baldwin, Count of Flanders. In the 890s their son, also called Baldwin, married Alfred's daughter, Ælfthryth.
## Historiography
Æthelwulf's reputation among historians was poor in the twentieth century. In 1935, the historian R. H. Hodgkin attributed his pilgrimage to Rome to "the unpractical piety which had led him to desert his kingdom at a time of great danger", and described his marriage to Judith as "the folly of a man senile before his time". To Stenton in the 1960s, he was "a religious and unambitious man, for whom engagement in war and politics was an unwelcome consequence of rank". One dissenter was Finberg, who in 1964 described him as "a king whose valour in war and princely munificence recalled the figures of the heroic age", but in 1979, Enright said: "More than anything else he appears to have been an impractical religious enthusiast." Early medieval writers, especially Asser, emphasise his religiosity and his preference for consensus, seen in the concessions made to avert a civil war on his return from Rome. In Story's view, "his legacy has been clouded by accusations of excessive piety which (to modern sensibilities at least) has seemed at odds with the demands of early medieval kingship". In 839, an unnamed Anglo-Saxon king wrote to the Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious asking for permission to travel through his territory on the way to Rome, and relating an English priest's dream which foretold disaster unless Christians abandoned their sins. This is now believed to have been an unrealised project of Ecgberht at the end of his life, but it was formerly attributed to Æthelwulf, and seen as exhibiting what Story calls his reputation for "dramatic piety", and irresponsibility for planning to abandon his kingdom at the beginning of his reign.
In the twenty-first century, he is seen very differently by historians. Æthelwulf is not listed in the index of Peter Hunter Blair's An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, first published in 1956, but in a new introduction to the 2003 edition, Keynes listed him among people "who have not always been accorded the attention they might be thought to deserve ... for it was he, more than any other, who secured the political fortune of his people in the ninth century, and who opened up channels of communication which led through Frankish realms and across the Alps to Rome". According to Story: "Æthelwulf acquired and cultivated a reputation both in Francia and Rome which is unparalleled in the sources since the height of Offa's and Coenwulf's power at the turn of the ninth century".
Nelson describes him as "one of the great underrated among Anglo-Saxons", and complains that she was only allowed 2,500 words for him in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, compared with 15,000 for Edward II and 35,000 for Elizabeth I. She says:
> Æthelwulf's reign has been relatively under-appreciated in modern scholarship. Yet he laid the foundations for Alfred's success. To the perennial problems of husbanding the kingdom's resources, containing conflicts within the royal family, and managing relations with neighbouring kingdoms, Æthelwulf found new as well as traditional answers. He consolidated old Wessex, and extended his reach over what is now Devon and Cornwall. He ruled Kent, working with the grain of its political community. He borrowed ideological props from Mercians and Franks alike, and went to Rome, not to die there, like his predecessor Ine, ... but to return, as Charlemagne had, with enhanced prestige. Æthelwulf coped more effectively with Scandinavian attacks than did most contemporary rulers.
|
15,814,171 |
HMS Calliope (1884)
| 1,146,606,952 |
Calypso-class corvette
|
[
"1884 ships",
"Calypso-class corvettes",
"First Samoan Civil War",
"Ships built in Portsmouth",
"Victorian-era corvettes of the United Kingdom",
"Victorian-era cruisers of the United Kingdom"
] |
HMS Calliope was a Calypso-class corvette (later classified as a third-class cruiser) of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom which served from 1887 until 1951. Exemplifying the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy, Calliope was a sailing corvette—the last such ship built for the Royal Navy—but supplemented the full sail rig with a powerful engine. Steel was used for the hull, and like the earlier iron-hulled corvettes, Calliope was cased with timber and coppered below the waterline, in the same manner as wooden ships.
Calliope was known for "one of the most famous episodes of seamanship in the 19th century", when the vessel was the only ship present to avoid being sunk or stranded in the tropical cyclone that struck Apia, Samoa in 1889. After retirement from active service, Calliope served as a training ship until 1951, when it was sold for breaking.
## Design and construction
Calliope and sister ship Calypso comprised the Calypso class of corvettes designed by Nathaniel Barnaby. Part of a long line of cruiser classes built for protecting trade routes and colonial police work, they were the last two sailing corvettes built for the Royal Navy. Corvettes had been built of iron since the Volage class of 1867, but the Calypsos and the preceding Comus class used steel. Corvettes were designed to operate across the vast distances of Britain's maritime empire and could not rely on dry docks for maintenance. Since iron and steel hulls were subject to biofouling and could not easily be cleaned, the established practice of copper sheathing was extended to protect them; the metal plating of the hull was timber-cased and coppered below the waterline. The only armour was a 1.5-inch (38-mm) armoured deck covering the machinery spaces, but coal bunkers along the sides gave some protection to the machinery spaces.
Calypso and Calliope differed from their nine predecessors of the Comus class in armament; they were also slightly longer, had a deeper draught, and displaced 390 tons more. Originally planned as a ten-gun corvette, Calliope was completed with four 6-inch (152.4 mm) breechloaders in sponsons fore and aft on each side, twelve 5-inch (127.0 mm) breechloaders in broadside between the 6-inch guns, and six quick-firing Nordenfelt guns.
The compound-expansion steam engine was supplied with steam by six boilers and developed 4,023 indicated horsepower (3,000 kW). This was 50% more powerful than the predecessor class, which gave the corvette one more knot of speed, a difference that would be crucial in the disaster that made Calliope famous. The engine drove a single feathering screw, and enabled the vessel to reach a speed of 133⁄4 knots, or 143⁄4 knots with forced draught. The vessel nevertheless was a fully rigged sailing ship, allowing sustained service in areas where coaling stations were far apart. Calliope was well-suited to distant cruising service for the British Empire at its Victorian peak.
Although laid down in 1881, Calliope was not launched until 1884, and was placed in reserve at Portsmouth before completion. It was activated on 25 January 1887, when the vessel was placed in commission for the China Station, the sort of distant service for which the class had been designed. The same year, all corvettes and frigates were re-classified as "cruisers", with Calliope and Calypso falling into the "third-class cruiser" category.
## Service with the fleet
The British Empire was the largest on Earth, and Britain protected that empire and its trade routes with the world's largest navy. Great Britain assumed the role of peacekeeper on the world's oceans, and the Royal Navy was the instrument by which the Pax Britannica was kept. The global reach of the Royal Navy included the western Pacific Ocean, patrolled by the Australia Station. In 1887 Captain Henry Coey Kane took Calliope to the Pacific. At first assigned to the China Station, the vessel was reassigned to the Australia Station later in 1887. It was in New Zealand at the end of that year, and was the first vessel to enter the new Calliope Dock. In early 1888 Calliope was sent north to watch over a looming diplomatic crisis and potential military confrontation in Samoa.
This crisis had its roots in the Great Powers' competition for colonies in the last decades of the 19th century. The German Empire, invigorated by its victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War and by its unification under the Prussian monarchy, had newfound imperial ambitions that stretched beyond Europe. It had shared in the division of Africa, and in the 1880s looked to the Pacific as well. Ships of its Imperial Navy were sent to Apia in Samoa, where German agents had fomented rebellion against the indigenous government. They were countered there by the Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy. The United States had nearly completed establishing control over its territories on the North American continent, leading American ambitions to stretch beyond its shores. The squadron was at Samoa to assert US interests in the Pacific and to watch the Germans.
In March 1889, the new corvette Calliope—sent to keep the peace and protect Britain's interests in Samoa—joined the competing squadrons of the Imperial German and United States navies at Apia. The harbour there was primitive, small and nearly surrounded by reefs. Perhaps fit for four ships, the anchorage held seven warships and six merchant vessels on 14 March.
The barometer began to fall that day and a tropical cyclone began to form. The 1889 Apia cyclone increased in ferocity over the next two days. Rain fell in sheets, cutting visibility. Winds of 70 to 100 knots (130–185 km/h, 80-115 mph) blew directly into the anchorage, trapping the ships in the V-shaped harbour. The harbour bottom was scoured by currents and anchors lost their purchase. Operating their engines at full speed to resist the wind and waves, ships nevertheless dragged their anchors and were inexorably driven landward. Vessels collided and were thrown on the reefs or ashore, and some sank. By 09:00 on the 16th, Calliope, although still riding at anchor, had been hit by one ship and narrowly missed by another, and Captain Kane decided to attempt to escape. To relieve the strain on the five anchor cables, Calliope's boilers were producing maximum pressure; the engines were being worked "red hot", and the propeller was making 74 revolutions per minute, sufficient for 15 knots (28 km/h) in calmer waters. In spite of this titanic effort, the ship was barely able to make headway against the winds and the seas in the harbour, and anchor cables began to part.
To port and only 20 feet (6 m) away was the coral reef. Ahead were the US ships USS Vandalia and USS Trenton; to starboard were other warships. There was only a narrow opening between the vessels to one side and the ground to the other. Hemmed in by these obstacles and with the rudder at times within 6 feet (2 m) of the reef, Calliope manoeuvred while still attached to the anchor cables, which began to give way. When Captain Kane saw an opening, he slipped the anchors and drove forward. Avoiding the helpless Vandalia, he approached the sinking Trenton, coming so close that Calliope's fore yard-arm passed over the American's deck. As Calliope rolled to port, the yard lifted over Trenton. The crew of the helpless and doomed American ship cheered Calliope as it slipped past. The British ship's drive for the open sea was called by the American commander on the scene "one of the grandest sights a seaman or anyone else ever saw; the lives of 250 souls depended on the hazardous adventure."
Making for the harbour mouth, the British ship's bow and stern alternately rose and plunged into the incoming waves; the propeller at times was spinning in air, requiring a careful hand on the throttle to keep the shaft from running away to destruction. Green seas were boarding the vessel and running the length of the deck. There were ten men on the wheel and more below handling relieving tackle on the tiller to assist in maintaining control of the rudder. Taking two hours to travel four cables, the cruiser finally escaped the anchorage into the open sea, an achievement not known to Calliope's crew for some time, as sea spray and spume had reduced visibility to nothing.
The storm kept Calliope at sea the next two days. Re-entering the harbour on 19 March to search for the missing anchors, the crew discovered that all the other ships—twelve in all—had been wrecked or sunk, and nearly every crew had been diminished by the loss of men killed by the storm. Unable to find the anchor amidst the wreckage, and his ship having sustained significant damage, Captain Kane decided to return to Australia. He turned over Calliope's diving outfit to the US Navy to assist it in salvage, and received in return boats from the wrecked American ships to replace the boats which had been stripped from Calliope by the storm.
Captain Kane then took his ship to Sydney, where they received a hero's welcome. The narrowness of Calliope's escape; the excellence of the engines and the dedication of the crew, who kept the power plant in operation for many hours during the ordeal; the seamanship of Captain Kane and officers; their bravery in slipping their anchor and facing the storm, trusting only in their ship and themselves; and the respect and encouragement given to them by the crew of Trenton; made Calliope famous.
The engineer of Calliope, Henry George Bourke, was specially promoted from staff engineer to fleet engineer on 28 May 1889, "for his services in Her Majesty's ship 'Calliope,' during the recent hurricane at Samoa." He attributed his success to the superior properties of West Coast coal from New Zealand used to fire the ship's boilers; this statement attracted the custom of the British Admiralty when fuelling its ships in those waters.
Captain Kane was made Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1891 Queen's Birthday Honours. He was cited by the Admiralty for his "nerve and decisions", given the command of HMS Victory in 1892, and in 1897 was promoted to rear-admiral.
Calliope returned to service on the Australian station after repairs were complete. At the end of 1889 it was recalled to the United Kingdom.
## In reserve
Arriving back home in early 1890, Calliope was placed in reserve and remained there for the next seven years. In June 1897 the it was present at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Review of the Fleet at Spithead. That same year Calliope became a tender to HMS Northampton, an older and larger armoured cruiser used as seagoing training ship for boys. Calliope also was occasionally used as a training cruiser, and toured the Mediterranean from February to April in 1900, and again in March 1901, and March 1902. During the summer of 1902 it was employed on a training cruise in home waters, visiting Campbeltown, Belfast Lough, Portishead, Dartmouth, Lyme Regis and Guernsey. Later that year it visited Gibraltar and the Spanish cities of Ferrol, Vilagarcía, and Mahón on Menorca. Commander Douglas Nicholson was appointed in command on 20 December 1902, serving as such throughout 1903.
Relieved of tender duty in 1905, Calliope was returned to reserve and promptly stricken from the effective list. Is was laid up at Portsmouth, and in 1906 was listed for sale for a time. The next year Calliope was moved to North East England for a new career.
## Training ship
On 29 October 1907 Calliope became a drill ship at Newcastle upon Tyne for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Tyne Division, and served there for over four decades. It surrendered the name "Calliope" to a C-class cruiser between 1915 and 1931, and became Helicon. After the newer Calliope was paid off in the 1930s, Helicon reverted to Calliope and retained that name until sold in 1951. When finally scrapped in 1953, the steering wheel was presented to the government of Western Samoa. The mahogany panelling from the officers' wardroom was reclaimed in 1953 and now forms the wings to the 18th century organ in the west gallery of Christ Church, North Shields, Tyne and Wear.
The name "Calliope" also lives on in the Royal Navy. In 1951 the ship's successor as training ship on the Tyne took that name, and now the shore establishment itself bears the title and honours the memory of HMS Calliope.
|
811,335 |
Combe Hill, East Sussex
| 1,171,862,325 |
Hill and archaeological site in England
|
[
"Archaeological sites in East Sussex",
"Causewayed enclosures",
"Eastbourne",
"Hills of East Sussex",
"History of East Sussex",
"Stone Age sites in England",
"Wealden District"
] |
Combe Hill is a causewayed enclosure, near Eastbourne in East Sussex, on the northern edge of the South Downs. It consists of an inner circuit of ditches and banks, incomplete where it meets a steep slope on its north side, and the remains of an outer circuit. Causewayed enclosures were built in England from shortly before 3700 BC until at least 3500 BC; they are characterized by the full or partial enclosure of an area with ditches that are interrupted by gaps, or causeways. Their purpose is not known; they may have been settlements, meeting places, or ritual sites. The historian Hadrian Allcroft included the site in his 1908 book Earthwork of England, and in 1930 E. Cecil Curwen listed it as a possible Neolithic site in a paper which attempted to provide the first list of all the causewayed enclosures in England.
The enclosure has been excavated twice: in 1949, by Reginald Musson, and in 1962, by Veronica Seton-Williams, who used it as a training opportunity for volunteers. Charcoal fragments from Musson's dig were later dated to between 3500 and 3300 BC. Musson also found a large quantity of Ebbsfleet ware pottery in one of the ditches. Seton-Williams found three polished stone axes deposited in another ditch, perhaps not long after it had been dug. The site is only 800 m (870 yd) from Butts Brow, another Neolithic enclosure, and the two locations are visible from each other; both sites may have seen Neolithic activity at the same time.
## Background
Combe Hill is a causewayed enclosure, a form of earthwork that was built in northwestern Europe, including the southern British Isles, in the early Neolithic period. Causewayed enclosures are areas that are fully or partially enclosed by ditches interrupted by gaps, or causeways, of unexcavated ground, often with earthworks and palisades in some combination. The use to which these enclosures were put has long been a matter of debate. The causeways are difficult to explain in military terms since they would have provided multiple ways for attackers to pass through the ditches to the inside of the camp, though it was suggested they could have been sally ports for defenders to emerge from and attack a besieging force. Evidence of attacks on some sites support the idea that the enclosures were built as fortified settlements. They may have been seasonal meeting places, used for trading cattle or other goods such as pottery. There is also evidence that they played a role in funeral rites: material such as food, pottery, and human remains was deliberately deposited in the ditches. The construction of these enclosures took only a short time, which implies significant organization since substantial labour would have been required, for clearing the land, preparing trees for use as posts or palisades, and digging the ditches.
Over 70 causewayed enclosures have been identified in the British Isles, and they are one of the most common types of early Neolithic site in western Europe. About a thousand are known in all. They began to appear at different times in different parts of Europe: dates range from before 4000 BC in northern France, to shortly before 3000 BC in northern Germany, Denmark, and Poland. The enclosures in southern Britain began to appear shortly before 3700 BC, and continued to be built for at least 200 years; in a few cases, they continued to be used as late as 3300 to 3200 BC.
## Site
Combe Hill is on the South Downs, overlooking the Weald to the north, about five kilometres (three miles) northwest of Eastbourne, in East Sussex. An inner circuit of ditch and bank is almost complete, except for where it meets a steep downslope on the north side. The remains of an outer circuit of ditch and bank are visible to the west and east, enclosing an area of about 1.7 ha (4.2 acres), with the inner circuit covering 0.6 ha (1.5 acres). A round barrow lies about 100 m (110 yd) to the west, and two more are within 150 m (160 yd) to the east, along the same hilltop; one is possibly of Anglo-Saxon origin. The enclosure is crossed by a footpath, from Jevington northeastwards to Willingdon. Two of the causeways, at the south and east, are wider than the others, and may have originally been entranceways.
Only one radiocarbon date has been obtained from the site; it was taken from charcoal from the ditch at the south end of trench 1 in the plan at right, and indicates the site was constructed no later than the second half of the fourth millennium BC. The secondary (outer) circuit may indicate two stages of use, but the two excavations found little deposited material, and it may be that the site did not see extensive use. The great majority of pottery finds came from the western side, and are associated with animal bone and charcoal fragments; Peter Drewett, who reviewed the excavation history in 1994, suggested that three polished axes deposited at the eastern side of the enclosure were there to mark a boundary, for example if the enclosure represented the eastern extent of the territorial control of the people who built it.
A 2001 review of the areas enclosed by causewayed sites found three distinct groupings of sizes, the smallest group ranging from 0.4 and 1.2 ha (1.0 and 3.0 acres), and the median at about 0.7 ha (1.7 acres). Many of these smaller enclosures are in the upper Thames Valley, near rivers, and of the others, those at higher elevations like Combe Hill, often have a second causewayed ditch surrounding the first. Most causewayed enclosures are fairly close to circular in layout, but the inner enclosure at Combe Hill is somewhat elliptical, the long axis running east–west. The outer circuit is not as well-preserved as the inner circuit, but this may be because parts of it were levelled, perhaps during the Neolithic.
Causewayed enclosures can be broadly grouped by the physical landscapes in which they lie. Combe Hill is one of a group that lie on high ground, and like many of this type, the enclosure is placed so that it is visible from the high ground near the site, but not from the lower ground from which the hill is most clearly visible. Combe Hill's enclosure slopes slightly away from the steep north slope, so that none of the earthworks can be seen from the north—instead, it is visible from the massif of the South Downs, to its south. However, given that Combe Hill was probably constructed when trees covered the area, the cleared area would have been visible from the north as a treeless notch, above the steep slope.
A Neolithic enclosure (probably causewayed) at Butts Brow, about 800 m (870 yd) to the south of Combe Hill, was identified in 2016. The two sites are visible from each other, and dating evidence from pottery at Butts Brow makes it plausible that there was activity at both sites at the same time.
Combe Hill was listed as a scheduled monument in 1981.
## Archaeological investigations
The historian Hadrian Allcroft included the site in his 1908 survey, Earthwork of England; he describes it as of "almost beyond doubt of British construction", meaning that it precedes the Roman conquest. The plan he drew shows no gaps in the ditches and banks around the site, reflecting his belief (common among archaeologists at that time) that the gaps were either damage to the original structure or meant that the enclosure was unfinished, and that a plan should show the layout without gaps. The causeways separating the ditches and the associated gaps in the banks were first noticed by Veronica Keiller, the wife of the archaeologist Alexander Keiller. E. Cecil Curwen surveyed the site with a boser—a heavy rammer used for detecting underground bedrock, or the lack of it, by listening to the sound made when the boser strikes the ground—and published a plan of the site in 1929. Curwen also listed it as a possible Neolithic site in his 1930 paper "Neolithic Camps", which was the first attempt to assemble a list of all the causewayed enclosures in England.
Only one of the three barrows nearby has been investigated: Leslie Grinsell reported in 1934 that one had been opened by Major F. Maitland, in 1907, and in 1941, Curwen's father, Eliot Curwen, published a short note describing the finds, which had been donated to the Sussex Archaeological Society's museum by A.F. Maitland, the Major's son. The finds consisted of four bronze axes in excellent condition: one complete, two that had been deliberately broken in half, probably as votive offerings, and the blade from a fourth. The axes were found under a large stone, "estimated to have been about 3 cwt. in weight" (about 335 lbs), in the barrow to the west of the enclosure.
G. P. Burstow visited the hill in August 1945, and found Romano-British pottery and half-a-dozen Roman coins exposed at two or three places near the top of the hill, in some cases in tracks worn by army vehicles; an additional Roman coin was found in 1947. All were donated to the Sussex Archaeological Society's museum. The coins dated from the mid 3rd century to the early fourth century AD. In 1980, a metal detectorist found a hoard of 144 Roman coins on the north slope of Combe Hill. The latest coins in the hoard come from the reigns of Tetricus I and Tetricus II, so the hoard appears to have been buried towards the end of the third century AD.
### Musson, 1949
In 1949 Reginald Musson excavated Combe Hill for the Eastbourne Natural History and Archaeological Society, to determine the accuracy of Curwen's plan. He began by opening the north end of a ditch on the west side (at the south end of trench 1 in the diagram). This trench was extended northwards, finding first a 3.7 m (4.0 yd) long causeway of unexcavated chalk, and then the southern end of the next ditch in the circuit. The ditch at the south end of trench 1 was about 0.9 m (1.0 yd) deep and yielded 912 sherds of Neolithic pottery and plentiful flint flakes; the one at the north end was only a foot deep and contained flints, but no pottery except a few fragments of early Iron Age and Romano-British pottery, just below the turf line. The causeway was cleared down to the chalk but there were no post-holes. Musson also investigated the bank of earth next to the ditch (trench 2 in the diagram), clearing an area 1.8 by 9 metres (2 by 10 yards) to search for post-holes, but none were found.
The pottery found in the southern ditch was all identified as Ebbsfleet ware. It was not deposited at the bottom of the ditch; Musson's report shows a layer of silting below the layer containing pottery and flints, and Peter Drewett, an archaeologist who summarized Musson's work in a later review of the site, describes the pottery as a "dump", on top of a layer of "clean chalk rubble" a foot thick. Only five animal bones were found, four of ox and one from a pig. Charcoal fragments of ash, hawthorn and hazel were found; there was no oak, which was unusual, and in his later review Drewett suggested this might indicate the landscape had been cleared. Drewett arranged for some of the charcoal found by Musson to be radiocarbon dated, and the result was a date range of 3500 to 3300 BC. The enclosure was probably constructed before this range, which matches the dates known for the pottery Musson found.
A pair of tabular flints, which Musson identified as a hearth, were found in the ditch, associated with some of the bones and charcoal. A later review, as part of the Gathering Time project to date Neolithic enclosures, suggested that the lack of signs of burning cast doubt on this identification, and also commented that the steep sides of the ditch shown in Musson's section diagram might indicate that the ditch had been recut there. Musson's flint finds included a leaf-shaped arrowhead, though this had been lost by the time Drewett conducted his review. The snail shells found at different levels below the surface were analyzed in Musson's report, but no conclusions were drawn at the time. A subsequent re-analysis, based on extracting more snail shells from soil samples preserved from Musson's dig, was undertaken by K. D. Thomas, an expert on molluscs, for Drewett's 1994 review. Thomas concluded that the enclosure had been constructed in woodland that was still standing or had only recently been cleared.
### Seton-Williams, 1962
Veronica Seton-Williams spent two weeks, from 1 to 15 July 1962, excavating the site as a training exercise for a group of about twenty. She did not publish her work, but her notes and some of the finds survive, and were used by Peter Drewett in a 1994 review of the site. A total of 21 trenches were dug; Drewett comments that the reasons for the positioning of some of the trenches are unclear, and "may be explained partly by the fact that the project was run as a training excavation".
Trench A was dug across both the inner ditch and associated bank, revealing no evidence that the bank, which contained the material excavated from the ditch, had been reinforced. Trench B crossed the outer ditch and bank; a few sherds of Romano-British pottery were found in the upper layers of the trench, but nothing from within the ditch. Once the ditch had silted in, another shallow cut had been made, which Drewett dates to the Romano-British period, based on the pottery found in the layers inside the recut. In both cases the ditch appears to have silted in quickly. A set of six grid squares and a rectangular area (marked C on the diagram) were excavated over one of the causeways, finding 278 pieces of struck flint, all from the turf and topsoil layer; Drewett suggests that the causeway may have been an area where flint cores were prepared.
Trench D was in the middle of the enclosure, and revealed no finds. A series of 7 trenches, labelled E1 through E7, were cut through the ditch and bank just south of the causeway where the C trenches were dug. As with the ditch to the north it appeared that the ditch had filled with natural silt rather than having been deliberately filled in, and Drewett estimated that the lowest levels of silting might have formed within a year or two of the ditch being dug. On top of these silt layers, three polished flint axes were found deposited next to each other in trench E6. Near the top of these trenches, Beaker pottery was found. Two small trenches, labelled F1 and F2 on the diagram, were dug at the top of the slope, but found no evidence that the bank and ditch had ever extended around the enclosure's northern side. Trench G produced a few sherds and some struck flint; these were all lost by the time Drewett evaluated the results of the dig, but he suggested that the pottery was probably Romano-British, since it was found not far below the turf line.
### Later investigations
In May 1983, Rodney Castleden, a Sussex resident walking on Combe Hill, found a carved chalk item partly exposed through the turf in the middle of the enclosure. The object was examined by Alan Thompson, who was researching prehistoric carved chalk finds from Sussex. Thompson suggested it may have been a half-completed carving of a phallic symbol: it was roughly rectangular in cross-section, narrowing towards one end, with incised lines on two sides. Thompson could not determine what tool had been used to carve the chalk, or the age of the item, though he cites another phallic-shaped chalk find from Itford Hill in Sussex which was considered to be from the Bronze Age. In Drewett's 1994 review he commented that since the item had not been found in the 1962 dig, which had dug a trench (labelled D on the site plan) at the spot where the item was found, it might have been carved in 1962 and left at the site.
The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England included Combe Hill in a 1995 survey of multiple sites. The resulting report, by Alastair Oswald, concluded that Thomas's conclusions from snail shell evidence from Musson's excavation were consistent with most of the Neolithic enclosures in Sussex: the evidence available for all but two of the other sites indicates they were probably constructed in small clearings in woodland. The two exceptions are The Trundle and Whitehawk Camp, both thought to have been constructed at a time when the woodland had already been cleared. In 2003, Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society commissioned a resistivity survey of the site. The survey was hampered by dry weather, limiting the quality of the data, but the inner circuit and the western arc of the outer circuit were both detected. Clusters of post-holes were found in the south and east of the inner enclosure, which may have been part of a structure intended to control access to the entrances to the site.
Gathering Time was a project funded by English Heritage and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to reanalyze the radiocarbon dates of nearly 40 causewayed enclosures, using Bayesian analysis. The authors, Alasdair Whittle, Frances Healy, and Alex Bayliss, published the results in 2011. Combe Hill was included in the project, but although a few animal bones and some charcoal had been retained from the excavations, no suitable material could be found for sampling.
|
5,500,087 |
Tropical Storm Alberto (2006)
| 1,171,669,875 |
Atlantic tropical cyclone
|
[
"2006 Atlantic hurricane season",
"2006 in Cuba",
"2006 in Mexico",
"Atlantic hurricanes in Mexico",
"Atlantic tropical storms",
"Hurricanes in Canada",
"Hurricanes in Cuba",
"Hurricanes in Europe",
"Hurricanes in Florida",
"Hurricanes in Georgia (U.S. state)",
"Hurricanes in North Carolina",
"Hurricanes in South Carolina",
"Tropical cyclones in 2006"
] |
Tropical Storm Alberto was the first tropical storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. Forming on June 10 in the northwestern Caribbean, the storm moved generally to the north, reaching a maximum intensity of 70 mph (110 km/h) before weakening and moving ashore in the Big Bend area of Florida on June 13. Alberto then moved through eastern Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia as a tropical depression before becoming extratropical on June 14.
Across the Western Caribbean, the storm produced heavy rainfall, causing some minor damage. In Florida, a moderate storm tide caused coastal damage and flooding, while Alberto's outer rainbands produced several tornadoes. The storm was indirectly responsible for two drownings off the coast of Tampa Bay. In North Carolina, heavy rainfall caused locally severe flooding, and one child drowned in a flooded storm drain near Raleigh. The remnants of Alberto produced strong winds and left four people missing in Atlantic Canada. Overall, damage was minor along Alberto's path.
## Meteorological history
In early June 2006, an area of convection persisted across Central America and the western Caribbean in association with a broad, nearly stationary trough of low pressure. Thunderstorms increased and became more concentrated on June 8 after a tropical wave moved into the western Caribbean, and an upper-level low to its west increased outflow over the system. The disturbance moved slowly north-northwestward, and development was initially inhibited by marginally favorable upper-level winds and land interaction. The system gradually organized, and by June 10 a circulation formed with sufficiently organized convection for the National Hurricane Center to classify it Tropical Depression One. At this point the storm was located about 140 miles (230 km) south of the western tip of Cuba.
The depression tracked to the northwest through the Yucatán Channel into an area of increased wind shear, which left the center exposed and elongated. Despite its poor structure, the system maintained strong winds in its eastern semicircle. The depression intensified into Tropical Storm Alberto early on June 11 about 260 miles (420 km) southwest of the Dry Tortugas, based on Hurricane Hunters' reports of flight level winds of 50 mph (80 km/h) in a few convective bands. Upon becoming a tropical storm, the low-level circulation had become better defined, though forecasts predicted the wind shear would increase, preventing significant strengthening of the storm. One forecaster at the National Hurricane Center remarked the system resembled a subtropical cyclone. However, deep convection developed and built westward against the wind shear as the overall organization improved. At the same time Alberto turned northeastward under the influence of an approaching trough. On June 12, the circulation abruptly reformed under the area of deepest convection, which coincided with the storm's passage over the loop current; consequentially, Alberto quickly strengthened to reach peak winds of 70 mph (110 km/h) about 220 miles (350 km) west-northwest of Tampa, Florida.
Though it was projected to track over cooler waters and stay in an area of increased shear, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center predicted Alberto would attain hurricane status and make landfall at that intensity. The storm maintained peak intensity for about 18 hours, and while accelerating northeastward, Alberto's convection diminished as the cloud pattern became elongated. On June 13, dry air became entrained in the circulation, leaving the center exposed from the convection and the wind field greatly broadened. A partial eyewall developed in the western semicircle of the center; however, winds were well below hurricane force. Alberto continued to weaken, and made landfall at about 1630 UTC on June 13 with 45 mph (72 km/h) winds in Taylor County, Florida, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Tallahassee.
The storm maintained a well-organized structure and banding features over land, while continuing to produce winds of tropical storm force as it moved into Georgia. Early on June 14, the storm weakened to tropical depression status while located near the city of Millen, Georgia. Alberto began to lose tropical characteristics soon thereafter, and about six hours after weakening to a tropical depression it transitioned into an extratropical cyclone. Late on June 14 it accelerated northeastward to emerge into the Atlantic Ocean, and on June 15, it entered the area of responsibility of the Canadian Hurricane Centre. While over open waters, Alberto's remnants began to re-intensify; later that day, the extratropical remnant low attained winds of 65 mph (105 km/h) and a pressure of 969 mbar while a short distance south of Nova Scotia. At this time, the low presented a well-defined comma structure. After passing near Sable Island, the remnants of Alberto crossed the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland on June 16. The extratropical storm turned to the east-northeast and later to the east as it continued its rapid forward motion, and on June 19 the remnants of Alberto merged with an approaching cold front near the British Isles.
## Preparations
By June 12, the Cuban government had evacuated over 25,000 people in the western portion of the country due to the threat of flooding. The National Hurricane Center recommended tropical storm warnings for the Isle of Youth and the Pinar del Río Province early on June 10, but they were not issued by the Cuban government.
In northwestern Florida, officials issued a mandatory evacuation order a day before the storm moved ashore for about 21,000 citizens in Levy County, Citrus County, and Taylor County. Several schools were closed as well, and converted into shelters. In all, about 350 coastal residents took refuge in emergency shelters. Prior to the arrival of the storm, Florida governor Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency for the state. A tropical storm watch was first issued for portions of the Florida Panhandle about 43 hours prior to landfall. As Alberto was predicted to continue intensifying, the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning from Longboat Key to the mouth of the Ochlockonee River approximately 25 hours before landfall. A tropical storm warning extended southward to Englewood and westward to Indian Pass. A tropical storm warning was also issued from Flagler Beach, Florida to the mouth of the Santee River in South Carolina. As the storm moved inland, local National Weather Service offices issued flood watches for portions of North Carolina, Virginia, and the Delmarva Peninsula. Additionally, flood and flash flood warnings were issued for some portions of the country from South Carolina through Virginia.
While Alberto was becoming extratropical over land, the Canadian Hurricane Centre issued gale warnings for offshore waters of Nova Scotia, and later for Newfoundland. In addition, the Atlantic Storm Prediction Center issued inland wind warnings for coastal regions of Nova Scotia. Due to the prediction for precipitation, the Atlantic Storm Prediction Center posted rainfall warnings for all Atlantic coastal regions of Nova Scotia.
## Impact
### Caribbean
In its early stages of development, the tropical depression which later became Alberto produced heavy rainfall across the western Caribbean. A station on Grand Cayman reported 22.72 inches (577 mm) of rain in one 24-hour period. In Cuba, rainfall amounted to 17.52 inches (445 mm) in Pinar del Río province, where one station recorded 4.06 inches (103 mm) in one hour. On the Isle of Youth, precipitation accrued to 15.67 inches (398 mm) in Sumidero. Air and marine travel was disrupted between the Cuban mainland and the Isle of Youth. In Havana Province rainfall totaled 8.46 inches (215 mm) at Playa Baracoa. Much of the precipitation fell during a fairly short time, and was beneficial, as the area had been suffering from severe drought conditions. In Pinar del Río province, the precipitation flooded 50 sq mi (130 km<sup>2</sup>) of crop land. The storm damaged about 50 houses across the country, about half of which in Havana.
Alberto dropped light amounts of rainfall across Mexico, with a 24-hour total peaking at 4 inches (100 mm) in Peto, Yucatán. Light rain was also reported throughout Quintana Roo and in eastern Campeche.
### Florida
The large area of convection associated with Alberto dropped rainfall across Florida for several days. The statewide precipitation maximum reached 7.08 inches (180 mm) at a station 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Tarpon Springs. The highest sustained winds from the storm were officially clocked at 40 mph (64 km/h) in St. Petersburg, which also saw reports of wind gusts of up to 56 mph (90 km/h). Upon making landfall on the Florida Panhandle, the storm produced a storm tide which unofficially peaked at 7.3 feet (2.2 m) at the Crystal River Power Plant. The combination of high surf and the storm tide caused surge flooding along the Florida Panhandle. Six tornadoes were spawned in the state from the outer rainbands of Alberto, none of which caused serious damage.
Across coastal areas, the storm surge flooding caused minor damage to dozens of homes and closed several roads. Near Homosassa, two people who did not evacuate required water rescue. At Egmont Key State Park, a woman fell off of a boat when a band of showers and surging currents made navigation difficult; her husband and a friend drowned after jumping in to save her without life jackets, though the woman returned safely to the boat. The rainfall caused some temporary road flooding, though precipitation was mostly beneficial in alleviating drought conditions. Moderate wind gusts caused scattered power outages and downed some trees across the northeast portion of the state. Overall, property damage in the state rose to about \$390,000 (2006 USD) in total.
### Southeast United States
While the storm moved through the state of Georgia, moderate winds of up to 45 mph (72 km/h) occurred along the coastline. Rainfall ranged from 3–5 inches (76–127 millimetres) across the southeast portion of the state, with isolated higher maxima of up to 7.05 inches (179 mm) in Rincon. Alberto produced a storm tide of 8.53 feet (2.60 m) at Fort Pulaski National Monument, causing some beach erosion along the coastline.
Alberto produced winds of tropical storm force along the South Carolina coastline; the highest official wind gust was 51 mph (82 km/h) at Edisto Beach. The storm dropped precipitation across much of the state, including a state maximum of 4.42 inches (112 mm) at Pritchardville. Storm tides reached 7.81 feet (2.38 m) above the mean low-level water mark along Fripp Island, leading to some beach erosion along portions of the coastline. While in the process of becoming extratropical, the rainbands of Alberto spawned seven confirmed tornadoes in the state, most of which rated F0; a National Weather Service report indicated additional tornadoes may have occurred in the state. The tornadoes caused some minor damage, though overall damage in the state was minimal.
The remnants of Alberto dropped heavy precipitation across North Carolina, including a nationwide high of 7.16 inches (182 mm) at the Raleigh National Weather Service Office. Some totals broke previous rainfall records, including the station at Raleigh-Durham International Airport which broke the all-time daily precipitation record for that station. The rainfall led to flooding across the central portion of the state, with 45 flash flood warnings issued by the Raleigh National Weather Service. Police and firefighters in Wake County performed 47 water rescues. Additionally, the Raleigh-Wake 9-1-1 center received more than 1,076 calls for help. Flash flooding occurred throughout the area, which caused the Crabtree Creek in Raleigh to crest at 23.77 feet (7.25 m); this was the second highest flood stage on record for the creek. The overflown creek flooded a few cars to their rooftops, and resulted in the closure of the Crabtree Valley Mall. Major flooding was reported elsewhere throughout the region, which closed several roads and damaged some houses. In Franklin County, an eight-year-old boy drowned after getting sucked into a flooded drainage system; the death is considered indirect because the boy was chasing a ball into the drainage system. Near the coast, the storm produced several waterspouts, some of which moved ashore in Dare and Carteret counties. Isolated reports of 60 mph (97 km/h) wind gusts resulted in downed trees and minor damage.
Rainfall from the storm extended into Virginia, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and extreme southeastern Delaware. Precipitation totaled 5.8 inches (150 mm) in Virginia Beach, which caused flash flooding in the Hampton Roads area. The flooding closed several roads, though no major damage was reported.
### Canada
The extratropical remnant of Alberto produced strong winds across the Canadian Maritimes, including gusts of 74 mph (119 km/h) in the Municipality of the District of Barrington of Nova Scotia. Sustained winds reached 51 mph (82 km/h). Rainfall from the storm was moderate, with some locations reporting 0.4 inches (10 mm) per hour; totals exceeded 2 inches (51 mm) in numerous areas. Due to wet grounds, the winds knocked down some trees and several tree limbs, and also downed some power lines, causing localized power outages. Moderate winds and rainfall affected Newfoundland, as well. According to a press report, the storm left four sailors missing about 230 miles (370 km) south of Nova Scotia.
## See also
- List of Florida hurricanes (2000–present)
- Other tropical cyclones named Alberto
- Timeline of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season
- List of North Carolina hurricanes (2000–present)
- Tropical Storm Barry (2007)
- Tropical Storm Andrea (2013)
- Tropical Storm Colin (2016)
- Tropical Storm Alex (2022)
|
652,414 |
Sabre Wulf
| 1,169,267,767 |
1984 video game
|
[
"1984 video games",
"Action-adventure games",
"Amstrad CPC games",
"BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games",
"Commodore 64 games",
"Maze games",
"Multiplayer and single-player video games",
"Rare (company) games",
"Video games developed in the United Kingdom",
"ZX Spectrum games"
] |
Sabre Wulf is an action-adventure game released by British video game developer Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collecting amulet pieces to bypass the guardian at its exit. The player does not receive explicit guidance on how to play and is left to decipher the game's objectives through trial and error. Sabreman moves between the maze's 256 connected screens by touching the border where one screen ends and another begins. Each screen is filled with colourful flora, enemies that spawn at random, and occasional collectibles.
Ultimate released the game for the ZX Spectrum at an above-average price to combat piracy. Its premium product packaging became a company standard. The developers had finished Sabre Wulf's sequels in advance of its release but—in keeping with their penchant for secrecy—chose to withhold them for marketing purposes. The sequels were swiftly released later that year. Ultimate hired outside developers to port Sabre Wulf to other computing platforms: the BBC Micro, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. The game was later featured in compilations including the 2015 retrospective of games by Ultimate and its successor, Rare.
Several gaming publications recommended the game, and Crash magazine readers named it the "Best Maze Game" of 1984. Sabre Wulf was a bestseller and a financial success. Though its labyrinthine gameplay was similar to that of Ultimate's previous release, reviewers preferred Sabre Wulf. They further noted its difficult gameplay and lauded its graphics. Game journalists remember Sabre Wulf among the Spectrum's best releases, and for starting the Sabreman series.
## Gameplay
In Sabre Wulf, the player guides the pith-helmeted adventurer Sabreman through a two-dimensional maze. The player must reconstruct an amulet from its four pieces scattered throughout the maze to bypass the guardian at its exit, a cave that leads to the game's sequel, Underwurlde. The maze is presented in flip-screens such that the player views one static tile of the maze's grid at a time. For example, when Sabreman reaches the left edge of one screen, he continues the maze at the right edge of the next screen.
The game opens to music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. Its tiled maze contains 256 screens and is drawn in a 16 by 16 grid. The maze's paths are bordered by tropical flora, populated with attacking enemies and, on its outskirts, surrounded by mountains. Apart from the jungle, the game's maze also includes several lakes. The player swings Sabreman's sabre with the push of the joystick's fire button to defeat enemies that spawn in random on-screen locations. When the player idles too long in the same screen, an indestructible bushfire appears to pursue Sabreman. Enemies include spiders, scorpions, snakes, bats, indigenous people, sleeping hippos, and a fast wolf (the titular Sabre Wulf). Some enemies are killed, others flee when hit, while the wolf, cave guardian, and bushfire are unaffected by the sabre.
The player does not receive any explicit guidance on how to play and is left to decipher the game's objectives through trial and error. Sabre Wulf's graphics fill the screen with a minimal user interface consisting of the current game score, number of lives left and a high score meter on the top row. Sabreman can eat orchid power-ups, which bloom for only a few seconds, to turn the colour of the orchid and receive a temporary character effect. Some effects empower (e.g. invulnerability, increased speed) while others impair (e.g. reversing the player's controls). Sabreman can also collect treasure and extra lives scattered throughout the maze. The Spectrum and Commodore 64 releases include a two-player mode in which players take turns controlling their own Sabreman.
## Development
The developer of Sabre Wulf, Ultimate Play the Game, had a reputation for secrecy. The company rarely gave interviews or revealed details about their internal practices or upcoming games. Little is known about their development process apart from using Sage IV computers, preferring to develop for the ZX Spectrum's Z80 microprocessor, and often outsourcing development for other platforms, such as those that ran 6502 microprocessors. After releasing Atic Atac at the end of 1983, Ultimate went silent until it ran teaser advertisements for Sabre Wulf in April 1984. The company rarely depicted actual gameplay in their advertisements. They had already prepared Knight Lore, the third game in the Sabreman series, in advance of the character's introduction in Sabre Wulf. Ultimate withheld Knight Lore for about a year because they felt Sabre Wulf would not have sold as well once players saw the former's graphical advancements. Knight Lore subsequently became known as a seminal work in British gaming history and an iconic game of the 1980s for its popularization of the isometric platformer format.
Ultimate released Sabre Wulf for the ZX Spectrum in 1984 and the other Sabreman titles that were released later that year. Sabre Wulf was Ultimate's first game to use what would become the company's standard price and mysterious, unadorned packaging. Retailing at £9.95, Ultimate nearly doubled its usual price in what they saw as a "bold step" to combat piracy. They expected legal owners to be more protective over letting friends copy their more expensive games. Ultimate had seen competitor prices slowly increasing and felt that the price was fair for their time invested. The game retailed in a large, high-quality cardboard box with a glossy instruction manual, both upgrades over typical game packaging. It became Ultimate's standard packaging for new games. The company's game packaging was nondescript and showed no screenshots of the in-game world. Ultimate's games also did not display internal credits. The company hired outside developers to complete Sabre Wulf ports for other computers. Paul Proctor wrote the BBC Micro conversion, and in 1985, Greg Duddle wrote the Commodore 64 conversion, which was licensed under Firebird. Sabre Wulf later appeared in the 1985 compilation They Sold a Million, a collection of Spectrum games that had together sold a million units. When the compilation was released for the Amstrad CPC, Sabre Wulf was converted for the platform and eventually released in a standalone edition. Sabre Wulf also appeared alongside Underwurlde, its sequel, in a Commodore 64 pack, and in the August 2015 Xbox One compilation of 30 Ultimate and Rare titles, Rare Replay.
## Reception
Reviewers appreciated the game's graphics and found its gameplay similar to Ultimate's previous game, Atic Atac—particularly in its opening sequence and maze format—but preferred Sabre Wulf. Critics also noted the game's difficulty and above-average pricing. Sabre Wulf was a selected recommendation in Crash (July 1984), Personal Computer Games (August 1984), and Popular Computing Weekly (June 1984). The game was named "Best Maze Game" in the 1984 Crash Readers Awards. Ultimate's new pricing strategy was a success and Sabre Wulf topped the sales chart in the video game format. While Retro Gamer reported that Sabre Wulf broke the company's sales records, Computer and Video Games (CVG) said that the release underperformed prior games, with only 30,000 copies sold by December 1984. Eurogamer later reported that 350,000 units were sold in total.
Crash confirmed rumours that the game was similar to Atic Atac, but declared Sabre Wulf the better and predicted that they would have similar legacies. The magazine wrote that their inability to intuit Sabreman's current inventory or resistance to damage added to the game's mystique, and that Ultimate was particularly skilled at not giving hints but leaving sufficient clues through the game's design. Personal Computer Games found one such tip: that the indigenous enemies make a sound when aligned with an amulet piece. In a similar experience, Popular Computing Weekly slowly learned to use rather than avoid the orchids. CVG described the game's instructions as "cryptic". Crash later reflected that comparisons to Atic Atac at its launch were unfair, similar to calling any two text adventures identical.
Critics had high praise for the colourful and detailed graphics and animations. In the opinion of CVG reviewers, Sabre Wulf carried Ultimate's momentum from Jetpac and Atic Atac, and had the best graphics of any ZX Spectrum game, with graphical detail that surpassed what previous reviewers had considered the computer's limits. Sinclair User particularly liked how the hippo enemies force the player to vary their hack-and-slash gameplay style. A Crash reviewer called the game "a Software Masterpiece". The magazine received more mail in praise of Sabre Wulf in 1984 than for any other game and, a year later, repeated that Sabre Wulf was among the top games available for the Spectrum, adding that the game did not feel antiquated. CVG's Commodore 64 review, two years after the original release, approved of the port and said that the game remained a classic.
Reviewers complained of the game's high price, which was nearly double the average. Crash wondered if the cost might lead to more piracy. Critics also noted a bug in two-player mode, repeat screens from elsewhere in the maze, and the frustratingly narrow window in which sabre swings register as enemy hits. CVG recommended drawing a map of the maze, without which it was easy to get lost. While Sabre Wulf had some flicker issues, said Sinclair User, the game altogether met Ultimate's high quality benchmarks.
A retrospective review from Retro Gamer reduced Sabre Wulf to "an interactive maze" packed with colour and hack-and-slash gameplay. The magazine likened the game's colour choice and setting to what the magazine considered Ultimate's best arcade game, Dingo (1983), and lamented Sabreman's inability to hit enemies above or below him. Eurogamer's Peter Parrish retrospectively found the game's collision detection imprecise as well. In The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, Simon Niedenthal used Sabre Wulf as an example of games that maximised the limited colour palette of 8-bit computers. He described its colours as "glow(ing) like stained glass, and the effects of color [sic] purity are enhanced by contrast with the black background".
## Legacy
Players and game journalists consider the game among the Spectrum's best. Sabre Wulf was the first of four titles in the Sabreman series for the ZX Spectrum. Retro Gamer credited the character's name and character traits for its lasting memorability. As an ordinary human with a hat and exaggerated nose, Sabreman fit the video game 8-bit era's character archetype. The last, unreleased game in the Spectrum Sabreman series, Mire Mare, was planned to have been similar to Sabre Wulf in gameplay. Rare, the successor to Ultimate, later released a side-scrolling platformer in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance handheld console—also titled Sabre Wulf—in which Sabreman enlists jungle animals to solve the Sabre Wulf's puzzles. It was not received well by fans. Elements from the original Sabre Wulf appears in other games, including Rare's Jet Force Gemini. Star Fox Adventures had at one point in development a main character called Sabre the wolf. Retro Gamer considered Sabreman's recurring appearance to be proof of Rare's interest in the character and series.
|
113,619 |
Stereolab
| 1,173,546,906 |
English-French avant-pop band
|
[
"4AD artists",
"Art pop musicians",
"Avant-pop musicians",
"British indie pop groups",
"Drag City (record label) artists",
"English experimental rock groups",
"English indie rock groups",
"English post-rock groups",
"Experimental pop musicians",
"Flying Nun Records artists",
"Musical groups disestablished in 2009",
"Musical groups established in 1990",
"Musical groups from London",
"Musical groups reestablished in 2019",
"Slumberland Records artists",
"Stereolab"
] |
Stereolab are an Anglo-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's sound features influences from krautrock and 1960s pop music, often incorporating a repetitive motorik beat with the use of vintage electronic keyboards and female vocals sung in English and French. Their lyrics have political and philosophical themes influenced by the Surrealist and Situationist movements. On stage, they play in a more feedback-driven and guitar-oriented style. The band also draw from funk, jazz and Brazilian music, and were one of the first bands to be dubbed "post-rock".
Stereolab were formed by Gane (guitar and keyboards) and Sadier (vocals, keyboards and guitar) after the break-up of McCarthy. The two were romantically involved for fourteen years and are the group's only consistent members. Other longtime members included 1992 addition Mary Hansen (backing vocals, keyboards and guitar), who died in 2002, and 1993 addition Andy Ramsay (drums). The High Llamas' leader Sean O'Hagan (guitar and keyboards) was a member from 1993 to 1994 and continued appearing on later records for occasional guest appearances.
Throughout their career, Stereolab has achieved moderate commercial success. The band were released from their recording contract with Elektra Records, and their self-owned label Duophonic signed a distribution deal with Too Pure and later Warp Records. After a ten-year hiatus, the band reunited for live performances in 2019.
## History
### 1990–1993: Formation
In 1985, Tim Gane formed McCarthy, a band from Essex, England, known for their left-wing politics. Gane met Lætitia Sadier, born in France, at a 1988 McCarthy concert in Paris and the two quickly fell in love. The musically-inclined Sadier was disillusioned with the rock scene in France and soon moved to London to be with Gane and pursue her career. In 1990, after three albums, McCarthy broke up and Gane immediately formed Stereolab with Sadier (who had also contributed vocals to McCarthy's final album), ex-Chills bassist Martin Kean and Gina Morris on backing vocals. Stereolab's name was taken from a division of Vanguard Records demonstrating hi-fi effects.
Gane and Sadier, along with future band manager Martin Pike, set up a record label called Duophonic Super 45s which, along with later offshoot Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks, would become commonly known as "Duophonic". Gane said that their "original plan" was to distribute multiple 7 and 10-inch records "–to just do one a month and keep doing them in small editions". The 10 inch vinyl EP Super 45, released in May 1991, was the first release for both Stereolab and the label, and was sold through mail order and through the Rough Trade Shop in London. Super 45's band-designed album art and packaging was the first of many customised and limited-edition Duophonic records. In a 1996 interview in The Wire, Gane calls the "do-it-yourself" aesthetic behind Duophonic "empowering", and said that by releasing one's own music "you learn; it creates more music, more ideas".
Stereolab released the EP, Super-Electric in September 1991, and a single, titled Stunning Debut Album, followed in November 1991 (which was neither debut nor album). The early material was rock and guitar-oriented; of Super-Electric, Jason Ankeny wrote in AllMusic that "Droning guitars, skeletal rhythms, and pop hooks—not vintage synths and pointillist melodies—were their calling cards ..." Under the independent label Too Pure, the group's first full-length album, Peng! was released in May 1992. A compilation titled, Switched On, was released in October 1992 and would be part of a series of compilations that anthologise the band's more obscure material.
Around this time, the line-up consisted of Gane and Sadier plus vocalist and guitarist Mary Hansen, drummer Andy Ramsay, bassist Duncan Brown, and keyboardist Katharine Gifford. Hansen, born in Australia, had been in touch with Gane since his McCarthy days. After joining, she and Sadier developed a style of vocal counterpoint that distinguished Stereolab's sound. Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas joined as a quick replacement for their touring keyboardist, but was invited for their next record and "was allowed to make suggestions".
### 1993–2001: Sign to Elektra
Stereolab introduced easy-listening elements into their sound with the EP Space Age Bachelor Pad Music, released in March 1993. The work raised the band's profile and landed them a major-label American record deal with Elektra Records. Their first album under Elektra, Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (August 1993), was an underground success in both the US and the UK. Mark Jenkins commented in Washington Post that with the album, Stereolab "continues the glorious drones of [their] indie work, giving celestial sweep to [their] garage-rock organ pumping and rhythm-guitar strumming". In the UK, the album was released on Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks, which is responsible for domestic releases of Stereolab's major albums.
In January 1994, Stereolab achieved their first chart entry when the 1993 EP Jenny Ondioline, entered at number 75 on the UK Singles Chart. (Over the next three years, four more releases by the band would appear on this chart, ending with the EP Miss Modular in 1997.) Their third album, Mars Audiac Quintet, was released in August 1994. The album contains the single "Ping Pong", which gained press coverage for its explicitly Marxist lyrics. The band focused more on pop and less on rock, resulting in what AllMusic described as "what may be the group's most accessible, tightly-written album". It was the last album to feature O'Hagan as a full-time member. He would continue to make guest appearances on later releases. The group issued an EP titled Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center in April 1995. The EP was their musical contribution to an interactive art exhibit put on in collaboration with New York City artist Charles Long. Their second compilation of rarities, titled Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On, Vol. 2), was released in July 1995.
The band's fourth album, Emperor Tomato Ketchup (March 1996), was a critical success and was played heavily on college radio. A record that "captivated alternative rock", it represented the group's "high-water mark" said music journalists Tom Moon and Joshua Klein, respectively. The album incorporated their early krautrock sound with funk, hip-hop influences and experimental instrumental arrangements. John McEntire of Tortoise also assisted with production and played on the album. Katharine Gifford was replaced by Morgane Lhote before recording, and bassist Duncan Brown by Richard Harrison after. Lhote was required to both learn the keyboards and 30 of the group's songs before joining.
Released in September 1997, Dots and Loops was their first album to enter the Billboard 200 charts, peaking at number 111. The album leaned towards jazz with bossa nova and 60's pop influences. Barney Hoskyns wrote in Rolling Stone that with it the group moved "ever further away from the one-chord Velvets drone-mesh of its early days" toward easy-listening and Europop. A review in German newspaper Die Zeit stated that in Dots and Loops, Stereolab transformed the harder Velvet Underground-like riffs of previous releases into "softer sounds and noisy playfulness". Contributors to the album included John McEntire and Jan St. Werner of German electropop duo Mouse on Mars. Stereolab toured for seven months and took a break when Gane and Sadier had a child. The group's third compilation of rarities, Aluminum Tunes, was issued in October 1998.
Their sixth album, Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, was released in September 1999. It was co-produced by McEntire and American producer Jim O'Rourke, and was recorded with their new bassist, Simon Johns. The album received middling reviews from critics and peaked at number 154 on the Billboard 200. An unsigned NME review said that "this record has far more in common with bad jazz and progressive rock than any experimental art-rock tradition." In a 1999 article of Washington Post, Mark Jenkins asked Gane about the album's apparent lack of guitars; Gane responded, "There's a lot less upfront, distorted guitar ... But it's still quite guitar-based music. Every single track has a guitar on it."
Stereolab's seventh album, Sound-Dust (August 2001), rose to number 178 on the Billboard 200. The album also featured producers McEntire and O'Rourke. Sound-Dust was more warmly received than Cobra and Phases Group.... Critic Joshua Klein said that "the emphasis this time sounds less on unfocused experimentation and more on melody ... a breezy and welcome return to form for the British band." Erlewine of Allmusic stated that the album "[finds the group] deliberately recharging their creative juices" but he argued that Sound-Dust was "anchored in overly familiar territory."
### 2002–2008: Death of Hansen and later releases
In 2002, as they were planning their next album, Stereolab started building a studio north of Bordeaux, France. ABC Music: The Radio 1 Sessions; a compilation of BBC Radio 1 sessions was released in October. In the same year, Gane and Sadier's romantic relationship ended.
On 9 December 2002, Hansen was killed when hit by a truck while riding her bicycle in London. She was 36. Writer Pierre Perrone said that her "playful nature and mischievous sense of humour came through in the way she approached the backing vocals she contributed to Stereolab and the distinctive harmonies she created with Sadier." For the next few months, Stereolab lay dormant as the members grieved. They eventually decided to continue. Future album and concert reviews would mention the effects of Hansen's absence.
The EP Instant 0 in the Universe (October 2003) was recorded in France, and was Stereolab's first release following Hansen's death. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis said that the EP marked a return to their earlier, harder sound—"free from the pseudo-funk moves and avant-garde tinkering that had been inspired by Chicago producer Jim O'Rourke".
Stereolab's eighth album, Margerine Eclipse, was released on 27 January 2004 with generally positive reviews, and peaked at number 174 on the US Billboard 200. The track "Feel and Triple" was written in tribute to Hansen; Sadier said, "I was reflecting on my years with her ... reflecting on how we sometimes found it hard to express the love we had for one another." Sadier continued, "Our dedication to her on the album says, 'We will love you till the end', meaning of our lives. I'm not religious, but I feel Mary's energy is still around somewhere. It didn't just disappear." The Observers Molloy Woodcraft gave the album four out of five stars, and commented that Sadier's vocal performance as "life- and love-affirming", and the record as a whole as "Complex and catchy, bold and beatific." Kelefa Sanneh commented in Rolling Stone that Margerine Eclipse was "full of familiar noises and aimless melodies". Margerine Eclipse was Stereolab's last record to be released on American label Elektra Records, which shut down that same year. Future material would be released on Too Pure, the same label which had released some of the band's earliest material.
The group released six limited-edition singles in 2005 and 2006, which were anthologised in the 2006 compilation Fab Four Suture, and contained material which Mark Jenkins thought continued the brisker sound of the band's post-Hansen work. By June 2007, Stereolab's line-up comprised Tim Gane, Lætitia Sadier, Andy Ramsay, Simon Johns, Dominic Jeffrey, Joseph Watson, and Joseph Walters. In 2008, the band issued their next album under the label 4AD titled, Chemical Chords, which "[downplays] their arsenal of analog synths in favor of live instrumentation". The release was followed by an autumn tour in Europe, the United States and Canada. In February 2009, they toured Australia as part of the St Jerome's Laneway Festival.
### 2009–present: Hiatus and reunion
In April 2009, Stereolab manager Martin Pike announced a pause in their activities for the time being. He said that it was an opportune time for the members to move on to other projects. Not Music, a collection of unreleased material recorded at the same time as Chemical Chords, was released in 2010. In 2013, Gane and Sadier, who both focused on Cavern of Anti-Matter and solo work respectively, performed at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival held at Pontins in Camber Sands.
In February 2019, the group announced a tour of Europe and the United States to coincide with expanded, remastered reissues of several of the albums released under Warp Records. Stereolab were part of the lineup for 2019's Primavera Sound festival, taking part on the weekend of 30 May in Barcelona, Spain, and the following weekend in Porto, Portugal. It was the group's first live performance since 2009.
## Musical style
Stereolab's music combines a droning rock sound with lounge instrumentals, overlaid with sing-song female vocals and pop melodies, and has also made use of unorthodox time signatures. It has been generally described as avant-pop, indie pop, art pop, indie electronic, indie rock, post-rock, experimental rock, and experimental pop. Sadier remarked in 2015 that "[the band's] records were written and recorded very quickly... we would write 35 tracks, sometimes more".
The band have played on vintage electronic keyboards and synthesizers from brands such as Farfisa and Vox and Moog. Gane has praised the instruments for their versatility: "We use the older effects because they're more direct, more extreme, and they're more like plasticine: you can shape them into loads of things." The 1994 album Mars Audiac Quintet prominently features Moog synthesizers.
Lætitia Sadier's English and French vocals have been a part of Stereolab's music since the beginning, and she would occasionally sing wordlessly along with the music. In reference to her laid-back delivery, Peter Shapiro wrote facetiously in Wire that Sadier "display[ed] all the emotional histrionics of Nico", while some critics have commented that her vocals were unintelligible. Sadier would often trade vocals with Mary Hansen back-and-forth in a sing-song manner that has been described as "eerie" and "hypnotic", as well as "sweet [and] slightly alien". After Hansen's death in 2002, critic Jim Harrington commented that her absence is noticeable on live performances of Stereolab's older tracks, and that their newer songs could have benefited from Hansen's backing vocals.
In interviews, Gane and Sadier have discussed their musical philosophy. Gane said that "to be unique was more important than to be good." On the subject of being too obscure, he said in a 1996 interview that "maybe the area where we're on dodgy ground, is this idea that you need great knowledge [of] esoteric music to understand what we're doing." Sadier responded to Gane, saying that she "think[s] we have achieved a music that will make sense to a lot of people whether they know about Steve Reich or not." The duo were up-front about their desire to grow their sound: for Gane, "otherwise it just sounds like what other people are doing", and for Sadier, "you trust that there is more and that it can be done more interesting."
### Influences
Their records have been heavily influenced by the "motorik" technique of 1970s krautrock groups such as Neu! and Faust. Tim Gane has supported the comparison: "Neu! did minimalism and drones, but in a very pop way." Dave Heaton of PopMatters said that their music also had "echoes of bubblegum, of exotica, of Beach Boys and bossa nova", with their earlier work "bearing strong Velvet Underground overtones". Funk, jazz, and Brazilian music were additional inspirations for the band. Stephan Davet of French newspaper Le Monde said that Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996) had musical influences such as Burt Bacharach, and Françoise Hardy. The sounds influenced by minimalist composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich can be found on the 1999 album Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night. Stereolab's style also incorporates easy-listening music of the 1950s and '60s. Joshua Klein in Washington Post said that, "Years before everyone else caught on, Stereolab [were] referencing the 1970s German bands Can and Neu!, the Mexican lounge music master Esquivel and the decidedly unhip Burt Bacharach." Regarding their later work such as Instant 0 in the Universe (2003) and Margerine Eclipse (2004), critics have compared the releases to the band's earlier guitar-driven style.
### Live performances
Stereolab toured regularly to support their album releases. In a 1996 Washington Post gig review, Mark Jenkins wrote that Stereolab started out favouring an "easy-listening syncopation", but eventually reverted to a "messier, more urgent sound" characteristic of their earlier performances. In another review Jenkins said that the band's live songs "frequently veer[ed] into more cacophonous, guitar-dominated territory", in contrast to their albums such as Cobra and Phases Group... In the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jon Bream compared the band's live sound to feedback-driven rock bands like the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Jim Harrington of The Oakland Tribune argued that "Sadier often sounded like a third percussion instrument more than a lead vocalist", further stating in regard to her switching between singing in English and French that "a Stereolab show is one of the few concerts where it's hard to find even the biggest fans mouthing along with the lyrics." Regarding being onstage, Gane has said that "I don't like to be the center of attention ... I just get into the music and am not really aware of the people there. That's my way of getting through it." Remarking of the band's 2019 reunion tour, he added that "[Stereolab] never were really a festival band... We’re not like, 'Hey, how you all doing?' and all that stuff.”
## Lyrics and titles
Stereolab's music is politically and philosophically charged. Dave Heaton of PopMatters said that the group "[uses] lyrics to convey ideas while using them for the pleasurable way the words sound." Lætitia Sadier, who writes the group's lyrics, was influenced by both the Situationist philosophy Society of the Spectacle by Marxist theorist Guy Debord, and her anger towards the Iraq War. The Surrealist, as well as other Situationist cultural and political movements were also influences, as stated by Sadier and Gane in a 1999 Salon interview.
Critics have seen Marxist allusions in the band's lyrics, and have gone so far as to call the band members themselves Marxist. Music journalist Simon Reynolds commented that Sadier's lyrics tend to lean towards Marxist social commentary rather than "affairs of the heart". The 1994 single "Ping Pong" has been put forward as evidence in regard to these alleged views. In the song, Sadier sings "about capitalism's cruel cycles of slump and recovery" with lyrics that constitute "a plainspoken explanation of one of the central tenets of Marxian economic analysis" (said critics Reynolds and Stewart Mason, respectively).
Band members have resisted attempts to link the group and its music to Marxism. In a 1999 interview, Gane stated that "none of us are Marxists ... I've never even read Marx." Gane said that although Sadier's lyrics touch on political topics, they do not cross the line into "sloganeering". Sadier also said that she had read very little Marx. In contrast, Cornelius Castoriadis, a radical political philosopher but strong critic of Marxism, has been cited as a marking influence in Sadier's thinking. The name of her side project, Monade, and its debut album title, Socialisme ou Barbarie, are also references to the work of Castoriadis.
Stereolab's album and song titles occasionally reference avant-garde groups and artists. Gane said that the title of their 1999 album Cobra and Phases Group... contains the names of two Surrealist organisations, "CoBrA" and "Phases Group", The title of the song "Brakhage" from Dots and Loops (1997), is a nod to experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage. Other examples are the 1992 compilation Switched On, named after Wendy Carlos' 1968 album Switched-On Bach, and the 1993 song "Jenny Ondioline", a portmanteau of inventor Georges Jenny and his instrument the Ondioline.
## Legacy
Stereolab have been called one of the most "influential" and "fiercely independent and original groups of the Nineties" by writers Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Pierre Perrone respectively; as well as one of "the decade's most innovative British bands." by Mark Jenkins. Simon Reynolds commented in Rolling Stone that the group's earlier records form "an endlessly seductive body of work that sounds always the same, always different." In a review for the 1992 single "John Cage Bubblegum", Jason Ankeny said that "No other artist of its generation fused the high-minded daring of the avant-garde and the lowbrow infectiousness of pop with as much invention, skill, and appeal." In The Wire, Peter Shapiro compared the band to Britpop bands Oasis and Blur, and defended their music against the charge that it is "nothing but the sum total of its arcane reference points." They were one of the first groups to be termed post-rock—in a 1996 article, journalist Angela Lewis applied the "new term" to Stereolab and three other bands who have connections to the group. Stylistically, music journalist J. D. Considine credits the band for anticipating and driving the late 1990s revival of vintage analogue instruments among indie rock bands. Stephen Christian, a creative director of Warp Records, said that the group "exists in the gap between the experimentation of the underground and the appeal of the wider world of pop music".
The group have also received negative press. Barney Hoskyns questioned the longevity of their music in a 1996 Mojo review, saying that their records "sound more like arid experiments than music born of emotional need." In Guardian, Dave Simpson stated: "With their borrowings from early, obscure Kraftwerk and hip obtuse sources, [Stereolab] sound like a band of rock critics rather than musicians." Lætitia Sadier's vocals were cited by author Stuart Shea as often being "indecipherable".
A variety of artists, musical and otherwise, have collaborated with Stereolab. In 1995 the group teamed up with sculptor Charles Long for an interactive art show in New York City, for which Long provided the exhibits and Stereolab the music. They have released tracks by and toured with post-rock band Tortoise, while John McEntire of Tortoise has in turn worked on several Stereolab albums. In the 1990s, the group collaborated with the industrial band Nurse With Wound and released two albums together, Crumb Duck (1993) and Simple Headphone Mind (1998), and Stereolab also released "Calimero" (1998) with French avant-garde singer and poet Brigitte Fontaine. The band worked with Herbie Mann on the song "One Note Samba/Surfboard" for the 1998 AIDS-Benefit album, Red Hot + Rio, produced by the Red Hot Organization.
Stereolab alumni have also founded bands of their own. Guitarist Tim Gane founded the side project Cavern of Anti-Matter and also formed Turn on alongside band member Sean O'Hagan, who formed his own band the High Llamas. Katharine Gifford formed Snowpony with former My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe. Sadier has released three albums with her four-piece side-project Monade, whose sound Mark Jenkins called a "little more Parisian" than Stereolab's. Backing vocalist Mary Hansen formed a band named Schema with members of Hovercraft and released their eponymous EP in 2000.
As of August 1999, US album sales stood at 300,000 copies sold. Despite receiving critical acclaim and a sizeable fanbase, commercial success eluded the group. Early in their career, their 1993 EP Jenny Ondioline entered the UK Singles Chart, but financial issues prevented the band from printing enough records to satisfy demand. According to Sadier, however, the band "[avoided] going overground" like PJ Harvey, Pulp and the Cranberries, all of whom quickly rose from obscurity to fame, adding: "This kind of notoriety is not a particularly good thing, [and] you don't enjoy it anymore." When Elektra Records was closed down by Warner Bros. Records in 2004, Stereolab was dropped along with many other artists, reportedly because of poor sales. Tim Gane said in retrospect that the group "signed to Elektra because we thought we would be on there for an album or two and then we'd get ejected. We were surprised when we got to our first album!" Since then, Stereolab's self-owned label Duophonic has inked a worldwide distribution deal with independent label Too Pure. Through Duophonic, the band both licenses their music and releases it directly (depending on geographic market). Gane said, "... we license our recordings and just give them to people, then we don't have to ask for permission if we want to use it. We just want to be in control of our own music."
## Members
Current members
- Tim Gane - guitar, keyboards (1990–2009, 2019–present)
- Lætitia Sadier - lead vocals, keyboards, guitar, percussion, trombone (1990–2009, 2019–present)
- Andy Ramsay - drums (1992–2009, 2019–present)
- Joseph Watson - keyboards, vibraphone, backing vocals (2004–2009, 2019–present)
- Xavier Muñoz Guimera - bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
- Joe Dilworth - drums (1990–1992)
- Martin Kean - bass guitar (1990–1992)
- Gina Morris - backing vocals (1991)
- Mick Conroy - keyboards (1992)
- Mary Hansen - backing and lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion (1992–2002) (died 2002)
- Sean O'Hagan - keyboards, guitar (1993)
- Duncan Brown - bass guitar (1993–1995)
- Katharine Gifford - keyboards (1993–1995)
- Morgane Lhote - keyboards (1995–2000)
- David Pajo - bass guitar (1995)
- Richard Harrison - bass guitar (1996–1998)
- Simon Johns - bass guitar (1999–2009)
- Dominic Jeffery - keyboards (2001–2006)
- Joseph Walters - french horn, guitar, keyboards (2004–2008)
- Julien Gasc - keyboards, backing vocals (2008–2009)
Timeline
## Discography
Studio albums
- Peng! (1992)
- Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (1993)
- Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)
- Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
- Dots and Loops (1997)
- Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night (1999)
- Sound-Dust (2001)
- Margerine Eclipse (2004)
- Chemical Chords (2008)
- Not Music (2010)
Compilation albums''' Stereolab released many non-LP tracks that they later anthologised as compilation albums.
- Switched On (1992)
- Refried Ectoplasm: Switched On, Vol. 2 (1995)
- Aluminum Tunes: Switched On, Vol. 3 (1998)
- ABC Music: The Radio 1 Sessions (2002)
- Oscillons from the Anti-Sun (2005)
- Fab Four Suture (2006)
- Serene Velocity: A Stereolab Anthology (2006)
- Electrically Possessed: Switched On, Vol. 4 (2021)
- Pulse of the Early Brain: Switched On, Vol. 5'' (2022)
|
51,180,903 |
San Junipero
| 1,165,937,699 | null |
[
"2016 British television episodes",
"Black Mirror episodes",
"British LGBT-related television episodes",
"Fiction about consciousness transfer",
"Fiction set in 1987",
"Fiction set in 2002",
"Films scored by Clint Mansell",
"Lesbian-related television",
"Netflix original television series episodes",
"Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie winners",
"Television episodes about death",
"Television episodes about euthanasia",
"Television episodes about simulated reality",
"Television episodes about the afterlife",
"Television episodes set in the 1980s",
"Television episodes set in the 2000s",
"Television episodes written by Charlie Brooker"
] |
"San Junipero" is the fourth episode in the third series of the British science fiction anthology television series Black Mirror. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by Owen Harris, it premiered on Netflix on 21 October 2016, with the rest of series three.
The episode is set in a beach resort town named San Junipero, where the introverted Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) meets the more outgoing Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). The town is part of a simulated reality the elderly can inhabit, even after death. "San Junipero" was the first episode written for series three of Black Mirror; initial drafts were based on nostalgia therapy and designed as a 1980s period piece. The first script was about a mixed-sex couple and had an unhappy ending; the final version was about a same-sex couple and had a happy ending. Filming took place in London and Cape Town across a few weeks. The soundtrack interweaves 1980s songs with an original score by Clint Mansell.
The episode received critical acclaim, with particular praise for Mbatha-Raw's and Davis's performances, its plot twist, its visual style, and its uplifting tone (atypical for the show). It had higher critical ratings than the show's other episodes, while some critics considered it one of the best television episodes of 2016. In addition to several other accolades, "San Junipero" won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
## Plot
In 1987, a shy young woman named Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) visits the nightclub Tucker's in San Junipero. Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a vivacious party girl, rebuffs the advances of Wes (Gavin Stenhouse) to talk to Yorkie. Kelly and Yorkie dance, but Yorkie becomes uncomfortable and leaves the club. Kelly follows and sexually propositions Yorkie, who declines, saying she is engaged. The following week, Yorkie returns to the bar and observes Kelly flirting with another man. Yorkie and Kelly reunite in the bathroom, kiss there, and end up having sex at Kelly's beach house. Yorkie confesses that it was her first time having sex, and Kelly reveals that she was once married.
The next week, Yorkie visits another nightclub, the BDSM-themed Quagmire, looking for Kelly. Wes advises her to "try a different time". Yorkie visits Tucker's in a few different decades until she finds Kelly in 2002, but Kelly rejects her. After Yorkie leaves, Kelly follows and confesses she is dying; Kelly had avoided Yorkie because she feared developing feelings for her. The two have sex again, and Yorkie reluctantly tells Kelly she lives in Santa Rosa, California, so they can meet.
San Junipero is revealed to be a simulated reality where the deceased can live, and the elderly can visit, all inhabiting their younger selves' bodies in a time of their choice. In the physical world, the elderly Kelly (Denise Burse) visits Yorkie (Annabel Davis). She learns from Yorkie's nurse Greg (Raymond McAnally) that Yorkie was paralysed at age 21 after crashing her car when her parents reacted negatively to her coming out. Yorkie wishes to be euthanised to live in San Junipero permanently, but her family objects; she intends to marry Greg so that he can consent for her. Kelly offers to marry Yorkie instead, and after she enthusiastically accepts, Kelly authorises Yorkie's euthanasia.
During Kelly's next visit to San Junipero, Yorkie asks her to stay full-time. Kelly says she plans to die without being uploaded to the simulation; her husband chose the same fate because their daughter died before San Junipero existed. Yorkie and Kelly argue, and Kelly leaves in her car, which she intentionally crashes. Yorkie catches up to her just as Kelly disappears, her visiting time over for the week.
Time passes and Kelly decides she is ready to enter San Junipero permanently. She is euthanised and buried alongside her family, and she happily reunites with Yorkie in San Junipero.
## Production
"San Junipero" is the fourth episode of series three of Black Mirror; all six episodes in this series were simultaneously released on Netflix on 21 October 2016. Whilst series one and two of Black Mirror were shown on Channel 4 in the UK, Netflix commissioned the series for 12 episodes (split into two series of six episodes) in September 2015 with a bid of \$40 million, and in March 2016, Netflix outbid Channel 4 for the right to distribute series three in the UK. Due to its move to Netflix, the show had a larger budget than in previous series, and a larger episode order which allowed the show to vary its genre and tone more than previous series. Alongside series three episode "Nosedive", "San Junipero" was first shown in 2016 ahead of its Netflix release at the Toronto International Film Festival.
### Conception and writing
"San Junipero" was the first script produced for series three, written by Charlie Brooker as a "conscious decision to change the series". The show previously focused on technology's negative effects; this episode served as proof that uplifting Black Mirror episodes are possible.
Brooker initially envisioned an episode in which technology is used to investigate whether an afterlife exists, thinking of the genres of horror and supernatural fiction. He later became inspired by nostalgia therapy, wherein elderly people are immersed in music and fashion from their youth.\<ref name="EW 2016-10-21"/ Brooker and executive producer Annabel Jones felt that their concept of virtual consciousness, established in the episode "White Christmas", had more potential. One of Brooker's original concepts was based on the episode "Be Right Back", in which deceased persons' personalities are uploaded into artificial entities in a theme park that relatives can visit. This idea was scrapped with the 2016 broadcast of Westworld, in which humans visit a theme park inhabited by androids. He then recalled the 2010 BBC series The Young Ones, in which older celebrities live in a home decorated in the fashion of the 1970s and find themselves rejuvenated by the setting. Having repeatedly thought of writing an episode set in the past, Brooker wrote "San Junipero" as a period episode.
Brooker has said that he wrote the script for the episode in four days. In the initial draft, the love story was about a heterosexual couple, but Brooker changed it to give the episode an extra resonance, as same-sex marriage was not legal in 1987. He has said that having a twist makes the writing process easier, as "when you know that 85 percent of what's happening you can't reveal till later on, it actually sort of narrows your options in a useful way". One draft of the episode contained a scene where Kelly visits a kindergarten in San Junipero, full of children who had died, but it was removed because "it was too sad and too poignant of a note to hit in that story". Brooker chose the setting of California, a location in America rather than Britain, as a way to "upend" people's preconceptions of Black Mirror. One reviewer noted that all of the characters in "San Junipero" are American.
The episode was originally to have an unhappy ending. Brooker told The Daily Beast that in the rough treatment, the episode ended with the scene where Kelly and Yorkie meet in the hospital, but "when I sat down to actually write it, I was enjoying it so much that I thought, No, I'm going to keep going!" He conceived of Yorkie's euthanasia and expanded on Kelly's backstory, writing her emotional speech to Yorkie in one sitting. The ending came about when Brooker heard "Heaven is a Place on Earth" off a streaming playlist while writing the script, and wanted to license the song for the episode. After listening to the song and lyrics several times, he came to the final shot, which shows a bank of computer servers with flashing lights, giving literal weight to the song's title. An unused idea for the ending had the audience see Kelly and Yorkie in many different eras, such as the 1920s.
Following the episode's release, Brooker was asked about a Reddit post speculating that Kelly is simulated for Yorkie's benefit, rather than really there; he replied "Wrong! They are together", and commented that "[t]hey have the happiest ending imaginable. [...] it's not a big rainbow sandwich, but what appears to be happening there, is happening there."
### Setting and music
The nightclub settings featured arcade games, which Brooker took an interest in choosing as he was a teenager during the 1980s and has worked as a video game journalist. Director Owen Harris described the 1980s as a "period in life that was really optimistic". He chose the year 1987 "fairly arbitrarily" and mentioned "very specific movie posters" in the script. Brooker put together a playlist of music from 1987 on Spotify. Some songs, such as Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" and the Smiths' "Girlfriend in a Coma", hint at the episode's plot twist, as do arcade games Time Crisis and The House of the Dead. Each song had to be cleared for roughly 15 years for Netflix. Every song was successfully cleared except one by Prince.
"Heaven Is a Place on Earth" plays at the episode's beginning and over the end credits. Brooker first heard it while running, and believed it would be perfect for the final scene, admitting in an interview he would have been "absolutely distraught" if they had been unable to use it. "Girlfriend in a Coma" features in the episode "for about five seconds", yet cost "an outrageous amount of money", Brooker said. Jones said the song's inclusion "was indulgent but at the same time, it was so important that we set up that era so it felt different". Robbie Nevil's song "C'est La Vie" was chosen by Harris, as it was one of the first singles he ever purchased.
The episode also featured an original score by Clint Mansell. Mansell was approached by Harris, and based the score around the previously chosen songs, including "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". He has said that the "calm electronic" score was influenced by John Hughes movies and the death of his girlfriend a year before. In December 2016, Lakeshore Records released the score for downloading and streaming.
### Cast and filming
Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who plays Kelly, had heard of the show but not seen it when she received the script, though she did watch the series two episode "Be Right Back" before the shoot. Mbatha-Raw read the entire script as soon as she received it, on a bus journey from Oxford Circus to Brixton. Mackenzie Davis, who plays Yorkie, first saw the show with a friend who had pirated it; they watched "The National Anthem". Denise Burse plays the elder Kelly in the real world, as using prosthetics on Mbatha-Raw was quickly discounted. Annabel Davis was cast as elder Yorkie.
The episode's director was Owen Harris, who previously directed "Be Right Back" – an episode he described as "strangely similar" to this one as both are "relationship-led". Joel Collins served as production designer. The 1986 teen films Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off were considered as inspiration to anchor the audience in "a place they know". The episode was filmed in 15 days across a three-week period, with shooting split equally between London for most of the interior shots, and Cape Town, South Africa, for most external scenes. They did not film in the United States as a cost-cutting measure. Mbatha-Raw said there was little time to rehearse, and she had little opportunity to meet Davis before shooting. Kelly's outfit was inspired by celebrities of the 1980s such as Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston, while Yorkie's outfit "looks like her mum laid it out on her bed", according to Davis. Her clothing is constant throughout the episode to subvert a "transforming geek" trope in fiction, also allowing her change to be internal rather than external.
The first day of filming was in London for the Quagmire nightclub, shot on location in the Electrowerkz nightclub venue in Islington. For the club Tucker's, a 3D model was made, which Brooker and Harris viewed with a virtual reality headset. Mbatha-Raw and Davis worked with a dance choreographer and danced to Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done for Me Lately", though Alexander O'Neal's "Fake" was used in the final edit. The alleyway scene features rain, which Harris insisted on including despite Brooker's protestations that the simulated world would not have rain. Harris said that Cape Town "has these really rich, beautiful settings" that allowed him to craft a "slightly heightened" version of California. He noted that whilst shooting Kelly and Yorkie's argument on the beach, an "incredible mist rolled in from the ocean", which caused difficulties but led to "some really lovely texture". Mbatha-Raw said that almost every scene was shot at night or dusk, particularly the exterior scenes.
### Editing
The episode contains hints leading up to the reveal of the twist. For example, the choice of the song "Girlfriend in a Coma", and the use of the arcade games Time Crisis and The House of the Dead allude to the true reality of the episode. More overtly, Yorkie reacts viscerally to seeing a car accident in an arcade game, an element that Brooker was surprised was not picked up by viewers earlier. A factor considered during the editing process was how overt the hints should be. Annabel Jones said that "there may be visual signifiers that you think were going to work and then didn't, so you need more exposition in the edit". Adjustments were also made using sound design techniques such as sound effects.
## Marketing
The titles of the six episodes that make up series 3 were announced in July 2016, along with the release date. A trailer for series three, featuring an amalgamation of clips and sound bites from the six episodes, was released by Netflix on 7 October 2016. A short clip "Orange Is the New Black Mirror", released by Netflix in 2017, is a crossover between this episode and Orange is the New Black, featuring characters Poussey and Taystee from the latter reunited in San Junipero.
## Analysis
Reviewers have described "San Junipero" as a highly optimistic, emotionally rooted love story and a work of science fiction. It features the first same-sex couple in Black Mirror. Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian wrote that it "leaves you believing in the power of love to fight pain and loneliness". Some reviewers noted that the love story "transcends consciousness". The episode also has unhappy elements and has been called "bittersweet". It evokes nostalgia for the 1980s with its soundtrack and its style, and can be considered a period piece. It also raises questions about death and the afterlife. Esquire reviewer Emma Dibdin called it a "modern fairy tale".
At the time of its release, "San Junipero" was said to be the most different from other Black Mirror episodes due to its more hopeful tone. Mat Elfring of GameSpot described it as the only episode with "warmth to it", and Digital Spy reviewer Morgan Jeffery called it the "most upbeat and positive". Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club believed that the previous episodes' sad tone heightens the effectiveness of "San Junipero", and Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent thought that it was consequently the show's most ambitious episode. Variety critic Sonia Saraiya pointed out that technology is portrayed as good in "San Junipero", a rarity in the show. The Atlantic reviewer David Sims noted that the episode follows the season's darkest episode, "Shut Up and Dance".
The episode subverts a common trope in television of killing off lesbian characters: though Kelly and Yorkie die, they have a happy ending. Its Emmy Award wins were considered by some to mark a cultural shift in relation to portrayal of lesbianism, or as proof of concept that works dealing with LGBT characters do not have to be tragic. "San Junipero" has also been cited as an example of bisexual lighting, in which neon pink and deep blue – the colours on the bisexual pride flag – represent bisexual characters. Amelia Perrin of Cosmopolitan criticised that this and the episode's nightclub setting reinforce a stereotype of bisexuality as "a 'phase' or something experimental".
The episode's plot raises many philosophical questions, including the nature of consciousness and experience and the consequences of digitally simulated existence, though these issues are not the focus of the episode. Reviewers have questioned what San Junipero would mean to believers in an afterlife, and what would happen to its inhabitants in case of technical malfunctions.
## Reception
At the time of its release, "San Junipero" was Black Mirror's most popular episode among fans, which has been attributed to its emotive presentation of a love story with a happy ending. It has been favourably received by critics, garnering an approval from 92% of 25 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and an average rating of 8/10. Critics' consensus on the website reads, "Black Mirror delivers an uncharacteristically uplifting and enjoyable ending in "San Junipero", an especially bright and sweetly surprising episode that benefits greatly from its vibrant lead performances." The episode was rated five stars out of five in the Irish Independent and an A in The A.V. Club. Along with "Nosedive", Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the episode four stars, while The Telegraph gave "San Junipero" three stars. It has been described by critics as one of the "best hours" and one of the "most beautiful, cinematic episodes" of television in 2016.
Mbatha-Raw's and Davis's performances were universally praised. Sims lauded the couple's chemistry and said the pair concisely communicate "a whole lifetime of angst and desires". Mullane commented that the strong acting keeps the audience interested prior to the plot twist. Caitlin Welsh of Junkee complimented the "understated, pitch-perfect" performances for making the characters' relationship feel genuine. Mbatha-Raw and Davis were praised for their emotional range, for giving "fierce and vulnerable performances", and for anchoring the episode.
Mbatha-Raw and Davis also received praise in negative reviews. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph criticised the characters' dialogue but praised that the ending is emotional due to Mbatha-Raw's "vivacity and conviction". Aubrey Page of Collider reviewed that the episode is unoriginal, but this is compensated by the perfect casting and emotion of the acting. However, Andrew Wallenstein of Variety criticised Mbatha-Raw and Davis for an inability to "pack the emotional punch" needed for the episode to stand out.
The episode's plot twist, revealing that San Junipero is a simulated reality, was commended by critics. Pat Stacey of Irish Independent called the twist "ingenious" while Louisa Mellor of Den of Geek described it as "captivating". Adam Chitwood of Collider noted that there is more to the episode than its twist and praised Harris for how the story unfolds. Similarly, Alex Mullane of Digital Spy said the developments in the story are "refreshing" as they are not presented as twists. Handlen liked how the episode finds a balance between revealing information and making the audience care about the characters.
The episode's visual style and music, which evoke the 1980s, were well received. IndieWire praised both the production design and soundtrack. Mullane called Mansell's score "wonderfully tender". The Wrap reviewers said that the episode was "visually stunning" and its nostalgia for the 80s was "joyous".
Many critics admired the emotion the episode evokes, and how it ventured into a new genre for the show. Corey Atad of Esquire and Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter both opined that the story would leave viewers in tears, and Adam David of CNN Philippines cried whilst watching it. Stacey found the episode "extremely moving". Scott Meslow of GQ called it "breathtakingly and tear-jerkingly human". Lee was surprised by the episode's poignancy, while Mellor wrote that it is "genuinely moving". Mullane said the episode demonstrated that the show can tell stories without a dark tone, and Jacob Hall of /Film concurred. Wallenstein called the episode "satisfyingly daring", although he ranked it poorly in comparison to other episodes.
The episode has also received negative criticism from a minority of critics. Collin noted that the episode's central conceit has been widely used within the science fiction genre. Stolworthy criticised the third act as "overloaded" and commented that "San Junipero", rather than "Hated in the Nation", should have been 90 minutes long.
### Black Mirror episode rankings
"San Junipero" appeared on many critics' rankings of the 23 instalments in the Black Mirror series, from best to worst.
- 1st – Ed Power, The Telegraph
- 2nd – Matt Donnelly and Tim Molloy, TheWrap
- 2nd – James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly
- 3rd (of the Top Seven) – Al Horner, GQ
- 3rd – Corey Atad, Esquire
- 3rd – Travis Clark, Business Insider
- 4th (of the Top Ten) – Gina Carbone, CinemaBlend
- 4th – Morgan Jeffery, Digital Spy
- 4th – Aubrey Page, Collider
- 6th – Charles Bramesco, Vulture
Following the fifth series, Brian Tallerico of Vulture rated Mbatha-Raw's performance the fourth best of Black Mirror. Additionally, Proma Khosla of Mashable ranked the 22 Black Mirror instalments excluding Bandersnatch by tone, concluding that "San Junipero" is the second-least pessimistic episode of the show after "Hang the DJ".
The episode also appears on critics' rankings of the 19 episodes from series 1 to series 4:
- 2nd – Eric Anthony Glover, Entertainment Tonight
- 4th – Steve Greene, Hanh Nguyen and Liz Shannon Miller, IndieWire
Other critics ranked the 13 episodes in Black Mirror's first three series.
- 1st – Jacob Hall, /Film
- 2nd – Adam David, CNN Philippines
- 3rd – Mat Elfring, GameSpot
- 3rd (of the Top Ten) – Brendan Doyle, Comingsoon.net
- 9th – Andrew Wallenstein, Variety
"San Junipero" has been widely described as the best episode of series three of Black Mirror. It has also appeared at various ranks on critics' lists of series three episodes by quality.
- 1st – Liam Hoofe, Flickering Myth
- 5th – Jacob Stolworthy and Christopher Hooton, The Independent
### End-of-year lists
"San Junipero" appears in multiple critics' lists of the best episodes of television from 2016.
- 1st of 15 – Den of Geek, 25 reviewers
- 2nd of 9 – The Guardian, 7 reviewers
- 2nd of 20 – Variety, Sonia Saraiya
- 3rd of 33 – Vox, Caroline Framke and Emily VanDerWerff
- 5th of 10 – Entertainment Weekly
- 7th of 25 – IndieWire, Ben Travers, Hanh Nguyen, Liz Shannon Miller
- 9th of 10 – Time, Daniel D'Addario
- 9th of 25 – Paste
- 18th of 20 – Esquire, Emma Dibdin
Other critics listed their favourite episodes of television in 2016, without giving an order. "San Junipero" appears on these lists:
- Top 10 – The Washington Post, Bethanie Butler
- Top 10 – The New York Times, 4 reviewers
- Top 10 – Cinema Blend, Laura Hurley
- Top 12 – GQ, Scott Meslow
- Top 15 – The Hollywood Reporter, Tim Goodman and Daniel Fienberg
### Awards
In 2017, "San Junipero" won two Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as two BAFTA Television Craft Awards. It has also won or been nominated for several other accolades:
## Future
In August 2017, Brooker said there were no plans for a sequel episode to "San Junipero". He told the Los Angeles Times that "we want to keep [Kelly and Yorkie] happy there". In an interview with NME, Brooker mentioned that some ideas for the episode were later removed, such as a scene with a kindergarten in San Junipero that "felt like a whole world in and of itself". He raised the idea of doing a sequel in "a completely different form", such as a graphic novel or "an experience". "San Junipero" has been alluded to through Easter eggs in subsequent episodes: for example, "Black Museum" shows Kelly's and Yorkie's dresses on display in a museum, and features a hospital named Saint Juniper's.
|
42,689,546 |
Jean Bellette
| 1,169,289,296 |
Australian artist (1908–1991)
|
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"20th-century Australian painters",
"20th-century Australian women artists",
"Alumni of the Westminster School of Art",
"Artists from Hobart",
"Australian expatriates in Spain",
"Australian women painters",
"Blake Prize for Religious Art",
"Julian Ashton Art School alumni",
"People educated at The Friends' School, Hobart",
"People from Mallorca"
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Jean Bellette (occasionally Jean Haefliger; 25 March 1908 – 16 March 1991) was an Australian artist. Born in Tasmania, she was educated in Hobart and at Julian Ashton's art school in Sydney, where one of her teachers was Thea Proctor. In London she studied under painters Bernard Meninsky and Mark Gertler.
A modernist painter, Bellette was influential in mid-twentieth century Sydney art circles. She frequently painted scenes influenced by the Greek tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles and the epics of Homer. The only woman to have won the Sulman Prize more than once, Bellette claimed the accolade in 1942 with For Whom the Bell Tolls, and in 1944 with Iphigenia in Tauris. She helped found the Blake Prize for Religious Art, and was its inaugural judge. Bellette married artist and critic Paul Haefliger in 1935. The couple moved to Majorca in 1957; although she visited and exhibited in Australia thereafter, she did not return there to live, and became peripheral to the Australian art scene.
## Early life and training
Bellette was born in Hobart on 25 March 1908 and grew up an only child in rural Tasmania with her artist mother and postmaster father. Initially a student at the local Anglican school in Deloraine, at the age of 13 she became a boarder at Friends' School in Hobart, and then at Hobart's technical college.
She was subsequently a student at Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney. Her teachers included Thea Proctor, and fellow students included artist John Passmore and Quinton Tidswell. Her drawings and watercolours displayed in the 1934 student art exhibition attracted favourable comment from the art critic for The Sydney Morning Herald. At Ashton's art school, Bellette met fellow Australian artist Paul Haefliger, and in 1935 they married. The following year they travelled to Europe, and Bellette (like Passmore) studied at the Westminster School of Art, where she was taught by figurative painters Bernard Meninsky and Mark Gertler. In 1938, Bellette and her husband studied life drawing at Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.
## Career
### Australia
Bellette and Haefliger returned to Australia just before the outbreak of World War II. Shortly after her arrival, Bellette held an exhibition at Sydney's Macquarie Galleries. The couple became influential members of the Sydney Art Group, a network of "fashionable" moderns whose membership included William Dobell and Russell Drysdale. Bellette painted and held regular shows – "a solo show every second year and a group show every year at the Macquarie Galleries". Her husband served as art critic for The Sydney Morning Herald for a decade and a half.
In 1942, Bellette won the Sir John Sulman Prize with For Whom the Bell Tolls. She won it again in 1944 with her painting Iphigenia in Tauris, inspired by Euripides' play. The composition is set in a dry, open landscape, with several riders on horses whose appearance suggests "the Australian present, rather than Greek antiquity". The judge awarding the prize actually preferred another of her entries, Electra, depicting the sister of Iphigenia also prominent in Greek tragedy – but it failed to meet the size requirements. Both Iphigenia in Tauris and Electra were among the many works created by Bellette in the 1940s that were inspired by the tragedies of Euripides, Sophocles and Homer. Her choice of subject matter and approach placed her at odds with mainstream modernism, while she seemed to shun explicit links between the classical and the Australian. Bellette reasoned that she preferred to choose her palette and the spatial arrangements of her compositions to evoke a place's atmosphere. Critics identified the influence of European modernists Aristide Maillol and Giorgio de Chirico, as well as Italian Quattrocento painters Masaccio and Piero della Francesca, about some of whom Bellette wrote articles in the journal Art in Australia.
The most distinctive feature of the artist's work was this choice of classical subjects. In 1946, Bellette's paintings were hung in at least four separate exhibitions. Reviewers commented on her synthesis of "the impulsiveness of romanticism and the deliberateness of classicism", and her "romantically classical" approach. Despite the generally positive views, there were some reservations, particularly that the artist might be at risk of settling upon, and then repeating, a formula in her work. Bellette's treatment of classical subjects extended beyond conventional painting; in 1947 she created a textile design, titled "myths and legends", and in 1948 she created the sets for a production of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Her "vigorous imaginativeness" was well reviewed, though the acting was not.
Though she did not again win the Sulman, she was successful in having works hung in that competition on many occasions, including the 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1950 shows. Bellette continued to paint classical scenes, and around 1950 produced the work Chorus without Iphigenia. Purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 1976, this oil painting shows five figures, "posed like statues in a tableau vivant, [and who] possess a kind of erotic energy". Anne Gray, the National Gallery's curator, interpreted the scene chosen by Bellette:
> Although nothing is happening in this image, we associate the figures with tragedy, with death and mourning – with the classical reference in the painting's title. Iphigenia, Agamemnon's daughter, gave her life for her country when the goddess Artemis asked for it in exchange for favourable winds so that the Greek ships could sail to Troy. Bellette's melancholic painting might be supposed to portray Iphigenia's friends mourning her death.
In 1951, Bellette came second in the Commonwealth Jubilee Art Competition, behind the young Jeffrey Smart. The following year, she won a competitive exhibition sponsored by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, with Girl With Still Life.
Although Haefliger never critiqued his wife's exhibitions, others occasionally stepped in to provide reviews in the Herald. Describing her 1950 exhibition at the Macquarie Galleries, one critic considered it "one of the most stimulating and refreshing that has been seen here for a long time" and that "She paints with a strong, sombre palette and her forms are sculptured with great decision. She uses paint sensuously and passionately, as paint, not as so many contemporary Australians do, as mere colour".
Two years later, the same reviewer, attending another of the artist's solo Sydney shows, observed that Bellette:
> is one of the few Australian artists here who combines a firm technique with a sensitive and rich emotion. In some of the lighter landscapes in this exhibition, Miss Bellette seems to have been trying to solve some of the particular difficulties of painting Australian landscapes. The clear, strong light tends to flatten the form and bleach the colour; a problem that doesn't lend itself to the dramatic tensions and dark moods that are characteristic of her work. It requires a colder and more dispassionate approach. But when she finds landscapes to her taste, such as the rugged hills and beetling clouds in No. 8, the earth decaying with erosion in No. 19, or the prickly desolation of "Rough Country", No. 14, she handles them with great skill and effectiveness. Her figure drawings are decisively drawn and firmly modelled. The girls have a pensive dignity as though they are pondering the burdens and joylessness of a future to be spent as caryatids. The still lives and the interior are admirable exercises in formal organisation, the colours being sombre yet rich.
Around this time, Bellette also held a show in Melbourne, which included some black-and-white landscape studies as well as some of her classical Greek subjects. Arnold Shore, art critic for The Argus, drew a contrast between the two groups of works. He thought that one of the landscapes "sets the heart singing with its lovely tone, pattern and sense of place". Continuing, he noted that the landscapes and some other works "attain at their best a standard only vaguely suggested when the painter concerned herself too much with striving after a new treatment of ancient Grecian ideals."
Paintings by Bellette were among those of twelve Australian artists included in the 1953 Arts Council of Great Britain exhibition in London, five regional British cities, and at the Venice Biennale. Bellette was one of only two women represented, the other being Constance Stokes. As with her Sulman prize-winners, Bellette's subjects were classically themed works: Electra (1944) and Oedipus (1945). Arts Council chairman Kenneth Clark was disappointed with the response of British critics to the exhibition, and their focus on a theme of nationhood paid little regard to the works of Bellette and several others.
As well as spending time in Sydney's art community, in 1954 Haefliger and Bellette purchased a cottage in Hill End, an old gold mining village in central New South Wales. They added a studio, and the site became both a weekender and a venue for social visits and artistic endeavours by colleagues from the Sydney circle, including Drysdale, Margaret Olley, John Olsen, David Edgar Strachan and Donald Friend. This gathering of artists, sometimes referred to as the Hill End Group, is known for its landscape art. Bellette, though sometimes a painter of landscapes, was known for her classical subjects and still lifes, which critics struggled to accommodate within their understanding of the Hill End Group. Nevertheless, several still lifes from this period are held in public collections, including Still Life with Fish (1954), in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and Still life with wooden bowl (c. 1954), in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. These images were often rendered with strong colour, which was also sometimes a feature of earlier works on which critics would remark.
Both Bellette and Haefliger had for many years been informal organisers of Sydney's artistic community. In 1955, Bellette helped found the Blake Prize for religious art, and was its inaugural judge.
### Majorca
In 1957, Haefliger's extramarital affair, which had lasted for over a decade, came to an end. Bellette and Haefliger left Australia intending to divorce quietly, but were reconciled. After a year in Paris they settled in Majorca, living first in Deià before buying a house in the hamlet of C'an Baxu. Bellette painted landscapes and still lifes that reflected a Spanish influence, exemplified by Spells for Planting (1964). This work was acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in the year it was exhibited in Melbourne, one of a number of shows in which Bellette participated in Australia through the 1960s. The year she moved to Majorca turned out to be the last year in which she exhibited work outside Australia. The couple visited in 1970 and 1975, and Bellette returned once more in 1983. Bellette had become an "onlooker" to the local art scene. This was in part because of a transition in Australian art that included the rise of abstract expressionism, the strong influence of a small number of gallery owners, and discrimination against women that reached "record levels". Bellette was nevertheless able to secure some exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne. These infrequent exhibitions were received very positively by critics. When her work was hung at the South Yarra Gallery in 1964, noted art historian and critic Bernard Smith stated in his review for The Age that he "could not recall an exhibition in Melbourne of this quality since I began to write this column." Reviewing her 1966 show in Sydney, the Herald critic considered it was her "ability to combine the calm beauty of form of her beloved classicism of content with a dark romantic spirit that has gained her such an honourable place in Australian painting...the antiquity of nature and man's constructions are explored with a subtle, powerful inquiry." In 1971, Melbourne critic Alan McCulloch considered her classical compositions to be her most successful. Drawing parallels between classical tragedy and contemporary global refugee crises, he noted "there is infinite tenderness in these paintings and infinite sadness. For although these rocky, shadowed landscapes are peopled with the ghosts and shades of an ancient civilisation, they are also curiously symbolic of present day tensions and tragedies."
Bellette and Haefliger lived and worked for the rest of their lives in Majorca, with periodic trips to Italy. Friends such as artists Jeffrey Smart and John Olsen visited them regularly in Europe. An injury to her wrist meant that paintings prepared in 1976 for a solo exhibition were her last. Haefliger died in March 1982; Bellette survived breast cancer and a mastectomy in 1986 and died on 16 March 1991.
## Legacy
Prior to her death, Bellette bequeathed the Hill End cottage to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (which manages the Hill End historic site), on condition that it be used as an artists' retreat. It continues to operate for that purpose. As of 2016, Bellette is the only woman to have won the Sulman Prize on more than one occasion. A large number of her works are held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales; other galleries that hold examples include Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Bendigo Art Gallery, Geelong Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. In 2004–05, a major retrospective exhibition was held at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, the S. H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney, the University of Queensland Art Museum, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and the Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra.
Described by Amanda Beresford as Australia's "only true modern classicist", Bellette is generally regarded as an influential figure in the modern art movement in Sydney in the mid-twentieth century. Art historian Janine Burke described Bellette as "a leader of the post-war art world", and the University of Queensland Art Museum's curator placed her as "a seminal figure in the visual arts from the 1930s until her death in Majorca in 1991". Of her paintings, opinions vary. Burke described her as "arguably the best painter" of the Sydney circle. Historian Geoffrey Dutton was unconvinced about her choice of subject but praised Bellette's "assured if muted" style, while dismissing the lesser efforts of her husband. Art historian and writer Sasha Grishin had a different view. Commenting on Bellette's paintings of Greek mythological subjects created in the 1940s, he wrote, "they were neither very convincing as paintings, nor works that had a particular resonance in Sydney or Australian art at the time". John Passmore and Bellette studied together both in Australia and England, travelled in Europe, and exhibited side by side in group shows. He was highly critical of Bellette's work, while Yvonne Audette, who went to a few of the artist's drawing classes, described her classical works as "dull poses, and very badly drawn, and even more badly painted, like clumsy colouring-in".
|
31,512,146 |
Far Eastern Party
| 1,035,005,793 |
Sledging component of the 1911–14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition
|
[
"1912 in Antarctica",
"1913 in Antarctica",
"Australasian Antarctic Expedition",
"Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration",
"History of the Ross Dependency"
] |
The Far Eastern Party was a sledging component of the 1911–1914 Australasian Antarctic expedition, which investigated the previously unexplored coastal regions of Antarctica west of Cape Adare. Led by Douglas Mawson, the party aimed to explore the area far to the east of their main base in Adélie Land, pushing about 500 miles (800 km) towards Victoria Land. Accompanying Mawson were Belgrave Edward Ninnis, a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, and Swiss ski expert Xavier Mertz; the party used sledge dogs to increase their speed across the ice. Initially they made good progress, crossing two huge glaciers on their route south-east.
On 14 December 1912, with the party more than 311 miles (501 km) from the safety of the main base at Cape Denison, Ninnis and the sledge he was walking beside broke through the snow lid of a crevasse and were lost. Their supplies now severely compromised, Mawson and Mertz turned back west, gradually shooting the remaining sledge dogs for food to supplement their scarce rations. As they crossed the first glacier on their return journey Mertz became sick, making progress difficult. After almost a week of making very little headway Mertz died, leaving Mawson to carry on alone.
For almost a month he pulled his sledge across the Antarctic, crossing the second glacier, despite an illness that increasingly weakened him. Mawson reached the comparative safety of Aladdin's Cave—a food depot five point five miles (8.9 km) from the main base—on 1 February 1913, only to be trapped there for a week while a blizzard raged outside. As a result, he missed the ship back to Australia; the had sailed on 8 February, just hours before his return to Cape Denison, after waiting for more than three weeks. With a relief party, Mawson remained at Cape Denison until the Aurora returned the following summer in December 1913.
The causes of Mertz's death and Mawson's related illness remain uncertain; a 1969 study suggested hypervitaminosis A, presumably caused by the men eating the livers of their Greenland huskies, which are now known to be unusually high in vitamin A. While this is considered the most likely theory, dissenting opinions suggest prolonged cold exposure or psychological stresses. Explorer and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary described Mawson's month-long journey as "probably the greatest story of lone survival in Polar exploration".
## Background
The Australasian Antarctic expedition, commanded by Douglas Mawson, explored part of East Antarctica between 1911 and 1914. The expedition's main base was established in January 1912, at Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay, Adélie Land. This was much farther west than originally intended; dense pack ice had prevented the expedition ship from landing closer to Cape Adare, the original eastern limit. Only after the Aurora—heading west—had rounded the ice tongue of the Mertz Glacier, was a landing made.
Battling katabatic winds that swept down from the Antarctic Plateau, the shore party erected their hut and began preparations for the following summer's sledging expeditions. The men readied clothing, sledges, tents and rations, conducted limited survey parties, and deployed several caches of supplies. The most notable of these depots was Aladdin's Cave, excavated from the ice on the slope five and a half miles (9 km) to the south of the main hut.
On 27 October 1912, Mawson outlined the summer sledging program. Of the seven sledging parties that would depart from Cape Denison, three would head east. The Eastern Coastal Party, led by the geologist Cecil Madigan, was charged with exploring beyond the Mertz Glacier tongue; they would initially be supported by the Near Eastern Party led by Frank Leslie Stillwell, which would then turn to mapping the area between Cape Denison and the glacier.
The final party, led by Mawson, would push rapidly inland to the south of the Coastal Party towards Victoria Land, an area he had explored during Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition in 1908–1909. He hoped to travel about 500 miles (800 km) east, collecting geological data and specimens, mapping the coast, and claiming territory for the crown.
Assisting him on this Far Eastern Party was Belgrave Edward Ninnis, a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, and the Swiss ski expert Xavier Mertz. They were in charge of the expedition's Greenland huskies, who would be crucial if the party was to cover the distance at the speed Mawson intended. Ninnis and Mertz had spent the winter preparing the dogs for the journey, sewing harnesses and teaching them to run in teams with the sledges. Each of the parties was required to return to Cape Denison by 15 January 1913, to allow time for the Aurora to collect them and escape Antarctic waters unencumbered by the winter sea ice.
## Journey eastwards
Blizzards prevented the parties from leaving Cape Denison until 10 November 1912, four days after the scheduled start date. In his diary, Mertz recorded the clearing weather as "definitely a good omen". Mawson wrote a short letter to his fiancée, Paquita Delprat: "The weather is fine this morning though the wind still blows. We shall get away in an hour's time. I have two good companions, Dr Mertz and Lieut. Ninnis. It is unlikely that any harm will happen to us, but should I not return to you in Australia, please know that I truly loved you. I must be closing now as the others are waiting."
Allowing Madigan and Stillwell's parties a head-start, Mawson, Ninnis, Mertz and the seventeen dogs left Cape Denison early in the afternoon, reaching Aladdin's Cave four hours later. Stopping for the night, they took on extra supplies and rearranged the sledges. The first team of dogs would haul a train of two sledges, which collectively carried half the weight of the party's supplies. The remaining supplies were put on the third sledge, towed by the second dog team.
Heading south the following day to avoid crevasses to the east, they travelled about eight miles (13 km) before poor weather forced them to stop and camp. Strong winds confined them to the tent until 13 November, and they were able to travel just a short distance before the weather picked up again. For three more days they remained in their tent, unable even to light the stove. When the weather cleared on 16 November, Madigan and Stillwell's parties joined them. The three parties travelled together for much of the following day, before Mawson's party separated and pushed on ahead in the late afternoon.
### Mertz and Ninnis Glaciers
Heading south-east towards the Mertz Glacier, with Mertz skiing ahead and Mawson and Ninnis driving the dogs, the party covered 15 miles (24 km) on 18 November. This was despite encountering sastrugi—ridges in the ice caused by wind—as high as three feet (91 cm), that caused the dogs to slip and the sledges to roll. During the day they passed two peaks, which Mawson named Madigan Nunatak and Aurora Peak, after the leader of the Eastern Coastal Party and the expedition's ship. The following day they began the steep descent to the Mertz Glacier. After the sledges several times overtook the dogs, the huskies were allowed to run free down the slope.
Following a particularly steep descent the following day, half of Mawson's team of dogs—reattached to his sledges—were almost lost when they fell into a crevasse. They were hauled out, but Mawson decided to camp when one of the dogs, Ginger Bitch, gave birth to the first in a litter of 14 pups.
Over the next several days, the party continued across the glacier. They developed a method of crossing the many crevasses; the forerunner, on skis, would cross the snow covering the hole—the lid—and once across the first of the two dog teams would follow. Only after the first dog team was across would the second follow, "otherwise", wrote Mawson, "the dogs in the rear would make a course direct for wherever the front dogs happened to be, cutting across corners and probably dragging their sledge sideways into a crevasse". But despite their precautions Ninnis fell down and was rescued from three crevasses, once when they found they had pitched their tent on its lip.
After Mawson slipped into a crevasse, they began to tie themselves to their sledges as a precaution. Ninnis developed photokeratitis (snow-blindness), which Mawson treated with zinc sulfate and cocaine hydrochloride. They were also losing dogs; one broke his leg and was shot, another fell ill, and a third was lost down a crevasse. On 24 November, the party reached the eastern side of the glacier and ascended to the plateau.
On level ground again, they began to make quick progress. They awoke on the morning of 27 November to find another glacier (later known as the Ninnis Glacier) far larger than the first. As with the first glacier, they had to unhitch the dogs from the sledges and slowly make the treacherous descent. Once at the bottom of the glacier they spent four days crossing fields of crevasses, battling strong winds and poor light that made navigation difficult.
In the harsh conditions, the dogs began to grow restless; one of them, Shackleton, tore open the men's food bag and devoured a 2.5-pound (1.1 kg) pack of butter, crucial for their nourishment to supplement the hoosh. On 30 November, the party reached the eastern limit of the glacier and began the ascent to the plateau beyond, only to find themselves confronted at the top by sastrugi so sharp-edged the dogs were useless. Worse still, temperatures rose to 1 °C (34 °F), melting the snow and making pulling difficult; the party switched to travelling at night to avoid the worst of the conditions.
From atop the ridge on the eastern side of the Ninnis Glacier, Mawson began to doubt the accuracy of the reports of land to the east by Charles Wilkes during the 1838–1842 United States Exploring Expedition. By Wilkes' reckoning, Mawson recorded in his diary, "We now appear to be off the real continent edge." Concerned about overlap with Madigan's party to the north, he turned his party south. They made good progress initially, but beginning on 6 December a blizzard confined them to their tent for three days. On 9 December, they set off again, but Ninnis was struggling. He had developed neuralgia on the left side of his face and a whitlow on one of his fingers. The latter was making sleep difficult for him, and, on 13 December, Mawson lanced the finger.
### Death of Ninnis
On the evening of 13 December Mawson and Mertz rearranged the sledges. The rear-most sledge, which had carried the most weight, was well-worn, and they decided to abandon it. The remaining supplies were re-distributed between the remaining two sledges. Most of the important supplies—the tent and most of the food—were stored on the new rear sledge; if they were to lose a sledge down a crevasse, they reasoned, it would be the front, less-vital sledge. As the rear sledge was heavier, the strongest of remaining dogs were assigned to pull it. At the camp they left a small amount of supplies, including the abandoned sledge and a tent cover, without the floor or poles.
By noon the next day they had covered 311 miles (501 km) from the Cape Denison hut. Mertz was ahead on skis, breaking trail. Mawson sat on the first sledge; Ninnis walked beside the second. In his diary that night, Mertz recounted: "Around 1 pm, I crossed a crevasse, similar to the hundred previous ones we had passed during the last weeks. I cried out "crevasse!", moved at right angle, and went forward. Around five minutes later, I looked behind. Mawson was following, looking at his sledge in front of him. I couldn't see Ninnis, so I stopped to have a better look. Mawson turned round to know the reason I was looking behind me. He immediately jumped out of his sledge, and rushed back. When he nodded his head, I followed him, driving back his sledge."
Ninnis, his sledge and dog team had fallen through a crevasse 11 feet (3.4 m) wide with straight, ice walls. On a ledge deep in the hole, Mawson and Mertz could see the bodies of two dogs—one still alive, but seriously injured—and the remains of Ninnis' sledge. There was no sign of their companion. They measured the distance to the ledge as 150 feet (46 m), too far for their ropes to reach. "Dog ceased to moan shortly", wrote Mawson in his diary that night. "We called and sounded for three hours, then went a few miles to a hill and took position observations. Came back, called & sounded for an hour. Read the burial service."
## Return
Along with the heavy-weather tent, most of their own food and all of the dogs' food, they had lost the pickaxe, the shovel, and Mertz's waterproof overpants and helmet. On Mawson's sledge they had their stove, fuel, sleeping bags, and ten days' worth of food. Their best immediate hope was to reach the camp of two days earlier where they had left the abandoned sledge and supplies, 15 miles (24 km) west. They reached it in five-and-a-half-hours, where Mertz used the tent cover, with the runners from the abandoned sledge and a ski as poles, to erect a shelter.
They were faced with two possible routes back to Cape Denison. The first option was to make for the coast, where they could supplement their meagre supplies with seal meat, and hope to meet with Madigan's party; that would considerably lengthen the journey, and the sea ice in summer could not be relied on. Or, pushing slightly to the south of their outward route, they could hope to avoid the worst of the crevasses and aim for speed. Mawson chose the inland route, which meant that in the absence of fresh seal meat they would have to resort to eating their remaining dogs. The first dog—George—was killed the following morning, and of his meat some was fried for the men and the rest fed to the now starving dogs. "On the whole it was voted good" wrote Mawson of the meat, "though it had a strong, musty taste and was so stringy that it could not be properly chewed".
Before setting off again they raised the flag—which they had forgotten to do at their furthest point—and claimed the land for the crown. With the temperature rising, they switched to travelling at night to take advantage of the harder surface the cold provided. With the five remaining dogs, Mawson and Mertz pushed on. Starving, the dogs began to struggle; two more—Johnson and Mary—were shot and divided between men and dogs over the following days. Mawson and Mertz found most of the meat tough, but enjoyed the liver; it, at least, was tender. With the pulling power of the dogs now severely depleted, Mertz stopped making trail and instead helped Mawson to pull the sledge. Despite the challenges, they made good progress; in the first four nights, they travelled 60 miles (97 km). As they approached the Ninnis Glacier on 21 December, Haldane—once the largest and strongest of the dogs—was shot.
### Death of Mertz
Both men were suffering, but Mertz in particular started to feel ill. He complained of stomach pains, and this began to slow them down. Pavlova was killed, leaving only one remaining dog. Mawson decided to lighten their sledge, and much of the equipment—including the camera, photographic films, and all of the scientific equipment save the theodolite—was abandoned. On 29 December, the day they cleared the Ninnis Glacier, the last dog was killed. Mawson recorded: "Had a great breakfast off Ginger's skull—thyroids and brain". Two days later Mawson recorded that Mertz was "off colour"; Mertz wrote that he was "really tired [and] shall write no more".
They made 5 miles (8.0 km) on 31 December, no progress for the following two days, and 5 miles more on 3 January. "[The] cold wind frost-bit Mertz's fingers" recorded Mawson, "and he is generally in a very bad condition. Skin coming off legs, etc—so had to camp though going was good." Not until 6 January did they make any more progress; they went 2 miles (3.2 km) before Mertz collapsed. The following day Mawson placed Mertz onto the sledge in his sleeping bag and continued, but was forced to stop and camp when Mertz's condition again deteriorated. Mawson recorded: "He is very weak, becomes more and more delirious, rarely being able to speak coherently. He will eat or drink nothing. At 8 pm he raves & breaks a tent pole. Continues to rave & call 'Oh Veh, Oh Veh' [O weh!, 'Oh dear!'] for hours. I hold him down, then he becomes more peaceful & I put him quietly in the bag. He dies peacefully at about 2 am on morning of 8th."
Strong winds prevented Mawson from continuing for two days. Instead, he prepared for travelling alone, removing the rearmost half from the sledge, and rearranging its cargo. To save having to carry excess kerosene for the stove, he boiled the remainder of the dog meat. Dragging Mertz's body in the sleeping bag from the tent, Mawson constructed a rough cairn from snow blocks to cover it, and used two spare beams from the sledge to form a cross, which he placed on the top. The following day he read the burial service.
### Alone
As the weather cleared on 11 January, Mawson continued west, estimating the distance back to Cape Denison at 100 miles (160 km). He travelled two miles (3.2 km) before pain in his feet forced him to stop; he found that the soles of his feet had separated as a complete layer. Applying lanolin to his feet and wrapping them in several pairs of socks under his boots, he continued. "My whole body is apparently rotting from lack of nourishment" he recorded, "frost-bitten fingertips festering, mucous membrane of nose gone, saliva glands of mouth refusing duty, skin coming off whole body". Averaging around five miles (8.0 km) a day, he began to cross the Mertz Glacier.
On 17 January, he broke through the lid of a crevasse, but the rope around his waist held him to the sledge and halted his fall. "I had time to say to myself "So this is the end" [Mawson recorded], expecting every moment the sledge to crash on my head and both of us to go to the bottom unseen below. Then I thought of the food left uneaten in the sledge—and, as the sledge stopped without coming down, I thought of Providence again giving me a chance. The chance looked very small as the rope had sawed into the overhanging lid, my finger ends all damaged, myself weak ... With the feeling that Providence was helping me I made a great struggle, half getting out, then slipping back again several times, but at last just did it. Then I felt grateful to Providence ... who has so many times already helped me."
To save himself from future crevasses, Mawson constructed a rope ladder, which he carried over his shoulder and was attached to the sledge. It paid off almost immediately, and twice in the following days it allowed him to climb from crevasses. Once out of the Mertz Glacier his mileage increased, and on 28 January, Madigan Nunatak came into view. The following day, after travelling five miles (8.0 km), a cairn covered with black cloth appeared about 300 yards (270 m) to his right. In it he found food and a note from Archibald Lang McLean, who along with Frank Hurley and Alfred Hodgeman had been sent out by Aurora's captain, John King Davis, to search for the Far Eastern Party.
From the note, Mawson learned he was 21 miles (34 km) south-east of Aladdin's Cave, and near two further food depots. The note also reported on the other parties of the expedition—all had returned to the hut safely—and on Roald Amundsen's attainment of the South Pole in December 1911. The cairn had been left there just six hours before, when the three men had returned to the hut. Struggling on his injured feet and lacking crampons—he had thrown his away after he crossed the Mertz Glacier—Mawson took three days to reach Aladdin's Cave.
Although supplies had been left in Aladdin's Cave—including fresh fruit—there were not the spare crampons he had expected. Without them he could not hope to descend the steep ice slope to the hut, and so he began to fashion his own, collecting nails from every available source and hammering them into wood from spare packing cases. Even when completed, a blizzard confined him to the cave, and only on 8 February was he able to begin the descent. Nearing the hut, he was spotted by three men working outside, who rushed up the hill to meet him.
## Aftermath
The Aurora arrived at Cape Denison on 13 January 1913. When Mawson's party failed to return, Davis sailed her east along the coast as far as the Mertz Glacier tongue, searching for the party. Finding no sign and reaching the end of the navigable ice-free water, they returned to Cape Denison. The oncoming winter concerned Davis, and on 8 February—just hours before Mawson's return to the hut—the ship departed Commonwealth Bay, leaving six men behind as a relief party. Upon Mawson's return, the Aurora was recalled by wireless radio, but powerful katabatic winds sweeping down from the plateau prevented the ship's boat from reaching the shore to collect the men.
The Aurora returned to Cape Denison the following summer, in mid-December, to take the men home. The delay may have saved Mawson's life; he later told Phillip Law, then-director of Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions, that he did not believe he could have survived the sea journey so soon after his ordeal.
The cause of Mawson and Mertz's illnesses remains in part a mystery. At the time, McLean—the expedition's chief surgeon and one of the men who had remained at Cape Denison—attributed their sickness to colitis; Mawson wrote in The Home of the Blizzard, his official account of the expedition, that Mertz died of fever and appendicitis. A 1969 study by Sir John Cleland and R. V. Southcott of the University of Adelaide concluded that the symptoms Mawson described—hair, skin and weight loss, depression, dysentery and persistent skin infections—indicated the men had suffered hypervitaminosis A, an excessive intake of vitamin A. This is found in unusually high quantities in the livers of Greenland Huskies, of which both Mertz and Mawson consumed large amounts.
While hypervitaminosis A is the generally accepted medical diagnosis for Mertz's death and Mawson's illness, the theory has its detractors. Law believed it was "completely unproven ... The symptoms that were described are exactly the ones you get from cold exposure. You don't have to predicate a theory of this sort to explain the soles coming off your feet." A 2005 article in The Medical Journal of Australia by Denise Carrington-Smith suggested it may have been "the psychological stresses related to the death of a close friend and the deaths of the dogs he had cared for", and a switch from a predominately vegetarian diet that killed Mertz, not hypervitaminosis A.
Suggestions of cannibalism—that Mawson may have eaten Mertz after his death—surfaced during Mawson's lecture tour of the United States following the expedition. Several reports in American newspapers quoted Mawson as saying he considered eating Mertz, but these claims were denied by Mawson, who labelled them "outrageous" and an "invention". Mawson's biographers believe the suggestion of cannibalism is probably wrong; Beau Riffenburgh notes that Mawson nursed Mertz for days, even at the possible risk to his own life. Moreover, he notes, Mawson had no way of knowing why Mertz died; eating his flesh could possibly have been very dangerous. These sentiments are echoed by Philip Ayres, who also notes that with Mertz's death Mawson had sufficient rations without having to resort to cannibalism. Law, who knew Mawson well, believed "He was a man of very solid, conservative morals. It would have been impossible for him to have considered it."
In November 1913, shortly before the Aurora arrived to return them to Australia, the men remaining at Cape Denison erected a memorial cross for Mertz and Ninnis on Azimuth Hill to the north-west of the main hut. The cross, constructed from pieces of a broken radio mast, was accompanied by a plaque cut from wood from Mertz's bunk. The cross still stands, although the crossbar has required reattaching several times, and the plaque was replaced with a replica in 1986. The two glaciers the Far Eastern Party crossed—previously unnamed—were named by Mawson for Mertz and Ninnis. At a celebration in the centre of Adelaide on his return from Antarctica, Mawson praised his dead companions: "The survivors might have an opportunity of doing something more, but these men had done their all".
Mawson's return was celebrated at the Adelaide Town Hall, in an event attended by the governor-general, Lord Denman. A typical speaker stated that "Mawson has returned from a journey that was absolutely unparalleled in the history of exploration—one of the greatest illustrations of how the sternest affairs of Nature were overcome by the superb courage, power and resolve of man". Including the Far Eastern Party, sledging parties from the Cape Denison base covered over 2,600 miles (4,200 km) of previously unexplored land; the expedition's Western Base Party on the Shackleton Ice Shelf, under Frank Wild, covered a further 800 miles (1,300 km).
The expedition was the first to use wireless radio in the Antarctic—transmitting back to Australia via a relay station established on Macquarie Island—and made several important scientific discoveries. First published in 1915, Mawson's account of the expedition, The Home of the Blizzard, devotes two chapters to the Far Eastern Party; one contemporary reviewer commented that "undoubtedly to the general public the interest of the book centres in [this] moving account".
A later analysis by J. Gordon Hayes, while commending most of the expedition, was critical of Mawson's decision not to use skis, but Fred Jacka, writing in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, suggests that "for Mawson and Ninnis, who were manoeuvring heavy sledges, this would have been difficult much of the time". In his 1976 foreword to Lennard Bickel's book on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, explorer and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary described Mawson's journey as "probably the greatest story of lone survival in Polar exploration".
## See also
- Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration
|
712,716 |
NERVA
| 1,173,340,596 |
US Nuclear thermal rocket engine project 1956-1973
|
[
"Cancelled spacecraft",
"Marshall Space Flight Center",
"NASA programs",
"Nuclear reactors",
"Nuclear research reactors",
"Nuclear spacecraft propulsion"
] |
The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) was a nuclear thermal rocket engine development program that ran for roughly two decades. Its principal objective was to "establish a technology base for nuclear rocket engine systems to be utilized in the design and development of propulsion systems for space mission application". NERVA was a joint effort of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and was managed by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) until the program ended in January 1973. SNPO was led by NASA's Harold Finger and AEC's Milton Klein.
NERVA had its origins in Project Rover, an AEC research project at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) with the initial aim of providing a nuclear-powered upper stage for the United States Air Force intercontinental ballistic missiles. Nuclear thermal rocket engines promised to be more efficient than chemical ones. After the formation of NASA in 1958, Project Rover was continued as a civilian project and was reoriented to producing a nuclear powered upper stage for NASA's Saturn V Moon rocket. Reactors were tested at very low power before being shipped to Jackass Flats in the Nevada Test Site. While LASL concentrated on reactor development, NASA built and tested complete rocket engines.
The AEC, SNPO, and NASA considered NERVA to be a highly successful program in that it met or exceeded its program goals. NERVA demonstrated that nuclear thermal rocket engines were a feasible and reliable tool for space exploration, and at the end of 1968 SNPO deemed that the latest NERVA engine, the XE, met the requirements for a human mission to Mars. It had strong political support from Senators Clinton P. Anderson and Margaret Chase Smith but was cancelled by President Richard Nixon in 1973. Although NERVA engines were built and tested as much as possible with flight-certified components and the engine was deemed ready for integration into a spacecraft, they never flew in space.
## Origins
During World War II, some scientists at the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory where the first atomic bombs were designed, including Stan Ulam, Frederick Reines and Frederic de Hoffmann, speculated about the development of nuclear-powered rockets. In 1946, Ulam and C. J. Everett wrote a paper in which they considered the use of atomic bombs as a means of rocket propulsion. This would become the basis for Project Orion.
The public revelation of atomic energy at the end of the war generated a great deal of speculation, and in the United Kingdom, Val Cleaver, the chief engineer of the rocket division at De Havilland, and Leslie Shepherd, a nuclear physicist at the University of Cambridge, independently considered the problem of nuclear rocket propulsion. They became collaborators, and in a series of papers published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society in 1948 and 1949, they outlined the design of a nuclear-powered rocket with a solid-core graphite heat exchanger. They reluctantly concluded that although nuclear thermal rockets were essential for deep space exploration, they were not yet technically feasible.
In 1953, Robert W. Bussard, a physicist working on the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory wrote a detailed study on "Nuclear Energy for Rocket Propulsion". He had read Cleaver and Shepard's work, that of the Chinese physicist Hsue-Shen Tsien, and a February 1952 report by engineers at Consolidated Vultee. Bussard's study had little impact at first because only 29 copies were printed, and it was classified as Restricted Data, and therefore could only be read by someone with the required security clearance. In December 1953, it was published in Oak Ridge's Journal of Reactor Science and Technology. The paper was still classified, as was the journal, but this gave it a wider circulation. Darol Froman, the deputy director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL), and Herbert York, the director of the University of California Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, were interested and established committees to investigate nuclear rocket propulsion. Froman brought Bussard out to LASL to assist for one week per month.
Bussard's study also attracted the attention of John von Neumann, who formed an ad hoc committee for nuclear propulsion of missiles. Mark Mills, the assistant director at Livermore was its chairman, and its other members were Norris Bradbury from LASL; Edward Teller and Herbert York from Livermore; Abe Silverstein, the associate director of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory, a federal agency that conducted aeronautical research; and Allen F. Donovan from Ramo-Wooldridge, an aerospace corporation. After hearing input on several designs, the Mills committee recommended in March 1955 that development proceed, with the aim of producing a nuclear rocket upper stage for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). York created a new division at Livermore, and Bradbury created a new one called N Division at LASL under the leadership of Raemer Schreiber, to pursue it. In March 1956, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP), the agency responsible for the management of the national nuclear weapons stockpile, recommended allocating \$100 million to the nuclear rocket engine project over three years for the two laboratories to conduct feasibility studies and the construction of test facilities.
Eger V. Murphree and Herbert Loper at the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) were more cautious. The Atlas missile program was proceeding well, and if successful would have sufficient range to hit targets in most of the Soviet Union. At the same time, nuclear warheads were becoming smaller, lighter and more powerful. The case for a new technology that promised heavier payloads over longer distances therefore seemed weak. However, the nuclear rocket had acquired a political patron in Senator Clinton P. Anderson from New Mexico (where LASL was located). The deputy chairman of the United States Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (JCAE), Anderson was close to von Neumann, Bradbury and Ulam. He managed to secure funding in January 1957.
All work on the nuclear rocket was consolidated at LASL, where it was given the codename Project Rover; Livermore was assigned responsibility for the development of the nuclear ramjet, which was codenamed Project Pluto. Project Rover was directed by an active duty United States Air Force (USAF) officer seconded to the AEC, Lieutenant Colonel Harold R. Schmidt. He was answerable to another seconded USAF officer, Colonel Jack L. Armstrong, who was also in charge of Pluto and the Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) projects.
## Project Rover
### Underlying concepts
Rocket engines create thrust by accelerating a working mass in a direction opposite to their desired trajectory. In conventional designs, this is accomplished by heating a fluid and allowing it to escape through a rocket nozzle. The energy needed to produce the heat is provided by a chemical reaction in the fuel, which may be mixed together as in the case of most solid fuel rockets, or separate tanks as in most liquid fuel rockets. Selecting the fuels to use is a complex task that has to consider the reaction energy, the mass of the fuel, the mass of the resulting working fluid, and other practical concerns like density and its ability to be easily pumped.
Nuclear rocket engines use a nuclear reactor to provide the energy to heat the fuel instead of a chemical reaction. Because nuclear reactions are much more powerful than chemical ones, a large volume of chemicals can be replaced by a small reactor. As the heat source is independent of the working mass, the working fluid can be selected for maximum performance for a given task, not its underlying reaction energy. For a variety of reasons, hydrogen is normally used. This combination of features allows a nuclear engine to outperform a chemical one; they generally aim to have at least twice the specific impulse of a chemical engine.
### Design concepts
In general form, a nuclear engine is similar to a liquid chemical engine. Both hold the working mass in a large tank and pump it to the reaction chamber using a turbopump. The difference is primarily in that the reaction chamber is generally larger, the size of the reactor. Complicating factors were immediately apparent. The first was that a means had to be found of controlling reactor temperature and power output. The second was that a means had to be devised to hold the propellant. The only practical means of storing hydrogen was in liquid form, and this required temperatures below 20 K (−253.2 °C). The third was that the hydrogen would be heated to a temperature of around 2,500 K (2,230 °C), and materials were required that could both withstand such temperatures and resist corrosion by hydrogen.
For the fuel, plutonium-239, uranium-235 and uranium-233 were considered. Plutonium was rejected because it forms compounds easily and could not reach temperatures as high as those of uranium. Uranium-233, as compared to uranium-235, is slightly lighter, has a higher number of neutrons per fission event, and also has high probability of fission, but its radioactive properties make it more difficult to handle, and it was not readily available. Uranium-235 was therefore chosen.
For structural materials in the reactor, the choice came down to graphite or metal. Of the metals, tungsten emerged as the frontrunner, but it was expensive, hard to fabricate, and had undesirable neutronic properties. To get around its neutronic properties, it was suggested tungsten-184, which does not absorb neutrons, should be used. On the other hand, graphite was cheap, actually gets stronger at temperatures up to 3,300 K (3,030 °C), and sublimes rather than melts at 3,900 K (3,630 °C). Graphite was therefore chosen.
To control the reactor, the core was surrounded by control drums coated with graphite or beryllium (a neutron moderator) on one side and boron (a neutron poison) on the other. The reactor's power output could be controlled by rotating the drums. To increase thrust, it is sufficient to increase the flow of propellant. Hydrogen, whether in pure form or in a compound like ammonia, is an efficient nuclear moderator, and increasing the flow also increases the rate of reactions in the core. This increased reaction rate offsets the cooling provided by the hydrogen. Moreover, as the hydrogen heats up, it expands, so there is less in the core to remove heat, and the temperature will level off. These opposing effects stabilize the reactivity and a nuclear rocket engine is therefore naturally very stable, and the thrust is easily controlled by varying the hydrogen flow without changing the control drums.
LASL produced a series of design concepts, each with its own codename: Uncle Tom, Uncle Tung, Bloodhound and Shish. By 1955, it had settled on a 1,500 MW design called Old Black Joe. In 1956, this became the basis of a 2,700 MW design intended to be the upper stage of an ICBM.
### Test site
Nuclear reactors for Project Rover were built at LASL Technical Area 18 (TA-18), also known as the Pajarito Site. The reactors were tested at very low power before being shipped to Jackass Flats in the Nevada Test Site. Testing of fuel elements and other materials science was done by the LASL N Division at TA-46 using several ovens and later the Nuclear Furnace.
Work commenced on test facilities at Jackass Flats in mid-1957. All materials and supplies had to be brought in from Las Vegas. Test Cell A consisted of a farm of hydrogen gas bottles and a concrete wall 1 meter (3 ft) thick to protect the electronic instrumentation from radiation produced by the reactor. The control room was located 3.2 kilometers (2 mi) away. The reactor was test fired with its plume in the air so that radioactive products could be safely dissipated.
The reactor maintenance and disassembly building (R-MAD) was in most respects a typical hot cell used by the nuclear industry, with thick concrete walls, lead glass viewing windows, and remote manipulation arms. It was exceptional only for its size: 76 meters (250 ft) long, 43 meters (140 ft) wide and 19 meters (63 ft) high. This allowed the engine to be moved in and out on a railroad car.
The "Jackass and Western Railroad", as it was light-heartedly described, was said to be the world's shortest and slowest railroad. There were two locomotives, the remotely controlled electric L-1, and the diesel/electric L-2, which was manually controlled but had radiation shielding around the cab. The former was normally used; the latter was provided as a backup. Construction workers were housed in Mercury, Nevada. Later thirty mobile homes were brought to Jackass Flats to create a village named "Boyerville" after the supervisor, Keith Boyer. Construction work was completed in the fall of 1958. NASA planned to develop a community of 2,700 people, with 800 dwellings and their own shopping complex by 1967.
## Organization
### Transfer to NASA
By 1957, the Atlas missile project was proceeding well, and the need for a nuclear upper stage had all but disappeared. On 2 October 1957, the AEC proposed cutting its budget. Two days later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This surprise success fired fears and imaginations around the world. It demonstrated that the Soviet Union had the capability to deliver nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, and contested cherished American notions of military, economic and technological superiority. This precipitated the Sputnik crisis, and triggered the Space Race. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by creating ARPA to oversee military rocket and technology development, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to direct civilian rocket development. NASA absorbed NACA as part of its formation, along with several former military programs.
NACA had long been interested in nuclear technology. In 1951, it had begun exploring the possibility of acquiring its own nuclear reactor for the aircraft nuclear propulsion (ANP) project, and selected its Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Ohio to design, build and manage it. A site was chosen at the nearby Plum Brook Ordnance Works, NACA obtained approval from the AEC, and construction of the Plum Brook Reactor commenced in September 1956. Abe Silverstein, the director of Lewis, was particularly eager to acquire control of Project Rover.
Donald A. Quarles, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, met with T. Keith Glennan, the new administrator of NASA, and Hugh Dryden, Glennan's deputy on 20 August 1958, the day they after Glennan and Dryden were sworn into office at the White House, and Rover was the first item on the agenda. Quarles was eager to transfer Rover to NASA, as the project no longer had a military purpose. Responsibility for the non-nuclear components of Project Rover was officially transferred from the United States Air Force (USAF) to NASA on 1 October 1958, the day NASA officially became operational and assumed responsibility for the US civilian space program.
### Space Nuclear Propulsion Office
Project Rover became a joint NASA–AEC project. Silverstein, whom Glennan had brought to Washington, DC, to organise NASA's spaceflight program, appointed Harold Finger to oversee the nuclear rocket development as head of NASA's Office of Space Reactors. Senator Anderson had doubts about Finger's suitability for the job. He felt that Finger lacked enthusiasm for it. Glenn met with Anderson on 13 April 1959, and convinced him that Finger would do a good job. On 29 August 1960, NASA created the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) to oversee the nuclear rocket project. Finger was appointed as its manager, with Milton Klein from AEC as his deputy. Finger was also the Director of Nuclear Systems in the NASA Office of Advanced Research and Technology. A formal "Agreement Between NASA and AEC on Management of Nuclear Rocket Engine Contracts" was signed by NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans and AEC General Manager Alvin Luedecke on 1 February 1961. This was followed by an "Inter-Agency Agreement on the Program for the Development of Space Nuclear Rocket Propulsion (Project Rover)", which they signed on 28 July 1961. SNPO also assumed responsibility for SNAP, Armstrong becoming assistant to the director of the Reactor Development Division at AEC, and Lieutenant Colonel G. M. Anderson, formerly the SNAP project officer in the disbanded ANP Office, became chief of the SNAP Branch in the new division. It soon became apparent that there were considerable cultural differences between NASA and AEC.
SNPO Headquarters was co-located with AEC Headquarters in Germantown, Maryland. Finger established branch offices at Albuquerque, New Mexico, (SNPO-A) to liaise with LASL, and in Cleveland, Ohio, (SNPO-C) to coordinate with the Lewis Research Center, which was activated in October 1961. In February 1962, NASA announced the establishment of the Nuclear Rocket Development Station (NRDS) at Jackass Flats, and in June an SNPO branch was established at Las Vegas (SNPO-N) to manage it. By the end of 1963, there were 13 NASA personnel at SNPO Headquarters, 59 at SNPO-C and 30 at SNPO-N. SNPO staff were a combination of NASA and AEC employees whose responsibilities included "program and resource planning and evaluation, the justification and distribution of program resources, the definition and control of overall program requirements, monitoring and reporting of progress and problems to NASA and AEC management, and the preparation of testimony to Congress."
Finger called for bids from industry for the development of the nuclear engine for rocket vehicle application (NERVA) based upon the Kiwi engine developed by LASL. The award was scheduled for 1 March 1961, so that the decision whether or not to proceed could be made by the incoming Kennedy administration. Eight companies submitted bids: Aerojet, Douglas, Glenn L. Martin, Lockheed, North American, Rocketdyne, Thiokol and Westinghouse. A joint NASA–AEC board evaluated the bids. It rated North American's bid as the best bid overall, but Westinghouse and Aerojet had superior bids for the reactor and engine respectively when they were considered separately. After Aerojet promised NASA administrator James E. Webb that it would put its best people on NERVA, Webb spoke to the selection board and told them that although he did not wish to influence their decision, North American was deeply committed to Project Apollo, and the board might consider combining other bids. On 8 June, Webb announced that Aerojet and Westinghouse had been selected. Aerojet became the prime contractor, with Westinghouse as the principal subcontractor. Both companies recruited aggressively, and by 1963, Westinghouse had 1,100 staff working on NERVA.
In March 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the cancellation of the aircraft nuclear propulsion project just as NASA's Plum Brook reactor was nearing completion, and for a time it seemed that NERVA would soon follow. NASA estimated that NERVA would ultimately cost \$800 million (although AEC reckoned that it would be much less), and the Bureau of the Budget argued that NERVA made sense only in the context of a crewed lunar landing or flights further into the Solar System, to neither of which had the administration committed. Then, on 12 April, the Soviet Union launched Yuri Gagarin into orbit on Vostok 1, once again demonstrating its technological superiority. A few days later, Kennedy launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba, resulting in yet another humiliation for the United States. On 25 May, he addressed a joint session of Congress. "First," he announced, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." He then went on to say: "Secondly, an additional 23 million dollars, together with 7 million dollars already available, will accelerate development of the Rover nuclear rocket. This gives promise of someday providing a means for even more exciting and ambitious exploration of space, perhaps beyond the moon, perhaps to the very end of the Solar System itself."
## Towards Reactor In-Flight Tests
The SNPO set an objective for NERVA of 99.7 percent reliability, meaning that the engine would fail to perform as designed no more than three times in every thousand starts. To achieve this, Aerojet and Westinghouse estimated that they would require 6 reactors, 28 engines and 6 reactor in-flight test (RIFT) flights. They planned for 42 tests, considerably less than the 60 tests that the SNPO had thought might be required. Unlike other aspects of NERVA, RIFT was solely a NASA responsibility. NASA delegated responsibility for RIFT to Wernher von Braun's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. Von Braun created a Nuclear Vehicle Projects Office at MSFC, headed by Colonel Scott Fellows, a USAF officer who had worked on ANP.
At this time, NASA was engaged in planning for the lunar landing mission that Kennedy had called for. In the process the agency considered several booster concepts, including what became the Saturn family and the larger Nova. These were chemical rockets, although nuclear upper stages were also considered for Nova. The December 1959 Silverstein Committee had defined the configuration of the Saturn launch vehicle, including the use of liquid hydrogen as the fuel for the upper stages. In a 1960 paper, Schmidt proposed replacing the upper stages with nuclear NERVA stages. This would deliver the same performance as Nova, but for half the cost. He estimated the cost of putting a pound of payload into lunar orbit as \$1,600 for an all-chemical Saturn, \$1,100 for Nova, and \$700 for a chemical-nuclear Saturn. MSFC issued a study contract for a RIFT with NERVA as the upper stage of a Saturn C-3, but the C-3 was replaced soon after by the more powerful C-4 and ultimately the C-5, which became the Saturn V. Only in July 1962, after much debate, did NASA finally settle on lunar orbit rendezvous, which could be performed by Saturn V, negating the need for the larger and more expensive Nova, which was abandoned.
The RIFT test vehicle would be 111 meters (364 ft) tall, about the same as the Saturn V; the Saturn C-5N mission configuration would be larger still, at 120 meters (393 ft) tall, but the 160-meter (525 ft) Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) could easily accommodate it. It would consist of an S-IC first stage, a dummy S-II middle stage filled with water, and an S-N (Saturn-Nuclear) NERVA upper stage. For an actual mission, a real S-II stage would be used. The S-N stage was to be built by Lockheed in a dirigible hangar NASA acquired at Moffet Field in Sunnyvale, California, and assembled at NASA's Mississippi Test Facility.
The SNPO planned to build ten S-N stages, six for ground tests and four for flight tests. Launches were to take place from Cape Canaveral. NERVA engines would be transported by road in shockproof, watertight containers, with the control rods locked in place and nuclear poison wires in the core. Since it would not be radioactive, it could be safely transported and mated to the lower stages without shielding. In flight, the poison wires would be pulled and the reactor started 121 kilometers (75 mi) above the Atlantic Ocean. The engine would fire for 1,300 seconds, boosting it to an altitude of 480 kilometers (300 mi). It would then be shut down, and the reactor cooled before impacting the Atlantic 3,200 kilometers (2,000 mi) downrange. NERVA would be regarded as mission ready after four successful tests.
To support RIFT, LASL established a Rover Flight Safety Office and SNPO created a Rover Flight Safety Panel. Since RIFT called for up to four reactors to fall into the Atlantic Ocean, LASL attempted to determine what would happen when a reactor hit the water at several thousand kilometers per hour. In particular, whether it would go critical or explode when flooded with sea water, a neutron moderator. There was also concern about what would happen when it sank 3.2 kilometers (2 mi) down to the bottom of the Atlantic, where it would be under a crushing pressure. The possible impact on marine life, and indeed what marine life was down there, all had to be considered.
The main bottleneck in the NERVA program was the test facilities at Jackass Flats. Test Cell C was supposed to be complete in 1960. NASA and AEC did not request funds for further construction, but Anderson provided them anyway. There were construction delays, forcing Anderson to intervene personally. He assumed the role of de facto construction manager, with the AEC officials reporting directly to him.
In August 1961, the Soviet Union ended the nuclear test moratorium that had been in place since November 1958, so Kennedy resumed US nuclear weapons testing in September. With a second crash program at the Nevada Test site, labor became scarce, and there was a strike. When that ended, the workers had to come to grips with the difficulties of dealing with hydrogen, which could leak through microscopic holes that were too small for other fluids to pass through. On 7 November 1961, a minor accident caused a violent hydrogen release. The complex finally became operational in 1964. SNPO envisaged the construction of a 20,000 MW nuclear rocket engine, so Boyer had the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company construct two gigantic 1,900,000-litre (500,000 US gal) cryogenic storage dewars. An engine maintenance and disassembly building (E-MAD) was added. It had thick concrete walls and shield bays where engines could be assembled and disassembled. There was also an engine test stand (ETS-1); two more were planned.
In March 1963, SNPO and MSFC commissioned Space Technology Laboratories (STL) to produce a report on what kind of nuclear rocket engine would be required for possible missions between 1975 and 1990. These missions included early crewed planetary interplanetary round-trip expeditions (EMPIRE), planetary swingbys and flybys, and a lunar shuttle. The conclusion of this nine-volume report, which was delivered in March 1965, and of a follow-up study, was that these missions could be carried out with a 4,100 MW engine with a specific impulse of 825 seconds (8.09 km/s). This was considerably smaller than had originally been thought necessary. From this emerged a specification for a 5,000 MW nuclear rocket engine, which became known as NERVA II.
## Engine development
### Kiwi
The first phase of Project Rover, Kiwi, was named after the New Zealand kiwi bird. A kiwi cannot fly, and the Kiwi rocket engines were not intended to do so either. Their function was to verify the design, and test the behavior of the materials used. The Kiwi program developed a series of non-flyable test nuclear engines, the primary focus being to improve the technology of hydrogen-cooled reactors. In the Kiwi A series of tests conducted between July 1959 and October 1960, three reactors were built and tested. Kiwi A was considered a success as a proof of concept for nuclear rocket engines. It demonstrated that hydrogen could be heated in a nuclear reactor to the temperatures required for space propulsion and that the reactor could be controlled.
The next step was the Kiwi B series of tests, which commenced with Kiwi B1A on 7 December 1961. This was a development of the Kiwi A engine, with a series of improvements. The second test in the series, Kiwi B1B on 1 September 1962, resulted in extreme structural damage to the reactor, fuel module components being ejected as it was ramped up to full power. A subsequent full-power Kiwi B4A test on 30 November 1962, along with a series of cold flow tests, revealed that the problem was vibrations that were induced when the hydrogen was heated as the reactor was being brought up to full power rather than when it was running at full power. Unlike a chemical engine that would likely have blown up after suffering catastrophic damage, the nuclear rocket engine remained stable and controllable even when tested to destruction. The tests demonstrated that a nuclear rocket engine would be rugged and reliable in space.
Kennedy visited LASL on 7 December 1962 for a briefing on Project Rover. It was the first time a president had visited a nuclear weapons laboratory. He brought with him a large entourage that included Lyndon Johnson, McGeorge Bundy, Jerome Wiesner, Harold Brown, Donald Hornig, Glenn Seaborg, Robert Seamans, Harold Finger, Clinton Anderson, Howard Cannon and Alan Bible. The next day, they flew to Jackass Flats, making Kennedy the only president to ever visit a nuclear test site. Project Rover had received \$187 million in 1962, and AEC and NASA were asking for another \$360 million in 1963. Kennedy drew attention to his administration's budgetary difficulties, and asked what the relationship was between Project Rover and Apollo. Finger replied that it was an insurance policy, and could be used in the later Apollo or post-Apollo missions, such as a base on the Moon or a mission to Mars. Weisner, supported by Brown and Hornig, argued that if a Mars mission could not occur before the 1980s, then RIFT could be postponed to the 1970s. Seamans noted that such an attitude had resulted in the Sputnik crisis and a loss of American prestige and influence.
In January 1963, Senator Anderson became chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences. He met privately with Kennedy, who agreed to request a supplemental appropriation for RIFT if a "quick fix" to the Kiwi vibration problem that Seaborg promised could be implemented. In the meantime, Finger called a meeting. He declared that there would be no "quick fix". He criticized LASL's management structure and called for LASL to adopt a project management structure. He wanted the case of the vibration problems thoroughly investigated, and the cause definitely known before corrective action was taken. Three SNPO staff (known at LASL as the "three blind mice") were assigned to LASL to ensure that his instructions were carried out. Finger assembled a team of vibration specialists from other NASA centers, and along with staff from LASL, Aerojet and Westinghouse, conducted a series of "cold flow" reactor tests using fuel elements without fissionable material. RIFT was cancelled in December 1963. Although its reinstatement was frequently discussed, it never occurred.
A series of design changes were made to address the vibration problem. In the Kiwi B4D test on 13 May 1964, the reactor was automatically started and briefly run at full power with no vibration problems. This was followed by the Kiwi B4E test on 28 August in which the reactor was operated for twelve minutes, eight of which were at full power. On 10 September, Kiwi B4E was restarted, and run at full power for two and a half minutes, demonstrating the ability of a nuclear rocket engine to be shut down and restarted. In September, tests were conducted with a Kiwi B4 engine and PARKA, a Kiwi reactor used for testing at LASL. The two reactors were run 4.9 meters (16 ft), 2.7 meters (9 ft) and 1.8 meters (6 ft) apart, and reactivity measurements were taken. These tests showed that neutrons produced by one reactor did indeed cause fissions in another, but that the effect was negligible: 3, 12 and 24 cents respectively. The tests demonstrated that nuclear rocket engines can be clustered, just as chemical ones often are.
### NERVA NRX
SNPO chose the 330,000-newton (75,000 lbf) Kiwi-B4 nuclear thermal rocket design (with a specific impulse of 825 seconds) as the baseline for the NERVA NRX (Nuclear Rocket Experimental). Whereas Kiwi was a proof of concept, NERVA NRX was a prototype of a complete engine. That meant that it would need actuators to turn the drums and start the engine, gimbals to control its movement, a nozzle cooled by liquid hydrogen, and shielding to protect the engine, payload and crew from radiation. Westinghouse modified the cores to make them more robust for flight conditions. Some research and development was still required. The available temperature sensors were accurate only up to 1,980 K (1,710 °C), far below what was required. New sensors were developed that were accurate to 2,649 K (2,376 °C) , even in a high-radiation environment. Aerojet and Westinghouse attempted to theoretically predict the performance of each component. This was then compared to the actual test performance. Over time, the two converged as more was understood. By 1972, the performance of a NERVA engine under most conditions could be accurately forecast.
The first test of a NERVA engine was of NERVA A2 on 24 September 1964. Aerojet and Westinghouse cautiously increased the power incrementally, to 2 MW, 570 MW, 940 MW, running for a minute or two at each level to check the instruments, before finally increasing to full power at 1,096 MW. The reactor ran flawlessly, and only had to be shut down after 40 seconds because the hydrogen was running out. The test demonstrated that NERVA had the designed specific impulse of 811 seconds (7.95 km/s); solid-propellant rockets have a maximum impulse of around 300 seconds (2.9 km/s) and chemical rockets with liquid propellant seldom achieve more than 450 seconds (4.4 km/s). Executives at Aerojet and Westinghouse were so pleased they took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with a picture of the test and the caption: "On to Mars!" The reactor was restarted on 15 October. Originally this was intended to test the nozzle, but that was dropped as it was close to its design maximum of 2,270 K (2,000 °C). Instead, the turbopump was tested. The engine was powered up to 40 MW, the control drums were locked in place, and the turbopump was used to keep the power steady at 40 MW. It worked perfectly. The computer simulations had been correct, and the whole project was ahead of schedule.
The next test was of NERVA A3 on 23 April 1965. This test was intended to verify that the engine could be run and restarted at full power. The engine was operated for eight minutes, three and a half of them at full power, before the instruments indicated that too much hydrogen was going into the engine. A scram was ordered, but a coolant line became clogged. Power increased to 1,165 MW before the line unclogged, and the engine shut down gracefully. There were fears for the integrity of the tie rods that held the fuel clusters together. They were supposed to operate at 473 K (200 °C), with a maximum of 651 K (378 °C). The sensors recorded that the tie rods had reached 1,095 K (822 °C), which was the maximum that the sensors could record. Laboratory tests later confirmed that the rods might have reached 1,370 K (1,100 °C). There was also what appeared to be a hole in the nozzle, but this turned out to be soot. The robust engine was undamaged, so the test continued, and the engine was run for thirteen minutes at 1,072 MW. Once again, the test time was limited only by the available hydrogen.
Testing of NASA's NERVA NRX/EST (Engine System Test) commenced on 3 February 1966. The objectives were:
1. Demonstrate the feasibility of starting and restarting the engine without an external power source.
2. Evaluate the control system characteristics (stability and control mode) during startup, shutdown, cooldown and restart for a variety of initial conditions.
3. Investigate the system stability over a broad operating range.
4. Investigate the endurance capability of the engine components, especially the reactor, during transient and steady-state operation with multiple restarts.
The NRX/EST was run at intermediate power levels on 3 and 11 February, with a full power (1,055 MW) test on 3 March, followed by engine duration tests on 16 and 25 March. The engine was started eleven times. All test objectives were successfully accomplished, and NRX/EST operated for a total of nearly two hours, including 28 minutes at full power. It exceeded the operating time of previous Kiwi reactors by nearly a factor of two.
The next objective was to run the reactors continuously for an extended length of time. The NRX A5 was started up on 8 June 1966, and run at full power for fifteen and a half minutes. During cooldown, a bird landed on the nozzle and was asphyxiated by the nitrogen or helium gas, dropping onto the core. It was feared that it might block the propellant lines or create uneven heating before being blown out again when the engine was restarted, so the Westinghouse engineers rigged a television camera and a vacuum hose, and were able to remove the bird while safely behind a concrete wall. The engine was restarted on 23 June and run at full power for another fourteen and a half minutes. Although there was severe corrosion, resulting in about \$2.20 of reactivity lost, the engine could still have been restarted, but the engineers wanted to examine the core.
An hour was now set as the goal for the NRX A6 test. This was beyond the capacity of Test Cell A, so testing now moved to Test Cell C with its giant dewars. NRX A5 was therefore the last test to use Test Cell A. The reactor was started on 7 December 1966, but a shutdown was ordered 75 seconds into the test due to a faulty electrical component. This was followed by a postponement due to inclement weather. NRX A6 was started up again on 15 December. It ran at full power (1,125 MW) with a chamber temperature of over 2,270 K (2,000 °C) and pressure of 4,089 kilopascals (593.1 psi), and a flow rate of 32.7 kilograms per second (4,330 lb/min). It took 75.3 hours to cool the reactor with liquid nitrogen. On examination, it was found that the beryllium reflector had cracked due to thermal stress. The test caused the abandonment of plans to build a more powerful NERVA II engine. If more thrust was required, a NERVA I engine could be run longer, or it could be clustered.
### NERVA XE
With the success of the A6 test, SNPO cancelled planned follow-on tests A7 and A8 and concentrated on completing ETS-1. All previous tests had the engine firing upwards; ETS-1 would permit an engine to be reoriented to fire downward into a reduced-pressure compartment to partly simulate firing in the vacuum of space. The test stand provided a reduced atmospheric pressure of about 6.9 kilopascals (1.00 psi) – equivalent to being at an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,000 m). This was done by injecting water into the exhaust, which created superheated steam that surged out at high speeds, creating a vacuum.
ETS-1 took longer for Aerojet to complete than expected, partly due to shrinking budgets, but also because of technical challenges. It was built from pure aluminum, which did not become radioactive when irradiated by neutrons, and there was a water spray to keep it cool. Rubber gaskets were a problem, as they tended to turn into goo in a radioactive environment; metal ones had to be used. The most challenging part was the exhaust ducts, which were required to handle much higher temperatures than their chemical rocket counterparts. The steel work was carried out by Allegheny Technologies, and the Air Preheater Company fabricated the pipes. The work required 54,000 kilograms (120,000 lb) of steel, 3,900 kilograms (8,700 lb) of welding wire and 10.5 kilometers (6.5 mi) of welds. During a test the 234 tubes would have to carry up to 11,000,000 litres (3,000,000 US gal) of water. To save money on cabling, Aerojet moved the control room to a bunker 240 meters (800 ft) away.
The second NERVA engine, the NERVA XE, was designed to come as close as possible to a complete flight system, even to the point of using a flight-design turbopump. To save time and money, components that would not affect the engine's performance were selected from what was available at Jackass Flats. A radiation shield was added to protect external components. The test objectives included testing the use of ETS-1 at Jackass Flats for flight engine qualification and acceptance. Total run time was 115 minutes, including 28 starts. NASA and SNPO felt that the test "confirmed that a nuclear rocket engine was suitable for space flight application and was able to operate at a specific impulse twice that of chemical rocket system[s]." The engine was deemed adequate for Mars missions being planned by NASA. The facility was also deemed adequate for flight qualification and acceptance of rocket engines from the two contractors.
The final test of the series was XE Prime. This engine was 6.9 meters (23 ft) long, 2.59 meters (8 ft 6 in) in diameter, and weighed approximately 18,144 kilograms (40,001 lb). It was designed to produce a nominal thrust of 246,663 newtons (55,452 lb<sub>f</sub>) with a specific impulse of 710 seconds (7.0 km/s). When the reactor was operating at full power, about 1,140 MW, the chamber temperature was 2,272 K (2,000 °C), chamber pressure was 3,861 kilopascals (560.0 psi), and the flow rate was 35.8 kilograms per second (4,740 lb/min), of which 0.4 kilograms per second (53 lb/min) was diverted into the cooldown system. A series of experiments were carried out between of 4 December 1968 and 11 September 1969, during which the reactor was started 24 times, and ran at full power for 1,680 seconds.
### Reactor and engine test summary
Source:
## Cancellation
At the time of the NERVA NRX/EST test, NASA's plans for NERVA included a visit to Mars by 1978, a permanent lunar base by 1981, and deep space probes to Jupiter, Saturn, and the outer planets. NERVA rockets would be used for nuclear "tugs" designed to take payloads from low Earth orbit (LEO) to higher orbits as a component of the later-named Space Transportation System, resupply several space stations in orbit around the Earth and Moon, and support a permanent lunar base. The NERVA rocket could also be a nuclear-powered upper stage for the Saturn rocket, which would allow the upgraded Saturn to launch payloads of up to 150,000 kg (340,000 lb) to LEO.
Defending NERVA from its critics like Hornig, the chairman of the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC), required a series of bureaucratic and political battles as the rising cost of the Vietnam War put pressure on budgets. Congress defunded NERVA II in the 1967 budget, but President Johnson needed Senator Anderson's support for his Medicare legislation, so on 7 February 1967 he provided the money for NERVA II from his own contingency fund. Klein, who had succeeded Finger as head of the SNPO in 1967, faced two hours of questioning on NERVA II before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. In the end, the committee cut NASA's budget. Defunding NERVA II saved \$400 million, mainly in new facilities that would be required to test it. This time AEC and NASA acquiesced, because the NRX A6 test had demonstrated that NERVA I could perform the missions expected of NERVA II. The following year, Webb attempted to take money from NERVA I to pay for NASA overhead after Congress cut NASA's budget to \$3.8 billion. Johnson restored NERVA I's funding, but not NASA's.
NERVA had plenty of proposed missions. NASA considered using Saturn V and NERVA on a "Grand Tour" of the Solar System. A rare alignment of the planets that occurs every 174 years occurred between 1976 and 1980, allowing a spacecraft to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. With NERVA, that spacecraft could weigh up to 24,000 kilograms (52,000 lb). This was assuming NERVA had a specific impulse of only 825 seconds (8.09 km/s); 900 seconds (8.8 km/s) was more likely, and with that it could place a 77,000-kilogram (170,000 lb) space station the size of Skylab into orbit around the Moon. Repeat trips to the Moon could be made with NERVA powering a nuclear shuttle. There was also of course the mission to Mars, which Klein diplomatically avoided mentioning, knowing that, even in the wake of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, the idea was unpopular with Congress and the general public.
Richard Nixon replaced Johnson as president on 20 January 1969, and cost cutting became the order of the day. NASA program funding was somewhat reduced by Congress for the federal budget, shutting down the Saturn V production line. On 4 January 1970, NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine announced the cancellation of Apollo 20 to make its Saturn V available to launch Skylab. The cancellation of Apollo 18 and 19 followed in September 1970. But NERVA remained; Klein endorsed a plan whereby the Space Shuttle would lift a NERVA engine into orbit, then later returned with fuel and a payload. This could be repeated, as NERVA was restartable. NERVA now needed the shuttle, but the shuttle did not need NERVA. NERVA still had the steadfast support of Anderson and Cannon in the Senate, but Anderson was aging and tiring, and now delegated many of his duties to Cannon. NERVA received \$88 million in fiscal year (FY) 1970 and \$85 million in FY 1971, funds coming jointly from NASA and the AEC.
In December 1970, the Office of Management and Budget recommended the cancellation of NERVA and Skylab, but Nixon was reluctant to do so, as their cancellation could cost up to 20,000 jobs, mostly in California, a state that Nixon felt he needed to carry in the 1972 election. He decided to keep it alive at a low funding level, and cancel Apollo 17 instead. The concern about Apollo 17 was about the political fallout if it failed rather than the cost, and this was ultimately addressed by postponing it to December 1972, after the election. When Nixon tried to kill NERVA in 1971, Senator Anderson and Senator Margaret Chase Smith instead killed Nixon's pet project, the Boeing 2707 supersonic transport (SST). This was a stunning defeat for the president. In the budget for FY 1972, funding for the shuttle was cut, but NERVA and Apollo 17 survived. Although NERVA's budget request was only \$17.4 million, Congress allocated \$69 million; Nixon only spent \$29 million of it.
Congress supported NERVA again in 1972. A bipartisan coalition headed by Smith and Cannon appropriated \$100 million for the small NERVA engine that would fit inside the shuttle's cargo bay that was estimated to cost about \$250 million over a decade. They added a stipulation that there would be no more reprogramming NERVA funds to pay for other NASA activities. The Nixon administration decided to cancel NERVA anyway. On 5 January 1973, NASA announced that NERVA was terminated. Staff at LASL and SNPO were stunned; the project to build a small NERVA had been proceeding well. Layoffs began immediately, and the SNPO was abolished in June. After 17 years of research and development, Projects Nova and NERVA had spent about \$1.4 billion, but NERVA had never flown.
## Post-NERVA research
In 1983, the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") identified missions that could benefit from rockets that are more powerful than chemical rockets, and some that could only be undertaken by more powerful rockets. A nuclear propulsion project, SP-100, was created in February 1983 with the aim of developing a 100 KW nuclear rocket system. The concept incorporated a particle/pebble-bed reactor, a concept developed by James R. Powell at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, which promised a specific impulse of up to 1,000 seconds (9.8 km/s) and a thrust to weight ratio of between 25 and 35 for thrust levels greater than 89,000 newtons (20,000 lbf).
From 1987 to 1991 this was funded as a secret project codenamed Project Timber Wind, which spent \$139 million. The proposed rocket project was transferred to the Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (SNTP) program at the Air Force Phillips Laboratory in October 1991. NASA conducted studies as part of its 1992 Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) but felt that SNTP offered insufficient improvement over NERVA, and was not required by any SEI missions. The SNTP program was terminated in January 1994, after \$200 million was spent.
In 2013, an engine for interplanetary travel from Earth orbit to Mars orbit and back was studied at the MSFC with a focus on nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) engines. Since NTRs are at least twice as efficient as the most advanced chemical engines, they allow quicker transfer times and increased cargo capacity. The shorter flight duration, estimated at 3–4 months with NTR engines, compared to 8–9 months using chemical engines, would reduce crew exposure to potentially harmful and difficult to shield cosmic rays. NTR engines were selected in the Mars Design Reference Architecture (DRA).
Congress approved \$125 million in funding for the development of nuclear thermal propulsion rockets on 22 May 2019. On 19 October 2020, the Seattle-based firm Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies delivered a NTR design concept to NASA employing high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) ZrC-encapsulated fuel particles as part of a NASA-sponsored NTR study managed by Analytical Mechanics Associates (AMA). In January 2023, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that they would collaborate on the development of a nuclear thermal rocket engine that would be tested in space to develop nuclear propulsion capability for use in crewed NASA missions to Mars. In 2023, DARPA announced that the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) reactor and fuel would be supplied by BWXT.
## See also
- RD-0410, a Soviet nuclear thermal rocket engine
- SNAP-10A, an experimental nuclear reactor launched into space in 1965
- Project Prometheus, NASA nuclear generation of electric power 2003–2005
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62,638,538 |
The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia
| 1,150,942,013 |
Nazi genocide of Jews
|
[
"Jewish Czech history",
"Jewish German history",
"Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia",
"The Holocaust by country",
"The Holocaust by region",
"The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia",
"The Holocaust in Czechoslovakia",
"The Holocaust in Germany"
] |
The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia resulted in the deportation, dispossession, and murder of most of the pre-World War II population of Jews in the Czech lands that were annexed by Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1945.
Before the Holocaust, the Jews of Bohemia were among the most assimilated and integrated Jewish communities in Europe; antisemitic prejudice was less pronounced than elsewhere on the continent. The first anti-Jewish laws in Czechoslovakia were imposed following the 1938 Munich Agreement and the German occupation of the Sudetenland. In March 1939, Germany invaded and partially annexed the rest of the Czech lands as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. More anti-Jewish measures followed, imposed mainly by the Protectorate administration (which included both German and Czech officials). Jews were stripped of their employment and property, required to perform forced labor, and subject to discriminatory regulations including, in September 1941, the requirement to wear a yellow star. Many were evicted from their homes and concentrated into substandard housing.
Some 30,000 Jews, from the pre-invasion population of 118,310, managed to emigrate. Most of the remaining Jews were deported to other Nazi-controlled territories, starting in October 1939 as part of the Nisko plan. In October 1941, mass deportations of Protectorate Jews began, initially to Łódź Ghetto. Beginning in November 1941, the transports departed for Theresienstadt Ghetto in the Protectorate, which was, for most, a temporary stopping-point before deportation to other ghettos, extermination camps, and other killing sites farther east. By mid-1943, most of the Jews remaining in the Protectorate were in mixed marriages and therefore exempt from deportation.
About 80,000 Jews from Bohemia and Moravia were murdered in the Holocaust. After the war, surviving Jews—especially those who had identified as Germans before the war—faced obstacles in regaining their property and pressure to assimilate into the Czech majority. Most Jews emigrated; a few were deported as part of the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia. The memory of the Holocaust was suppressed in Communist Czechoslovakia, but resurfaced in public discourse after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.
## Background
The first Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia were probably established by the eleventh century, under the rule of the Přemyslid dynasty. Jews were expelled from most of the royal cities in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries at the demand of burghers because of economic rivalries and religious tensions. From 1526, Bohemia and Moravia were under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy. In 1557, Ferdinand I expelled the Jews from Bohemia, but not Moravia, although this decree was never fully enforced. Full freedom of residence was granted in 1623, but reversed by the Familiants Law (in effect 1726 to 1848) that restricted Jewish settlement to 8,541 families in Bohemia and 5,106 families in Moravia. Some Jews emigrated and others dispersed to small villages to evade the restrictions. Legal equality of the Czech Jews was granted in a series of reforms between 1841 and 1867. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, thousands of Jews came to Prague and other large cities in Bohemia and Moravia from small villages and towns.
Most Jews in Bohemia and Moravia spoke German as their primary language and identified with German culture at a time of increasing national conflict between Germans and Czechs in the nineteenth century. Over time, many Jews in Bohemia switched to Czech, which was the majority by the 1910 census, but German remained preferred by Jews living in Moravia and Czech Silesia. Following the end of World War I in 1918, Bohemia and Moravia – including the border Sudetenland, which had an ethnic-German majority – became part of the new country of Czechoslovakia. Of the 10 million inhabitants of the Czech lands including the Sudetenland, Jews composed about 1 percent (117,551) according to the 1930 census [cs]. At this time, most Jews lived in large cities such as Prague (35,403 Jews, who made up 4.2 percent of the population), Brno (11,103, 4.2 percent), and Moravská Ostrava (6,865, 5.5 percent).
Between 1917 and 1920, anti-Jewish rioting occurred and many Jews experienced prejudice in their daily life. Antisemitism in the Czech lands was lower than elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe and was a marginal phenomenon after 1920. Following a steep decline in religious observance in the nineteenth century, most Bohemian Jews were indifferent to religion, although this was less true in Moravia. Secularism among both Jews and non-Jews facilitated integration. The Jews of Bohemia had the highest rate of intermarriage in Europe; between 1928 and 1933, 43.8 percent of Bohemian and 30 percent of Moravian Jews married a non-Jewish partner. The high rate of integration later led to difficulties identifying Czech Jews for deportation and murder.
## German annexation
Czechoslovakia accepted thousands of German Jews fleeing Germany after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. Right-wing politics led to immigration restrictions, and after 1935 racial persecution was no longer regarded as a reason for granting asylum. At the same time, antisemitism was on the rise in Czechoslovakia. In February 1938, many Jews with Polish citizenship, including long-term residents, were expelled to Poland from Moravská Ostrava. Some of them were immediately sent back by the Polish police; others were left stranded along the border, where some died. After the German annexation of Austria in March 1938, all Austrian refugees were denied entry. Polish Jews deported from Austria were shuttled to the Polish border.
In September 1938, the Munich Agreement resulted in the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany. About 200,000 people fled or were expelled from the annexed areas to the remainder of Czechoslovakia, including more than 90 percent of the 30,000 resident Jews. The Czechoslovak authorities tried to prevent Jews from crossing the new border even though the Munich Agreement gave these Jews the option to retain their Czechoslovak citizenship. Some of the Jewish refugees had to wait for days along the border. Although ethnically Czech refugees were welcomed and integrated, Jews and antifascist Germans were pressured to immediately leave. The arrival of German-speaking Jewish refugees contributed to a rise in antisemitism in the rump state of Czechoslovakia, tied up with a changing definition of nationality and citizenship that became ethnically exclusive.
In mid-December, Rudolf Beran, prime minister of the authoritarian, ethnonationalist government of the Second Czechoslovak Republic, announced that he intended to "solve the Jewish question". In January 1939, Jews who had immigrated to Czechoslovakia after 1914, including naturalized citizens, were ordered to be deported from the country. Foreigners who were not ethnically Czech, Slovak, or Rusyn were required to leave the country within six months, and the Czechoslovak citizenship of Jewish refugees from the Sudetenland was systematically denied. This denaturalization was halted in mid-1939 by the German occupation authorities, because it hampered Jews from emigrating abroad. Jews were banned from the civil service and excluded from professional associations and educational institutions; state hospitals dismissed Jewish doctors, and Jewish army officers were put on leave. The Second Republic's persecution of Jews had domestic origins and did not result from external pressure.
On 14 March 1939, the Slovak State declared independence with German support. Germany invaded the Czech rump state, establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This nominally autonomous protectorate was partially annexed into the Greater German Reich. The Protectorate was allowed to govern itself, within the parameters set by the German occupiers. The Second Republic administration largely remained in place, although it only had jurisdiction over Czechs and Jews, who were counted as Protectorate subjects, a second-class status. Ethnic Germans were granted Reich citizenship and were accountable only to German authorities. Both the Protectorate's Prime Minister Alois Eliáš (starting in April) and President Emil Hácha were conservative Catholics who approved anti-Jewish measures while retaining contact with the Czechoslovak government-in-exile; the Protectorate justice minister, Jaroslav Krejčí, was known for his pro-Nazi sentiments. In March, Hácha formed the National Partnership, a political organization to which all adult male Czech Protectorate subjects were required to belong – women and Jews were forbidden from joining. The German administration was controlled by Reich Protector Konstantin von Neurath, former foreign minister of Germany, and Karl Hermann Frank, formerly the deputy chairman of the Sudeten German Party.
## Persecution of Jews
The gradual persecution of Jews created a "ghetto without walls" and conditions which later enabled their deportation and murder. The phases of persecution before mass deportation were primarily carried out by the Protectorate administration, especially by local authorities, with some intervention from Berlin. Both German and Czech officials were involved. The historian Benjamin Frommer contends that the archival record shows that in some cases the participation of Czech local authorities in anti-Jewish measures far exceeded passive compliance with orders from above. He also found that in other cases local authorities reluctantly responded to demands to persecute Jews. According to the historian Wolf Gruner, careerism and potential for material gain were likely motives for Czech bureaucrats to implement anti-Jewish regulations. Some initiatives first applied in the Protectorate, such as the freezing of Jews' bank accounts, were later rolled out in other parts of Greater Germany.
### Initial measures
On 15 March 1939, 118,310 Jews were reported to be living in 136 recognized communities in the Protectorate. During the annexation, anti-Jewish riots occurred in several locations. In Olomouc, Vsetín, and Moravská Ostrava, synagogues were burned by German and Czech rioters. In Jihlava, Jews were prohibited from riding streetcars (trams) and forced to clear snow from the streets. Prague Jewish organizations were shut down or taken over by the Gestapo. In the first week after the annexation there was a wave of suicides among Jews, 30–40 reported each day in Prague. A wave of arrests targeted thousands of left-wing activists and German refugees. More than a thousand were deported to concentration camps in the Reich. In September 1939, another wave of arrests targeted Protectorate citizens who could be used as hostages and those with ties to Poland. These arrests disproportionately targeted Jews, who made up 22 percent of the 8,000 people arrested during the first months of Nazi rule.
Following the establishment of the Protectorate, the Nuremberg Laws were immediately applied to relationships between Jews and German-blooded people, forbidding relationships between them. Marriages between Jews and non-Jewish Czechs were initially still allowed. Professional restrictions imposed under the Second Republic intensified after the takeover. On 17 March, Beran's government announced a ban on Jews practicing a wide range of professions. On 25 March, the German Interior Ministry decided to delegate "whether and what measures it undertakes against the Jews" to the Protectorate government. In the following weeks, professional associations of merchants, lawyers and physicians decided to expel their Jewish members. By June, the umbrella Jewish organization reported that many middle-class Jews had lost their jobs. The Jewish Social Institute, a social welfare organization, was allowed to reopen on 6 April and provided relief to many unemployed Jews as well as refugees.
The Eliáš government drafted anti-Jewish legislation, which would have defined a Jew as someone with four Jewish grandparents who had belonged to a Jewish community after 1918. Jews would be barred from working in public agencies, corporations, schools, administrations, courts, stock exchanges, the arts, and medicine. The Reich Protector's office dismissed the proposal as too mild in its definition of Jew, and therefore issued its own resolution on 21 June adopting the same definition as the Nuremberg Laws—anyone with three Jewish grandparents was a Jew. Part of the Czech government's calculation in arguing for a narrower definition of Jew was to reduce the amount of Jewish property that would be transferred to Germans as a result of Aryanization. Little irregular anti-Jewish violence took place during much of 1939, with the exception of a second wave of arson attacks against synagogues in May and June—in Brno, Olomouc, Uherský Brod, Chlumec, Náchod, Pardubice, and Moravská Ostrava.
### Emigration
Fourteen thousand Jews, disproportionately those from the Sudetenland, emigrated after the Munich Agreement and before the March 1939 invasion. Many Jews were reluctant to leave family members behind or try to start a new life in a country where they did not know the language. Another challenge was that most Jews were unable to emigrate because of immigration restrictions, and other countries' quotas were already filled by German and Austrian Jews. Some desperate parents agreed to send their children to the United Kingdom on the Kindertransport, which took 669 Jewish children from Bohemia and Moravia before the outbreak of war. The growing poverty among Jews caused by anti-Jewish restrictions was another barrier to their emigration, which was banned by the Security Service (SD) in May 1939 to prioritize the emigration of German Jews. The emigration ban was lifted in July and a Prague branch of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration was set up the same month. The Central Office initially only had jurisdiction over Prague and its surroundings, and in March 1940 it was extended to the entire Protectorate.
Proportionately fewer Jews were able to escape from the Protectorate than from prewar Germany or Austria, due to the narrower window for legal emigration. According to official figures, 26,111 emigrated, almost half of these for other European destinations, where some were killed in countries that were later occupied by Germany. An unknown number fled illegally to Poland in 1939 or to Germany's allies Slovakia and Hungary. The historian Hillel J. Kieval estimates that this illegal emigration amounted to several thousand Jews, many of whom joined Czechoslovak military formations abroad. In February 1940, working-age Jews were barred from emigrating from the Protectorate; by this time, hardly any destinations were open except Shanghai. All Jewish emigration was banned throughout the Reich on 16 October 1941.
### Nisko Plan
The outbreak of World War II with the September 1939 invasion of Poland dramatically changed the situation of Czech Jews. The Nisko Plan was a scheme to concentrate Jews in the Lublin District, at the time the most remote area of German-occupied Europe and adjacent to the new border with the Soviet Union created by the partition of Poland. The Nisko operation targeted the border areas as a first step toward the deportation of all 2 million Jews in Greater Germany to be completed by April 1940.
On 18 October 1939, 901 men were deported from Moravská Ostrava to Nisko. Border police and SS personnel accompanied the transport. A second transport carried 400 Jewish men from Moravská Ostrava and was accompanied by a demonstration of Czechs. A third took 300 men from Prague on 1 November, and was also protested by Czechs. The train was turned around in Sosnowiec and its passengers returned home when the Nisko Plan was cancelled. SS chief Heinrich Himmler called off the deportation because it conflicted with the higher-priority goal of resettling ethnic Germans in the Warthegau and West Prussia in German–occupied Poland. Instead, the Jewish population of Greater Germany was to be reduced through forced emigration. The deportees were dumped in and around Nisko to fend for themselves. Harsh conditions prompted some to flee across the border into the Soviet Union; 123 deportees returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945 with Svoboda's Army. In April 1940, the camp was dissolved and the 460 survivors from the Protectorate were allowed to return home.
### Property confiscation
To avoid chaotic property transfers as had taken place in Vienna after the German annexation of Austria, all property confiscation (known as Aryanization) from Jews in the Protectorate was required to take place with the approval of the Reich Ministry of the Economy. After the foundation of the Protectorate, Jews were forbidden to sell companies and real estate. Czechs and Germans fought over who would have the right to take over the 30,000 Jewish-owned businesses in the Protectorate. The Germans were favored and property confiscation was even extended to some businesses owned by Czechs, leading Hácha to complain of "Germanization under the cloak of Aryanization". On 21 June, simultaneously as the occupiers decided to establish the Central Office, the Reich Protector announced that all Jewish property was claimed by Germany. Sales of property were used to fund emigration of Jews; the decree also frustrated Czech efforts to seize Jewish-owned businesses.
In early 1940, the elimination of Jewish businesses accelerated with new ordinances from the Reich Protector preventing Jews from running businesses in several sectors of the economy and requiring all Jewish-owned businesses to register their assets. Some businesses were sold to non-Jews, often for a fraction of their value, and others were closed down. The Protectorate police began to shut down Jewish-owned stores. By this time, most Jewish businesses were run by trustees.
Jews' bank accounts were frozen on 25 March 1939 by Protectorate finance minister Josef Kalfus [cs]. All private property had to be registered by 1 August 1939. Initially estimated at 14 billion koruna the value of Jewish property had fallen to 3 billion koruna by that time according to contemporary newspaper reports. By 1940 an increasing number of Jews were selling their property because of poverty or as a first step towards emigration. Couples in which one partner was Jewish, especially those in which the other was an ethnic German, faced pressure to divorce. Some opted for a paper divorce to preserve the family property under the non-Jewish partner's name, or the job of the non-Jewish partner, while continuing to live together. The divorce removed the Jewish partner's exemption from deportation.
Before the Nazi occupation, many municipalities wanted to acquire Jewish synagogues, cemeteries, and other community property for public use or housing. The Nazi authorities were disappointed that some Czech municipalities were able to acquire this property at a low or null price and insisted that municipalities seeking to acquire Jewish property pay the full value to the Central Office for Jewish Emigration. Despite this cost, some municipalities went ahead with these acquisitions; selling Jewish gravestones as building material was common. The confiscation of Jewish property was mostly complete by 1941.
### Employment and forced labor
By mid-1939, their exclusion from state employment and professional associations left few jobs open to Jews besides manual labor. At the time, 25,458 men and 24,028 women were of working age (18–45 years). On 23 October, another order from the Reich Protector barred Jews from salaried employment. Further employment regulations were announced on 26 January 1940, with the result that Jews were banned from all management positions among other provisions. Increasing numbers of Jews were without employment or income. On 24 April Jews were barred from working in law, education, pharmacies, medicine, or publishing. The forced unemployment of Jews led to tremendous pressure on the Jewish community's welfare rolls, which it attempted to counter by retraining Jews in agriculture and skilled crafts via the Protectorate labor offices.
In mid-1940, despite the increasing unemployment among Jews, the central authorities did not introduce any generalized forced labor program. Instead, municipalities took the initiative and developed a forced labor program similar to that in Germany and Austria, but organized locally. In early July 1940, the town of Holešov requested permission to conscript its Jews into forced labor. A report in Neuer Tag magazine encouraged other localities to follow this practice. By July, 60 percent of Jewish men in the Protectorate were employed in forced labor projects and the remainder were in independent employment that had not yet been barred to them. Unlike in Germany and Austria, Jews were initially not segregated from Czechs when undertaking forced labor, as both were considered inferior to Germans.
In early 1941 forced labor intensified as many municipalities, including Prague, hired Jews at minimal wages to clear snow. The Jewish communities were ordered to judge the fitness for work of all men aged 18 to 50. By mid-1941, more than 11,700 of the 15,000 eligible Jewish men were engaged in a variety of forced labor projects, initially focused on agriculture and construction and later on industry and forestry. Segregated labor details were introduced in the first half of 1941. Forced labor deployments were further intensified in early 1942 despite the beginning of systematic deportation from the Protectorate. The forced laborer population peaked in May 1942, at which point 15,000 men and 1,000 women were deployed. After that, increasing recruitment of women and the less physically able was not able to compensate for the losses to deportation. Many forced laborers did not receive sufficient wages to cover their basic needs, and therefore still required welfare paid by the Jewish community. Many Jews suffered health problems as a result of poor conditions and insufficient nutrition.
### Restrictions on civil rights
In January 1940, the remit of the Prague Central Office was extended to the entire Protectorate. In March, it obtained control of all Jewish communities, to which all those classified as Jewish according to the Nuremberg Laws were ordered to report even if they were not members of the Jewish community. Jews' freedom of movement was restricted by the Hácha government with a curfew imposed at 20:00, and a ban on visiting cinemas and theaters. Protectorate identification cards for Jews were stamped with the red letter "J". In August 1940, Jews were banned by order of the Reich Protector from all voting rights and public office, all positions involving the media and public opinion, and all Czech associations. Jews were also restricted from shopping except for a few hours of the day from mid-1940, and eventually businesses had to choose whether to serve exclusively Jewish or non-Jewish customers. Jews were banned from attending German schools in March 1939, and in August 1940 the Czech government banned Jewish students from the Czech schools as well. Prohibition of private tutoring of Jewish students followed, and in July 1942 all education for Jewish students was banned.
From 1939, the Reich Protector received many petitions demanding that Jews be required to wear special markings such as a yellow star or armband. Even though Jews were so marked in the former Polish regions annexed into Nazi Germany, this was not initially approved for Bohemia and Moravia. The yellow star was introduced in Bohemia and Moravia at the same time as in Germany, in September 1941. Earlier, lack of distinction between Jews and other residents made it difficult to enforce anti-Jewish laws; the enforced wearing of the star made it easier to target Jews for antisemitic violence. The wearing of the star was the most vigorously enforced anti-Jewish law, and violators could be deported to a concentration camp. Later in September, high-ranking SS functionary Reinhard Heydrich was appointed Reich Protector and deposed the Czech government under Eliáš, replacing him with the hardliner Krejči. One of Heydrich's first actions as Reich Protector, on 1 October, was to shut down all synagogues.
Because the Nazis viewed Jews in racial terms, individuals of Jewish ancestry who did not identify as Jews were forced to register with the Jewish community as B-Jews. In March 1941 there were 12,680 B-Jews living in the Protectorate, the majority of them Christians. In November 1940, the Hácha government passed a ban on marriages between ethnic Czechs and Jews. The Nazi authorities repeatedly refused to publish the decree, which did not go into effect until March 1942. In late 1941 and early 1942, some Jews took advantage of this loophole to evade deportation by marrying a Czech. The longer that the war went on, the longer and more bizarre the list of prohibitions intended to make life difficult for Jews became.
### Ghettoization
During the first years of the German occupation, many Jews moved to Prague to apply for visas to foreign countries, and others headed to the countryside to evade anti-Jewish restrictions or obtain goods on the black market. In 1940 and 1941, public transit restrictions were imposed both in Prague and other municipalities. Jews were either restricted to the last car of streetcars or banned from public transport entirely. Restrictions were also imposed on leaving the municipality of residence or moving to a different address without the permission of the authorities.
In mid-1939, it was first proposed by German officials (Oberlandräte) that parts of Bohemia and Moravia be made Jew-free, by deporting Jews to Prague. Later that year, Jews from Německý Brod, Pelhřimov, Kamenice nad Lipou, Humpolec, Ledeč nad Sázavou, České Budějovice, and other municipalities were expelled to Prague on short notice. In early 1940, municipalities began to pressure Jews to vacate their homes and relocate to less desirable housing in the same town. The first internal expulsion of Jews was in 1940 from Mladá Boleslav when at the orders of the Oberlandrat of Jičín 250 Jews were imprisoned in a nearby castle [cs]. Later expulsions targeted Jews living in the city of Jihlava and the Zlín region outside of Uherský Brod, where Jews were forced into a ghetto. In late 1940, twenty-five municipalities forced their Jewish residents to leave their homes and live in abandoned castles or factories. Forced relocation disrupted prewar social ties with non-Jews and reduced the ability to cope with anti-Jewish regulations. Due to increasing poverty, by 1940 Czech Jews were suffering from tuberculosis at ten times the average rate for Central Europe.
In late 1940, Jewish-owned housing in Prague and Brno was registered by the Central Office. By early the next year, Jews were being concentrated into Judenhäuser [de; fr; he] (lit. 'Jew houses') in Prague, a joint initiative by the city government, the Central Office, and the Nazi Party. This primarily entailed moving Jews from peripheral districts of Prague into older housing, already occupied by other Jews, in the center of the city, especially Josefov and the Old Town. Thousands of Jews were evicted from flats around the city and most had to resettle in one-room sub-tenancies. By September 1941, there were an average of twelve people living in each two-room apartment. That month, Heydrich launched the final phase of the ghettoization, forcing Jews into a smaller number of towns and cities to make it easier to deport them. The National Partnership demanded further ghettoization of Jews; in October 1941, Hácha presented such demands to the Reich Protector. These were rejected as the Germans were already planning the systematic deportation of Jews.
## Responses to persecution
The majority of non-Jewish Czechs felt sympathy for Jews and did not collaborate with the Nazis, which was repeatedly emphasized in the wartime Western press. In 1940, an antisemitic faction took over the leadership of the National Partnership and issued decrees that forbade non-Jewish Czechs from associating with Jews, but the decrees were widely ignored and most were repealed following a public outcry. Defiance of antisemitic decrees, as well as the public protests against the Nisko deportations in 1939, was closely related to opposition to the German occupation. Non-Jewish Czechs worried that after the Jews were eliminated, they would be next. The Security Service reported that during 1941, "the Czech attitude towards the Jews became a serious problem for the occupation authorities". Even some Czech resistance figures published antisemitic articles.
A minority of Czechs took part in the persecution of Jews. Though committed fascists and antisemites were few, they had a disproportionate influence on the Protectorate's anti-Jewish policy. The Czech fascist newspapers Vlajka and Arijský boj ("Aryan Struggle"—a Czech version of the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer) were noted for their antisemitic invective and for publishing denunciations of Jews and Jew-lovers. Frommer has argued that these newspapers made it easier for some ordinary Czechs to denounce their neighbors, by providing an alternative to the Nazi authorities. Arijský boj received 60 denunciations daily in October 1941; such denunciations often resulted in the arrest of Jews for breaking the regulations. Those who sent in denunciations helped enforce the laws by reporting alleged violations. The Security Service reported that some non-Jewish Czechs tried to help Jews avoid deportation. In 1943, it reported that attitudes had changed and non-Jewish Czechs were grateful that the occupiers had rid them of the Jewish population. The resistance also reported to the government-in-exile that some Czechs believed that the Jews deserved their fate.
Jewish leaders attempted to mitigate persecution by helping Jews emigrate and providing welfare and labor assignments to those made destitute by confiscation of their property and exclusion from the labor market. The Jewish communities also attempted to mitigate persecution by setting different agencies against each other. Individual Jews resisted in several ways, such as refusing to obey anti-Jewish restrictions, buying goods on the black market, not wearing the yellow star. Some deserted from forced labor or evaded deportation. Others helped Jews emigrate or joined the resistance. Hundreds of Jews were punished for their resistance to persecution, which could range from fines to a prison sentence, deportation to a concentration camp, or execution. More than a thousand people classified as Jews petitioned to be recognized as honorary Aryans, but all these petitions were denied.
## Systematic deportation
### Direct transports
On 16 or 17 September 1941, Hitler approved a proposal to deport 60,000 Jews from the Reich and the Protectorate to Łódź Ghetto, in the Warthegau. In preparation for the deportation, another census was carried out. By the criteria of the Nuremberg Laws, 88,000 Jews still lived in the Protectorate, 46,800 in Prague. Heydrich, Frank, Horst Böhme, and Adolf Eichmann met at Prague Castle on 10 October to finalize deportation plans. They decided that 5,000 Jews would be deported from Prague from 15 October, initially to Nazi ghettos where they would perform forced labor. Upon their deportation, Jews' remaining property would be expropriated. Due to overcrowding in the Łódź Ghetto, and partly to make space for the new arrivals, Kulmhof extermination camp was opened in late 1941.
Panic and a wave of suicides broke out in Prague and Brno in early October with the announcement of a mass deportation to an unknown destination. Many deportees were only given one night to report for deportation, and at most a few days. In Prague the deportation of the city's 46,801 Jews stretched over more than two years, but elsewhere in the Protectorate (except for Brno) all Jews were deported from a locality within a few days. In Prague, deportees had to gather in the Trade Fair Palace [cs] in Holešovice where they had to sleep on the floor in unheated wooden barracks for several days. The SS stole their remaining belongings and beat some prisoners to death. Transports, each carrying 1,000 Jews, departed from Prague on 16, 21, 26 and 30 October and 3 November, arriving in Łódź the next day. These transports were organized by the Central Office and the Gestapo, the latter being responsible for drawing up transport lists. Hitler designated Minsk and Riga as the destination for subsequent transports due to overcrowding in Łódź; on 16 November, a transport took Jews from Brno to Minsk.
Many deportees to Łódź perished from the poor living conditions in the ghetto. Others died in labor camps in western Poland or after deportation to the extermination camps at Kulmhof, Majdanek or Auschwitz; only around 250 of the 5,000 Jews deported to Łódź survived the war. From the transport to Minsk, about 750 of the deportees were murdered in a mass execution on 27–29 July 1942; only 12 returned after the war. Following the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich on 27 May 1942, martial law was declared in the Protectorate. Hundreds of people, especially Jews, were executed on accusations of sabotage, treason and economic crimes. On 10 June, 1,000 Jews were deported from Prague; some were removed from the transport at Majdanek and others were deported to Ujazdów near Sobibor extermination camp; only one man survived. On 27 October 1944, 18 leaders of the Prague Jewish Community were deported directly to Auschwitz and murdered.
### Theresienstadt Ghetto
In October 1941, the Prague Jewish Community was ordered to prepare for the deportation of the remaining Jews to locations within the Protectorate. The site chosen was Theresienstadt (Terezín) a walled fortress town north of Prague on the border with the Sudetenland. Deportation to Theresienstadt began in November 1941 with a transport of 350 men from Prague. The next month, more than 7,000 people were deported to Theresienstadt, from Prague, Pilsen, Brno, and other places. Deportees were permitted to bring only 50 kilograms (110 lb) of personal items, which were ultimately stolen. The ghetto was furnished with property that had earlier been confiscated from Jews and funded by confiscated assets and the proceeds of inmates' forced labor. From the outset, Theresienstadt was designated as a transit ghetto. The first transport from Theresienstadt left for Riga on 9 January 1942.
At the Wannsee Conference on 20 January, Heydrich announced that Theresienstadt was being prepared as an old-age ghetto for German Jews. This decision meant that the Czech Jews transported there had to be deported farther east. The original residents of Theresienstadt were expelled and the Germans among them received compensation from the Central Office out of the fund of confiscated Jewish property. On 29 May, two days after Heydrich's assassination by the Czech resistance, Jewish leaders were told to expect the deportation of all Jews living within Germany, Austria, and Bohemia and Moravia. Those older than 65 would stay in Theresienstadt and younger Jews would be deported to the East. Prisoners at Theresienstadt were used for forced labor inside the ghetto, and outside for projects including forestry, coal mining, and the ironworks in Prague. After the Lidice massacre in June 1942, a work detail of 30 Jews from Theresienstadt was forced to bury the victims.
Out of a total of 141,000 Jews deported to Theresienstadt, 73,608 were from the Protectorate. In the ghetto, about 33,000 people died of starvation and disease, caused by malnutrition and the cramped and unsanitary conditions. Between 9 January 1942 and 28 October 1944, about 60,000 of the Jews from the Protectorate were deported farther east to locations in Eastern Europe, about half to Auschwitz. Transports in September and December 1943 as well as May 1944 brought Jews from Theresienstadt to Theresienstadt family camp, a segregated area of Auschwitz II–Birkenau. On the night of 8–9 March 1944, 3,792 Jews from the family camp were murdered in the gas chambers—the largest single mass execution of Czechoslovak citizens during the war. The family camp was dissolved in July 1944, most prisoners being killed. After the war 10,818 Czech Jews returned from deportation to Theresienstadt, of whom 3,371 had been deported outside the Protectorate.
### Remaining Jews
Property belonging to deported Jews was collected by the Trustee Office of the Prague Jewish Community for resale. At its height, hundreds of Jews worked for this office, gathering items such as clothing, furniture, tableware, and carpets, as well as hundreds of thousands of books and hundreds of pianos. There were more than fifty branch offices for dealing with the property of Jews outside of Prague. The items were categorized and valued for sale. After the Heydrich assassination, there was an intensified push to confiscate the last remaining property of families that had not yet been deported. In November 1942, a law was passed confiscating all the property of Jews deported from the Protectorate.
By June 1943, almost the entire Jewish population of the Protectorate had been deported; most of those left were in mixed marriages. Jews married to non-Jews and children under 14 with one Jewish parent were largely exempt from deportation. These couples faced increasing persecution and pressure to divorce, but many refused to do so. From March 1943, such Jews were subjected to forced labor duty. By 1944, 83.4 percent of Jews outside Theresienstadt were performing forced labor, the remainder being considered incapable of work. People of partial Jewish descent who were not deported were also drafted into forced labor programs. In mid-1944, non-Jewish husbands of Jewish women were summoned for forced labor. In September all able-bodied Jews from outside Prague were drafted into mica splitting at a camp in Hagibor, and many forced-labor camps outside the city were shut down.
Between June 1943 and January 1945, another 900 people were sent to Theresienstadt in small groups; these were primarily divorcés and widows of mixed marriages and offspring from such marriages who had reached 14 years of age. By the end of 1944, only 6,795 Jews officially lived in the Protectorate. Between January and 16 March 1945, 3,654 intermarried Jews and people of partial Jewish descent were deported to Theresienstadt; 2,803 Jews were allowed to remain in Prague through the end of the war.
Historians consider that hiding was relatively rare in the Protectorate, due to geographic, demographic, and political factors rather than Czech collaboration with the occupation. Czechs caught assisting Jews with forged papers or hiding places were sentenced to death. The exact number of Jews who survived in hiding in the Protectorate is unknown; H. G. Adler estimated it at 424. According to one estimate, some 1,100 Jews acquired false papers, but the majority left the Protectorate, either to be foreign workers in Germany or else to Slovakia or Hungary; not all of these survived the war. Those who had the greatest chance of surviving were the small group who had never been registered as Jews.
## Aftermath
Bohemia and Moravia were liberated by May 1945 by the Western Allies, who arrived in Pilsen on 5 May, and the Red Army, which captured Prague on 9 May 1945 following the Prague offensive. More than three-quarters of Czechoslovak war deaths were Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. The total number of Jewish Holocaust victims from the Protectorate was about 80,000, 80 percent of the prewar population. Besides those who emigrated, about 14,000 Jews survived in other ways. A third of Jews who had emigrated returned after the war. In 1946, there were an estimated 23,000 Jews living in the Czech lands, of whom half had lived elsewhere before the war. Emigration to Palestine was not restricted until late 1949, after the 1948 Communist coup. By 1950, only around 14,000 to 18,000 Jews remained in Czechoslovakia.
President Edvard Beneš made it clear that postwar Czechoslovakia was to be a nation of Czechs and Slovaks only. Jews who remained in the country faced pressure to assimilate or leave. Two thousand to three thousand Jews who had identified themselves as Germans on prewar censuses were subjected to the same discrimination as non-Jewish Germans, including deprivation of citizenship, forfeiture of property, and requirement to wear white armbands. Due to discrimination, thousands of Jews applied to leave the country voluntarily. The deportation of Jews as part of the expulsion of Germans was abruptly halted in September 1946 due to media outrage and objections from the military governor of the American occupation zone of Germany. Some Jews were nevertheless deported. Although two thousand Jews counted as Germans were eventually able to regain their Czechoslovak citizenship, most ended up emigrating, primarily to Germany.
Although postwar laws negated property confiscation, most Jews (even those recognized as Czechs) faced severe obstacles in recovering their property. Many Jews were unable to return to their homes, now occupied by non-Jewish Czechs. Being considered German in any way (for example, having attended a German-language school) was a reason not to return a confiscated house to a Jewish survivor. When Jews had left movable property with non-Jewish acquaintances, these were frequently unwilling to return it. Both Communists and some nationalists demanded the nationalization of Jewish property. The majority of confiscated property was not claimed by heirs, and was transferred in 1947 to the Currency Liquidation Fund. In the 1990s, laws enabled survivors and their descendants who were Czech citizens to reclaim properties or their equivalent value. This process excluded most Jews who had emigrated to Israel or the United States. During the years after the war, several Holocaust perpetrators and collaborators were tried and convicted, as part of a purge of collaborators that was one of the most severe in Europe. People who denounced Jews or helped to purge them from associations were punished harshly, unlike those who had financially benefited from property confiscation.
Some Holocaust survivors embraced Communism, hoping to build an entirely new political regime on the basis of equality and social justice. State-sponsored antisemitism was most prominent in the 1950s, manifested especially in the Slánský trial, in which mostly Jewish communists were accused of conspiring on behalf of a worldwide Zionist conspiracy. The trial was accompanied by a nationwide antisemitic campaign; other Jews were prosecuted in politically motivated trials and hundreds of Jews lost their jobs. Many Jewish communists supported the Prague Spring and 6,000 Jews emigrated after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to suppress it in 1968. By the 1989 Velvet Revolution, no more than 10,000 Jews lived in Czechoslovakia. As of 2021, about 3,000 people were officially registered with Jewish communities in the Czech Republic, but the Federation of Jewish Communities [cs] estimates the number of people with a connection to Judaism at 15,000 to 20,000.
## Legacy
During the Communist rule in Czechoslovakia the Holocaust was mostly ignored in the Communist historical culture. The Lidice massacre became a hegemonic symbol of the German occupation, but the largest massacre of Czechoslovak citizens during the war (on 8–9 March 1944 in Auschwitz) was almost forgotten outside the Jewish community. The tendency to add Jewish victims into the total of Czechoslovak war victims while ignoring the Holocaust was common in Communist historiography, and criticized by opposition group Charter 77. In the 1970s and 1980s, Miroslav Kárný was the first Czech historian to write about the Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia, primarily on his own initiative as a private citizen.
After the 1989 fall of the Communist regime, scholarly interest in the Holocaust greatly increased, many academic theses relating to the Holocaust being published. This interest peaked around 2000. The Romani genocide triggered heated public debate over the role of the Second Republic and the Protectorate government in setting up concentration camps for Romani and Sinti people at Lety and Hodonin. The expulsion of Germans was also a very controversial issue in historiography and in Czech–German relations. In contrast, the Holocaust has often been perceived as noncontroversial in the Czech Republic. During the late 2010s, some historians began to examine the Holocaust outside of a national framework and research issues such as the role of the Protectorate government and some parts of the Czech population in the persecution of Jews.
The Holocaust also became a subject of Czech popular culture, mostly after 1989. Representation of the Holocaust is greater in soft forms of popular culture (such as literature) than hard forms, such as museums and monuments. The names of 77,297 known victims of the Holocaust from Bohemia and Moravia are written on the walls of Pinkas Synagogue in Prague. Other memorials are located at Terezín and a few other locations. The 1960 film Romeo, Julie a tma was one of the most successful Czechoslovak films abroad and depicts a young man's unsuccessful attempt to hide his Jewish lover. Jiří Weil and Arnošt Lustig, both Holocaust survivors, became known for their literature on the event. In the twenty-first century, an important trend in literature is writers who tie together the Holocaust and the expulsion of Germans, considering both events as part of a ten-year process in which the traditional coexistence of Czechs, Germans, and Jews in the Czech lands was violently destroyed.
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Cousin Bette
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1846 novel by Honoré de Balzac
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[
"1846 French novels",
"Books of La Comédie humaine",
"French novels adapted into films",
"French novels adapted into plays",
"French-language novels",
"Novels by Honoré de Balzac",
"Novels first published in serial form",
"Novels set in Paris",
"Works originally published in Le Constitutionnel"
] |
La Cousine Bette (, Cousin Bette) is an 1846 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Set in mid-19th-century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette works with Valérie Marneffe, an unhappily married young lady, to seduce and torment a series of men. One of these is Baron Hector Hulot, husband to Bette's cousin Adeline. He sacrifices his family's fortune and good name to please Valérie, who leaves him for a well-off merchant named Crevel. The book is part of the Scènes de la vie parisienne section of Balzac's novel sequence La Comédie humaine ("The Human Comedy").
In the 1840s, a serial format known as the roman-feuilleton was highly popular in France, and the most acclaimed expression of it was the socialist writing of Eugène Sue. Balzac wanted to challenge Sue's supremacy, and prove himself the most capable feuilleton author in France. Writing quickly and with intense focus, Balzac produced La Cousine Bette, one of his longest novels, in two months. It was published in Le Constitutionnel at the end of 1846, then collected with a companion work, Le Cousin Pons, the following year.
The novel's characters represent polarities of contrasting morality. The vengeful Bette and disingenuous Valérie stand on one side, with the merciful Adeline and her patient daughter Hortense on the other. The patriarch of the Hulot family, meanwhile, is consumed by his own sexual desire. Hortense's husband, the Polish exile Wenceslas Steinbock, represents artistic genius, though he succumbs to uncertainty and lack of motivation. Balzac based the character of Bette in part on his mother and the poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore. At least one scene involving Baron Hulot was likely based on an event in the life of Balzac's friend, the novelist Victor Hugo.
La Cousine Bette is considered Balzac's last great work. His trademark use of realist detail combines with a panorama of characters returning from earlier novels. Several critics have hailed it as a turning point in the author's career, and others have called it a prototypical naturalist text. It has been compared to William Shakespeare's Othello as well as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. The novel explores themes of vice and virtue, as well as the influence of money on French society. Bette's relationship with Valérie is also seen as an important exploration of homoerotic themes. A number of film versions of the story have been produced, including a 1971 BBC mini-series starring Margaret Tyzack and Helen Mirren, and a 1998 feature film with Jessica Lange in the title role.
## Background
By 1846 Honoré de Balzac had achieved tremendous fame as a writer, but his finances and health were deteriorating rapidly. After writing a series of potboiler novels in the 1820s, he published his first book under his own name, Les Chouans ("The Chouans"), in 1829. He followed this with dozens of well-received novels and stories, including La Peau de chagrin ("The Magic Skin"), in 1831, Le Père Goriot ("Father Goriot") in 1835, and the two-volume Illusions perdues ("Lost Illusions"), in 1837 and 1839. Because of his lavish lifestyle and penchant for financial speculation, he spent most of his life trying to repay a variety of debts. He wrote tirelessly, driven as much by economic necessity as by the muse and black coffee. This regimen of constant work exhausted his body and brought reprimands from his doctor.
As his work gained recognition, Balzac began corresponding with a Polish baroness named Ewelina Hańska, who first contacted him through an anonymous 1832 letter signed "L'Étrangère" ("The Stranger"). They developed an affectionate friendship in letters, and when she became a widow in 1841, Balzac sought her hand in marriage. He visited her often in Poland and Germany, but various complications prohibited their union. One of these was an affair Balzac had with his housekeeper, Louise Breugniot. As she became aware of his affection for Mme. Hanska, Breugniot stole a collection of their letters and used them to extort money from Balzac. Even after this episode, he grew closer to Mme. Hanska with each visit and by 1846 he had begun preparing a home to share with her. He grew hopeful that they could marry when she became pregnant, but she fell ill in December and suffered a miscarriage.
The mid-19th century was a time of profound transformation in French government and society. The reign of King Charles X ended in 1830 when a wave of agitation and dissent forced him to abdicate. He was replaced by Louis-Philippe, who named himself "King of the French", rather than the standard "King of France" – an indication that he answered more to the nascent bourgeoisie than the aristocratic Ancien Régime. The change in government took place while the economy in France was moving from mercantilism to industrial development. This opened new opportunities for individuals hoping to acquire wealth and led to significant changes in social norms. Members of the aristocracy, for example, were forced to relate socially to the nouveau riche, usually with tense results. The democratic spirit of the French Revolution also affected social interactions, with a shift in popular allegiance away from the church and the monarchy.
In the mid-19th century, a new style of the novel became popular in France. The serial format known as the roman-feuilleton presented stories in short regular installments, often accompanied by melodramatic plots and stock characters. Although Balzac's La Vieille Fille (The Old Maid), 1836, was the first such work published in France, the roman-feuilleton gained prominence thanks mostly to his friends Eugène Sue and Alexandre Dumas, père. Balzac disliked their serial writing, especially Sue's socialist depiction of lower-class suffering. Balzac wanted to dethrone what he called "les faux dieux de cette littérature bâtarde" ("the false gods of this bastard literature"). He also wanted to show the world that, despite his poor health and tumultuous career, he was "plus jeune, plus frais, et plus grand que jamais" ("younger, fresher, and greater than ever"). His first efforts to render a quality feuilleton were unsuccessful. Even though Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes ("A Harlot High and Low"), published in segments from 1838 to 1847, was celebrated by critics, Balzac complained to Mme. Hanska that he was "doing pure Sue". He tried again in 1844 with Modeste Mignon, but public reactions were mixed. Two years later Balzac began a new project, determined to create something from his "own old pen again".
## Writing and publication
After resting for a week in June 1846 at the Château de Saché in Tours, Balzac returned to Paris and began working on a short story called "Le Parasite", which he eventually developed into the novel Le Cousin Pons. He intended from the start to pair it with another novel, collecting them under the title Les Parents pauvres ("The Poor Relations"). He based the second book on a story his sister Laure Surville had written called "La Cousine Rosalie" and published in 1844 in Le Journal des enfants. Writing intensively, he produced the entire novel, named La Cousine Bette after the main character, in two months. This was a significant accomplishment owing to his bad health, but its length made Balzac's writing speed especially remarkable. One critic calls the writing of Les Parents pauvres Balzac's "last explosion of creative energy". Another suggests that this effort was "almost the last straw which broke down Balzac's gigantic strength".
Balzac's usual mode of revision involved vast, complicated edits made to galley proofs he received from the printer. When creating La Cousine Bette, however, he submitted the work to his editor piece by piece, without viewing a single proof. The book was serialized in Le Constitutionnel from 8 October to 3 December, and Balzac rushed to keep up with the newspaper's rapid printing schedule. He produced an average of eight pages each day, but was struck by the unexpected enormity of the story as it evolved. Balzac was paid 12,836 francs for the series, which was later published with Le Cousin Pons as a twelve-volume book by Chiendowski and Pétion. The first collected edition of La Cousine Bette was organized into 132 chapters, but these divisions were removed when Balzac added it to his massive collection La Comédie humaine in 1848.
## Plot summary
The first third of the novel provides a lengthy exploration of the characters' histories. Balzac makes this clear after 150 pages: "Ici se termine, en quelque sorte, l'introduction de cette histoire." ("Here ends what is, in a way, the introduction to this story.") At the start of the novel, Adeline Hulot – wife of the successful Baron Hector Hulot – is being pressured into an affair by a wealthy perfumer named Célestin Crevel. His desire stems in part from an earlier contest in which the adulterous Baron Hulot had won the attentions of the singer Josépha Mirah, also favored by Crevel. Mme. Hulot rejects Crevel's advances. The Baron has so completely lavished money on Josépha that he has borrowed heavily from his Uncle Johann – and, unable to repay the money, the Baron instead arranges a War Department post in Algeria for Johann, with instructions that Johann will be in a situation in that job to embezzle the borrowed money. The Hulots' daughter, Hortense, has begun searching for a husband; their son Victorin is married to Crevel's daughter Celestine.
Mme. Hulot's cousin, Bette (also called Lisbeth), harbors a deep but hidden resentment of her relatives' success, especially of Hortense 'stealing' Bette's intended sweetheart. A peasant woman with none of the physical beauty of her cousin, Bette has rejected a series of marriage proposals from middle-class suitors who were clearly motivated by her connection to the Hulots, and remains unmarried at the age of 42. One day she comes upon a young unsuccessful Polish sculptor named Wenceslas Steinbock, attempting suicide in the tiny apartment upstairs from her own. As she nourishes him back to health, she develops a maternal (and romantic) fondness for him. At the beginning of the story Bette is living in a modest apartment in a lodging house shared by the Marneffe couple, both of whom are ambitious and amoral. Bette befriends Valérie, the young and very attractive wife of a War Department clerk, Fortin Marneffe; the two women form a bond to attain their separate goals – for Valérie the acquisition of money and valuables, for Bette the ruination of the Hulot household by means of Valérie's luring both the Baron and Steinbock into infidelity and financial ruin.
Baron Hulot, meanwhile, is rejected by Josépha, who explains bluntly that she has chosen another man because of his larger fortune. Hulot's despair is quickly alleviated when he visits Bette in her lodging and there meets and falls in love with Valérie Marneffe. He showers her with gifts, and soon establishes a luxurious house for her and M. Marneffe, with whom he works at the War Department (Bette joins them in their new home, to serve as an excuse for the Baron's visits). These debts, compounded by the money he borrowed to lavish on Josépha, threaten the Hulot family's financial security. Panicked, he convinces his uncle Johann Fischer to quietly embezzle funds from a War Department outpost in Algiers. Hulot's woes are momentarily abated and Bette's happiness is shattered, when – at the end of the "introduction" – Hortense Hulot marries Wenceslas Steinbock.
Crushed at having lost Steinbock's as her intended spouse, Bette swears vengeance on the Hulot family. Her strategy is to work on Baron Hulot's demonstrated weakness for acquiring and lavishing more money than he has on young mistresses. Soon the Baron is completely besotted – and financially over-extended – with Valérie, and completely compromised by repeatedly promoting her husband within the Baron's section of the War Department. Before long, Bette has already contrived to have Crevel and Steinbock also ensnared by Valérie's charms. Hortense discovers Steinbock's infidelity and returns to her mother's home. Before long, the Baron's misconduct becomes known to the War Department; Uncle Johann is arrested in Algeria and commits suicide, the Baron is forced to retire suddenly, his brother, a famous war hero, saves him from prison and then quickly dies of shame over the family disgrace. The Baron deserts his family and hides from his creditors. It appears that Valérie, soon a widow, will marry Crevel and thus gain entrance to the Hulot family as Celestine's mother-in-law. In short, the family is devastated by these repeated blows – and Bette's machinations are completely concealed from them.
## Characters and inspirations
Balzac had written more than seventy novels when he began La Cousine Bette, and populated them with recurring characters. Many of the characters in the novel, therefore, appear with extensive back-stories and biographical depth. For example, Célestin Crevel first appeared in Balzac's 1837 novel César Birotteau, working for the title character. Having accumulated a considerable fortune in that book, Crevel spends his time in La Cousine Bette enjoying the spoils of his labor. Another important recurring character is Marshal Hulot, who first appeared as a colonel in Les Chouans. In the years between that story and La Cousine Bette, he became the Count of Forzheim; in a letter to the Constitutionnel, Balzac described how Marshal Hulot gained this title. The presence of Crevel and Marshal Hulot – among others – in La Cousine Bette allows a continuation of each character's life story, adding emphasis or complexity to earlier events.
Other recurring characters appear only briefly in La Cousine Bette; previous appearances, however, give deep significance to the characters' presence. This is the case with Vautrin, the criminal mastermind who tutors young Eugene de Rastignac in Balzac's 1835 novel Le Père Goriot. When he resurfaces in La Cousine Bette, he has joined the police and introduces the Hulot family to his aunt, Mme. Nourrison, who offers a morally questionable remedy for their woes. Although Vautrin's presence in La Cousine Bette is brief, his earlier adventures in Le Père Goriot provide instant recognition and emotional texture. Elsewhere, Balzac presents an entire world of experience by including characters from a particular sphere of society. For example, several scenes feature artists like Jean-Jacques Bixiou, who first appeared in 1837's Les Employés and in many other books thereafter. The world of Parisian nightlife is quickly brought to mind with the inclusion of several characters from Les Comédiens sans le savoir (1846), and Bianchon appears – as always – when a doctor is needed.
Balzac's use of recurring characters has been identified as a unique component of his fiction. It enables a depth of characterization that goes beyond simple narration or dialogue. "When the characters reappear", notes the critic Samuel Rogers, "they do not step out of nowhere; they emerge from the privacy of their own lives which, for an interval, we have not been allowed to see." Some readers are intimidated by the depth created by these interdependent stories, and feel deprived of important context for the characters. Detective novelist Arthur Conan Doyle said that he never tried to read Balzac, because he "did not know where to begin". The characterization in La Cousine Bette is considered especially skillful. Anthony Pugh, in his book Balzac's Recurring Characters, says that the technique is employed "for the most part without that feeling of self-indulgence that mars some of Balzac's later work. Almost every example arises quite naturally out of the situation." Biographer Noel Gerson calls the characters in La Cousine Bette "among the most memorable Balzac ever sketched".
### Bette Fischer
Descriptions of Bette are often connected to savagery and animal imagery. Her name, for example, is a homophone in French for "bête" ("beast"). One passage explains that "elle ressemblait aux singes habillés en femmes" ("she sometimes looked like one of those monkeys in petticoats"); elsewhere her voice is described as having "une jalousie de tigre" ("tiger-like jealousy"). Her beastly rage comes to the surface with ferocity when she learns of Steinbock's engagement to Hortense:
> La physionomie de la Lorraine était devenue terrible. Ses yeux noirs et pénétrants avaient la fixité de ceux des tigres. Sa figure ressemblait à celles que nous supposons aux pythonisses, elle serrait les dents pour les empêcher de claquer, et une affreuse convulsion faisait trembler ses membres. Elle avait glissé sa main crochue entre son bonnet et ses cheveux pour les empoigner et soutenir sa tête, devenue trop lourde; elle brûlait! La fumée de l'incendie qui la ravageait semblait passer par ses rides comme par autant de crevasses labourées par une éruption volcanique.
>
> The peasant-woman's face was terrible; her piercing black eyes had the glare of the tiger's; her face was like that we ascribe to a pythoness; she set her teeth to keep them from chattering, and her whole frame quivered convulsively. She had pushed her clenched fingers under her cap to clutch her hair and support her head, which felt too heavy; she was on fire. The smoke of the flame that scorched her seemed to emanate from her wrinkles as from the crevasses rent by a volcanic eruption.
When she learns that her cousin Adeline has been welcoming Steinbock into the Hulot home, Bette swears revenge: "Adeline! se dit Lisbeth, ô Adeline, tu me le payeras, je te rendrai plus laide que moi!" ("'Adeline!' muttered Lisbeth. 'Oh, Adeline, you shall pay for this! I will make you uglier than I am.'") Her cruelty and lust for revenge lead critics to call her "demonic" and "one of Balzac's most terrifying creations". Because of her willingness to manipulate the people around her, Bette has been compared to Iago in William Shakespeare's play Othello. Her fierce persona is attributed partly to her peasant background, and partly to her virginity, which provides (according to Balzac) "une force diabolique ou la magie noire de la volonté" ("diabolical strength, or the black magic of the Will").
In a letter to Mme. Hanska, Balzac indicated that he based the character of Bette on three women from his life: his mother, Mme. Hanska's aunt Rosalie Rzewuska, and the poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore. Balzac had a tumultuous relationship with his mother for most of his life, and he incorporated some of her personality (particularly her "obstinate persistence in living", as one critic calls it) into Bette. Rosalie Rzewuska disapproved of Mme. Hanska's relationship with Balzac; biographers agree that her cold determination was part of the author's recipe for Bette. Elements taken from Marceline Desbordes-Valmore are more complex; she faced many setbacks in life and she and Balzac became friends after she left the theatre to take up poetry.
### Valérie Marneffe
Bette's co-conspirator in the destruction of the Hulot family is beautiful and greedy Valérie Marneffe, the unsatisfied wife of a War Department clerk. They develop a deep friendship, which many critics consider an example of lesbian affection. Because of their relationship and similar goals, the critic Frederic Jameson says that "Valérie serves as a kind of emanation of Bette".
Valérie is repulsed by her ugly husband and has gone five years without kissing him. She explains bluntly that her position as a married woman provides subtleties and options unavailable to the common prostitute who has one set price; after Marneffe dies, Valérie jockeys for position between Hulot and Montés (while also sleeping with Steinbock), then discards them all to marry Crevel, who offers the most wealth. She amuses herself by mocking her lovers' devotion, and this wickedness – not to mention her gruesome demise – has led some critics to speculate that she is actually the focus of Balzac's morality tale.
In one important scene, Valérie models for Steinbock as Delilah, standing victorious over the ruined Samson. With obvious parallels to her own activities, she describes her vision for the piece: "Il s'agit d'exprimer la puissance de la femme. Samson n'est rien, là. C'est le cadavre de la force. Dalila, c'est la passion qui ruine tout." ("What you have to show is the power of woman. Samson is a secondary consideration. He is the corpse of dead strength. It is Delilah—passion—that ruins everything.")
Although Balzac did not draw specifically from the women in his life to create Valérie, parallels have been observed in some areas. The tumultuous end of his affair with Louise Breugniot and the advantage she gains from his devotion to Mme. Hanska is similar in some ways to Valérie's manipulation of Steinbock. Critics also connect the pride and anguish felt by Balzac during Mme. Hanska's pregnancy and miscarriage to the same emotions felt by Baron Hulot when Valérie conceives and loses her child. Although he never ascribed to Mme. Hanska any of the traits in Valérie's treacherous character, he felt a devotion similar to that of Hulot. He once wrote to her: "je fais pour mon Eve toute les folies qu'un Hulot fait pour une Marneffe, je te donnerai mon sang, mon honneur, ma vie" ("I commit for [you] all the follies that a Hulot commits for Madame Marneffe; I give you my blood, my honor, my life").
### Hector and Adeline Hulot
Baron Hector Hulot is a living manifestation of male sexual desire, unrestrained and unconcerned with its consequences for the man or his family. As the novel progresses, he becomes consumed by his libido, even in a physical sense. When Valérie tells him to stop dyeing his hair, he does so to please her. His financial woes and public disgrace lead him to flee his own home; by the end of the book he is an elderly, decrepit shell of a man. Baron Hulot is so overcome by his taste for female flesh that he even asks his wife – without irony – if he can bring home his fifteen-year-old mistress.
Adeline Hulot, on the other hand, is mercy personified. Like her cousin Bette, she comes from a peasant background, but has internalized the ideals of 19th-century womanhood, including devotion, grace, and deference. She reveals in the first scene that she has known for years about her husband's infidelities, but refuses to condemn him. Adeline's forgiving nature is often considered a significant character flaw. Some suggest that she is partly to blame for Hulot's wandering affection. C.A. Prendergast, for example, calls her forgiveness "an inadequate and even positively disastrous response" to her situation. He further suggests that Adeline, by choosing the role of quiet and dutiful wife, has excised from herself the erotic power to which the Baron is drawn. "[O]ne could at the very least offer the tentative speculation that Hulot's obsessional debauchery is in part the result of a certain poverty in Adeline, that the terrible logic of Hulot's excess is partially shaped by a crucial deficiency in his wife." Others are less accusatory; Adeline's nearly infinite mercy, they say, is evidence of foolishness. Critic Herbert J. Hunt declares that she shows "more imbecility than Christian patience", and David Bellos points out that, like her husband, she is driven by passion – albeit of a different kind: "Adeline's desire (for good, for the family, for Hector, for God) is so radically different from the motivating desires of the other characters that she seems in their context to be without desire ..."
Balzac's inspiration for the characters of Hector and Adeline remain unclear, but several critics have been eager to speculate. Three officers named Hulot were recognized for their valor in the Napoleonic Wars, and some suggest that Balzac borrowed the name of Comte Hector d'Aure. None of these men, however, were known for the sort of philandering or thievery exhibited by Baron Hulot in the novel. Instead, Balzac may have used himself as the model; his many affairs with women across the social spectrum lead some to suggest that the author "found much of Hulot in himself". Balzac's friend Victor Hugo, meanwhile, was famously discovered in bed with his mistress in July 1845. The similarity of his name to Hector Hulot (and that of his wife's maiden name, Adèle Foucher, to Adeline Fischer) has been posited as a possible indication of the characters' origins.
### Wenceslas Steinbock
The Polish sculptor Wenceslas Steinbock is important primarily because of Bette's attachment to him. He offers Bette a source of pride, a way for her to prove herself worthy of her family's respect. When Hortense marries Steinbock, Bette feels as though she has been robbed. Prendergast insists that the incident "must literally be described as an act of theft".
Steinbock's relevance also lies in his background and profession, illustrating Balzac's conception of the Polish people, as well as himself. Having spent more than a decade befriending Mme. Hanska and visiting her family in Poland, Balzac believed he had insight into the national character (as he felt about most groups he observed). Thus, descriptions of Steinbock are often laced with commentary about the Polish people: "Soyez mon amie, dit-il avec une de ces démonstrations caressantes si familières aux Polonais, et qui les font accuser assez injustement de servilité." ("'Be my sweetheart,' he added, with one of the caressing gestures familiar to the Poles, for which they are unjustly accused of servility.")
Critics also consider Steinbock important because of his artistic genius. Like Louis Lambert and Lucien Chardon in Illusions perdues, he is a brilliant man – just as Balzac considered himself to be. Before he is nurtured and directed by Bette, Steinbock's genius languishes under his own inertia and he attempts suicide. Later, when he leaves Bette's circle of influence, he fails again. Thus he demonstrates Balzac's conviction that genius alone is useless without determination. Bellos organizes Steinbock and Bette into a duality of weakness and strength; whereas the Polish artist is unable to direct his energies into productive work, Bette draws strength from her virginity and thus becomes powerful by denying the lust to which Steinbock falls prey. Steinbock's drive is further eroded by the praise he receives for his art, which gives him an inflated sense of accomplishment. One critic refers to the artist's downfall as "vanity ... spoiled by premature renown".
## Style
If Balzac's goal was (as he claimed) to write a realist novel from his "own old pen" rather than mimic the style of Eugène Sue, history and literary criticism have declared him successful. William Stowe calls La Cousine Bette "a masterpiece of classical realism" and Bellos refers to it as "one of the great achievements of nineteenth-century realism", comparing it to War and Peace. Some sections of the book are criticized for being melodramatic, and Balzac biographer V. S. Pritchett even refers to a representative excerpt as "bad writing". Most critics consider the moralistic elements of the novel deceptively complex, and some point out that the roman-feuilleton format required a certain level of titillation to keep readers engaged. Others indicate that Balzac's interest in the theatre was an important reason for the inclusion of melodramatic elements.
Balzac's trademark realism begins on the first page of the novel, wherein Crevel is described wearing a National Guard uniform, complete with the Légion d'honneur. Details from the 1830s also appear in the novel's geographic locations. The Hulot family home, for example, is found in the aristocratic area of Paris known as the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Bette's residence is on the opposite end of the social spectrum, in the impoverished residential area which surrounded the Louvre: "Les ténèbres, le silence, l'air glacial, la profondeur caverneuse du sol concourent à faire de ces maisons des espèces de cryptes, des tombeaux vivants." ("Darkness, silence, an icy chill, and the cavernous depth of the soil combine to make these houses a kind of crypt, tombs of the living.") Descriptions of her meager quarters are – as usual in Balzac's work – an acute reflection of her personality. The same is true of the Marneffe home at the outset: it contains "les trompeuses apparences de ce faux luxe" ("the illusory appearance of sham luxury"), from the shabby chairs in the drawing-room to the dust-coated bedroom.
Precise detail is not spared in descriptions of decay and disease, two vivid elements in the novel. Marneffe, for example, represents crapulence. His decrepit body is a symbol of society's weakness at the time, worn away from years of indulgence. The poison which kills Valérie and Crevel is also described in ghastly detail. The doctor Bianchon explains: "Ses dents et ses cheveux tombent, elle a l'aspect des lépreux, elle se fait horreur à elle-même; ses mains, épouvantables à voir, sont enflées et couvertes de pustules verdâtres; les ongles déchaussés restent dans les plaies qu'elle gratte; enfin, toutes les extrémités se détruisent dans la sanie qui les ronge." ("She is losing her hair and teeth, her skin is like a leper's, she is a horror to herself; her hands are horrible, covered with greenish pustules, her nails are loose, and the flesh is eaten away by the poisoned humors.")
La Cousine Bette is unapologetic in its bleak outlook, and makes blunt connections between characters' origins and behavior. For these reasons, it is considered a key antecedent to naturalist literature. Novelist Émile Zola called it an important "roman expérimental" ("experimental novel"), and praised its acute exploration of the characters' motivations. Some critics note that La Cousine Bette showed an evolution in Balzac's style – one which he had little time to develop. Pointing to the nuance of plot and comprehensive narration style, Stowe suggests that the novel "might in happier circumstances have marked the beginning of a new, mature 'late Balzac'".
## Themes
### Passion, vice, and virtue
Valérie's line about Delilah being "la passion qui ruine tout" ("passion which ruins everything") is symbolic, coming as it does from a woman whose passion accelerates the ruin of most people around her – including herself. Baron Hulot, meanwhile, is desire incarnate; his wandering libido bypasses concern for his wife, brother, children, finances, and even his own health. Bette is living vengeance, and Adeline desperately yearns for the happy home she imagined in the early years of marriage. Each character is driven by a fiery passion, which in most cases consumes the individual. As Balzac puts it: "La passion est un martyre." ("Passion is martyrdom.")
The intensity of passion, and the consequences of its manifestation, result in a stark contrast of vice and virtue. Bette and Valérie are pure wickedness, and even celebrate the ruin of their targets. As one critic says, "life's truths are viewed in their most atrocious form". Mocking the use of the guillotine during the French Revolution while acknowledging her own malicious intent, Valérie says with regard to Delilah: "La vertu coupe la tête, le Vice ne vous coupe que les cheveux." ("Virtue cuts off your head; vice only cuts off your hair.") Hulot is not intentionally cruel, but his actions are no less devastating to the people around him.
On the other side of the moral divide, Adeline and her children stand as shining examples of virtue and nobility – or so it would seem. Hortense ridicules her aunt when Bette mentions her protégé Wenceslas Steinbock, providing a psychological catalyst for the ensuing conflict. Victorin repeatedly expresses outrage at his father's philandering, yet crosses a significant moral boundary when he agrees to fund Mme. Nourrison's plan to eradicate Valérie. As one critic puts it, Victorin's decision marks a point in the novel where "the scheme of right versus wrong immediately dissolves into a purely amoral conflict of different interests and passions, regulated less by a transcendent moral law than by the relative capacity of the different parties for cunning and ruthlessness." The cruelties of the Hulot children are brief but significant, owing as much to their obliviousness (intentional in the case of Victorin, who asks not to learn the details of Mme. Nourrison's scheme) as to malicious forethought.
The question of Adeline's virtue is similarly complicated. Although she is forgiving to the point of absurdity, she is often considered more of a dupe than a martyr. Some have compared her to Balzac's title character in Le Père Goriot, who sacrifices himself for his daughters. As Bellos puts it: "Adeline's complicity with Hector certainly makes her more interesting as a literary character, but it undermines her role as the symbol of virtue in the novel." This complicity reaches an apex when she unsuccessfully attempts to sell her affections to Crevel (who has since lost interest) in order to repay her husband's debts. Her flirtation with prostitution is sometimes considered more egregious than Valérie's overt extortion, since Adeline is soiling her own dignity in the service of Baron Hulot's infidelity. For the remainder of the novel, Adeline trembles uncontrollably, a sign of her weakness. Later, when she visits the singer Josépha (on whom her husband once doted), Adeline is struck by the splendor earned by a life of materialistic seduction. She wonders aloud if she is capable of providing the carnal pleasures Hulot seeks outside of their home.
Ultimately, both vice and virtue fail. Valérie is devoured by Montés' poison, a consequence of her blithe attitude toward his emotion. Bette is unsuccessful in her effort to crush her cousin's family, and dies (as one critic puts it) "in the margins". Adeline's Catholic mercy, on the other hand, fails to redeem her husband, and her children are similarly powerless – as Victorin finally admits on the novel's last page. Like Raphael de Valentin in Balzac's 1831 novel La Peau de chagrin, Hulot is left with nothing but "vouloir": desire, a force which is both essential for human existence and eventually apocalyptic.
### Gender and homoeroticism
Gender roles, especially the figure of the ideal woman, are central to La Cousine Bette. The four leading female characters (Bette, Valérie, Adeline, and Hortense) embody stereotypically feminine traits. Each pair of women revolves around a man, and they compete for his attention: Valérie and Adeline for Baron Hulot; Bette and Hortense for Wenceslas Steinbock. Balzac's study of masculinity is limited to the insatiable lust of Hulot and the weak-willed inconstancy of Steinbock, with the occasional appearance of Victorin as a sturdy patriarch in his father's absence.
Critics pay special attention to Bette's lack of traditional femininity, and her unconventional relationships with two characters. She is described from the outset as having "des qualités d'homme" ("certain manly qualities"), with similar descriptions elsewhere. Her relationship and attitude toward Steinbock, moreover, hint at her masculinity. She commands him into submission, and even binds him with economic constraints by lending him the money to develop his sculpture. Her domination is tempered by maternal compassion, but the couple's relationship is compared to an abusive marriage: "Il fut comme une femme qui pardonne les mauvais traitements d'une semaine à cause des caresses d'un fugitif raccommodement." ("He was like a woman who forgives a week of ill-usage for the sake of a kiss and a brief reconciliation.")
Bette's relationship with Valérie is layered with overtones of lesbianism. Early in the book Bette is "captée" ("bewitched") by Valérie, and quickly declares to her: "Je vous aime, je vous estime, je suis à vous!" ("I love you, I esteem you, I am wholly yours!") This affection may have been platonic, but neighbors of the Marneffes – along with many readers – suspect that their bond transcends friendship. As with Steinbock, Bette and Valérie assume butch and femme roles; the narration even mentions "Le contraste de la mâle et sèche nature de la Lorraine avec la jolie nature créole de Valérie" ("The contrast between Lisbeth's dry masculine nature and Valerie's creole prettiness"). The homoeroticism evolves through the novel, as Bette feeds on Valérie's power to seduce and control the Hulot men. As one critic says: "Valérie's body becomes, at least symbolically, the locus of Bette's only erotic pleasure."
### Wealth and society
As with many of his novels, Balzac analyzes the influence of history and social status in La Cousine Bette. The book takes places between 1838 and 1846, when the reign of Louis-Philippe reflected and directed significant changes in the social structure. Balzac was a legitimist favoring the House of Bourbon, and idolized Napoleon Bonaparte as a paragon of effective absolutist power. Balzac felt that French society under the House of Orléans lacked strong leadership, and was fragmented by the demands of parliament. He also believed that Catholicism provided guidance for the nation, and that its absence heralded moral decay.
Balzac demonstrated these beliefs through the characters' lives in La Cousine Bette. The conflict between Baron Hulot and the perfumer Crevel mirrors the animosity between the aristocracy of the Ancien Régime and the newly developed bourgeoisie of traders and industrial entrepreneurs. Although he despised the socialist politics of Eugène Sue, Balzac worried that bourgeois desperation for financial gain drove people from life's important virtues. The characters – especially Bette, Valérie, and Crevel – are fixated on their need for money, and do whatever they must to obtain it. As Crevel explains to Adeline: "Vous vous abusez, cher ange, si vous croyez que c'est le roi Louis-Philippe qui règne ... au-dessus de la Charte il y a la sainte, la vénérée, la solide, l'aimable, la gracieuse, la belle, la noble, la jeune, la toute-puissante pièce de cent sous!" ("You are quite mistaken, my angel, if you suppose that King Louis-Philippe rules us ... supreme above the Charter reigns the holy, venerated, substantial, delightful, obliging, beautiful, noble, ever-youthful, and all-powerful five-franc piece!")
Themes of corruption and salvation are brought to the fore as Valérie and Crevel lie dying from the mysterious poison. When his daughter urges him to meet with a priest, Crevel angrily refuses, mocking the church and indicating that his social stature will be his salvation: "la mort regarde à deux fois avant de frapper un maire de Paris!" ("Death thinks twice of it before carrying off a Mayor of Paris.") Valérie, meanwhile, makes a deathbed conversion and urges Bette to abandon her quest for revenge. Ever the courtesan, Valérie describes her new Christianity in terms of seduction: "je ne puis maintenant plaire qu'à Dieu! je vais tâcher de me réconcilier avec lui, ce sera ma dernière coquetterie!" ("I can please no one now but God. I will try to be reconciled to Him, and that will be my last flirtation ...!")
## Reception and adaptations
The critical reaction to La Cousine Bette was immediate and positive, which Balzac did not expect. Whether due to the intensity of its creation or the tumult of his personal life, the author was surprised by the praise he received. He wrote: "I did not realize how good La Cousine Bette is ... There is an immense reaction in my favour. I have won!" The collected edition sold consistently well, and was reprinted nineteen times before the turn of the 20th century. 20th-century critics remain enthusiastic in their praise for the novel; Saintsbury insists it is "beyond all question one of the very greatest of [Balzac's] works". Biographer Graham Robb calls La Cousine Bette "the masterpiece of his premature old age".
Some 19th-century critics attacked the book, on the grounds that it normalized vice and corrupt living. Chief among these were disciples of the utopian theorist Charles Fourier; they disapproved of the "immorality" inherent in the novel's bleak resolution. Critics like Alfred Nettement and Eugène Marron declared that Balzac's sympathy lay with Baron Hulot and Valérie Marneffe. They lambasted him for not commenting more on the characters' degenerate behavior – the same stylistic choice later celebrated by naturalist writers Émile Zola and Hippolyte Taine.
Balzac's novel has been adapted several times for the screen. The first was in 1928, when French filmmaker Max DeRieux directed Alice Tissot in the title role. Margaret Tyzack played the role of Bette in the five part serial Cousin Bette made in 1971 by the BBC, which also starred Helen Mirren as Valérie Marneffe. The film Cousin Bette was released in 1998, directed by Des McAnuff. Jessica Lange starred in the title role, joined by Bob Hoskins as Crevel, and Elisabeth Shue as the singer Jenny Cadine. Screenwriters Lynn Siefert and Susan Tarr changed the story significantly, and eliminated Valérie. The 1998 film was panned by critics for its generally poor acting and awkward dialogue. Stephen Holden of The New York Times commented that the movie "treats the novel as a thoroughly modern social comedy peopled with raging narcissists, opportunists and flat-out fools". The 1998 film changed the novel quite drastically, retaining the basic idea of Bette avenging herself on her enemies, and not only eliminating Valerie, but letting Bette survive at the end.
La Cousine Bette was adapted for the stage by Jeffrey Hatcher, best known for his screenplay Stage Beauty (based on his stage play Compleat Female Stage Beauty). The Antaeus Company in North Hollywood produced a workshop in 2008 and presented the world premiere of Cousin Bette in early 2010 in North Hollywood, California. The adaptation retains many of the main characters but places Bette as the story's narrator.
|
22,674,280 |
ARA Rivadavia
| 1,169,275,154 |
Argentine Rivadavia-class battleship
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[
"1911 ships",
"Rivadavia-class battleships",
"Ships built in Quincy, Massachusetts"
] |
ARA Rivadavia () was an Argentine battleship built during the South American dreadnought race. Named after the first Argentine president, Bernardino Rivadavia, it was the lead ship of its class. Moreno was Rivadavia's only sister ship.
In 1907, the Brazilian government placed an order for two of the powerful new "dreadnought" warships as part of a larger naval construction program. Argentina quickly responded, as the Brazilian ships outclassed anything in the Argentine fleet. After an extended bidding process, contracts to design and build Rivadavia and Moreno were given to the American Fore River Shipbuilding Company. During their construction, there were rumors that the ships might be sold to a country engaged in the First World War, but both were commissioned into the Argentine Navy. Rivadavia underwent extensive refits in the United States in 1924 and 1925. The ship saw no active service during the Second World War, and its last cruise was made in 1946. Stricken from the naval register in 1957, Rivadavia was sold later that year and broken up for scrap starting in 1959.
## Background
Rivadavia's genesis can be traced to the naval arms races between Chile and Argentina which were spawned by territorial disputes over their mutual borders in Patagonia and Puna de Atacama, along with control of the Beagle Channel. These arms races flared up in the 1890s and again in 1902; the latter was eventually stopped through British mediation. Provisions in the dispute-ending treaty imposed restrictions on both countries' navies. The United Kingdom's Royal Navy bought the two Constitución-class pre-dreadnought battleships that were being built for Chile, and Argentina sold its two Rivadavia-class armored cruisers under construction in Italy to Japan.
After HMS Dreadnought was commissioned by the United Kingdom, Brazil decided in early 1907 to halt the construction of three obsolescent pre-dreadnoughts and begin work on two dreadnoughts (the Minas Geraes class). These ships, which were designed to carry the heaviest battleship armament in the world at the time, came as a shock to the navies of South America, and Argentina and Chile quickly canceled the 1902 armament-limiting pact. Argentina in particular was alarmed at the possible power of the ships. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manuel Augusto Montes de Oca, remarked that even one Minas Geraes-class ship could destroy the entire Argentine and Chilean fleets. While this may have been hyperbole, either one was much more powerful than any single vessel in the Argentinian fleet. Debates raged in Argentina over whether to spend more than two million pounds sterling to acquire dreadnoughts. With further border disputes, particularly with Brazil near the Río de la Plata (River Plate), Argentina made plans to contract for their own dreadnoughts. After an extended bidding process, Rivadavia and Moreno were ordered from the Fore River Shipbuilding Company in the United States.
## Construction and trials
Laid down on 25 May 1910, Rivadavia was launched and christened on 26 August 1911 by Isabel, the wife of the Argentine Minister to the United States Rómulo Sebastián Naón. Thousands of people were present to witness the event, including representatives from the Argentine Navy and the country's legation in Washington. The United States sent the assistant chief of the Latin American Division in the State Department, Henry L. James, to be its official representative. Two United States Navy bureau chiefs also attended.
It was reported in January 1913 that apart from the usual fitting-out requirements for Rivadavia and her sister ship ARA Moreno, two Victrola phonographs apiece were included as part of the official specifications.
In mid-September 1913, Rivadavia conducted trials off Rockland, Maine, after a two-week delay due to turbine malfunctions. During speed trials on the 16th, the dreadnought was able to obtain a maximum speed of 22.567 knots (25.970 mph; 41.794 km/h). On a 30-hour endurance trial starting the next day, Rivadavia damaged one of its turbines and had to put in at President Roads, one of Boston Harbor's deep-water anchorages. The turbines were still a problem as late as August 1914. One was dropped by a crane in July and had to be removed for repairs in August.
## Attempted sale
Over the course of their construction, Rivadavia and Moreno had been the subject of rumors that Argentina would accept the ships and then sell them to Japan, a fast-growing military rival to the United States, or to a European country. The rumors were partially true; some in the government were looking to get rid of the battleships and devote the proceeds to opening more schools, and The New York Times reported in late 1913 that the country had received several offers from interested parties. This angered the American government, which did not want its warship technology offered to the highest bidder. Neither did they want to exercise a contract-specified option that gave the United States first choice if the Argentines decided to sell, as naval technology had already progressed past the Rivadavia class, particularly in the adoption of the "all-or-nothing" armor scheme. Instead, the United States and its State Department and Navy Department put diplomatic pressure on the Argentine government.
After socialist gains in the legislature, the Argentine government introduced several bills in May 1914 which would have put the battleships up for sale, but they were all defeated by late June. Following the commencement of the First World War, the German and British ambassadors to the United States both complained to the US State Department; the former believed that the British were going to be given the ships as soon as the ships reached Argentina, and the latter considered it the responsibility of the United States to ensure that the ships never left Argentina's possession. International armament companies attempted to get Argentina to sell to one of the smaller Balkan countries and expected that the ships would then find their way into the war.
## Service
Rivadavia was commissioned into the Armada de la República Argentina on 27 August 1914 at the Charlestown Navy Yard, although it was not fully completed until December. On 23 December 1914, Rivadavia left the United States for Argentina. It arrived in its capital, Buenos Aires, on 19 February 1915. Over 47,000 people came out to see the new ship over the next three days, including the President Victorino de la Plaza. In April 1915, Rivadavia was put into the training division of the Navy, remaining there until 1917, when the navy transferred the ship into the First Division. In 1917, Rivadavia sailed to Comodoro Rivadavia when communist oil workers went on strike.
Later in 1917, the Argentines had to sharply curtail Rivadavia's activities because of a fuel shortage, but they voyaged to the United States with the Argentine ambassador in 1918. Rivadavia then took on a load of gold bullion and brought it back to Argentina, docking in Puerto Belgrano on 23 September 1918. In December 1920, Rivadavia participated in ceremonies that marked the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Strait of Magellan. On the 2nd, the ship called on Valparaíso in Chile; 25 days later, it took part in an international naval review. Two years later, Rivadavia was placed into reserve.
In 1923, the Navy decided to send Rivadavia to the United States to be modernized. The ship departed on 6 August 1924 and reached Boston on the 30th, where it spent the next two years. Rivadavia was converted to use fuel oil instead of coal and had "a general machinery overhaul". A new fire-control system was fitted with rangefinders on the fore and aft superfiring turrets, and the aft mast was replaced by a tripod. A funnel cap was installed so that smoke from the funnels did not interfere with accurate rangefinding of enemy ships. The 6-inch secondary armament was retained, but the smaller 4-inch guns were taken off in favor of four 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns and four 3-pounders.
After sailing back to Argentina in March and April 1926, Rivadavia spent the remainder of the year undergoing sea trials. The dreadnought joined the training division once again in 1927, but after Rivadavia made four training cruises, the division was disbanded, and the ship remained moored in Puerto Belgrano until 1929. This began a series of cyclic activity followed by being demoted to the reserve fleet. Although active in both 1929 and 1930, Rivadavia was placed in reserve on 19 December 1930. Shortly thereafter, it was restored to active service to serve as the flagship for 1931 fleet exercises. Rivadavia went back into reserve in 1932 before coming back out in January 1933. It remained in full commission for most of the rest of the decade as part of the Battleship Division, alongside Moreno.
In January 1937, the ship called on Valparaíso and Callao in Peru. In company with Moreno, Rivadavia left Puerto Belgrano for Europe on 6 April. After crossing the ocean, they split up, with Rivadavia mooring at the French port of Brest while Moreno took part in the British Coronation Review in Spithead. The two ships then journeyed to several German ports: both put in at Wilhelmshaven before Rivadavia went to Hamburg and Moreno to Bremen. They returned to Argentina on 29 June.
While Rivadavia made an official visit to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1939, Argentina remained neutral for the majority of the Second World War, and the aging dreadnought saw no active service. Its next cruise came after the war ended (29 October to 22 December 1946), when it called on countries in the Caribbean and northern South America, including Trinidad, Venezuela, and Colombia. This was the last time the ship would be in service under its own power. Moored in Puerto Belgrano from 1948 on, the ship was rendered inoperable in 1951 and cannibalized for many years for useful arms and equipment. On 18 October 1956, the ship was listed for disposal, and it was stricken from the Navy on 1 February 1957. On 30 May, Rivadavia was sold to an Italian ship breaking company for . Beginning on 3 April 1959, the ship was towed by two tugboats to Savona, Italy, where they arrived on 23 May. It was thereafter broken up in Genoa.
## Endnotes
## See also
- List of battleships
- List of ships of the Argentine Navy
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Venus
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Second planet from the Sun
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[
"Astronomical objects known since antiquity",
"Planets of the Solar System",
"Terrestrial planets",
"Venus"
] |
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is a rocky planet with the densest atmosphere of all the rocky bodies in the Solar System, and the only one with a mass and size that is close to that of its orbital neighbour Earth. Orbiting inferiorly (inside of Earth's orbit), it appears in Earth's sky always close to the Sun, as either a "morning star" or an "evening star". While this is also true for Mercury, Venus appears much more prominently, since it is the third brightest object in Earth's sky after the Moon and the Sun, appearing brighter than any other star-like classical planet or any fixed star. With such a prominence in Earth's sky, Venus has historically been a common and important object for humans, in both their cultures and astronomy.
Venus has a weak induced magnetosphere and an especially thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, which creates, together with its global sulfuric acid cloud cover, an extreme greenhouse effect. This results at the surface in a mean temperature of 737 K (464 °C; 867 °F) and a crushing pressure of 92 times that of Earth's at sea level, turning the air into a supercritical fluid, while at cloudy altitudes of 50 km (30 mi) above the surface, the pressure, temperature and also radiation are very much like at Earth's surface. Conditions possibly favourable for life on Venus have been identified at its cloud layers, with recent research having found indicative, but not convincing, evidence of life on the planet. Venus may have had liquid surface water early in its history, possibly enough to form oceans, but runaway greenhouse effects eventually evaporated any water, which then was taken into space by the solar wind. Internally, Venus is thought to consist of a core, mantle, and crust, the latter releasing internal heat through its active volcanism, shaping the surface with large resurfacing instead of plate tectonics. Venus is one of two planets in the Solar System which have no moons.
Venus has a rotation which has been slowed and turned against its orbital direction (retrograde) by the strong currents and drag of its atmosphere. This rotation produces, together with the time of 224.7 Earth days it takes Venus to complete an orbit around the Sun (a Venusian solar year), a Venusian solar day length of 117 Earth days, the longest in the Solar System, resulting in a Venusian year being just under two Venusian days long. The orbits of Venus and Earth are the closest between any two Solar System planets, approaching each other in synodic periods of 1.6 years. While this allows them to come closer to each other at inferior conjunction than any other pair of Solar System planets, Mercury stays on average closer to them and any other planet, as Mercury is the most central planet and passes by most frequently. That said, Venus and Earth have between them the lowest difference in gravitational potential than any other pair of Solar System planets. This has allowed Venus to be the most accessible destination and attractive gravity assist waypoint for interplanetary flights.
In 1961, Venus became the target of the first interplanetary flight in human history, followed by many essential interplanetary firsts like the first soft landing on another planet in 1970. These probes made it evident that extreme greenhouse effects have created oppressive surface conditions, an insight that has crucially informed predictions about global warming on Earth. This finding stopped most attention towards theories and the then popular science fiction about Venus being a habitable or inhabited planet. Crewed flights to Venus have been suggested nevertheless, either to flyby Venus, performing a gravity assist for reaching Mars faster and safer, or to enter the Venusian atmosphere and stay aloft at altitudes with conditions more compareable to Earth's surface, except atmospheric composition, than anywhere else in the Solar System. Contemporarily Venus has again gained interest as a case for research into particularly the development of Earth-like planets and their habitability.
## Physical characteristics
Venus is one of the four terrestrial planets in the Solar System, meaning that it is a rocky body like Earth. It is similar to Earth in size and mass and is often described as Earth's "sister" or "twin". Venus is close to spherical due to its slow rotation. Venus has a diameter of 12,103.6 km (7,520.8 mi)—only 638.4 km (396.7 mi) less than Earth's—and its mass is 81.5% of Earth's. Conditions on the Venusian surface differ radically from those on Earth because its dense atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide, with most of the remaining 3.5% being nitrogen. The surface pressure is 9.3 megapascals (93 bars), and the average surface temperature is 737 K (464 °C; 867 °F), above the critical points of both major constituents and making the surface atmosphere a supercritical fluid out of mainly supercritical carbon dioxide and some supercritical nitrogen.
### Atmosphere and climate
Venus has a dense atmosphere composed of 96.5% carbon dioxide, 3.5% nitrogen—both exist as supercritical fluids at the planet's surface with a 6.5% density of water— and traces of other gases including sulfur dioxide. The mass of its atmosphere is 92 times that of Earth's, whereas the pressure at its surface is about 93 times that at Earth's—a pressure equivalent to that at a depth of nearly 1 km (5⁄8 mi) under Earth's oceans. The density at the surface is 65 kg/m<sup>3</sup> (4.1 lb/cu ft), 6.5% that of water or 50 times as dense as Earth's atmosphere at 293 K (20 °C; 68 °F) at sea level. The CO<sub>2</sub>-rich atmosphere generates the strongest greenhouse effect in the Solar System, creating surface temperatures of at least 735 K (462 °C; 864 °F). This makes the Venusian surface hotter than Mercury's, which has a minimum surface temperature of 53 K (−220 °C; −364 °F) and maximum surface temperature of 700 K (427 °C; 801 °F), even though Venus is nearly twice Mercury's distance from the Sun and thus receives only 25% of Mercury's solar irradiance. Because of its runaway greenhouse effect, Venus has been identified by scientists such as Carl Sagan as a warning and research object linked to climate change on Earth.
Venus's atmosphere is rich in primordial noble gases compared to that of Earth. This enrichment indicates an early divergence from Earth in evolution. An unusually large comet impact or accretion of a more massive primary atmosphere from solar nebula have been proposed to explain the enrichment. However, the atmosphere is depleted of radiogenic argon, a proxy to mantle degassing, suggesting an early shutdown of major magmatism.
Studies have suggested that billions of years ago, Venus's atmosphere could have been much more like the one surrounding the early Earth, and that there may have been substantial quantities of liquid water on the surface. After a period of 600 million to several billion years, solar forcing from rising luminosity of the Sun and possibly large volcanic resurfacing caused the evaporation of the original water and the current atmosphere. A runaway greenhouse effect was created once a critical level of greenhouse gases (including water) was added to its atmosphere. Although the surface conditions on Venus are no longer hospitable to any Earth-like life that may have formed before this event, there is speculation on the possibility that life exists in the upper cloud layers of Venus, 50 km (30 mi) up from the surface, where the atmospheric conditions are the most Earth-like in the Solar System, with temperatures ranging between 303 and 353 K (30 and 80 °C; 86 and 176 °F), and the pressure and radiation being about the same as at Earth's surface, but with acidic clouds and the carbon dioxide air. The putative detection of an absorption line of phosphine in Venus's atmosphere, with no known pathway for abiotic production, led to speculation in September 2020 that there could be extant life currently present in the atmosphere. Later research attributed the spectroscopic signal that was interpreted as phosphine to sulfur dioxide, or found that in fact there was no absorption line.
Thermal inertia and the transfer of heat by winds in the lower atmosphere mean that the temperature of Venus's surface does not vary significantly between the planet's two hemispheres, those facing and not facing the Sun, despite Venus's slow rotation. Winds at the surface are slow, moving at a few kilometres per hour, but because of the high density of the atmosphere at the surface, they exert a significant amount of force against obstructions, and transport dust and small stones across the surface. This alone would make it difficult for a human to walk through, even without the heat, pressure, and lack of oxygen.
Above the dense CO<sub>2</sub> layer are thick clouds, consisting mainly of sulfuric acid, which is formed by sulfur dioxide and water through a chemical reaction resulting in sulfuric acid hydrate. Additionally, the clouds consist of approximately 1% ferric chloride. Other possible constituents of the cloud particles are ferric sulfate, aluminium chloride and phosphoric anhydride. Clouds at different levels have different compositions and particle size distributions. These clouds reflect, similar to thick cloud cover on Earth, about 70% of the sunlight that falls on them back into space, and since they cover the whole planet they prevent visual observation of Venus's surface. The permanent cloud cover means that although Venus is closer than Earth to the Sun, it receives less sunlight on the ground, with only 10% of the received sunlight reaching the surface, resulting in average daytime levels of illumination at the surface of 14,000 lux, comparable to that on Earth "in the daytime with overcast clouds". Strong 300 km/h (185 mph) winds at the cloud tops go around Venus about every four to five Earth days. Winds on Venus move at up to 60 times the speed of its rotation, whereas Earth's fastest winds are only 10–20% rotation speed.
The surface of Venus is effectively isothermal; it retains a constant temperature not only between the two hemispheres but between the equator and the poles. Venus's minute axial tilt—less than 3°, compared to 23° on Earth—also minimises seasonal temperature variation. Altitude is one of the few factors that affect Venusian temperature. The highest point on Venus, Maxwell Montes, is therefore the coolest point on Venus, with a temperature of about 655 K (380 °C; 715 °F) and an atmospheric pressure of about 4.5 MPa (45 bar). In 1995, the Magellan spacecraft imaged a highly reflective substance at the tops of the highest mountain peaks, a "Venus snow" that bore a strong resemblance to terrestrial snow. This substance likely formed from a similar process to snow, albeit at a far higher temperature. Too volatile to condense on the surface, it rose in gaseous form to higher elevations, where it is cooler and could precipitate. The identity of this substance is not known with certainty, but speculation has ranged from elemental tellurium to lead sulfide (galena).
Although Venus has no seasons as such, in 2019, astronomers identified a cyclical variation in sunlight absorption by the atmosphere, possibly caused by opaque, absorbing particles suspended in the upper clouds. The variation causes observed changes in the speed of Venus's zonal winds and appears to rise and fall in time with the Sun's 11-year sunspot cycle.
The existence of lightning in the atmosphere of Venus has been controversial since the first suspected bursts were detected by the Soviet Venera probes. In 2006–07, Venus Express clearly detected whistler mode waves, the signatures of lightning. Their intermittent appearance indicates a pattern associated with weather activity. According to these measurements, the lightning rate is at least half of that on Earth, however other instruments have not detected lightning at all. The origin of any lightning remains unclear, but could originate from the clouds or Venusian volcanoes.
In 2007, Venus Express discovered that a huge double atmospheric polar vortex exists at the south pole. Venus Express discovered, in 2011, that an ozone layer exists high in the atmosphere of Venus. On 29 January 2013, ESA scientists reported that the ionosphere of Venus streams outwards in a manner similar to "the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions."
In December 2015, and to a lesser extent in April and May 2016, researchers working on Japan's Akatsuki mission observed bow shapes in the atmosphere of Venus. This was considered direct evidence of the existence of perhaps the largest stationary gravity waves in the solar system.
### Geography
The Venusian surface was a subject of speculation until some of its secrets were revealed by planetary science in the 20th century. Venera landers in 1975 and 1982 returned images of a surface covered in sediment and relatively angular rocks. The surface was mapped in detail by Magellan in 1990–91. The ground shows evidence of extensive volcanism, and the sulfur in the atmosphere may indicate that there have been recent eruptions.
About 80% of the Venusian surface is covered by smooth, volcanic plains, consisting of 70% plains with wrinkle ridges and 10% smooth or lobate plains. Two highland "continents" make up the rest of its surface area, one lying in the planet's northern hemisphere and the other just south of the equator. The northern continent is called Ishtar Terra after Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, and is about the size of Australia. Maxwell Montes, the highest mountain on Venus, lies on Ishtar Terra. Its peak is 11 km (7 mi) above the Venusian average surface elevation. The southern continent is called Aphrodite Terra, after the Greek mythological goddess of love, and is the larger of the two highland regions at roughly the size of South America. A network of fractures and faults covers much of this area.
The absence of evidence of lava flow accompanying any of the visible calderas remains an enigma. The planet has few impact craters, demonstrating that the surface is relatively young, at 300–600 million years old. Venus has some unique surface features in addition to the impact craters, mountains, and valleys commonly found on rocky planets. Among these are flat-topped volcanic features called "farra", which look somewhat like pancakes and range in size from 20 to 50 km (12 to 31 mi) across, and from 100 to 1,000 m (330 to 3,280 ft) high; radial, star-like fracture systems called "novae"; features with both radial and concentric fractures resembling spider webs, known as "arachnoids"; and "coronae", circular rings of fractures sometimes surrounded by a depression. These features are volcanic in origin.
Most Venusian surface features are named after historical and mythological women. Exceptions are Maxwell Montes, named after James Clerk Maxwell, and highland regions Alpha Regio, Beta Regio, and Ovda Regio. The last three features were named before the current system was adopted by the International Astronomical Union, the body which oversees planetary nomenclature.
The longitude of physical features on Venus are expressed relative to its prime meridian. The original prime meridian passed through the radar-bright spot at the centre of the oval feature Eve, located south of Alpha Regio. After the Venera missions were completed, the prime meridian was redefined to pass through the central peak in the crater Ariadne on Sedna Planitia.
The stratigraphically oldest tessera terrains have consistently lower thermal emissivity than the surrounding basaltic plains measured by Venus Express and Magellan, indicating a different, possibly a more felsic, mineral assemblage. The mechanism to generate a large amount of felsic crust usually requires the presence of water ocean and plate tectonics, implying that habitable condition had existed on early Venus with large bodies of water at some point. However, the nature of tessera terrains is far from certain.
#### Volcanism
Much of the Venusian surface appears to have been shaped by volcanic activity. Venus has several times as many volcanoes as Earth, and it has 167 large volcanoes that are over 100 km (60 mi) across. The only volcanic complex of this size on Earth is the Big Island of Hawaii. More than 85,000 volcanoes on Venus were identified and mapped. This is not because Venus is more volcanically active than Earth, but because its crust is older and is not subject to the same erosion process. Earth's oceanic crust is continually recycled by subduction at the boundaries of tectonic plates, and has an average age of about 100 million years, whereas the Venusian surface is estimated to be 300–600 million years old.
Several lines of evidence point to ongoing volcanic activity on Venus. Sulfur dioxide concentrations in the upper atmosphere dropped by a factor of 10 between 1978 and 1986, jumped in 2006, and again declined 10-fold. This may mean that levels had been boosted several times by large volcanic eruptions. It has been suggested that Venusian lightning (discussed below) could originate from volcanic activity (i.e. volcanic lightning). In January 2020, astronomers reported evidence that suggests that Venus is currently volcanically active, specifically the detection of olivine, a volcanic product that would weather quickly on the planet's surface.
This massive volcanic activity is fueled by a superheated interior, which models says could be explained by energetic collisions from when the planet was young. Impacts would have had significantly higher velocity than on Earth, both because Venus' orbit is faster due to its closer proximity to the Sun and because objects would require higher orbital eccentricities to collide with the planet.
In 2008 and 2009, the first direct evidence for ongoing volcanism was observed by Venus Express, in the form of four transient localized infrared hot spots within the rift zone Ganis Chasma, near the shield volcano Maat Mons. Three of the spots were observed in more than one successive orbit. These spots are thought to represent lava freshly released by volcanic eruptions. The actual temperatures are not known, because the size of the hot spots could not be measured, but are likely to have been in the 800–1,100 K (527–827 °C; 980–1,520 °F) range, relative to a normal temperature of 740 K (467 °C; 872 °F). In 2023, scientists reexamined topographical images of the Maat Mons region taken by the Magellan orbiter. Using computer simulations they determined that the topography had changed during an 8-month interval, and have concluded that active volcanism was the cause.
#### Craters
Almost a thousand impact craters on Venus are evenly distributed across its surface. On other cratered bodies, such as Earth and the Moon, craters show a range of states of degradation. On the Moon, degradation is caused by subsequent impacts, whereas on Earth it is caused by wind and rain erosion. On Venus, about 85% of the craters are in pristine condition. The number of craters, together with their well-preserved condition, indicates the planet underwent a global resurfacing event 300–600 million years ago, followed by a decay in volcanism. Whereas Earth's crust is in continuous motion, Venus is thought to be unable to sustain such a process. Without plate tectonics to dissipate heat from its mantle, Venus instead undergoes a cyclical process in which mantle temperatures rise until they reach a critical level that weakens the crust. Then, over a period of about 100 million years, subduction occurs on an enormous scale, completely recycling the crust.
Venusian craters range from 3 to 280 km (2 to 174 mi) in diameter. No craters are smaller than 3 km, because of the effects of the dense atmosphere on incoming objects. Objects with less than a certain kinetic energy are slowed so much by the atmosphere that they do not create an impact crater. Incoming projectiles less than 50 m (160 ft) in diameter will fragment and burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground.
### Internal structure
Without data from reflection seismology or knowledge of its moment of inertia, little direct information is available about the internal structure and geochemistry of Venus. The similarity in size and density between Venus and Earth suggests they share a similar internal structure: a core, mantle, and crust. Like that of Earth, the Venusian core is most likely at least partially liquid because the two planets have been cooling at about the same rate, although a completely solid core cannot be ruled out. The slightly smaller size of Venus means pressures are 24% lower in its deep interior than Earth's. The predicted values for the moment of inertia based on planetary models suggest a core radius of 2,900–3,450 km. This is in line with the first observation-based estimate of 3,500 km.
The principal difference between the two planets is the lack of evidence for plate tectonics on Venus, possibly because its crust is too strong to subduct without water to make it less viscous. This results in reduced heat loss from the planet, preventing it from cooling and providing a likely explanation for its lack of an internally generated magnetic field. Instead, Venus may lose its internal heat in periodic major resurfacing events.
### Magnetic field and core
In 1967, Venera 4 found Venus's magnetic field to be much weaker than that of Earth. This magnetic field is induced by an interaction between the ionosphere and the solar wind, rather than by an internal dynamo as in the Earth's core. Venus's small induced magnetosphere provides negligible protection to the atmosphere against solar and cosmic radiation, reaching at elevations of 54 to 48 km Earth-like levels.
The lack of an intrinsic magnetic field at Venus was surprising, given that it is similar to Earth in size and was expected to contain a dynamo at its core. A dynamo requires three things: a conducting liquid, rotation, and convection. The core is thought to be electrically conductive and, although its rotation is often thought to be too slow, simulations show it is adequate to produce a dynamo. This implies that the dynamo is missing because of a lack of convection in Venus's core. On Earth, convection occurs in the liquid outer layer of the core because the bottom of the liquid layer is much higher in temperature than the top. On Venus, a global resurfacing event may have shut down plate tectonics and led to a reduced heat flux through the crust. This insulating effect would cause the mantle temperature to increase, thereby reducing the heat flux out of the core. As a result, no internal geodynamo is available to drive a magnetic field. Instead, the heat from the core is reheating the crust.
One possibility is that Venus has no solid inner core, or that its core is not cooling, so that the entire liquid part of the core is at approximately the same temperature. Another possibility is that its core has already completely solidified. The state of the core is highly dependent on the concentration of sulfur, which is unknown at present.
Another possibility is that the absence of a late, large impact on Venus (contra the Earth's "Moon-forming" impact) left the core of Venus stratified from the core's incremental formation, and without the forces to initiate/sustain convection, and thus a "geodynamo".
The weak magnetosphere around Venus means that the solar wind is interacting directly with its outer atmosphere. Here, ions of hydrogen and oxygen are being created by the dissociation of water molecules from ultraviolet radiation. The solar wind then supplies energy that gives some of these ions sufficient velocity to escape Venus's gravity field. This erosion process results in a steady loss of low-mass hydrogen, helium, and oxygen ions, whereas higher-mass molecules, such as carbon dioxide, are more likely to be retained. Atmospheric erosion by the solar wind could have led to the loss of most of Venus's water during the first billion years after it formed. However, the planet may have retained a dynamo for its first 2–3 billion years, so the water loss may have occurred more recently. The erosion has increased the ratio of higher-mass deuterium to lower-mass hydrogen in the atmosphere 100 times compared to the rest of the solar system.
## Orbit and rotation
Venus orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 0.72 AU (108 million km; 67 million mi), and completes an orbit every 224.7 days. Although all planetary orbits are elliptical, Venus's orbit is currently the closest to circular, with an eccentricity of less than 0.01. Simulations of the early solar system orbital dynamics have shown that the eccentricity of the Venus orbit may have been substantially larger in the past, reaching values as high as 0.31 and possibly impacting the early climate evolution.
All planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun in an anticlockwise direction as viewed from above Earth's north pole. Most planets rotate on their axes in an anticlockwise direction, but Venus rotates clockwise in retrograde rotation once every 243 Earth days—the slowest rotation of any planet. This Venusian sidereal day lasts therefore longer than a Venusian year (243 versus 224.7 Earth days). Slowed by its strong atmospheric current the length of the day also fluctuates by up to 20 minutes. Venus's equator rotates at 6.52 km/h (4.05 mph), whereas Earth's rotates at 1,674.4 km/h (1,040.4 mph). Venus's rotation period measured with Magellan spacecraft data over a 500-day period is smaller than the rotation period measured during the 16-year period between the Magellan spacecraft and Venus Express visits, with a difference of about 6.5 minutes. Because of the retrograde rotation, the length of a solar day on Venus is significantly shorter than the sidereal day, at 116.75 Earth days (making the Venusian solar day shorter than Mercury's 176 Earth days — the 116-day figure is close to the average number of days it takes Mercury to slip underneath the Earth in its orbit). One Venusian year is about 1.92 Venusian solar days. To an observer on the surface of Venus, the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east, although Venus's opaque clouds prevent observing the Sun from the planet's surface.
Venus may have formed from the solar nebula with a different rotation period and obliquity, reaching its current state because of chaotic spin changes caused by planetary perturbations and tidal effects on its dense atmosphere, a change that would have occurred over the course of billions of years. The rotation period of Venus may represent an equilibrium state between tidal locking to the Sun's gravitation, which tends to slow rotation, and an atmospheric tide created by solar heating of the thick Venusian atmosphere. The 584-day average interval between successive close approaches to Earth is almost exactly equal to 5 Venusian solar days (5.001444 to be precise), but the hypothesis of a spin-orbit resonance with Earth has been discounted.
Venus has no natural satellites. It has several trojan asteroids: the quasi-satellite and two other temporary trojans, and . In the 17th century, Giovanni Cassini reported a moon orbiting Venus, which was named Neith and numerous sightings were reported over the following 200 years, but most were determined to be stars in the vicinity. Alex Alemi's and David Stevenson's 2006 study of models of the early Solar System at the California Institute of Technology shows Venus likely had at least one moon created by a huge impact event billions of years ago. About 10 million years later, according to the study, another impact reversed the planet's spin direction and the resulting Tidal deceleration caused the Venusian moon gradually to spiral inward until it collided with Venus. If later impacts created moons, these were removed in the same way. An alternative explanation for the lack of satellites is the effect of strong solar tides, which can destabilize large satellites orbiting the inner terrestrial planets.
The orbital space of Venus has a dust ring-cloud, with a suspected origin either from Venus–trailing asteroids, interplanetary dust migrating in waves, or the remains of the Solar System's original circumstellar disc that formed the planetary system.
### Orbit in respect to Earth
Earth and Venus have a near orbital resonance of 13:8 (Earth orbits eight times for every 13 orbits of Venus). Therefore they approach each other and reach inferior conjunction in synodic periods of 584 days, on average. The path that Venus makes in relation to Earth viewed geocentrically draws a pentagram over five synodic periods, shifting every period by 144°. This pentagram of Venus is sometimes referred to as the petals of Venus due to the path's visual similarity to a flower.
When Venus lies between Earth and the Sun in inferior conjunction, it makes the closest approach to Earth of any planet at an average distance of 41 million km (25 million mi). Because of the decreasing eccentricity of Earth's orbit, the minimum distances will become greater over tens of thousands of years. From the year 1 to 5383, there are 526 approaches less than 40 million km (25 million mi); then, there are none for about 60,158 years.
While Venus approaches Earth the closest, Mercury is more frequently the closest to Earth of all planets. Venus has the lowest gravitational potential difference to Earth than any other planet, needing the lowest delta-v to transfer between them.
Tidally Venus exerts the third strongest tidal force on Earth, after the Moon and the Sun, though significantly less.
## Observability
To the naked eye, Venus appears as a white point of light brighter than any other planet or star (apart from the Sun). The planet's mean apparent magnitude is −4.14 with a standard deviation of 0.31. The brightest magnitude occurs during crescent phase about one month before or after inferior conjunction. Venus fades to about magnitude −3 when it is backlit by the Sun. The planet is bright enough to be seen in broad daylight, but is more easily visible when the Sun is low on the horizon or setting. As an inferior planet, it always lies within about 47° of the Sun.
Venus "overtakes" Earth every 584 days as it orbits the Sun. As it does so, it changes from the "Evening Star", visible after sunset, to the "Morning Star", visible before sunrise. Although Mercury, the other inferior planet, reaches a maximum elongation of only 28° and is often difficult to discern in twilight, Venus is hard to miss when it is at its brightest. Its greater maximum elongation means it is visible in dark skies long after sunset. As the brightest point-like object in the sky, Venus is a commonly misreported "unidentified flying object".
### Phases
As it orbits the Sun, Venus displays phases like those of the Moon in a telescopic view. The planet appears as a small and "full" disc when it is on the opposite side of the Sun (at superior conjunction). Venus shows a larger disc and "quarter phase" at its maximum elongations from the Sun, and appears its brightest in the night sky. The planet presents a much larger thin "crescent" in telescopic views as it passes along the near side between Earth and the Sun. Venus displays its largest size and "new phase" when it is between Earth and the Sun (at inferior conjunction). Its atmosphere is visible through telescopes by the halo of sunlight refracted around it. The phases are clearly visible in a 4" telescope. Although naked eye visibility of Venus's phases is disputed, records exist of observations of its crescent.
### Daylight apparitions
When Venus is sufficently bright with enough angular distance from the sun, it is easily observed in a clear daytime sky with the naked eye. Astronomer Edmund Halley calculated its maximum naked eye brightness in 1716, when many Londoners were alarmed by its appearance in the daytime. French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte once witnessed a daytime apparition of the planet while at a reception in Luxembourg. Another historical daytime observation of the planet took place during the inauguration of the American president Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., on 4 March 1865.
### Transits
A transit of Venus is the appearance of Venus infront of the Sun, during inferior conjunction. Since the orbit of Venus is slightly inclined relative to Earth's orbit most inferior conjunctions with Earth, which occur every synodic period of 1.6 years, do not produce a transit of Venus above Earth. Consequently Venus transits above Earth only occur when an inferior conjunction takes place during some days of June or December, the time where the orbits of Venus and Earth cross a straight line with the Sun. This results in Venus transiting above Earth in a sequence of currently 8 years, 105.5 years, 8 years and 121.5 years, forming cycles of 243 years.
Historically, transits of Venus were important, because they allowed astronomers to determine the size of the astronomical unit, and hence the size of the Solar System as shown by Jeremiah Horrocks in 1639 with the first known observation of a Venus transit (after history's first observed planetary transit in 1631, of Mercury).
Only seven Venus transits have been observed so far, since their occurrences were calculated in the 1621 by Johannes Kepler. Captain Cook sailed to Tahiti in 1768 to record the third observed transit of Venus, which subsequently resulted in the exploration of the east coast of Australia.
The latest pair was June 8, 2004 and June 5–6, 2012. The transit could be watched live from many online outlets or observed locally with the right equipment and conditions. The preceding pair of transits occurred in December 1874 and December 1882.
The next transit will occur in December 2117 and December 2125.
### Ashen light
A long-standing mystery of Venus observations is the so-called ashen light—an apparent weak illumination of its dark side, seen when the planet is in the crescent phase. The first claimed observation of ashen light was made in 1643, but the existence of the illumination has never been reliably confirmed. Observers have speculated it may result from electrical activity in the Venusian atmosphere, but it could be illusory, resulting from the physiological effect of observing a bright, crescent-shaped object. The ashen light has often been sighted when Venus is in the evening sky, when the evening terminator of the planet is towards to Earth.
## Observation and exploration history
### Early observation
Venus is in Earth's sky bright enough to be visible without aid, making it one of the star-like classical planets that human cultures have known and identified throughout history, particularly for being the third brightest object in Earth's sky after the Sun and the Moon. Because the movements of Venus appear to be discontinuous (it disappears due to its proximity to the sun, for many days at a time, and then reappears on the other horizon), some cultures did not recognize Venus as a single entity; instead, they assumed it to be two separate stars on each horizon: the morning and evening star. Nonetheless, a cylinder seal from the Jemdet Nasr period and the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa from the First Babylonian dynasty indicate that the ancient Sumerians already knew that the morning and evening stars were the same celestial object. In the Old Babylonian period, the planet Venus was known as Ninsi'anna, and later as Dilbat. The name "Ninsi'anna" translates to "divine lady, illumination of heaven", which refers to Venus as the brightest visible "star". Earlier spellings of the name were written with the cuneiform sign si4 (= SU, meaning "to be red"), and the original meaning may have been "divine lady of the redness of heaven", in reference to the colour of the morning and evening sky.
The Chinese historically referred to the morning Venus as "the Great White" (Tàibái 太白) or "the Opener (Starter) of Brightness" (Qǐmíng 啟明), and the evening Venus as "the Excellent West One" (Chánggēng 長庚).
The ancient Greeks initially believed Venus to be two separate stars: Phosphorus, the morning star, and Hesperus, the evening star. Pliny the Elder credited the realization that they were a single object to Pythagoras in the sixth century BC, while Diogenes Laërtius argued that Parmenides (early fifth century) was probably responsible for this discovery. Though they recognized Venus as a single object, the ancient Romans continued to designate the morning aspect of Venus as Lucifer, literally "Light-Bringer", and the evening aspect as Vesper, both of which are literal translations of their traditional Greek names.
In the second century, in his astronomical treatise Almagest, Ptolemy theorized that both Mercury and Venus are located between the Sun and the Earth. The 11th-century Persian astronomer Avicenna claimed to have observed a transit of Venus (although there is some doubt about it), which later astronomers took as confirmation of Ptolemy's theory. In the 12th century, the Andalusian astronomer Ibn Bajjah observed "two planets as black spots on the face of the Sun"; these were thought to be the transits of Venus and Mercury by 13th-century Maragha astronomer Qotb al-Din Shirazi, though this cannot be true as there were no Venus transits in Ibn Bajjah's lifetime.
### Venus and early modern astronomy
When the Italian physicist Galileo Galilei first observed the planet with a telescope in the early 17th century, he found it showed phases like the Moon, varying from crescent to gibbous to full and vice versa. When Venus is furthest from the Sun in the sky, it shows a half-lit phase, and when it is closest to the Sun in the sky, it shows as a crescent or full phase. This could be possible only if Venus orbited the Sun, and this was among the first observations to clearly contradict the Ptolemaic geocentric model that the Solar System was concentric and centred on Earth.
The 1639 transit of Venus was accurately predicted by Jeremiah Horrocks and observed by him and his friend, William Crabtree, at each of their respective homes, on 4 December 1639 (24 November under the Julian calendar in use at that time).
The atmosphere of Venus was discovered in 1761 by Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov. Venus's atmosphere was observed in 1790 by German astronomer Johann Schröter. Schröter found when the planet was a thin crescent, the cusps extended through more than 180°. He correctly surmised this was due to scattering of sunlight in a dense atmosphere. Later, American astronomer Chester Smith Lyman observed a complete ring around the dark side of the planet when it was at inferior conjunction, providing further evidence for an atmosphere. The atmosphere complicated efforts to determine a rotation period for the planet, and observers such as Italian-born astronomer Giovanni Cassini and Schröter incorrectly estimated periods of about 24 h from the motions of markings on the planet's apparent surface.
### Early 20th century advances
Little more was discovered about Venus until the 20th century. Its almost featureless disc gave no hint what its surface might be like, and it was only with the development of spectroscopic and ultraviolet observations that more of its secrets were revealed.
Spectroscopic observations in the 1900s gave the first clues about the Venusian rotation. Vesto Slipher tried to measure the Doppler shift of light from Venus, but found he could not detect any rotation. He surmised the planet must have a much longer rotation period than had previously been thought.
The first ultraviolet observations were carried out in the 1920s, when Frank E. Ross found that ultraviolet photographs revealed considerable detail that was absent in visible and infrared radiation. He suggested this was due to a dense, yellow lower atmosphere with high cirrus clouds above it.
It had been noted that Venus had no discernible oblateness in its disk, suggesting a slow rotation, and some astronomers concluded based on this that it was tidally locked like Mercury was believed to be at the time; but other researchers had detected a significant quantity of heat coming from the planet's nightside, suggesting a quick rotation (a high surface temperature was not suspected at the time), confusing the issue. Later work in the 1950s showed the rotation was retrograde.
### Space age
Humanity's first interplanetary spaceflight was achieved in 1961 with the robotic space probe Venera 1 of the Soviet Venera program flying to Venus, though it lost contact en route.
Therefore the first successful interplanetary mission was the Mariner 2 mission to Venus of the United States' Mariner program, passing on 14 December 1962 at 34,833 km (21,644 mi) above the surface of Venus and gathering data on the planet's atmosphere.
Additionally radar observations of Venus were first carried out in the 1960s, and provided the first measurements of the rotation period, which were close to the actual value.
Venera 3, launched in 1966, became humanity's first probe and lander to reach and impact another celestial body other than the Moon, but could not return data as it crashed into the surface of Venus. In 1967, Venera 4 was launched and successfully deployed science experiments in the Venusian atmosphere before impacting. Venera 4 showed the surface temperature was hotter than Mariner 2 had calculated, at almost 500 °C (932 °F), determined that the atmosphere was 95% carbon dioxide (CO
<sub>2</sub>), and discovered that Venus's atmosphere was considerably denser than Venera 4's designers had anticipated.
In an early example of space cooperation the data of Venera 4 was joined with the 1967 Mariner 5 data, analysed by a combined Soviet–American science team in a series of colloquia over the following year.
On 15 December 1970, Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to soft land on another planet and the first to transmit data from there back to Earth.
In 1974, Mariner 10 swung by Venus to bend its path toward Mercury and took ultraviolet photographs of the clouds, revealing the extraordinarily high wind speeds in the Venusian atmosphere. This was the first interplanetary gravity assist ever used, a technique which would be used by later probes.
Radar observations in the 1970s revealed details of the Venusian surface for the first time. Pulses of radio waves were beamed at the planet using the 300 m (1,000 ft) radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory, and the echoes revealed two highly reflective regions, designated the Alpha and Beta regions. The observations revealed a bright region attributed to mountains, which was called Maxwell Montes. These three features are now the only ones on Venus that do not have female names.
In 1975, the Soviet Venera 9 and 10 landers transmitted the first images from the surface of Venus, which were in black and white. NASA obtained additional data with the Pioneer Venus project that consisted of two separate missions: the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe and Pioneer Venus Orbiter, orbiting Venus between 1978 and 1992. In 1982 the first colour images of the surface were obtained with the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 landers. After Venera 15 and 16 operated between 1983 and 1984 in orbit, conducting detailed mapping of 25% of Venus's terrain (from the north pole to 30°N latitude), the successful Soviet Venera program came to a close.
In 1985 the Vega program with its Vega 1 and Vega 2 missions carried the last entry probes and carried the first ever extraterrestrial aerobots for the first time achieving atmospheric flight outside Earth by employing inflatable balloons.
Between 1990 and 1994 Magellan operated in orbit until deorbiting, mapping the surface of Venus. Furthermore, probes like Galileo (1990), Cassini–Huygens (1998/1999), and MESSENGER (2006/2007) visited Venus with flybys flying to other destinations. In April 2006, Venus Express, the first dedicated Venus mission by the European Space Agency (ESA), entered orbit around Venus. Venus Express provided unprecedented observation of Venus's atmosphere. ESA concluded the Venus Express mission in December 2014 deorbiting it in January 2015.
In 2010, the first successful interplanetary solar sail spacecraft IKAROS traveled to Venus for a flyby.
### Active and future missions
As of 2023, the only active mission at Venus is Japan's Akatsuki, having achieved orbital insertion on 7 December 2015. Additionally, several flybys by other probes have been performed and studied Venus on their way, including NASA's Parker Solar Probe, and ESA's Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo.
There are currently several probes under development as well as multiple proposed missions still in their early conceptual stages.
Venus has been identified for future research as an important case for understanding:
- the origins of the solar system and Earth, and if systems and planets like ours are common or rare in the universe.
- how planetary bodies evolve from their primordial states to today's diverse objects.
- the development of conditions leading to habitable environments and life.
## Search for life
Speculation on the possibility of life on Venus's surface decreased significantly after the early 1960s when it became clear that the conditions are extreme compared to those on Earth. Venus's extreme temperature and atmospheric pressure make water-based life as currently known unlikely.
Some scientists have speculated that thermoacidophilic extremophile microorganisms might exist in the cooler, acidic upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere. Such speculations go back to 1967, when Carl Sagan and Harold J. Morowitz suggested in a Nature article that tiny objects detected in Venus's clouds might be organisms similar to Earth's bacteria (which are of approximately the same size):
While the surface conditions of Venus make the hypothesis of life there implausible, the clouds of Venus are a different story altogether. As was pointed out some years ago, water, carbon dioxide and sunlight—the prerequisites for photosynthesis—are plentiful in the vicinity of the clouds.
In August 2019, astronomers led by Yeon Joo Lee reported that long-term pattern of absorbance and albedo changes in the atmosphere of the planet Venus caused by "unknown absorbers", which may be chemicals or even large colonies of microorganisms high up in the atmosphere of the planet, affect the climate. Their light absorbance is almost identical to that of micro-organisms in Earth's clouds. Similar conclusions have been reached by other studies.
In September 2020, a team of astronomers led by Jane Greaves from Cardiff University announced the likely detection of phosphine, a gas not known to be produced by any known chemical processes on the Venusian surface or atmosphere, in the upper levels of the planet's clouds. One proposed source for this phosphine is living organisms. The phosphine was detected at heights of at least 30 miles above the surface, and primarily at mid-latitudes with none detected at the poles. The discovery prompted NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine to publicly call for a new focus on the study of Venus, describing the phosphine find as "the most significant development yet in building the case for life off Earth".
Subsequent analysis of the data-processing used to identify phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus has raised concerns that the detection-line may be an artefact. The use of a 12th-order polynomial fit may have amplified noise and generated a false reading (see Runge's phenomenon). Observations of the atmosphere of Venus at other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum in which a phosphine absorption line would be expected did not detect phosphine. By late October 2020, re-analysis of data with a proper subtraction of background did not show a statistically significant detection of phosphine.
Members of the team around Greaves, are working as part of a project by the MIT to send with the rocket company Rocket Lab the first private interplanetary space craft, to look for organics by entering the atmosphere of Venus with a probe, set to launch in January 2025.
### Planetary protection
The Committee on Space Research is a scientific organization established by the International Council for Science. Among their responsibilities is the development of recommendations for avoiding interplanetary contamination. For this purpose, space missions are categorized into five groups. Due to the harsh surface environment of Venus, Venus has been under the planetary protection category two. This indicates that there is only a remote chance that spacecraft-borne contamination could compromise investigations.
## Human presence
Venus is the place of the first interplanetary human presence, mediated through robotic missions, with the first successful landings on another planet and extraterrestrial body other than the Moon. Currently in orbit is Akatsuki, and other probes routinely use Venus for gravity assist maneuvers capturing some data about Venus on the way.
The only nation that has sent lander probes to the surface of Venus has been the Soviet Union, which has been used by Russian officials to call Venus a "Russian planet".
### Crewed flight
Studies of routes for crewed missions to Mars have since the 1960s proposed opposition missions instead of direct conjunction missions with Venus gravity assist flybys, demonstrating that they should be quicker and safer missions to Mars, with better return or abort flight windows, and less or the same amount of radiation exposure from the flight as direct Mars flights.
Early in the space age the Soviet Union and the United States proposed the TMK-MAVR and Manned Venus flyby crewed flyby missions to Venus, though they were never realized.
### Habitation
While the surface conditions of Venus are inhospitable, the atmospheric pressure, temperature, and solar and cosmic radiation 50 km above the surface are similar to those at Earth's surface. With this in mind, Soviet engineer Sergey Zhitomirskiy (Сергей Житомирский, 1929–2004) in 1971 and NASA aerospace engineer Geoffrey A. Landis in 2003 suggested the use of aerostats for crewed exploration and possibly for permanent "floating cities" in the Venusian atmosphere, an alternative to the popular idea of living on planetary surfaces such as Mars. Among the many engineering challenges for any human presence in the atmosphere of Venus are the corrosive amounts of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere.
NASA's High Altitude Venus Operational Concept is a mission concept that proposed a crewed aerostat design.
## In culture
Venus is a primary feature of the night sky, and so has been of remarkable importance in mythology, astrology and fiction throughout history and in different cultures.
The English name of Venus was originally the ancient Roman name for it. Romans named Venus after their goddess of love, who in turn was based on the ancient Greek goddess of love Aphrodite, who was herself based on the similar Sumerian religion goddess Inanna (which is Ishtar in Akkadian religion), all of whom were associated with the planet. The weekday of the planet and these goddesses is Friday, named after the Germanic goddess Frigg, who has been associated with the Roman goddess Venus.
Several hymns praise Inanna in her role as the goddess of the planet Venus. Theology professor Jeffrey Cooley has argued that, in many myths, Inanna's movements may correspond with the movements of the planet Venus in the sky. The discontinuous movements of Venus relate to both mythology as well as Inanna's dual nature. In Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, unlike any other deity, Inanna is able to descend into the netherworld and return to the heavens. The planet Venus appears to make a similar descent, setting in the West and then rising again in the East. An introductory hymn describes Inanna leaving the heavens and heading for Kur, what could be presumed to be, the mountains, replicating the rising and setting of Inanna to the West. In Inanna and Shukaletuda and Inanna's Descent into the Underworld appear to parallel the motion of the planet Venus. In Inanna and Shukaletuda, Shukaletuda is described as scanning the heavens in search of Inanna, possibly searching the eastern and western horizons. In the same myth, while searching for her attacker, Inanna herself makes several movements that correspond with the movements of Venus in the sky.
The Ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks possibly knew by the secon millenium BC or at the latest by the Late Period, under mesopotamian influence that the morning star and an evening star were one and the same. The Egyptians knew the morning star as Tioumoutiri and the evening star as Ouaiti. They depicted Venus at first as a phoenix or heron (see Bennu), calling it "the crosser" or "star with crosses", associating it with Osiris, and later depicting it two-headed with human or falco heads, and associated it with Horus, son of Isis (which during the even later Hellenistic period was together with Hathor identified with Aphrodite). The Greeks used the names Phōsphoros (Φωσφόρος), meaning "light-bringer" (whence the element phosphorus; alternately Ēōsphoros (Ἠωσφόρος), meaning "dawn-bringer"), for the morning star, and Hesperos (Ἕσπερος), meaning "Western one", for the evening star, both children of dawn Eos and therefore grandchildren of Aphrodite. Though by the Roman era they were recognized as one celestial object, known as "the star of Venus", the traditional two Greek names continued to be used, though usually translated to Latin as Lūcifer and Vesper.
Classical poets such as Homer, Sappho, Ovid and Virgil spoke of the star and its light. Poets such as William Blake, Robert Frost, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth wrote odes to it.
In India Shukra Graha ("the planet Shukra") is named after the powerful saint Shukra. Shukra which is used in Indian Vedic astrology means "clear, pure" or "brightness, clearness" in Sanskrit. One of the nine Navagraha, it is held to affect wealth, pleasure and reproduction; it was the son of Bhrgu, preceptor of the Daityas, and guru of the Asuras. The word Shukra is also associated with semen, or generation.
Venus is known as Kejora in Indonesian and Malaysian Malay.
In Chinese the planet is called Jīn-xīng (金星), the golden planet of the metal element. Modern Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese cultures refer to the planet literally as the "metal star" (金星), based on the Five elements.
The Maya considered Venus to be the most important celestial body after the Sun and Moon. They called it Chac ek, or Noh Ek', "the Great Star". The cycles of Venus were important to their calendar and were described in some of their books such as Maya Codex of Mexico and Dresden Codex.
### Modern culture
With the invention of the telescope, the idea that Venus was a physical world and possible destination began to take form.
The impenetrable Venusian cloud cover gave science fiction writers free rein to speculate on conditions at its surface; all the more so when early observations showed that not only was it similar in size to Earth, it possessed a substantial atmosphere. Closer to the Sun than Earth, the planet was frequently depicted as warmer, but still habitable by humans. The genre reached its peak between the 1930s and 1950s, at a time when science had revealed some aspects of Venus, but not yet the harsh reality of its surface conditions. Findings from the first missions to Venus showed the reality to be quite different and brought this particular genre to an end. As scientific knowledge of Venus advanced, science fiction authors tried to keep pace, particularly by conjecturing human attempts to terraform Venus.
### Symbols
The symbol of a circle with a small cross beneath is the so-called Venus symbol, gaining its name for being used as the astronomical symbol for Venus. The symbol is of ancient Greek origin, and represents more generally femininity, adopted by biology as gender symbol for female, like the Mars symbol for male and sometimes the Mercury symbol for hermaphrodite. This gendered association of Venus and Mars has been used to pair them heteronormatively, describing women and men stereotypically as being so different that they can be understood as coming from different planets, an understanding popularized in 1992 by the book titled Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus.
The Venus symbol was also used in Western alchemy representing the element copper (like the symbol of Mercury is also the symbol of the element mercury), and since polished copper has been used for mirrors from antiquity the symbol for Venus has sometimes been called Venus mirror, representing the mirror of the goddess, although this origin has been discredited as an unlikely origin.
Beside the Venus symbol, many other symbols have been associated with Venus, other common ones are the crescent or particularly the star, as with the Star of Ishtar.
## See also
- Outline of Venus
- Stats of planets in the Solar System
- Venus zone
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Leslie Groves
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Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (17 August 1896 – 13 July 1970) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project, a top secret research project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II.
The son of a U.S. Army chaplain, Groves lived at various Army posts during his childhood. In 1918, he graduated fourth in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned into the United States Army Corps of Engineers. In 1929, he went to Nicaragua as part of an expedition to conduct a survey for the Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal. Following the 1931 earthquake, Groves took over Managua's water supply system, for which he was awarded the Nicaraguan Presidential Medal of Merit. He attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1935 and 1936, and the Army War College in 1938 and 1939, after which he was posted to the War Department General Staff. Groves developed "a reputation as a doer, a driver, and a stickler for duty". In 1940 he became special assistant for construction to the Quartermaster General, tasked with inspecting construction sites and checking on their progress. In August 1941, he was appointed to create the gigantic office complex for the War Department's 40,000 staff that would ultimately become the Pentagon.
In September 1942, Groves took charge of the Manhattan Project. He was involved in most aspects of the atomic bomb's development: he participated in the selection of sites for research and production at Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford, Washington. He directed the enormous construction effort, made critical decisions on the various methods of isotope separation, acquired raw materials, directed the collection of military intelligence on the German nuclear energy project and helped select the cities in Japan that were chosen as targets. Groves wrapped the Manhattan Project in security, but spies working within the project were able to pass some of its most important secrets to the Soviet Union.
After the war, Groves remained in charge of the Manhattan Project until responsibility for nuclear weapons production was handed over to the United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1947. He then headed the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, which had been created to control the military aspects of nuclear weapons. He was given a dressing down by the Chief of Staff of the Army, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, on the basis of various complaints, and told that he would never be appointed Chief of Engineers. Three days later, Groves announced his intention to leave the Army. He was promoted to lieutenant general just before his retirement on 29 February 1948 in recognition of his leadership of the bomb program. By a special Act of Congress, his date of rank was backdated to 16 July 1945, the date of the Trinity nuclear test. He went on to become a vice president at Sperry Rand.
## Early life
Leslie Richard Groves Jr. was born in Albany, New York, on 17 August 1896, the third son of four children of a pastor, Leslie Richard Groves Sr., and his wife Gwen née Griffith. He was half Welsh and half English, with some French Huguenot ancestors who came to the United States in the 17th century. Leslie Groves Sr. resigned as pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian church in Albany in December 1896 to become a United States Army chaplain. He was posted to the 14th Infantry at Vancouver Barracks in Washington state in 1897.
Following the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, Chaplain Groves was sent to Cuba with the 8th Infantry. On returning to Vancouver Barracks, he was ordered to rejoin the 14th Infantry in the Philippines. Service in the Philippine–American War and the Boxer Rebellion followed. The 14th Infantry returned to the United States in 1901 and moved to Fort Snelling, Minnesota. The family relocated to there from Vancouver, then moved to Fort Hancock, New Jersey, and returned to Vancouver in 1905. Chaplain Groves was hospitalized with tuberculosis at Fort Bayard in 1905. He decided to settle in southern California and bought a house in Altadena. His next posting was to Fort Apache, Arizona. The family spent their summers there and returned to Altadena where the children attended school.
In 1911, Chaplain Groves was ordered to return to the 14th Infantry, which was now stationed at Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana. At Fort Harrison, the younger Groves met Grace (Boo) Wilson, the daughter of Colonel Richard Hulbert Wilson, a career Army officer who had served with Chaplain Groves during the 8th Infantry's posting to Cuba. In 1913, the 14th Infantry moved once more, this time to Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington.
Groves entered Queen Anne High School in 1913, and graduated in 1914. While completing high school, he enrolled in courses at the University of Washington, in anticipation of attempting to gain an appointment to the United States Military Academy. He earned a nomination from the President, Woodrow Wilson, which allowed him to compete for a vacancy, but did not score a high enough mark on the examination to be admitted. Charles W. Bell from California's 9th congressional district nominated Groves as an alternate, but the principal nominee accepted. Instead, Groves enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and planned to re-take the West Point entrance exam. In 1916, Groves tested again, attained a passing score, and was accepted. He later said "Entering West Point fulfilled my greatest ambition. I had been brought up in the Army, and in the main had lived on Army posts all my life."
Groves's class entered West Point on 15 June 1916. The United States declaration of war on Germany in April 1917 led to their program of instruction being shortened as the War Emergency Course (WEC), which graduated on 1 November 1918, a year and a half ahead of schedule. Groves finished fourth in his class, which earned him a commission as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, the first choice of most high ranking cadets.
At MIT he had played tennis informally, but at West Point he could not skate for ice hockey, did not like basketball, and was not good enough for baseball or track. So football was his only sport. He said that "I was the number two center but was on the bench most of the time as in those days you didn't have substitutes and normally the number one played the whole game. I was not very heavy, and today would be considered too light to play at all".
## Between the wars
After the traditional month's leave following graduation from West Point, Groves reported to Camp A. A. Humphreys, Virginia, in December 1918, where he was promoted to first lieutenant on 1 May 1919. He was sent to France in June on an educational tour of the European battlefields of World War I. After returning from Europe, Groves became a student officer at the Engineer School at Camp Humphreys in September 1919. On graduation he was posted to the 7th Engineers at Fort Benning, Georgia, as a company commander.
He returned to Camp Humphreys in February 1921 for the Engineer Basic Officers' Course. On graduation in August 1921, he was posted to the 4th Engineers, stationed at Camp Lewis, Washington. He was then posted to Fort Worden in command of a survey detachment. This was close to Seattle, so he was able to pursue his courtship of Grace Wilson, who had become a kindergarten teacher. They were married in St. Clement's Episcopal Church in Seattle on 10 February 1922. Their marriage produced two children: a son, Richard Hulbert, born in 1923, and a daughter, Gwen, born in 1928.
In November 1922, Groves received his first overseas posting, as a company commander with the 3rd Engineers at the Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. He earned a commendation for his work there, constructing a trail from Kahuku to Pupukea. In November 1925 he was posted to Galveston, Texas, as an assistant to the District Engineer, Major Julian Schley. Groves' duties included opening the channel at Port Isabel and supervising dredging operations in Galveston Bay. In 1927 he became commander of Company D, 1st Engineers, at Fort DuPont, Delaware.
During the New England Flood of November 1927 he was sent to Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, to assist with a detachment of the 1st Engineers. After a pontoon bridge they constructed was swamped and swept away by the flood waters, Groves was accused of negligence. A month later Groves and several of his men were seriously injured, one fatally, when a block of TNT prematurely detonated. Groves' superior wrote a critical report on him, but the Chief of Engineers, Major General Edgar Jadwin, interceded, attributing blame to Groves' superiors instead. Groves was returned to Fort DuPont.
In 1929, Groves departed for Nicaragua in charge of a company of the 1st Engineers as part of an expedition whose purpose was to conduct a survey for the Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal. Following the 1931 Nicaragua earthquake, Groves took over responsibility for Managua's water supply system, for which he was awarded the Nicaraguan Presidential Medal of Merit. Groves was promoted to captain on 20 October 1934. He attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1935 and 1936, after which he was posted to Kansas City, Missouri, as assistant to the commander of the Missouri River Division. In 1938 and 1939 he attended the Army War College. On 1 July 1939, he was posted to the War Department General Staff in Washington, D.C.
## World War II
### Construction Division
Groves was promoted to major on 1 July 1940. Three weeks later, he became special assistant for construction to the Quartermaster General, Major General Edmund B. Gregory. The two men had known each other a long time, as Groves' father was a close friend of Gregory's. At this point, the US Army was about to embark on a national mobilization, and it was the task of the Construction Division of the Quartermaster Corps to prepare the necessary accommodations and training facilities for the vast army that would be created. The enormous construction program had been dogged by bottlenecks, shortages, delays, spiralling costs, and poor living conditions at the construction sites. Newspapers began publishing accounts charging the Construction Division with incompetence, ineptitude, and inefficiency. Groves, who "had a reputation as a doer, a driver, and a stickler for duty", was one of a number of engineer officers brought in to turn the project around. He was tasked with inspecting construction sites and checking on their progress.
On 12 November 1940, Gregory asked Groves to take over command of the Fixed Fee Branch of the Construction Division as soon as his promotion to colonel came through. Groves assumed his new rank and duties on 14 November 1940. Groves later recalled:
> During the first week that I was on duty there, I could not walk out of my office down the corridor to Hartman's office without being literally assailed by the officers or civilian engineers with liaison responsibility for various camps. It is no exaggeration to state that during this period decisions involving up to \$5,000,000 [\$ with inflation] were made at the rate of about one every 100 feet of corridor walked.
Groves instituted a series of reforms. He installed phone lines for the Supervising Construction Quartermasters, demanded weekly reports on progress, ordered that reimbursement vouchers be processed within a week, and sent expediters to sites reporting shortages. He ordered his contractors to hire whatever special equipment they needed and to pay premium prices if necessary to guarantee quick delivery. Instead of allowing construction of camps to proceed in whatever order the contractors saw fit, Groves laid down priorities for completion of camp facilities, so that the troops could begin moving in even while construction was still under way.
By mid-December, the worst of the crisis was over. Over half a million men had been mobilized and essential accommodations and facilities for two million men were 95 per cent complete. Between 1 July 1940 and 10 December 1941, the Construction Division let contracts worth \$1,676,293,000 (\$ with inflation), of which \$1,347,991,000 (\$ with inflation), or about 80 per cent, were fixed-fee contracts.
On 19 August 1941, Groves was summoned to a meeting with the head of the Construction Division, Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell. In attendance were Captain Clarence Renshaw, one of Groves' assistants; Major Hugh J. Casey, the chief of the Construction Division's Design and Engineering Section; and George Bergstrom, a former president of the American Institute of Architects. Casey and Bergstrom had designed an enormous office complex to house the War Department's 40,000 staff together in one building, a five-story, five-sided structure, which would ultimately become the Pentagon.
The Pentagon had a total square footage of 5,100,000 square feet (470,000 m<sup>2</sup>) – twice that of the Empire State Building – making it the largest office building in the world. The estimated cost was \$35 million (\$ with inflation), and Somervell wanted 500,000 square feet (46,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of floor space available by 1 March 1942. Bergstrom became the architect-engineer with Renshaw in charge of construction, reporting directly to Groves. At its peak the project employed 13,000 persons. By the end of April, the first occupants were moving in and 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of space was ready by the end of May. In the end, the project cost some \$63 million (\$ with inflation).
Groves steadily overcame one crisis after another, dealing with strikes, shortages, competing priorities and engineers who were not up to their tasks. He worked six days a week in his office in Washington, D.C. During the week he would determine which project was in the greatest need of personal attention and pay it a visit on Sunday. Groves later recalled that he was "hoping to get to a war theater so I could find a little peace."
### Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Engineer District (MED) was formally established by the Chief of Engineers, Major General Eugene Reybold on 16 August 1942. The name was chosen by Groves and MED's district engineer, Colonel James C. Marshall. Like other engineer districts, it was named after the city where its headquarters was located, at 270 Broadway. Unlike the others, it had no geographic boundaries, only a mission: to develop an atomic bomb. Marshall had the authority of a division engineer head and reported directly to Reybold.
Although Reybold was satisfied with the progress being made, Vannevar Bush was less so. He felt that aggressive leadership was required, and suggested the appointment of a prestigious officer as overall project director. Somervell, now Chief of Army Service Forces, recommended Groves. Somervell met Groves outside the hearing room where Groves had been testifying before a United States Congress committee on military housing and informed him that "The Secretary of War has selected you for a very important assignment, and the President has approved the selection ... If you do the job right, it will win the war." Groves could not hide his disappointment at not receiving a combat assignment: "Oh, that thing," he replied.
Groves met with Major General Wilhelm D. Styer in his office at the Pentagon to discuss the details. They agreed that in order to avoid suspicion, Groves would continue to supervise the Pentagon project. He would be promoted to brigadier general, as it was felt that the title "general" would hold more sway with the academic scientists working on the Manhattan Project. Groves therefore waited until his promotion came through on 23 September 1942 before assuming his new command. His orders placed him directly under Somervell rather than Reybold, with Marshall now answerable to Groves.
Groves was given authority to sign contracts for the project from 1 September 1942. The Under Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson, retrospectively delegated his authority from the President under the War Powers Act of 1941 in a memorandum to Groves dated 17 April 1944. Groves delegated the authority to Kenneth Nichols, except for contracts of \$5 million or more that required his authority. The written authority was only given in 1944 when Nichols was about to sign a contract with Du Pont, and it was found that Nichols's original authority to sign project contracts for Marshall was based on a verbal authority from Styer, and Nichols only had the low delegated authority of a divisional engineer. Groves soon decided to establish his project headquarters on the fifth floor of the New War Department Building, now known as the Harry S Truman Building, in Washington, D.C., where Marshall had maintained a liaison office. In August 1943, the MED headquarters moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but the name of the district did not change.
Construction accounted for roughly 90 percent of the Manhattan Project's total cost. The day after Groves took over, he and Marshall took a train to Tennessee to inspect the site that Marshall had chosen for the proposed production plant at Oak Ridge. Groves was suitably impressed with the site, and steps were taken to condemn the land. Protests, legal appeals, and congressional inquiries were to no avail. By mid-November U.S. Marshals were tacking notices to vacate on farmhouse doors, and construction contractors were moving in.
Meanwhile, Groves had met with J. Robert Oppenheimer, the University of California, Berkeley physicist, and discussed the creation of a laboratory where the bomb could be designed and tested. Groves was impressed with the breadth of Oppenheimer's knowledge. A long conversation on a train in October 1942 convinced Groves and Nichols that Oppenheimer thoroughly understood the issues involved in setting up a laboratory in a remote area. These were features that Groves found lacking in other scientists, and he knew that broad knowledge would be vital in an interdisciplinary project that would involve not just physics, but chemistry, metallurgy, ordnance, and engineering.
In October 1942 Groves and Oppenheimer inspected sites in New Mexico, where they selected a suitable location for the laboratory at Los Alamos. Unlike Oak Ridge, the ranch school at Los Alamos, along with 54,000 acres (22,000 ha) of surrounding forest and grazing land, was soon acquired. Groves also detected in Oppenheimer something that many others did not, an "overweening ambition" which Groves reckoned would supply the drive necessary to push the project to a successful conclusion. Groves became convinced that Oppenheimer was the best and only man to run the laboratory.
Few agreed with him in 1942. Oppenheimer had little administrative experience and, unlike other potential candidates, no Nobel Prize. There was also concern about whether Oppenheimer was a security risk, as many of his associates were communists, including his brother Frank Oppenheimer, his wife Kitty, and his girlfriend Jean Tatlock. Oppenheimer's Communist Party connections soon came to light, but Groves personally waived the security requirements and issued Oppenheimer a clearance on 20 July 1943. Groves' faith in Oppenheimer was ultimately justified. Oppenheimer's inspirational leadership fostered practical approaches to designing and building bombs. Asked years later why Groves chose him, Oppenheimer replied that the general "had a fatal weakness for good men." Isidor Rabi considered the appointment "a real stroke of genius on the part of General Groves, who was not generally considered to be a genius ..."
Groves made critical decisions on prioritizing the various methods of isotope separation and acquiring raw materials needed by the scientists and engineers. By the time he assumed command of the project, it was evident that the AA-3 priority rating that Marshall had obtained was insufficient. The top ratings were AA-1 through AA-4 in descending order, although there was also a special AAA rating reserved for emergencies. Ratings AA-1 and AA-2 were for essential weapons and equipment, so Colonel Lucius D. Clay, the deputy chief of staff at Services and Supply for requirements and resources, felt that the highest rating he could assign was AA-3, although he was willing to provide an AAA rating on request for critical materials to remove bottlenecks. Groves went to Donald M. Nelson, the chairman of the War Production Board and, after threatening to take the matter to the President, obtained a AAA priority for the Manhattan project. It was agreed that the AA-3 priority would still be used where possible.
The Combined Development Trust was established by the governments of the United Kingdom, United States and Canada in June 1944, with Groves as its chairman, to procure uranium and thorium ores on international markets. In 1944, the trust purchased 3,440,000 pounds (1,560,000 kg) of uranium oxide ore from companies operating mines in the Belgian Congo. In order to avoid briefing the Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau Jr., on the project, a special account not subject to the usual auditing and controls was used to hold Trust monies. Between 1944 and the time he resigned from the Trust in 1947, Groves deposited a total of \$37.5 million into the Trust's account.
Worried by the heavy losses occurring during the Battle of the Bulge, in late December 1944 President Roosevelt requested atomic bombs be dropped on Germany during his only meeting with Groves during the war. Groves informed him the first workable bomb was months away.
In 1943, the Manhattan District became responsible for collecting military intelligence on Axis atomic research. Groves created Operation Alsos, special intelligence teams that would follow in the wake of the advancing armies, rounding up enemy scientists and collecting what technical information and technology they could. Alsos teams ultimately operated in Italy, France and Germany. The security system resembled that of other engineer districts. The Manhattan District organized its own counterintelligence which gradually grew in size and scope, but strict security measures failed to prevent the Soviets from conducting a successful espionage program that stole some of its most important secrets.
Groves met with General Henry H. Arnold, the Chief of U.S. Army Air Forces, in March 1944 to discuss the delivery of the finished bombs to their targets. Groves was hoping that the Boeing B-29 Superfortress would be able to carry the finished bombs. The 509th Composite Group was duly activated on 17 December 1944 at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, under the command of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets. A joint Manhattan District – USAAF targeting committee was established to determine which cities in Japan should be targets. It recommended Kokura, Hiroshima, Niigata, and Kyoto.
At this point, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson intervened, announcing that he would be making the targeting decision, and that he would not authorize the bombing of Kyoto. Groves attempted to get him to change his mind several times and Stimson refused every time. Kyoto had been the capital of Japan for centuries, and was of great cultural and religious significance. In the end, Groves asked Arnold to remove Kyoto not just from the list of nuclear targets, but from targets for conventional bombing as well. Nagasaki was substituted for Kyoto as a target. Groves was promoted to temporary major general on 9 March 1944. After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki became public knowledge, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. His citation read:
> Major General Leslie Richard Groves, as Commanding General, Manhattan Engineer District, Army Service Forces, from June 1942 to August 1945 coordinated, administered and controlled a project of unprecedented, world-wide significance—the development of the Atomic Bomb. His was the responsibility for procuring materiel and personnel, marshalling the forces of government and industry, erecting huge plants, blending the scientific efforts of the United States and foreign countries, and maintaining completely secret the search for a key to release atomic energy. He accomplished his task with such outstanding success that in an amazingly short time the Manhattan Engineer District solved this problem of staggering complexity, defeating the Axis powers in the race to produce an instrument whose peacetime potentialities are no less marvellous than its wartime application is awesome. The achievement of General Groves is of unfathomable importance to the future of the nation and the world.
Groves had previously been nominated for the Distinguished Service Medal for his work on the Pentagon, but to avoid drawing attention to the Manhattan Project, it had not been awarded at the time. After the war, the Decorations Board decided to change it to a Legion of Merit. In recognition of his work on the project, the Belgian government made him a Commander of the Order of the Crown and the British government made him an honorary Companion of the Order of the Bath.
## After the war
Responsibility for nuclear power and nuclear weapons was transferred from the Manhattan District to the Atomic Energy Commission on 1 January 1947. On 29 January 1947, the Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson, and the Secretary of the Navy, James V. Forrestal, issued a joint directive creating the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) to control the military aspects of nuclear weapons. Groves was appointed its chief on 28 February 1947. In April, AFSWP moved from the New War Department Building to the fifth floor of the Pentagon. Groves had already made a start on the new mission by creating Sandia Base in 1946.
The Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, met with Groves on 30 January 1948 to evaluate his performance. Eisenhower recounted a long list of complaints about Groves pertaining to his rudeness, arrogance, insensitivity, contempt for the rules, and maneuvering for promotion out of turn. Eisenhower made it clear that Groves would never become Chief of Engineers.
Groves realized that in the rapidly shrinking postwar military he would not be given any assignment similar in importance to the one he had held in the Manhattan Project, as such posts would go to combat commanders returning from overseas, and he decided to leave the Army. In recognition of his leadership of the Manhattan Project, he received an honorary promotion to lieutenant general by special Act of Congress, effective 24 January 1948, just before his retirement on 29 February 1948. His date of rank was backdated to 16 July 1945, the date of the Trinity nuclear test.
## Later life
Groves went on to become a vice president at Sperry Rand, an equipment and electronics firm, and moved to Darien, Connecticut, in 1948, and retired at age 65 in 1961. He also served as president of the West Point alumni organization, the Association of Graduates. He presented General of the Army Douglas MacArthur the Sylvanus Thayer Award in 1962, which was the occasion of MacArthur's famous Duty, Honor, Country speech to the U.S. Military Academy Corps of Cadets. In retirement, Groves wrote an account of the Manhattan Project entitled Now It Can Be Told, originally published in 1962. In 1964, he moved back to Washington, D.C.
Groves suffered a heart attack caused by chronic calcification of the aortic valve on 13 July 1970. He was rushed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., where he died that night at age 73. A funeral service was held in the chapel at Fort Myer, Virginia, after which Groves was interred in Arlington National Cemetery next to his brother Allen, who had died of pneumonia in 1916.
## Legacy
Groves is memorialized at a namesake park along the Columbia River, near the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington.
The 1980 BBC series, Oppenheimer, featured Manning Redwood as Groves. The same year, he was played by Richard Herd in the American television movie, Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb. In the 1989 film Fat Man and Little Boy, he was portrayed by Paul Newman. and in the made-for-TV movie of the same year, Day One, by Brian Dennehy. In 1995, Groves was portrayed by Richard Masur in the Japanese-Canadian made for television movie Hiroshima. He was portrayed by Eric Owens in the 2007 Lyric Opera of Chicago's work Doctor Atomic. The opera follows Oppenheimer, Groves, Teller and others in the days preceding the Trinity test. Groves is played by Matt Damon in Christopher Nolan's 2023 film Oppenheimer.
## Dates of rank
|
9,544,911 |
Rudd Concession
| 1,173,509,776 |
1888 written concession for mining rights in what is now Zimbabwe
|
[
"1888 in Africa",
"1888 treaties",
"19th century in Africa",
"British South Africa Company",
"British colonisation in Africa",
"Foreign relations of the United Kingdom",
"History of Rhodesia",
"History of Zimbabwe",
"History of the British Empire",
"Mining in Zimbabwe",
"New Imperialism",
"Political history of the United Kingdom",
"Politics of Rhodesia",
"Rhodesia",
"Treaties of Zimbabwe",
"Treaties with indigenous peoples"
] |
The Rudd Concession, a written concession for exclusive mining rights in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and other adjoining territories in what is today Zimbabwe, was granted by King Lobengula of Matabeleland to Charles Rudd, James Rochfort Maguire and Francis Thompson, three agents acting on behalf of the South African-based politician and businessman Cecil Rhodes, on 30 October 1888. Despite Lobengula's retrospective attempts to disavow it, it proved the foundation for the royal charter granted by the United Kingdom to Rhodes's British South Africa Company in October 1889, and thereafter for the Pioneer Column's occupation of Mashonaland in 1890, which marked the beginning of white settlement, administration and development in the country that eventually became Rhodesia, named after Rhodes, in 1895.
Rhodes's pursuit of the exclusive mining rights in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and the surrounding areas was motivated by his wish to annex them into the British Empire as part of his personal ambition for a Cape to Cairo Railway—winning the concession would enable him to gain a royal charter from the British government for a chartered company, empowered to annex and thereafter govern the Zambezi–Limpopo watershed on Britain's behalf. He laid the groundwork for concession negotiations during early 1888 by arranging a treaty of friendship between the British and Matabele peoples and then sent Rudd's team from South Africa to obtain the rights. Rudd succeeded following a race to the Matabele capital Bulawayo against Edward Arthur Maund, a bidding-rival employed by a London-based syndicate, and after long negotiations with the king and his council of izinDuna (tribal leaders).
The concession conferred on the grantees the sole rights to mine throughout Lobengula's country, as well as the power to defend this exclusivity by force, in return for weapons and a regular monetary stipend. Starting in early 1889, the king repeatedly tried to disavow the document on the grounds of deceit by the concessionaires regarding the settled terms;(only Rudd understood most of the terms.) The King insisted that restrictions on the grantees' activities had been agreed orally, and considered these part of the contract. He attempted to persuade the British government to deem the concession invalid, among other things sending emissaries to meet Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, but these efforts proved unsuccessful.
After Rhodes and the London consortium agreed to pool their interests, Rhodes travelled to London, arriving in March 1889. His amalgamated charter bid gathered great political and popular support over the next few months, prompting the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, to approve the royal charter, which was formally granted in October 1889. The Company occupied and annexed Mashonaland about a year later. Attempting to set up a rival to the Rudd Concession, Lobengula granted similar rights to the German businessman Eduard Lippert in 1891, but Rhodes promptly acquired this concession as well. Company troops conquered Matabeleland during the First Matabele War of 1893–1894, and Lobengula died from smallpox in exile soon after.
## Background
During the 1810s, the Zulu Kingdom was established in southern Africa by the warrior king Shaka, who united a number of rival clans into a centralised monarchy. Among the Zulu Kingdom's main leaders and military commanders was Mzilikazi, who enjoyed high royal favour for a time, but ultimately provoked the king's wrath by repeatedly offending him. When Shaka forced Mzilikazi and his followers to leave the country in 1823, they moved north-west to the Transvaal, where they became known as the Ndebele or "Matabele"—both names mean "men of the long shields". Amid the period of war and chaos locally called mfecane ("the crushing"), the Matabele quickly became the region's dominant tribe. In 1836, they negotiated a peace treaty with Sir Benjamin d'Urban, Governor of the British Cape Colony, but the same year Boer Voortrekkers moved to the area, during their Great Trek away from British rule in the Cape. These new arrivals soon toppled Mzilikazi's domination of the Transvaal, compelling him to lead another migration north in 1838. Crossing the Limpopo River, the Matabele settled in the southwest part of the Zambezi–Limpopo watershed; this area has since been called Matabeleland.
Matabele culture mirrored that of the Zulus in many aspects. The Matabele language, Sindebele, was largely based on Zulu—and just like Zululand, Matabeleland had a strong martial tradition. Matabele men went through a Spartan upbringing, designed to produce disciplined warriors, and military organisation largely dictated the distribution of administrative responsibilities. The inkosi (king) appointed a number of izinDuna (or indunas), who acted as tribal leaders in both military and civilian matters. Like the Zulus, the Matabele referred to a regiment of warriors as an impi. The Mashona people, who had inhabited the north-east of the region for centuries, greatly outnumbered the Matabele, but were weaker militarily, and so to a large degree entered a state of tributary submission to them. Mzilikazi agreed to two treaties with the Transvaal Boers in 1853, first with Hendrik Potgieter (who died shortly before negotiations ended), then with Andries Pretorius; the first of these, which did not bear Mzilikazi's own mark, purported to make Matabeleland a virtual Transvaal protectorate, while the second, which was more properly enacted, comprised a more equal peace agreement.
After Mzilikazi died in 1868, his son Lobengula replaced him in 1870, following a brief succession struggle. Tall and well built, Lobengula was generally considered thoughtful and sensible, even by contemporary Western accounts; according to the South African big-game hunter Frederick Hugh Barber, who met him in 1875, he was witty, mentally sharp and authoritative—"every inch a king". Based at his royal kraal at Bulawayo, Lobengula was at first open to Western enterprises in his country, adopting Western-style clothing and granting mining concessions and hunting licences to white visitors in return for pounds sterling, weapons and ammunition. Because of the king's illiteracy, these documents were prepared in English or Dutch by whites who took up residence at his kraal; to ascertain that what was written genuinely reflected what he had said, Lobengula would have his words translated and transcribed by one of the whites, then later translated back by another. Once the king was satisfied of the written translation's veracity, he would sign his mark, affix the royal seal (which depicted an elephant), and then have the document signed and witnessed by a number of white men, at least one of whom would also write an endorsement of the proclamation.
For unclear reasons, Lobengula's attitude towards foreigners reversed sharply during the late 1870s. He discarded his Western clothes in favour of more traditional animal-skin garments, stopped supporting trading enterprises, and began to restrict the movement of whites into and around his country. However, the whites kept coming, particularly after the discovery in 1886 of gold deposits in the South African Republic (or Transvaal), which prompted the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the founding of Johannesburg. After rumours spread among the Witwatersrand (or Rand) prospectors of even richer tracts, "a second Rand", north of the Limpopo, the miners began to trek north to seek concessions from Lobengula that would allow them to search for gold in Matabeleland and Mashonaland. These efforts were mostly in vain. Apart from the Tati Concession, which covered a small strip of land on the border with the Bechuanaland Protectorate where miners had operated since 1868, mining operations in the watershed remained few and far between.
The foremost business and political figure in southern Africa at this time was Cecil Rhodes, a vicar's son who had arrived from England in 1870, aged 17. Since entering the diamond trade at Kimberley in 1871, Rhodes had gained near-complete domination of the world diamond market with the help of Charles Rudd, Alfred Beit and other business associates, as well as the generous financial backing of Nathan Mayer Rothschild. Rhodes was also a member of the Cape Parliament, having been elected in 1881. Amid the European Scramble for Africa, he envisioned the annexation to the British Empire of territories that would connect the Cape, at Africa's southern tip, with Cairo, the Egyptian city at the northern end of the continent, and allow for the construction of a railway linking the two. This ambition was directly challenged in the south by the presence of the Boer republics and, just to the north of them, Lobengula's domains. The fact that the Zambezi–Limpopo region did not fall into any of the "spheres of influence" defined at the 1884–85 Berlin Conference further complicated matters; the Transvaalers, Germans and Portuguese were all also showing interest in the area, much to the annoyance of both Lobengula and Rhodes.
## Prelude: the Moffat treaty
Rhodes began advocating the annexation by Britain of Matabeleland and Mashonaland in 1887 by applying pressure to a number of senior colonial officials, most prominently the High Commissioner for Southern Africa, Sir Hercules Robinson, and Sidney Shippard, Britain's administrator in the Bechuanaland Crown colony (comprising that country's southern part). Shippard, an old friend of Rhodes, was soon won over to the idea, and in May 1887 the administrator wrote to Robinson strongly endorsing annexation of the territories, particularly Mashonaland, which he described as "beyond comparison the most valuable country south of the Zambezi". It was the Boers, however, who were first to achieve diplomatic successes with Lobengula. Pieter Grobler secured a treaty of "renewal of friendship" between Matabeleland and the South African Republic in July 1887. The same month, Robinson organised the appointment of John Smith Moffat, a locally born missionary, as assistant commissioner in Bechuanaland. Moffat, well-known to Lobengula, was given this position in the hope that he might make the king less cordial with the Boers and more pro-British.
In September 1887, Robinson wrote to Lobengula, through Moffat, urging the king not to grant concessions of any kind to Transvaal, German or Portuguese agents without first consulting the missionary. Moffat reached Bulawayo on 29 November to find Grobler still there. Because the exact text of the Grobler treaty had not been released publicly, it was unclear to outside observers precisely what had been agreed with Lobengula in July; in the uncertainty, newspapers in South Africa were reporting that the treaty had made Matabeleland a protectorate of the South African Republic. Moffat made enquiries in Bulawayo. Grobler denied the newspaper reports of a Transvaal protectorate over Lobengula's country, while the king said that an agreement did exist, but that it was a renewal of the Pretorius peace treaty and nothing more.
In Pretoria, in early December, another British agent met Paul Kruger, the President of the South African Republic, who reportedly said that his government now regarded Matabeleland as under Transvaal "protection and sovereignty", and that one of the clauses of the Grobler treaty had been that Lobengula could not "grant any concessions or make any contact with anybody whatsoever" without Pretoria's approval. Meeting at Grahamstown on Christmas Day, Rhodes, Shippard and Robinson agreed to instruct Moffat to investigate the matter with Lobengula and to secure a copy of the Grobler treaty for further clarification, as well as to arrange a formal Anglo-Matabele treaty, which would have provisions included to prevent Lobengula from making any more agreements with foreign powers other than Britain.
Lobengula was alarmed by how some were perceiving his dealings with Grobler, and so was reluctant to sign any more agreements with foreigners. Despite his familiarity with Moffat, the king did not consider him above suspicion, and he was dubious about placing himself firmly in the British camp; as Moffat said of the Matabele leadership in general, "they may like us better, but they fear the Boers more". Moffat's negotiations with the king and izinDuna were therefore very long and uneasy. The missionary presented the proposed British treaty as an offer to renew that enacted by d'Urban and Mzilikazi in 1836. He told the Matabele that the Boers were misleading them, that Pretoria's interpretation of the Grobler treaty differed greatly from their own, and that the British proposal served Matabele interests better in any case. On 11 February 1888, Lobengula agreed and placed his mark and seal at the foot of the agreement. The document proclaimed that the Matabele and British were now at peace, that Lobengula would not enter any kind of diplomatic correspondence with any country apart from Britain, and that the king would not "sell, alienate or cede" any part of Matabeleland or Mashonaland to anybody.
The document was unilateral in form, describing only what Lobengula would do to prevent any of these conditions being broken. Shippard was dubious about this and the fact that none of the izinDuna had signed the proclamation, and asked Robinson if it would be advisable to negotiate another treaty. Robinson replied in the negative, reasoning that reopening talks with Lobengula so soon would only make him suspicious. Britain's ministers at Whitehall perceived the unilateral character of the treaty as advantageous for Britain, as it did not commit Her Majesty's Government to any particular course of action. Lord Salisbury, the British Prime Minister, ruled that Moffat's treaty trumped Grobler's, despite being signed at a later date, because the London Convention of 1884 precluded the South African Republic from making treaties with any state apart from the Orange Free State; treaties with "native tribes" north of the Limpopo were permitted, but the Prime Minister claimed that Matabeleland was too cohesively organised to be regarded as a mere tribe, and should instead be considered a nation. He concluded from this reasoning that the Grobler treaty was ultra vires and legally meaningless. Whitehall soon gave Robinson permission to ratify the Moffat agreement, which was announced to the public in Cape Town on 25 April 1888.
For Rhodes, the agreement Moffat had made with Lobengula was crucial as it bought time that allowed him to devote the necessary attention to the final amalgamation of the South African diamond interests. A possible way out of the situation for Lobengula was to lead another Matabele migration across the Zambezi, but Rhodes hoped to keep the king where he was for the moment as a buffer against Boer expansion. In March 1888, Rhodes bought out the company of his last competitor, the circus showman turned diamond millionaire Barney Barnato, to form De Beers Consolidated Mines, a sprawling national monopoly that controlled 90% of world diamond production. Barnato wanted to limit De Beers to mining diamonds, but Rhodes insisted that he was going to use the company to "win the north": to this end, he ensured that the De Beers trust deed enabled activities far removed from mining, including banking and railway-building, the ability to annex and govern land, and the raising of armed forces. All this gave the immensely wealthy company powers not unlike those of the East India Company, which had governed India on Britain's behalf from 1757 to 1857. Through De Beers and Gold Fields of South Africa, the gold-mining firm he had recently started with Charles Rudd, Rhodes had both the capacity and the financial means to make his dream of an African empire a reality, but to make such ambitions practicable, he would first have to acquire a royal charter empowering him to take personal control of the relevant territories on Britain's behalf. To secure this royal charter, he would need to present Whitehall with a concession, signed by a native ruler, granting to Rhodes the exclusive mining rights in the lands he hoped to annex.
## Concession
### Race to Bulawayo
Rhodes faced competition for the Matabeleland mining concession from George Cawston and Lord Gifford, two London financiers. They appointed as their agent Edward Arthur Maund, who had served with Sir Charles Warren in Bechuanaland between 1884 and 1885, towards the end of this time visiting Lobengula as an official British envoy. Cawston and Gifford's base in England gave them the advantage of better connections with Whitehall, while Rhodes's location in the Cape allowed him to see the situation with his own eyes. He also possessed formidable financial capital and closer links with the relevant colonial administrators. In May 1888, Cawston and Gifford wrote to Lord Knutsford, the British Colonial Secretary, seeking his approval for their designs.
The urgency of negotiating a concession was made clear to Rhodes during a visit to London in June 1888, when he learned of the London syndicate's letter to Knutsford, and of their appointment of Maund. Rhodes now understood that the Matabeleland concession could still go elsewhere if he did not secure the document quickly. "Someone has to get the country, and I think we should have the best chance," Rhodes told Rothschild; "I have always been afraid of the difficulty of dealing with the Matabele king. He is the only block to central Africa, as, once we have his territory, the rest is easy ... the rest is simply a village system with separate headmen ... I have faith in the country, and Africa is on the move. I think it is a second Cinderella."
Rhodes and Beit put Rudd at the head of their new negotiating team because of his extensive experience negotiating the purchase of Boers' farms for gold prospecting. Because Rudd knew little of indigenous African customs and languages, Rhodes added Francis "Matabele" Thompson, an employee of his who had for years run the reserves and compounds that housed the black labourers at the diamond fields. Thompson was fluent in Setswana, the language of the Tswana people to Lobengula's south-west, and therefore could communicate directly and articulately with the king, who also knew the language. James Rochfort Maguire, an Irish barrister Rhodes had known at Oxford, was recruited as a third member.
Many analysts find the inclusion of the cultured, metropolitan Maguire puzzling—it is often suggested that he was brought along so he could couch the document in the elaborate legal language of the English bar, and thus make it unchallengeable, but as the historian John Semple Galbraith comments, the kind of agreement that was required was hardly complicated enough to merit the considerable expense and inconvenience of bringing Maguire along. In his biography of Rhodes, Robert I. Rotberg suggests that he may have intended Maguire to lend Rudd's expedition "a touch of culture and class", in the hope that this might impress Lobengula and rival would-be concessionaires. One of the advantages held by the London syndicate was the societal prestige of Gifford in particular, and Rhodes hoped to counter this through Maguire. Rudd's party ultimately comprised himself, Thompson, Maguire, J G Dreyer (their Dutch wagon driver), a fifth white man, a Cape Coloured, an African American and two black servants.
Maund arrived in Cape Town in late June 1888 and attempted to gain Robinson's approval for the Cawston–Gifford bid. Robinson was reserved in his answers, saying that he supported the development of Matabeleland by a company with this kind of backing, but did not feel he could commit to endorsing Cawston and Gifford exclusively while there remained other potential concessionaires, most prominently Rhodes—certainly not without unequivocal instructions from Whitehall. While Rudd's party gathered and prepared in Kimberley, Maund travelled north, and reached the diamond mines at the start of July. On 14 July, in Bulawayo, agents representing a consortium headed by the South African-based entrepreneur Thomas Leask received a mining concession from Lobengula, covering all of his country, and pledging half of the proceeds to the king. When he learned of this latter condition Leask was distraught, saying the concession was "commercially valueless". Moffat pointed out to Leask that his group did not have the resources to act on the concession anyway, and that both Rhodes and the London syndicate did; at Moffat's suggestion, Leask decided to wait and sell his concession to whichever big business group gained a new agreement from Lobengula. Neither Rhodes's group, the Cawston–Gifford consortium nor the British colonial officials immediately learned of the Leask concession.
In early July 1888, Rhodes returned from London and met with Robinson, proposing the establishment of a chartered company to govern and develop south-central Africa, with himself at its head, and similar powers to the British North Borneo, Imperial British East Africa and Royal Niger Companies. Rhodes said that this company would take control of those parts of Matabeleland and Mashonaland "not in use" by the local people, demarcate reserved areas for the indigenous population, and thereafter defend both, while developing the lands not reserved for natives. In this way, he concluded, Matabele and Mashona interests would be protected, and south-central Africa would be developed, all without a penny from Her Majesty's Treasury. Robinson wrote to Knutsford on 21 July that he thought Whitehall should back this idea; he surmised that the Boers would receive British expansion into the Zambezi–Limpopo watershed better if it came in the form of a chartered company than if it occurred with the creation of a new Crown colony. He furthermore wrote a letter for Rudd's party to carry to Bulawayo, recommending Rudd and his companions to Lobengula.
Maund left Kimberley in July, well ahead of the Rudd party. Rudd's negotiating team, armed with Robinson's endorsement, was still far from ready—they left Kimberley only on 15 August—but Moffat, travelling from Shoshong in Bechuanaland, was ahead of both expeditions. He reached Bulawayo in late August to find the kraal filled with white concession-hunters. The various bidders attempted to woo the king with a series of gifts and favours, but won little to show for it.
Between Kimberley and Mafeking, Maund learned from Shippard that Grobler had been killed by a group of Ngwato warriors while returning to the Transvaal, and that the Boers were threatening to attack the British-protected Ngwato chief, Khama III, in response. Maund volunteered to help defend Khama, writing a letter to his employers explaining that doing so might lay the foundations for a concession from Khama covering territory that the Matabele and Ngwato disputed. Cawston tersely wrote back with orders to make for Bulawayo without delay, but over a month had passed in the time this written exchange required, and Maund had squandered his head start on Rudd. After ignoring a notice Lobengula had posted at Tati, barring entry to white big-game hunters and concession-seekers, the Rudd party arrived at the king's kraal on 21 September 1888, three weeks ahead of Maund.
### Negotiations
Rudd, Thompson and Maguire immediately went to present themselves to Lobengula, who came out from his private quarters without hesitation and politely greeted the visitors. Through a Sindebele interpreter, Rudd introduced himself and the others, explained on whose behalf they acted, said they had come for an amiable sojourn, and presented the king with a gift of £100.
After the subject of business was eschewed for a few days, Thompson explained to the king in Setswana what he and his confederates had come to talk about. He said that his backers, unlike the Transvaalers, were not seeking land, but only wanted to mine gold in the Zambezi–Limpopo watershed. During the following weeks, talks took place sporadically. Moffat, who had remained in Bulawayo, was occasionally called upon by the king for advice, prompting the missionary to subtly assist Rudd's team through his counsel. He urged Lobengula to work alongside one large entity rather than many small concerns, telling him that this would make the issue easier for him to manage. He then informed the king that Shippard was going to pay an official visit during October, and advised him not to make a decision until after this was over.
Accompanied by Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams and 16 policemen, Shippard arrived in mid-October 1888. The king suspended concession negotiations in favour of meetings with him. The colonial official told the king that the Boers were hungry for more land and intended to overrun his country before too long; he also championed Rudd's cause, telling Lobengula that Rudd's team acted on behalf of a powerful, financially formidable organisation supported by Queen Victoria. Meanwhile, Rhodes sent a number of letters to Rudd, warning him that Maund was his main rival, and that because the London syndicate's goals overlapped so closely with their own, it was essential that Cawston and Gifford be defeated or else brought into the Rhodes camp. Regarding Lobengula, Rhodes advised Rudd to make the king think that the concession would work for him. "Offer a steamboat on the Zambezi same as [Henry Morton] Stanley put on the Upper Congo ... Stick to Home Rule and Matabeleland for the Matabele[,] I am sure it is the ticket."
As October passed without major headway, Rudd grew anxious to return to the Witswatersrand gold mines, but Rhodes insisted that he could not leave Bulawayo without the concession. "You must not leave a vacuum," Rhodes instructed. "Leave Thompson and Maguire if necessary or wait until I can join ... if we get anything we must always have someone resident". Thus prevented from leaving, Rudd vigorously tried to persuade Lobengula to enter direct negotiations with him over a concession, but was repeatedly rebuffed. The king only agreed to look at the draft document, mostly written by Rudd, just before Shippard was due to leave in late October. At this meeting, Lobengula discussed the terms with Rudd for over an hour. Charles Helm, a missionary based in the vicinity, was summoned by the king to act as an interpreter. According to Helm, Rudd made a number of oral promises to Lobengula that were not in the written document, including "that they would not bring more than 10 white men to work in his country, that they would not dig anywhere near towns, etc., and that they and their people would abide by the laws of his country and in fact be his people."
After these talks with Rudd, Lobengula called an indaba (conference) of over 100 izinDuna to present the proposed concession terms to them and gauge their sympathies. It soon became clear that opinion was split: most of the younger izinDuna were opposed to the idea of any concession whatsoever, while the king himself and many of his older izinDuna were open to considering Rudd's bid. The idea of a mining monopoly in the hands of Rudd's powerful backers was attractive to the Matabele in some ways, as it would end the incessant propositioning for concessions by small-time prospectors, but there was also a case for allowing competition to continue, so that the rival miners would have to compete for Lobengula's favour.
For many at the indaba, the most pressing motivator was Matabeleland's security. While Lobengula considered the Transvaalers more formidable battlefield adversaries than the British, he understood that Britain was more prominent on the world stage, and while the Boers wanted land, Rudd's party claimed to be interested only in mining and trading. Lobengula reasoned that if he accepted Rudd's proposals, he would keep his land, and the British would be obliged to protect him from incursions by the Boers.
Rudd was offering generous terms that few competitors could hope to even come close to. If Lobengula agreed, Rudd's backers would furnish the king with 1,000 Martini–Henry breech-loading rifles, 100,000 rounds of matching ammunition, a steamboat on the Zambezi (or, if Lobengula preferred, a lump sum of £500), and £100 a month in perpetuity. More impressive to the king than the financial aspects of this offer were the weapons: he had at the time between 600 and 800 rifles and carbines, but almost no ammunition for them. The proposed arrangement would lavishly stock his arsenal with both firearms and bullets, which might prove decisive in the event of conflict with the South African Republic. The weapons might also help him keep control of the more rambunctious factions amid his own impis. Lobengula had Helm go over the document with him several times, in great detail, to ensure that he properly understood what was written. None of Rudd's alleged oral conditions were in the concession document, making them legally unenforceable (presuming they indeed existed), but the king apparently regarded them as part of the proposed agreement nonetheless.
The final round of negotiations started at the royal kraal on the morning of 30 October. The talks took place at an indaba between the izinDuna and Rudd's party; the king himself did not attend, but was nearby. The izinDuna pressed Rudd and his companions as to where exactly they planned to mine, to which they replied that they wanted rights covering "the whole country". When the izinDuna demurred, Thompson insisted, "No, we must have Mashonaland, and right up to the Zambezi as well—in fact, the whole country". According to Thompson's account, this provoked confusion among the izinDuna, who did not seem to know where these places were. "The Zambezi must be there", said one, incorrectly pointing south (rather than north). The Matabele representatives then prolonged the talks through "procrastination and displays of geographical ignorance", in the phrase of the historian Arthur Keppel-Jones, until Rudd and Thompson announced that they were done talking and rose to leave. The izinDuna were somewhat alarmed by this and asked the visitors to please stay and continue, which they did. It was then agreed that inDuna Lotshe and Thompson would together report the day's progress to the king.
### Agreement
After speaking with Lotshe and Thompson, the king was still hesitant to make a decision. Thompson appealed to Lobengula with a rhetorical question: "Who gives a man an assegai [spear] if he expects to be attacked by him afterwards?" Seeing the allusion to the offered Martini–Henry rifles, Lobengula was swayed by this logic, and made up his mind to grant the concession. "Bring me the fly-blown paper and I will sign it," he said. Thompson briefly left the room to call Rudd, Maguire, Helm and Dreyer in, and they sat in a semi-circle around the king. Lobengula then put his mark to the concession, which read:
> Know all men by these presents, that whereas Charles Dunell Rudd, of Kimberley; Rochfort Maguire, of London; and Francis Robert Thompson, of Kimberley, hereinafter called the grantees, have covenanted and agreed, and do hereby covenant and agree, to pay to me, my heirs and successors, the sum of one hundred pounds sterling, British currency, on the first day of every lunar month; and further, to deliver at my royal kraal one thousand Martini–Henry breech-loading rifles, together with one hundred thousand rounds of suitable ball cartridge, five hundred of the said rifles and fifty thousand of the said cartridges to be ordered from England forthwith and delivered with reasonable despatch, and the remainder of the said rifles and cartridges to be delivered as soon as the said grantees shall have commenced to work mining machinery within my territory; and further, to deliver on the Zambesi River a steamboat with guns suitable for defensive purposes upon the said river, or in lieu of the said steamboat, should I so elect, to pay to me the sum of five hundred pounds sterling, British currency. On the execution of these presents, I, Lobengula, King of Matabeleland, Mashonaland, and other adjoining territories, in exercise of my sovereign powers, and in the presence and with the consent of my council of indunas, do hereby grant and assign unto the said grantees, their heirs, representatives, and assigns, jointly and severally, the complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals situated and contained in my kingdoms, principalities, and dominions, together with full power to do all things that they may deem necessary to win and procure the same, and to hold, collect, and enjoy the profits and revenues, if any, derivable from the said metals and minerals, subject to the aforesaid payment; and whereas I have been much molested of late by divers persons seeking and desiring to obtain grants and concessions of land and mining rights in my territories, I do hereby authorise the said grantees, their heirs, representatives and assigns, to take all necessary and lawful steps to exclude from my kingdom, principalities, and dominions all persons seeking land, metals, minerals, or mining rights therein, and I do hereby undertake to render them all such needful assistance as they may from time to time require for the exclusion of such persons, and to grant no concessions of land or mining rights from and after this date without their consent and concurrence; provided that, if at any time the said monthly payment of one hundred pounds shall be in arrear for a period of three months, then this grant shall cease and determine from the date of the last-made payment; and further provided that nothing contained in these presents shall extend to or affect a grant made by me of certain mining rights in a portion of my territory south of the Ramaquaban River, which grant is commonly known as the Tati Concession.
As Lobengula inscribed his mark at the foot of the paper, Maguire turned to Thompson and said "Thompson, this is the epoch of our lives." Once Rudd, Maguire and Thompson had signed the concession, Helm and Dreyer added their signatures as witnesses, and Helm wrote an endorsement beside the terms:
Lobengula refused to allow any of the izinDuna to sign the document. Exactly why he did this is not clear. Rudd's interpretation was that the king considered them to have already been consulted at the day's indaba, and so did not think it necessary for them to also sign. Keppel-Jones comments that Lobengula might have felt that it would be harder to repudiate the document later if it bore the marks of his izinDuna alongside his own.
## Validity dispute
### Announcement and reception
Within hours, Rudd and Dreyer were hurrying south to present the document to Rhodes, travelling by mule cart, the fastest mode of transport available. Thompson and Maguire stayed in Bulawayo to defend the concession against potential challenges. Rudd reached Kimberley and Rhodes on 19 November 1888, a mere 20 days after the document's signing, and commented with great satisfaction that this marked a record that would surely not be broken until the railway was laid into the interior. Rhodes was elated by Rudd's results, describing the concession as "so gigantic it is like giving a man the whole of Australia". Both in high spirits, the pair travelled to Cape Town by train, and presented themselves to Robinson on 21 November.
Robinson was pleased to learn of Rudd's success. The High Commissioner wanted to gazette the concession immediately, but Rhodes knew that the promise to arm Lobengula with 1,000 Martini–Henrys would be received with apprehension elsewhere in South Africa, especially among Boers; he suggested that this aspect of the concession should be kept quiet until the guns were already in Bechuanaland. Rudd therefore prepared a version of the document omitting mention of the Martini–Henrys, which was approved by Rhodes and Robinson, and published in the Cape Times and Cape Argus newspapers on 24 November 1888. The altered version described the agreed price for the Zambezi–Limpopo mining monopoly as "the valuable consideration of a large monthly payment in cash, a gunboat for defensive purposes on the Zambesi, and other services." Two days later, the Cape Times printed a notice from Lobengula:
But the king was already beginning to receive reports telling him that he had been hoodwinked into "selling his country". Word abounded in Bulawayo that with the Rudd Concession (as the document became called), Lobengula had signed away far more impressive rights than he had thought. Some of the Matabele began to question the king's judgement. While the izinDuna looked on anxiously, Moffat questioned whether Lobengula would be able to keep control. Thompson was summoned by the izinDuna and interrogated for over 10 hours before being released; according to Thompson, they were "prepared to suspect even the king himself". Rumours spread among the kraal's white residents of a freebooter force in the South African Republic that allegedly intended to invade and support Gambo, a prominent inDuna, in overthrowing and killing Lobengula. Horrified by these developments, Lobengula attempted to secure his position by deflecting blame. InDuna Lotshe, who had supported granting the concession, was condemned for having misled his king and executed, along with his extended family and followers—over 300 men, women and children in all. Meanwhile, Rhodes and Rudd returned to Kimberley, and Robinson wrote to the Colonial Office at Whitehall on 5 December 1888 to inform them of Rudd's concession.
### Lobengula's embassy
While reassuring Thompson and Maguire that he was only repudiating the idea that he had given his country away, and not the concession itself (which he told them would be respected), Lobengula asked Maund to accompany two of his izinDuna, Babayane and Mshete, to England, so they could meet Queen Victoria herself, officially to present to her a letter bemoaning Portuguese incursions on eastern Mashonaland, but also unofficially to seek counsel regarding the crisis at Bulawayo. The mission was furthermore motivated by the simple desire of Lobengula and his izinDuna to see if this white queen, whose name the British swore by, really existed. The king's letter concluded with a request for the Queen to send a representative of her own to Bulawayo. Maund, who saw a second chance to secure his own concession, perhaps even at Rudd's expense, said he was more than happy to assist, but Lobengula remained cautious with him: when Maund raised the subject of a new concession covering the Mazoe valley, the king replied "Take my men to England for me; and when you return, then I will talk about that." Johannes Colenbrander, a frontiersman from Natal, was recruited to accompany the Matabele emissaries as an interpreter. They left in mid-December 1888.
Around this time, a group of Austral Africa Company prospectors, led by Alfred Haggard, approached Lobengula's south-western border, hoping to gain their own Matabeleland mining concession; on learning of this, the king honoured one of the terms of the Rudd Concession by allowing Maguire to go at the head of a Matabele impi to turn Haggard away. While Robinson's letter to Knutsford made its way to England by sea, the Colonial Secretary learned of the Rudd Concession from Cawston and Gifford. Knutsford wired Robinson on 17 December to ask if there was any truth in what the London syndicate had told him about the agreed transfer of 1,000 Martini–Henrys: "If rifles part of consideration, as reported, do you think there will be danger of complications arising from this?" Robinson replied, again in writing; he enclosed a minute from Shippard in which the Bechuanaland official explained how the concession had come about, and expressed the view that the Matabele were less experienced with rifles than with assegais, so their receipt of such weapons did not in itself make them lethally dangerous. He then argued that it would not be diplomatic to give Khama and other chiefs firearms while withholding them from Lobengula, and that a suitably armed Matabeleland might act as a deterrent against Boer interference.
Surprised by the news of a Matabele mission to London, Rhodes attempted to publicly downplay the credentials of the izinDuna and to stop them from leaving Africa. When the envoys reached Kimberley Rhodes told his close friend, associate and housemate Dr Leander Starr Jameson—who himself held the rank of inDuna, having been so honoured by Lobengula years before as thanks for medical treatment—to invite Maund to their cottage. Maund was suspicious, but came anyway. At the cottage, Rhodes offered Maund financial and professional incentives to defect from the London syndicate. Maund refused, prompting Rhodes to declare furiously that he would have Robinson stop his progress at Cape Town. The izinDuna reached Cape Town in mid-January 1889 to find that it was as Rhodes had said; to delay their departure, Robinson discredited them, Maund and Colenbrander in cables to the Colonial Office in London, saying that Shippard had described Maund as "mendacious" and "dangerous", Colenbrander as "hopelessly unreliable", and Babayane and Mshete as not actually izinDuna or even headmen. Cawston forlornly telegraphed Maund that it was pointless to try to go on while Robinson continued in this vein.
### Rhodes and the London syndicate join forces
Rhodes then arrived in Cape Town to talk again with Maund. His mood was markedly different: after looking over Lobengula's message to Queen Victoria, he said that he believed the Matabele expedition to England could actually buttress the concession and associated development plans if the London syndicate would agree to merge its interests with his own and form an amalgamated company alongside him. He told Maund to wire this pitch to his employers. Maund presumed that Rhodes's shift in attitude had come about because of his own influence, coupled with the threat to Rhodes's concession posed by the Matabele mission, but in fact the idea for uniting the two rival bids had come from Knutsford, who the previous month had suggested to Cawston and Gifford that they were likelier to gain a royal charter covering south-central Africa if they joined forces with Rhodes. They had wired Rhodes, who had in turn come back to Maund. The unification, which extricated Rhodes and his London rivals from their long-standing stalemate, was happily received by both sides; Cawston and Gifford could now tap Rhodes's considerable financial and political resources, and Rhodes's Rudd Concession had greater value now the London consortium no longer challenged it.
There still remained the question of Leask's concession, the existence of which Rudd's negotiating team had learned in Bulawayo towards the end of October. Rhodes resolved that it must be acquired: "I quite see that worthless as [Leask's] concession is, it logically destroys yours," he told Rudd. This loose end was tied up in late January 1889, when Rhodes met and settled with Leask and his associates, James Fairbairn and George Phillips, in Johannesburg. Leask was given £2,000 in cash and a 10% interest in the Rudd Concession, and allowed to retain a 10% share in his own agreement with Lobengula. Fairbairn and Phillips were granted an annual allowance of £300 each. In Cape Town, with Rhodes's opposition removed, Robinson altered his stance regarding the Matabele mission, cabling Whitehall that further investigation had shown Babayane and Mshete to be headmen after all, so they should be allowed to board ship for England.
### Lobengula's enquiry
Meanwhile, in Bulawayo, South African newspaper reports of the concession started to arrive in the middle of January 1889. William Tainton, one of the local white residents, translated a press cutting for Lobengula, adding a few embellishments of his own: he told the king that he had sold his country, that the grantees could dig for minerals anywhere they liked, including in and around kraals, and that they could bring an army into Matabeleland to depose Lobengula in favour of a new chief. The king told Helm to read back and translate the copy of the concession that had remained in Bulawayo; Helm did so, and pointed out that none of the allegations Tainton had made were actually reflected in the text. Lobengula then said he wished to dictate an announcement. After Helm refused, Tainton translated and transcribed the king's words:
This notice was published in the Bechuanaland News and Malmani Chronicle on 2 February 1889. A grand indaba of the izinDuna and the whites of Bulawayo was soon convened, but because Helm and Thompson were not present, the start of the investigation was delayed until 11 March. As in the negotiations with Rudd and Thompson in October, Lobengula did not himself attend, remaining close by but not interfering. The izinDuna questioned Helm and Thompson at great length, and various white men gave their opinions on the concession. A group of missionaries acted as mediators. Condemnation of the concession was led not by the izinDuna, but by the other whites, particularly Tainton.
Tainton and the other white opponents of the concession contended that the document conferred upon the grantees all of the watershed's minerals, lands, wood and water, and was therefore tantamount to a purchase receipt for the whole country. Thompson, backed by the missionaries, insisted that the agreement only involved the extraction of metals and minerals, and that anything else the concessionaires might do was covered by the concession's granting of "full power to do all things that they may deem necessary to win and procure" the mining yield. William Mzisi, a Fengu from the Cape, who had been to the diamond fields at Kimberley, pointed out that the mining would take thousands of men rather than the handful Lobengula had imagined, and argued that digging into the land amounted to taking possession of it: "You say you do not want any land, how can you dig for gold without it, is it not in the land?" Thompson was then questioned as to where exactly it had been agreed that the concessionaires could mine; he affirmed that the document licensed them to prospect and dig anywhere in the country.
Helm was painted as a suspicious figure by some of the izinDuna because all white visitors to Bulawayo met with him before seeing the king. This feeling was compounded by the fact that Helm had for some time acted as Lobengula's postmaster, and so handled all mail coming into Bulawayo. He was accused of having hidden the concession's true meaning from the king and of having knowingly sabotaged the prices being paid by traders for cattle, but neither of these charges could be proven either way. On the fourth day of the enquiry, Elliot and Rees, two missionaries based at Inyati, were asked if exclusive mining rights in other countries could be bought for similar sums, as Helm was claiming; they replied in the negative. The izinDuna concluded that either Helm or the missionaries must be lying. Elliot and Rees attempted to convince Lobengula that honest men did not necessarily always hold the same opinions, but had little success.
Amid the enquiry, Thompson and Maguire received a number of threats and had to tolerate other more minor vexations. Maguire, unaccustomed to the African bush as he was, brought a number of accusations on himself through his personal habits. One day he happened to clean his false teeth in what the Matabele considered a sacred spring and accidentally dropped some eau de Cologne into it; the angry locals interpreted this as him deliberately poisoning the spring. They also alleged that Maguire partook of witchcraft and spent his nights riding around the bush on a hyena.
Rhodes sent the first shipments of rifles up to Bechuanaland in January and February 1889, sending 250 each month, and instructed Jameson, Dr Frederick Rutherfoord Harris and a Shoshong trader, George Musson, to convey them to Bulawayo. Lobengula had so far accepted the financial payments described in the Rudd Concession (and continued to do so for years afterwards), but when the guns arrived in early April, he refused to take them. Jameson placed the weapons under a canvas cover in Maguire's camp, stayed at the kraal for ten days, and then went back south with Maguire in tow, leaving the rifles behind. A few weeks later, Lobengula dictated a letter for Fairbairn to write to the Queen—he said he had never intended to sign away mineral rights and that he and his izinDuna revoked their recognition of the document.
### Babayane and Mshete in England
Following their long delay, Babayane, Mshete, Maund and Colenbrander journeyed to England aboard the Moor. They disembarked at Southampton in early March 1889, and travelled by train to London, where they checked into the Berners Hotel on Oxford Street. They were invited to Windsor Castle after two days in the capital. The audience was originally meant only for the two izinDuna and their interpreter—Maund could not attend such a meeting as he was a British subject—but Knutsford arranged an exception for Maund when Babayane and Mshete refused to go without him; the Colonial Secretary said that it would be regrettable for all concerned if the embassy were derailed by such a technicality. The emissaries duly met the Queen and delivered the letter from Lobengula, as well as an oral message they had been told to pass on.
The izinDuna stayed in London throughout the month of March, attending a number of dinners in their honour, including one hosted by the Aborigines' Protection Society. The Society sent a letter to Lobengula, advising him to be "wary and firm in resisting proposals that will not bring good to you and your people". The diplomats saw many of the British capital's sights, including London Zoo, the Alhambra Theatre and the Bank of England. Their hosts showed them the spear of the Zulu king Cetshwayo, which now hung on a wall at Windsor Castle, and took them to Aldershot to observe military manoeuvres conducted by Major-General Evelyn Wood, the man who had given this spear to the Queen after routing the Zulus in 1879. Knutsford held two more meetings with the izinDuna, and during the second of these gave them the Queen's reply to Lobengula's letter, which mostly comprised vague assurances of goodwill. Satisfied with this, the emissaries sailed for home.
### Rhodes wins the royal charter
In late March 1889, just as the izinDuna were about to leave London, Rhodes arrived to make the amalgamation with Cawston and Gifford official. To the amalgamators' dismay, the Colonial Office had received protests against the Rudd Concession from a number of London businessmen and humanitarian societies, and had resolved that it could not sanction the concession because of its equivocal nature, as well as the fact that Lobengula had announced its suspension. Rhodes was originally angry with Maund, accusing him of responsibility for this, but eventually accepted that it was not Maund's fault. Rhodes told Maund to go back to Bulawayo, to pose as an impartial adviser, and to try to sway the king back in favour of the concession; as an added contingency, he told Maund to secure as many new subconcessions as he could.
In London, as the amalgamation was formalised, Rhodes and Cawston sought public members to sit on the board of their prospective chartered company. They recruited the Duke of Abercorn, an affluent Irish peer and landowner with estates in County Donegal and Scotland, to chair the firm, and the Earl of Fife—soon to become the Duke of Fife, following his marriage to the daughter of the Prince of Wales—to act as his deputy. The third and final public member added to the board was the nephew and heir apparent of the erstwhile Cabinet minister Earl Grey, Albert Grey, who was a staunch imperialist, already associated with southern Africa. Attempting to ingratiate himself with Lord Salisbury, Rhodes then gave the position of standing counsel in the proposed company to the Prime Minister's son, Lord Robert Cecil. Horace Farquhar, a prominent London financier and friend of the Prince of Wales, was added to the board at Fife's suggestion later in the year.
Rhodes spent the next few months in London, seeking out supporters for his cause in the West End, the City and, occasionally, the rural estates of the landed gentry. These efforts yielded the public backing of the prominent imperialist Harry Johnston, Alexander Livingstone Bruce (who sat on the board of the East Africa Company), and Lord Balfour of Burleigh, among others. Along with Grey's active involvement and Lord Salisbury's continuing favour, the weight of this opinion seemed to be reaping dividends for Rhodes by June 1889. The amalgamation with the London syndicate was complete, and Whitehall appeared to have dropped its reservations regarding the Rudd Concession's validity. Opposition to the charter in parliament and elsewhere had been for the most part silenced, and, with the help of Rhodes's press contacts, prominently William Thomas Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, opinion in the media was starting to back the idea of a chartered company for south-central Africa. But in June 1889, just as the Colonial Office looked poised to grant the royal charter, Lobengula's letter repudiating the Rudd Concession, written two months previously, arrived in London.
Maguire, in London, promptly wrote to the Colonial Office, casting doubt on the letter's character on the grounds that it lacked the witnessing signature of an unbiased missionary. He concurrently wrote to Thompson, who was still in Bulawayo, to ask if there was any sign that the king had been misled during the repudiation letter's drafting. Around the same time, Robinson's strident attacks on parliamentary opponents of the Rudd Concession led to Lord Salisbury replacing him with Sir Henry Brougham Loch. Rhodes claimed not to be worried, telling Shippard in a letter that "the policy will not be altered". Indeed, by the end of June 1889, despite the removal of Robinson and the sensation caused by Lobengula's letter rejecting the concession, Rhodes had got his way: Lord Salisbury's concerns of Portuguese and German expansionism in Africa, coupled with Rhodes's personal exertions in London, prompted the Prime Minister to approve the granting of a royal charter. Rhodes returned victorious to the Cape in August 1889, while back in London Cawston oversaw the final preparations for the chartered company's establishment.
"My part is done," Rhodes wrote to Maund, soon after reaching Cape Town; "the charter is granted supporting Rudd Concession and granting us the interior ... We have the whole thing recognised by the Queen and even if eventually we had any difficulty with king [Lobengula] the Home people would now always recognise us in possession of the minerals[;] they quite understand that savage potentates frequently repudiate." A few weeks later, he wrote to Maund again: with the royal charter in place, "whatever [Lobengula] does now will not affect the fact that when there is a white occupation of the country our concession will come into force provided the English and not Boers get the country". On 29 October 1889, nearly a year to the day after the signing of the Rudd Concession, Rhodes's chartered company, the British South Africa Company, was officially granted its royal charter by Queen Victoria. The concession's legitimacy was now safeguarded by the charter and, by extension, the British Crown, making it practically unassailable.
## Aftermath
### Occupation of Mashonaland
Babayane and Mshete had arrived back in Bulawayo in August, accompanied by Maund, and Lobengula had immediately written again to Whitehall, reaffirming that "If the Queen hears that I have given away the whole country, it is not so." But this letter only reached the Colonial Office in London in late October, too late to make a difference. Meanwhile, the British appointed an official resident in Bulawayo, as Lobengula had requested; much to the king's indignation, it was Moffat. Maund counselled Lobengula that the concession was legal beyond doubt and that he would just have to accept it. Lobengula rued the situation to Helm: "Did you ever see a chameleon catch a fly? The chameleon gets behind the fly and remains motionless for some time, then he advances very slowly and gently, first putting forward one leg and then another. At last, when well within reach, he darts out his tongue and the fly disappears. England is the chameleon and I am that fly."
The charter incorporating the British South Africa Company committed it to remaining "British in character and domicile", and defined its area of operations extremely vaguely, mentioning only that it was empowered to operate north of Bechuanaland and the Transvaal, and west of Mozambique. Northern and western bounds were not indicated. This was done deliberately to allow Rhodes to acquire as much land as he could without interference. The Company was made responsible for the safeguarding of peace and law in its territory, and licensed to do so "in such ways and manners as it shall consider necessary". It was vested with the power to raise its own police force, and charged with, among other things, abolishing slavery in all of its territories and restricting the sale of liquor to indigenous Africans. Local traditions were to be respected. The Company's charter was otherwise made extremely equivocal with the intention that this would allow it to operate freely and independently, and to govern and develop its acquired territories while also turning a profit.
Rhodes capitalised the Company at £1,000,000, split into £1 shares, and used his other business interests to pump capital into it. Rhodes's diamond concern, De Beers, invested more than £200,000, while his gold firm, Gold Fields, put in nearly £100,000. He himself put in £45,000, along with another £11,000 jointly with Beit. Overall, about half of the Chartered Company's capital was held by its main actors, particularly Rhodes, Beit, Rudd and their confederates. During the Company's early days, Rhodes and his associates set themselves up to make millions over the coming years through what Robert Blake describes as a "suppressio veri ... which must be regarded as one of Rhodes's least creditable actions". Contrary to what Whitehall and the public had been allowed to think, the Rudd Concession was not vested in the British South Africa Company, but in a short-lived ancillary concern of Rhodes, Rudd and others called the Central Search Association, which was quietly formed in London in 1889. This entity renamed itself the United Concessions Company in 1890, and soon after sold the Rudd Concession to the Chartered Company for 1,000,000 shares. When Colonial Office functionaries discovered this chicanery in 1891, they advised Knutsford to consider revoking the concession, but no action was taken.
Rhodes became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in July 1890 on the back of widespread support among Cape Afrikaners. He announced that his first objective as premier was the occupation of the Zambezi–Limpopo watershed. His Chartered Company had by this time raised the Pioneer Column, a few hundred volunteers referred to as "pioneers" whose lot was to both occupy Mashonaland and begin its development. To this end its ranks were filled with men from all corners of southern African society, including, at Rhodes's insistence, several sons of the Cape's leading families. Each pioneer was promised 3,000 acres (12 km<sup>2</sup>) of land and 15 mining claims in return for his service.
Lobengula impassively acquiesced to the expedition at the behest of his friend Jameson, much to the fury of many of the izinDuna, who saw the column's march to Mashonaland as an appropriation of Matabele territory. Led by Major Frank Johnson and the famed hunter Frederick Courteney Selous, and escorted by 500 British South Africa Company's Police under Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Pennefather, the pioneers skirted their way around Lobengula's heartlands, heading north-east from Bechuanaland and then north, and founded Fort Tuli, Fort Victoria and Fort Charter along the way. They stopped at the site of the future capital, Fort Salisbury (named after the Prime Minister), on 12 September 1890, and ceremonially raised the Union Jack the next morning.
The administration of Mashonaland did not immediately prove profitable for the Company or its investors, partly because of the costly police force, which Rhodes dramatically downsized in 1891 to save money. There also existed the problem of land ownership; Britain recognised the Company's subsoil rights in Mashonaland, but not its possession of the land itself, and the Company therefore could not grant titles to land or accept rents and other payments from farmers.
### Lippert concession
Edward Renny-Tailyour, representing the Hamburg businessman Eduard Lippert—an estranged cousin of Beit—had been attempting to gain a concession from Lobengula since early 1888. Rhodes saw Lippert's activities as unwelcome meddling and so repeatedly tried (and failed) to settle with him. In April 1891, Renny-Tailyour grandly announced that he and Lobengula had made an agreement: in return for £1,000 up front and £500 annually, the king would bestow on Lippert the exclusive rights to manage lands, establish banks, mint money, and conduct trade in the territory of the Chartered Company. The authenticity of this document was disputed, largely because the only witnesses to have signed it, apart from inDuna Mshete, were Renny-Tailyour's associates, one of whom soon attested that Lobengula had believed himself to be granting a concession to Theophilus Shepstone's son, "Offy" Shepstone, with Lippert merely acting as an agent. The Lippert concession therefore had a number of potential defects, but Lippert was still confident he could extract a princely fee for it from the Chartered Company; he named his price as £250,000 in cash or shares at par.
Rhodes, backed by Loch, initially condemned the Lippert concession as a fraud and branded Lippert's locally based agents enemies of the peace. Loch assured Rhodes that if Lippert tried to gazette his agreement, he would issue a proclamation warning of its infringement on the Rudd Concession and the Company's charter, and threaten Lippert's associates with legal action. The Colonial Office agreed with Loch. Rhodes initially said that he would not pay Lippert's price, which he described as blackmail, but after conferring with Beit decided that refusing to buy out Lippert might lead to drawn-out and similarly expensive court proceedings, which they could not be sure of winning. Rhodes told Beit to start bargaining. Lippert's agreement turned out to be an unexpected blessing for Rhodes in that it included a concession on land rights from Lobengula, which the Chartered Company itself lacked, and needed if it were to be recognised by Whitehall as legally owning the occupied territory in Mashonaland. After two months and a number of breakdowns in talks, Rudd took over the negotiations. He and Lippert agreed on 12 September 1891 that the Company would take over the concession from Lippert on the condition that he returned to Bulawayo and had it more properly formalised by Lobengula; in return the Company would grant the German 75 square miles (190 km<sup>2</sup>) of his choice in Matabeleland (with full land and mineral rights), 30,000 shares in the Chartered Company and other financial incentives.
The success of this plan hinged on Lobengula continuing to believe that Lippert was acting against Rhodes rather than on his behalf. The religious Moffat was deeply troubled by what he called the "palpable immorality" of this deceit, but agreed not to interfere, deciding that Lobengula was just as untrustworthy as Lippert. With Moffat looking on as a witness, Lippert delivered his side of the deal in November 1891, extracting from the Matabele king the exclusive land rights for a century in the Chartered Company's operative territories, including permission to lay out farms and towns and to levy rents, in place of what had been agreed in April. As arranged, Lippert sold these rights to the Company, whereupon Loch approved the concession, expressing contentment at the solving of the Company's land rights problem; in an internal Whitehall memorandum, the Colonial Office affably remarked how expediently that administrative obstacle had been removed. The Matabele remained unaware of this subterfuge until May 1892.
### Conquest of Matabeleland: the end of Lobengula
Lobengula's weakened Matabele kingdom uneasily coexisted with Rhodes's Company settlements in Mashonaland and north of the Zambezi for about another year. The king was angered by the lack of respect he perceived Company officials to have towards his authority, their insistence that his kingdom was separated from Company territory by a line between the Shashe and Hunyani Rivers, and their demands that he stop the traditional raids on Mashona villages by Matabele impis. After Matabele warriors began slaughtering Mashonas near Fort Victoria in July 1893, Jameson, who Rhodes had appointed Company administrator in Mashonaland, unsuccessfully tried to stop the violence through an indaba. Lobengula complained that the Chartered Company had "come not only to dig the gold but to rob me of my people and country as well". Monitoring events from Cape Town, Rhodes gauged Jameson's readiness for war by telegraph: "Read Luke 14:31". Jameson wired back: "All right. Have read Luke 14:31".
On 13 August 1893, Lobengula refused to accept the stipend due him under the terms of the Rudd Concession, saying "it is the price of my blood". The next day, Jameson signed a secret agreement with settlers at Fort Victoria, promising each man 6,000 acres (24 km<sup>2</sup>) of farm land, 20 gold claims and a share of Lobengula's cattle in return for service in a war against Matabeleland. Lobengula wrote again to Queen Victoria, and tried to send Mshete to England again at the head of another embassy, but Loch detained the izinDuna at Cape Town for a few days, then sent them home. Following a few minor skirmishes, the First Matabele War started in earnest in October: Company troops moved on Lobengula, using the inexorable firepower of their Maxim machine guns to crush attacks by the far larger Matabele army. On 3 November, with the whites nearing Bulawayo, Lobengula torched the town and fled; the settlers began rebuilding atop the ruins the next day. Jameson sent troops north from Bulawayo to bring the king back, but this column ceased its pursuit in early December after the remnants of Lobengula's army ambushed and annihilated 34 troopers who were sent across the Shangani River ahead of the main force. Lobengula had escaped the Company, but he lived only another two months before dying from smallpox in the north of the country on 22 or 23 January 1894.
Matabeleland was conquered. The Matabele izinDuna unanimously accepted peace with the Company at an indaba in late February 1894. Rhodes subsequently funded education for three of Lobengula's sons. The name applied to the Company's domain by many of its early settlers, "Rhodesia", was made official by the Company in May 1895, and by Britain in 1898. The lands south of the Zambezi were designated "Southern Rhodesia", while those to the north were divided into North-Western and North-Eastern Rhodesia, which merged to form Northern Rhodesia in 1911. During three decades under Company rule, railways, telegraph wires and roads were laid across the territories' previously bare landscape with great vigour, and, with the immigration of tens of thousands of white colonists, prominent mining and tobacco farming industries were created, albeit partly at the expense of the black population's traditional ways of life, which were varyingly disrupted by the introduction of Western-style infrastructure, government, religion and economics. Southern Rhodesia, which attracted most of the settlers and investment, was turning a profit by 1912; Northern Rhodesia, by contrast, annually lost the Company millions right up to the 1920s. Following the results of the government referendum of 1922, Southern Rhodesia received responsible government from Britain at the termination of the Company's charter in 1923, and became a self-governing colony. Northern Rhodesia became a directly administered British protectorate the following year.
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37,914 |
Carmen
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1875 opera by Georges Bizet
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[
"1875 operas",
"Carmen",
"French-language operas",
"Music controversies",
"Opera controversies",
"Opera world premieres at the Opéra-Comique",
"Operas",
"Operas adapted into films",
"Operas based on novels",
"Operas based on works by Prosper Mérimée",
"Operas by Georges Bizet",
"Operas set in Seville",
"Operas set in Spain",
"Opéras comiques",
"Works based on Carmen (novella)"
] |
Carmen () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalised its first audiences. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. Carmen has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon; the "Habanera" from act 1 and the "Toreador Song" from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias.
The opera is written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his childhood sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmen's love to the glamorous torero Escamillo, after which José kills her in a jealous rage. The depictions of proletarian life, immorality, and lawlessness, and the tragic death of the main character on stage, broke new ground in French opera and were highly controversial.
After the premiere, most reviews were critical, and the French public was generally indifferent. Carmen initially gained its reputation through a series of productions outside France, and was not revived in Paris until 1883. Thereafter, it rapidly acquired popularity at home and abroad. Later commentators have asserted that Carmen forms the bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and the realism or verismo that characterised late 19th-century Italian opera.
The music of Carmen has since been widely acclaimed for brilliance of melody, harmony, atmosphere, and orchestration, and for the skill with which Bizet musically represented the emotions and suffering of his characters. After the composer's death, the score was subject to significant amendment, including the introduction of recitative in place of the original dialogue; there is no standard edition of the opera, and different views exist as to what versions best express Bizet's intentions. The opera has been recorded many times since the first acoustical recording in 1908, and the story has been the subject of many screen and stage adaptations.
## Background
In the Paris of the 1860s, despite being a Prix de Rome laureate, Bizet struggled to get his stage works performed. The capital's two main state-funded opera houses—the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique—followed conservative repertoires that restricted opportunities for young native talent. Bizet's professional relationship with Léon Carvalho, manager of the independent Théâtre Lyrique company, enabled him to bring to the stage two full-scale operas, Les pêcheurs de perles (1863) and La jolie fille de Perth (1867), but neither enjoyed much public success.
When artistic life in Paris resumed after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Bizet found wider opportunities for the performance of his works; his one-act opera Djamileh opened at the Opéra-Comique in May 1872. Although this failed and was withdrawn after 11 performances, it led to a further commission from the theatre, this time for a full-length opera for which Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy would provide the libretto. Halévy, who had written the text for Bizet's student opera Le docteur Miracle (1856), was a cousin of Bizet's wife, Geneviève; he and Meilhac had a solid reputation as the librettists of many of Jacques Offenbach's operettas.
Bizet was delighted with the Opéra-Comique commission, and expressed to his friend Edmund Galabert his satisfaction in "the absolute certainty of having found my path". The subject of the projected work was a matter of discussion between composer, librettists and the Opéra-Comique management; Adolphe de Leuven, on behalf of the theatre, made several suggestions that were politely rejected. It was Bizet who first proposed an adaptation of Prosper Mérimée's novella Carmen. Mérimée's story is a blend of travelogue and adventure yarn, possibly inspired by the writer's lengthy travels in Spain in 1830, and had originally been published in 1845 in the journal Revue des deux Mondes. It may have been influenced in part by Alexander Pushkin's 1824 poem "The Gypsies", a work Mérimée had translated into French; it has also been suggested that the story was developed from an incident told to Mérimée by his friend the Countess Montijo. Bizet may first have encountered the story during his Rome sojourn of 1858–60, since his journals record Mérimée as one of the writers whose works he absorbed in those years.
## Roles
- Cast details are as provided by Curtiss from the original piano and vocal score. The stage designs are credited to Charles Ponchard.
## Instrumentation
The orchestration consists of two flutes (doubling piccolo), two oboes (the second doubling cor anglais), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, harp, and strings. The percussion section consists of timpani, side drum, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, castanets, and bass drum. The orchestral complement for the premiere run was 62 or 57 musicians in total (depending on whether the pit trumpet and trombone players doubled off-stage music).
## Synopsis
Place: Seville, Spain, and surrounding hills
Time: Around 1820
### Act 1
A square, in Seville. On the right, a door to the tobacco factory. At the back, a bridge. On the left, a guardhouse.
A group of soldiers relax in the square, waiting for the changing of the guard and commenting on the passers-by ("Sur la place, chacun passe"). Micaëla appears, seeking José. Moralès tells her that "José is not yet on duty" and invites her to wait with them. She declines, saying she will return later. José arrives with the new guard, who is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins ("Avec la garde montante").
As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd ("La cloche a sonné"). Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love ("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, who thus far has been ignoring her but is now annoyed by her insolence.
As the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother ("Parle-moi de ma mère!"). He reads that his mother wants him to return home and marry Micaëla, who retreats in shy embarrassment on learning this. Just as José declares that he is ready to heed his mother's wishes, the women stream from the factory in great agitation. Zuniga, the officer of the guard, learns that Carmen has attacked a woman with a knife. When challenged, Carmen answers with mocking defiance ("Tra la la ... Coupe-moi, brûle-moi"); Zuniga orders José to tie her hands while he prepares the prison warrant. Left alone with José, Carmen beguiles him with a seguidilla, in which she sings of a night of dancing and passion with her lover—whoever that may be—in Lillas Pastia's tavern. Confused yet mesmerised, José agrees to free her hands; as she is led away she pushes her escort to the ground and runs off laughing. José is arrested for dereliction of duty.
### Act 2
Lillas Pastia's Inn
Two months have passed. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès are entertaining Zuniga and other officers ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient") in Pastia's inn. Carmen is delighted to learn of José's release from two months' detention. Outside, a chorus and procession announces the arrival of the toreador Escamillo ("Vivat, vivat le Toréro"). Invited inside, he introduces himself with the "Toreador Song" ("Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre") and sets his sights on Carmen, who brushes him aside. Lillas Pastia hustles the crowds and the soldiers away.
When only Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès remain, smugglers Dancaïre and Remendado arrive and reveal their plans to dispose of some recently acquired contraband ("Nous avons en tête une affaire"). Frasquita and Mercédès are keen to help them, but Carmen refuses, since she wishes to wait for José. After the smugglers leave, José arrives. Carmen treats him to a private exotic dance ("Je vais danser en votre honneur ... La la la"), but her song is joined by a distant bugle call from the barracks. When José says he must return to duty, she mocks him, and he answers by showing her the flower that she threw to him in the square ("La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"). Unconvinced, Carmen demands he show his love by leaving with her. José refuses to desert, but as he prepares to depart, Zuniga enters looking for Carmen. He and José fight. Carmen summons her gypsy comrades, who restrain Zuniga. Having attacked a superior officer, José now has no choice but to join Carmen and the smugglers ("Suis-nous à travers la campagne").
### Act 3
A wild spot in the mountains
Carmen and José enter with the smugglers and their booty ("Écoute, écoute, compagnons"); Carmen has now become bored with José and tells him scornfully that he should go back to his mother. Frasquita and Mercédès amuse themselves by reading their fortunes from the cards; Carmen joins them and finds that the cards are foretelling her death, and José's. The smugglers depart to transport their goods while the women distract the local customs officers. José is left behind on guard duty.
Micaëla enters with a guide, seeking José and determined to rescue him from Carmen ("Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante"). On hearing a gunshot she hides in fear; it is José, who has fired at an intruder who proves to be Escamillo. José's pleasure at meeting the bullfighter turns to anger when Escamillo declares his infatuation with Carmen. The pair fight ("Je suis Escamillo, toréro de Grenade"), but are interrupted by the returning smugglers and girls ("Holà, holà José"). As Escamillo leaves he invites everyone to his next bullfight in Seville. Micaëla is discovered; at first, José will not leave with her despite Carmen's mockery, but he agrees to go when told that his mother is dying. He departs, vowing he will return. Escamillo is heard in the distance, singing the toreador's song.
### Act 4
A square in Seville. At the back, the walls of an ancient amphitheatre
Zuniga, Frasquita and Mercédès are among the crowd awaiting the arrival of the bullfighters ("Les voici! Voici la quadrille!"). Escamillo enters with Carmen, and they express their mutual love ("Si tu m'aimes, Carmen"). As Escamillo goes into the arena, Frasquita and Mercédès warn Carmen that José is nearby, but Carmen is unafraid and willing to speak to him. Alone, she is confronted by the desperate José ("C'est toi!", "C'est moi!"). While he pleads vainly for her to return to him, cheers are heard from the arena. As José makes his last entreaty, Carmen contemptuously throws down the ring he gave her and attempts to enter the arena. He then stabs her, and as Escamillo is acclaimed by the crowds, Carmen dies. José kneels and sings "Ah! Carmen! ma Carmen adorée!"; as the crowd exits the arena, José confesses to killing Carmen.
## Creation
### Writing history
Meilhac and Halévy were a long-standing duo with an established division of labour: Meilhac, who was completely unmusical, wrote the dialogue and Halévy the verses. There is no clear indication of when work began on Carmen. Bizet and the two librettists were all in Paris during 1873 and easily able to meet; thus there is little written record or correspondence relating to the beginning of the collaboration. The libretto was prepared in accordance with the conventions of opéra comique, with dialogue separating musical numbers. It deviates from Mérimée's novella in a number of significant respects. In the original, events are spread over a much longer period of time, and much of the main story is narrated by José from his prison cell, as he awaits execution for Carmen's murder. Micaëla does not feature in Mérimée's version, and the Escamillo character is peripheral—a picador named Lucas who is only briefly Carmen's grand passion. Carmen has a husband called Garcia, whom José kills during a quarrel. In the novella, Carmen and José are presented much less sympathetically than they are in the opera; Bizet's biographer Mina Curtiss comments that Mérimée's Carmen, on stage, would have seemed "an unmitigated and unconvincing monster, had her character not been simplified and deepened".
With rehearsals due to begin in October 1873, Bizet began composing in or around January of that year, and by the summer had completed the music for the first act and perhaps sketched more. At that point, according to Bizet's biographer Winton Dean, "some hitch at the Opéra-Comique intervened", and the project was suspended for a while. One reason for the delay may have been the difficulties in finding a singer for the title role. Another was a split that developed between the joint directors of the theatre, Camille du Locle and Adolphe de Leuven, over the advisability of staging the work. De Leuven had vociferously opposed the entire notion of presenting so risqué a story in what he considered a family theatre and was sure audiences would be frightened away. He was assured by Halévy that the story would be toned down, that Carmen's character would be softened, and offset by Micaëla, described by Halévy as "a very innocent, very chaste young girl". Furthermore, the gypsies would be presented as comic characters, and Carmen's death would be overshadowed at the end by "triumphal processions, ballets and joyous fanfares". De Leuven reluctantly agreed, but his continuing hostility towards the project led to his resignation from the theatre early in 1874.
After the various delays, Bizet appears to have resumed work on Carmen early in 1874. He completed the draft of the composition—1,200 pages of music—in the summer, which he spent at the artists' colony at Bougival, just outside Paris. He was pleased with the result, informing a friend: "I have written a work that is all clarity and vivacity, full of colour and melody." During the period of rehearsals, which began in October, Bizet repeatedly altered the music—sometimes at the request of the orchestra who found some of it impossible to perform, sometimes to meet the demands of individual singers, and otherwise in response to the demands of the theatre's management. The vocal score that Bizet published in March 1875 shows significant changes from the version of the score he sold the publishers, Choudens [fr], in January 1875; the conducting score used at the premiere differs from each of these documents. There is no definitive edition, and there are differences among musicologists about which version represents the composer's true intentions. Bizet also changed the libretto, reordering sequences and imposing his own verses where he felt the librettists had strayed too far from the character of Mérimée's original. Among other changes, he provided new words for Carmen's "Habanera", and rewrote the text of Carmen's solo in the act 3 card scene. He also provided a new opening line for the "Seguidilla" in act 1.
### Characterisation
Most of the characters in Carmen—the soldiers, the smugglers, the Gypsy women and the secondary leads Micaëla and Escamillo—are reasonably familiar types within the opéra comique tradition, although drawing them from proletarian life was unusual. The two principals, José and Carmen, lie outside the genre. While each is presented quite differently from Mérimée's portrayals of a murderous brigand and a treacherous, amoral schemer, even in their relatively sanitised forms neither corresponds to the norms of opéra comique. They are more akin to the verismo style that would find fuller expression in the works of Puccini.
Dean considers that José is the central figure of the opera: "It is his fate rather than Carmen's that interests us." The music characterises his gradual decline, act by act, from honest soldier to deserter, vagabond and finally murderer. In act 1 he is a simple countryman aligned musically with Micaëla; in act 2 he evinces a greater toughness, the result of his experiences as a prisoner, but it is clear that by the end of the act his infatuation with Carmen has driven his emotions beyond control. Dean describes him in act 3 as a trapped animal who refuses to leave his cage even when the door is opened for him, ravaged by a mix of conscience, jealousy and despair. In the final act his music assumes a grimness and purposefulness that reflects his new fatalism: "He will make one more appeal; if Carmen refuses, he knows what to do."
Carmen herself, says Dean, is a new type of operatic heroine representing a new kind of love, not the innocent kind associated with the "spotless soprano" school, but something altogether more vital and dangerous. Her capriciousness, fearlessness and love of freedom are all musically represented: "She is redeemed from any suspicion of vulgarity by her qualities of courage and fatalism so vividly realised in the music". Curtiss suggests that Carmen's character, spiritually and musically, may be a realisation of the composer's own unconscious longing for a freedom denied to him by his stifling marriage. Harold C. Schonberg likens Carmen to "a female Don Giovanni. She would rather die than be false to herself." The dramatic personality of the character, and the range of moods she is required to express, call for exceptional acting and singing talents. This has deterred some of opera's most distinguished exponents; Maria Callas, though she recorded the part, never performed it on stage. The musicologist Hugh Macdonald observes that "French opera never produced another femme as fatale as Carmen", though she may have influenced some of Massenet's heroines. Macdonald suggests that outside the French repertoire, Richard Strauss's Salome and Alban Berg's Lulu "may be seen as distant degenerate descendants of Bizet's temptress".
Bizet was reportedly contemptuous of the music he wrote for Escamillo: "Well, they asked for ordure, and they've got it", he is said to have remarked about the toreador's song—but, as Dean comments, "the triteness lies in the character, not in the music". Micaëla's music has been criticised for its "Gounodesque" elements, although Dean maintains that her music has greater vitality than that of any of Gounod's own heroines.
## Performance history
### Assembling the cast
The search for a singer-actress to play Carmen began in the summer of 1873. Press speculation favoured Zulma Bouffar, who was perhaps the librettists' preferred choice. She had sung leading roles in many of Offenbach's operas, but she was unacceptable to Bizet and was turned down by du Locle as unsuitable. In September an approach was made to Marie Roze, well known for previous triumphs at the Opéra-Comique, the Opéra and in London. She refused the part when she learned that she would be required to die on stage. The role was then offered to Célestine Galli-Marié, who agreed to terms with du Locle after several months' negotiation. Galli-Marié, a demanding and at times tempestuous performer, would prove a staunch ally of Bizet, often supporting his resistance to demands from the management that the work should be toned down. At the time it was generally believed that she and the composer were conducting a love affair during the months of rehearsal.
The leading tenor part of Don José was given to Paul Lhérie, a rising star of the Opéra-Comique who had recently appeared in works by Massenet and Delibes. He would later become a baritone, and in 1887 sang the role of Zurga in the Covent Garden premiere of Les pêcheurs de perles. Jacques Bouhy, engaged to sing Escamillo, was a young Belgian-born baritone who had already appeared in demanding roles such as Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust and as Mozart's Figaro. Marguerite Chapuy, who sang Micaëla, was at the beginning of a short career in which she was briefly a star at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; the impresario James H. Mapleson thought her "one of the most charming vocalists it has been my pleasure to know". However, she married and left the stage altogether in 1876, refusing Mapleson's considerable cash inducements to return.
### Premiere and initial run
Because rehearsals did not start until October 1874 and lasted longer than anticipated, the premiere was delayed. The final rehearsals went well, and in a generally optimistic mood the first night was fixed for 3 March 1875, the day on which, coincidentally, Bizet's appointment as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour was formally announced. The premiere, which was conducted by Adolphe Deloffre, was attended by many of Paris's leading musical figures, including Massenet, Offenbach, Delibes and Gounod; during the performance the last-named was overheard complaining bitterly that Bizet had stolen the music of Micaëla's act 3 aria from him: "That melody is mine!" Halévy recorded his impressions of the premiere in a letter to a friend; the first act was evidently well received, with applause for the main numbers and numerous curtain calls. The first part of act 2 also went well, but after the toreador's song there was, Halévy noted, "coldness". In act 3 only Micaëla's aria earned applause as the audience became increasingly disconcerted. The final act was "glacial from first to last", and Bizet was left "only with the consolations of a few friends". The critic Ernest Newman wrote later that the sentimentalist Opéra-Comique audience was "shocked by the drastic realism of the action" and by the low standing and defective morality of most of the characters. According to the composer Benjamin Godard, Bizet retorted, in response to a compliment, "Don't you see that all these bourgeois have not understood a wretched word of the work I have written for them?" In a different vein, shortly after the work had concluded, Massenet sent Bizet a congratulatory note: "How happy you must be at this time—it's a great success!"
The general tone of the next day's press reviews ranged from disappointment to outrage. The more conservative critics complained about "Wagnerism" and the subordination of the voice to the noise of the orchestra. There was consternation that the heroine was an amoral seductress rather than a woman of virtue; Galli-Marié's interpretation of the role was described by one critic as "the very incarnation of vice". Others compared the work unfavourably with the traditional Opéra-Comique repertoire of Auber and Boieldieu. Léon Escudier in L'Art Musical called Carmen's music "dull and obscure ... the ear grows weary of waiting for the cadence that never comes." It seemed that Bizet had generally failed to fulfill expectations, both of those who (given Halévy's and Meilhac's past associations) had expected something in the Offenbach mould, and of critics such as Adolphe Jullien who had anticipated a Wagnerian music drama. Among the few supportive critics was the poet Théodore de Banville; writing in Le National, he applauded Bizet for presenting a drama with real men and women instead of the usual Opéra-Comique "puppets".
In its initial run at the Opéra-Comique, Carmen provoked little public enthusiasm; it shared the theatre for a while with Verdi's much more popular Requiem. Carmen was often performed to half-empty houses, even when the management gave away large numbers of tickets. Early on 3 June, the day after the opera's 33rd performance, Bizet died suddenly of heart disease, at the age of 36. It was his wedding anniversary. That night's performance was cancelled; the tragic circumstances brought a temporary increase in public interest during the brief period before the season ended. Du Locle brought Carmen back in November 1875, with the original cast, and it ran for a further 12 performances until 15 February 1876 to give a year's total for the original production of 48. Among those who attended one of these later performances was Tchaikovsky, who wrote to his benefactor, Nadezhda von Meck: "Carmen is a masterpiece in every sense of the word ... one of those rare creations which expresses the efforts of a whole musical epoch." After the final performance, Carmen was not seen in Paris again until 1883.
### Early revivals
Shortly before his death Bizet signed a contract for a production of Carmen by the Vienna Court Opera. For this version, first staged on 23 October 1875, Bizet's friend Ernest Guiraud replaced the original dialogue with recitatives, to create a "grand opera" format. Guiraud also reorchestrated music from Bizet's L'Arlésienne suite to provide a spectacular ballet for Carmen's second act. Shortly before the initial Vienna performance, the Court Opera's director Franz von Jauner decided to use parts of the original dialogue along with some of Guiraud's recitatives; this hybrid and the full recitative version became the norms for productions of the opera outside France for most of the next century.
Despite its deviations from Bizet's original format, and some critical reservations, the 1875 Vienna production was a great success with the city's public. It also won praise from both Wagner and Brahms. The latter reportedly saw the opera twenty times, and said he would have "gone to the ends of the earth to embrace Bizet". The Viennese triumph began the opera's rapid ascent towards worldwide fame. In February 1876 it began a run in Brussels at La Monnaie; it returned there the following year, with Galli-Marié in the title role, and thereafter became a permanent fixture in the Brussels repertory. On 17 June 1878 Carmen was produced in London, at Her Majesty's Theatre, where Minnie Hauk began her long association with the part of Carmen. A parallel London production at Covent Garden, with Adelina Patti, was cancelled when Patti withdrew. The successful Her Majesty's production, sung in Italian, had an equally enthusiastic reception in Dublin. On 23 October 1878 the opera received its American premiere, at the New York Academy of Music, and in the same year was introduced to Saint Petersburg.
In the following five years performances were given in numerous American and European cities. The opera found particular favour in Germany, where the Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, apparently saw it on 27 different occasions and where Friedrich Nietzsche opined that he "became a better man when Bizet speaks to me". Carmen was also acclaimed in numerous French provincial cities including Marseille, Lyon and, in 1881, Dieppe, where Galli-Marié returned to the role. In August 1881 the singer wrote to Bizet's widow to report that Carmen's Spanish premiere, in Barcelona, had been "another great success". But Carvalho, who had assumed the management of the Opéra-Comique, thought the work immoral and refused to reinstate it. Meilhac and Hálevy were more prepared to countenance a revival, provided that Galli-Marié had no part in it; they blamed her interpretation for the relative failure of the opening run.
In April 1883 Carvalho finally revived Carmen at the Opéra-Comique, with Adèle Isaac featuring in an under-rehearsed production that removed some of the controversial aspects of the original. Carvalho was roundly condemned by the critics for offering a travesty of what had come to be regarded as a masterpiece of French opera; nevertheless, this version was acclaimed by the public and played to full houses. In October Carvalho yielded to pressure and revised the production; he brought back Galli-Marié, and restored the score and libretto to their 1875 forms.
### Worldwide success
On 9 January 1884, Carmen was given its first New York Metropolitan Opera performance, to a mixed critical reception. The New York Times welcomed Bizet's "pretty and effective work", but compared Zelia Trebelli's interpretation of the title role unfavourably with that of Minnie Hauk. Thereafter Carmen was quickly incorporated into the Met's regular repertory. In February 1906 Enrico Caruso sang José at the Met for the first time; he continued to perform in this role until 1919, two years before his death. On 17 April 1906, on tour with the Met, he sang the role at the Grand Opera House in San Francisco. Afterwards he sat up until 3 am reading the reviews in the early editions of the following day's papers. Two hours later he was awakened by the first violent shocks of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, after which he and his fellow performers made a hurried escape from the Palace Hotel.
The popularity of Carmen continued through succeeding generations of American opera-goers; by the beginning of 2011 the Met alone had performed it almost a thousand times. It enjoyed similar success in other American cities and in all parts of the world, in many different languages. Carmen's habanera from act 1, and the toreador's song "Votre toast" from act 2, are among the most popular and best-known of all operatic arias, the latter "a splendid piece of swagger" according to Newman, "against which the voices and the eyebrows of purists have long been raised in vain". Most of the productions outside France followed the example created in Vienna and incorporated lavish ballet interludes and other spectacles, a practice which Mahler abandoned in Vienna when he revived the work there in 1900. In 1919, Bizet's aged contemporary Camille Saint-Saëns was still complaining about the "strange idea" of adding a ballet, which he considered "a hideous blemish in that masterpiece", and he wondered why Bizet's wife had permitted it.
At the Opéra-Comique, after its 1883 revival, Carmen was always presented in the dialogue version with minimal musical embellishments. By 1888, the year of the 50th anniversary of Bizet's birth, the opera had been performed there 330 times; by 1938, his centenary year, the total of performances at the theatre had reached 2,271. However, outside France the practice of using recitatives remained the norm for many years; the Carl Rosa Opera Company's 1947 London production, and Walter Felsenstein's 1949 staging at the Berlin Komische Oper, are among the first known instances in which the dialogue version was used other than in France. Neither of these innovations led to much change in practice; a similar experiment was tried at Covent Garden in 1953 but hurriedly withdrawn, and the first American production with spoken dialogue, in Colorado in 1953, met with a similar fate.
Dean has commented on the dramatic distortions that arise from the suppression of the dialogue; the effect, he says, is that the action moves forward "in a series of jerks, rather instead of by smooth transition", and that most of the minor characters are substantially diminished. Only late in the 20th century did dialogue versions become common in opera houses outside France, but there is still no universally recognised full score. Fritz Oeser's 1964 edition is an attempt to fill this gap, but in Dean's view is unsatisfactory. Oeser reintroduces material removed by Bizet during the first rehearsals, and ignores many of the late changes and improvements that the composer made immediately before the first performance; he thus, according to Susan McClary, "inadvertently preserves as definitive an early draft of the opera". In the early 21st century new editions were prepared by Robert Didion and Richard Langham-Smith, published by Schott and Peters respectively. Each departs significantly from Bizet's vocal score of March 1875, published during his lifetime after he had personally corrected the proofs; Dean believes this vocal score should be the basis of any standard edition. Lesley Wright, a contemporary Bizet scholar, remarks that, unlike his compatriots Rameau and Debussy, Bizet has not been accorded a critical edition of his principal works; should this transpire, she says, "we might expect yet another scholar to attempt to refine the details of this vibrant score which has so fascinated the public and performers for more than a century." Meanwhile, Carmen's popularity endures; according to Macdonald: "The memorability of Bizet's tunes will keep the music of Carmen alive in perpetuity," and its status as a popular classic is unchallenged by any other French opera.
## Music
Hervé Lacombe, in his survey of 19th-century French opera, contends that Carmen is one of the few works from that large repertory to have stood the test of time. While he places the opera firmly within the long opéra comique tradition, Macdonald considers that it transcends the genre and that its immortality is assured by "the combination in abundance of striking melody, deft harmony and perfectly judged orchestration". Dean sees Bizet's principal achievement in the demonstration of the main actions of the opera in the music, rather than in the dialogue, writing that "Few artists have expressed so vividly the torments inflicted by sexual passions and jealousy." Dean places Bizet's realism in a different category from the verismo of Puccini and others; he likens the composer to Mozart and Verdi in his ability to engage his audiences with the emotions and sufferings of his characters.
Bizet, who had never visited Spain, sought out appropriate ethnic material to provide an authentic Spanish flavour to his music. Carmen's habanera is based on an idiomatic song, "El arreglito", by the Spanish composer Sebastián Yradier (1809–65). Bizet had taken this to be a genuine folk melody; when he learned its recent origin he added a note to the vocal score, crediting Yradier. He used a genuine folksong as the source of Carmen's defiant "Coupe-moi, brûle-moi" while other parts of the score, notably the "Seguidilla", utilise the rhythms and instrumentation associated with flamenco music. However, Dean insists that "[t]his is a French, not a Spanish opera"; the "foreign bodies", while they undoubtedly contribute to the unique atmosphere of the opera, form only a small ingredient of the complete music.
The prelude to act 1 combines three recurrent themes: the entry of the bullfighters from act 4, the refrain from the Toreador Song from act 2, and the motif that, in two slightly differing forms, represents both Carmen herself and the fate she personifies. This motif, played on clarinet, bassoon, cornet and cellos over tremolo strings, concludes the prelude with an abrupt crescendo. When the curtain rises a light and sunny atmosphere is soon established, and pervades the opening scenes. The mock solemnities of the changing of the guard, and the flirtatious exchanges between the townsfolk and the factory girls, precede a mood change when a brief phrase from the fate motif announces Carmen's entrance. After her provocative habanera, with its persistent insidious rhythm and changes of key, the fate motif sounds in full when Carmen throws her flower to José before departing. This action elicits from José a passionate A major solo which Dean suggests is the turning-point in his musical characterisation. The softer vein returns briefly, as Micaëla reappears and joins with José in a duet to a warm clarinet and strings accompaniment. The tranquillity is shattered by the women's noisy quarrel, Carmen's dramatic re-entry and her defiant interaction with Zuniga. After her beguiling "Seguidilla" provokes José to an exasperated high A sharp shout, Carmen's escape is preceded by the brief but disconcerting reprise of a fragment from the habanera. Bizet revised this finale several times to increase its dramatic effect.
Act 2 begins with a short prelude, based on a melody that José will sing offstage before his next entry. A festive scene in the inn precedes Escamillo's tumultuous entrance, in which brass and percussion provide prominent backing while the crowd sings along. The quintet that follows is described by Newman as "of incomparable verve and musical wit". José's appearance precipitates a long mutual wooing scene; Carmen sings, dances and plays the castanets; a distant cornet-call summoning José to duty is blended with Carmen's melody so as to be barely discernible. A muted reference to the fate motif on an English horn leads to José's "Flower Song", a flowing continuous melody that ends pianissimo on a sustained high B-flat. José's insistence that, despite Carmen's blandishments, he must return to duty leads to a quarrel; the arrival of Zuniga, the consequent fight and José's unavoidable ensnarement into the lawless life culminates musically in the triumphant hymn to freedom that closes the act.
The prelude to act 3 was originally intended for Bizet's L'Arlésienne score. Newman describes it as "an exquisite miniature, with much dialoguing and intertwining between the woodwind instruments". As the action unfolds, the tension between Carmen and José is evident in the music. In the card scene, the lively duet for Frasquita and Mercédès turns ominous when Carmen intervenes; the fate motif underlines her premonition of death. Micaëla's aria, after her entry in search of José, is a conventional piece, though of deep feeling, preceded and concluded by horn calls. The middle part of the act is occupied by Escamillo and José, now acknowledged as rivals for Carmen's favour. The music reflects their contrasting attitudes: Escamillo remains, says Newman, "invincibly polite and ironic", while José is sullen and aggressive. When Micaëla pleads with José to go with her to his mother, the harshness of Carmen's music reveals her most unsympathetic side. As José departs, vowing to return, the fate theme is heard briefly in the woodwind. The confident, off-stage sound of the departing Escamillo singing the toreador's refrain provides a distinct contrast to José's increasing desperation.
The final act is prefaced with a lively orchestral piece derived from Manuel García's short operetta El criado fingido. After the opening crowd scene, the bullfighters' march is led by the children's chorus; the crowd hails Escamillo before his short love scene with Carmen. The long finale, in which José makes his last pleas to Carmen and is decisively rejected, is punctuated at critical moments by enthusiastic off-stage shouts from the bullfighting arena. As José kills Carmen, the chorus sing the refrain of the Toreador Song off-stage; the fate motif, which has been suggestively present at various points during the act, is heard fortissimo, together with a brief reference to Carmen's card scene music. Jose's last words of love and despair are followed by a final long chord, on which the curtain falls without further musical or vocal comment.
## Musical numbers
Numbers are from the vocal score (English version) printed by G. Schirmer Inc., New York, 1958 from Guiraud's 1875 arrangement.
Act 1
1. Prelude (orchestra)
2. Sur la place chacun passe (Chorus of soldiers, Moralès, Micaëla)
3. Avec la garde montante (Chorus of urchins, Zuniga)
4. La cloche a sonné (Chorus of citizens, soldiers, cigarette girls)
5. Habanera: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle (Carmen, chorus as above)
6. Carmen! Sur tes pas nous pressons! (Chorus of citizens and cigarette girls)
7. Parle-moi de ma mère (José, Micaëla)
8. Que se passe-t-il là-bas? Au secours! Au secours! (Chorus of cigarette girls, soldiers, Zuniga)
9. Tra-la-la ... Coupe-moi, brûle-moi (Carmen, Zuniga, cigarette girls, José)
10. Seguidilla: Près des remparts de Séville (Carmen, José)
11. Finale: Voici l'ordre; partez (Zuniga, Carmen)
: Entr'acte (orchestra)
Act 2
: Entr'acte (orchestra)
Act 3
: Entr'acte (orchestra)
Act 4
## Recordings
Carmen has been the subject of many recordings, beginning with early wax cylinder recordings of excerpts in the 1890s, a nearly complete performance in German from 1908 with Emmy Destinn in the title role, and a complete 1911 Opéra-Comique recording in French. Since then, many of the leading opera houses and artistes have recorded the work, in both studio and live performances. Over the years many versions have been commended and reissued. From the mid-1990s numerous video recordings have become available. These include David McVicar's Glyndebourne production of 2002, and the Royal Opera productions of 2007 and 2010, each designed by Francesca Zambello.
## Adaptations
In 1883, the Spanish violinist and composer Pablo de Sarasate (1844–1908) wrote a Carmen Fantasy for violin, described as "ingenious and technically difficult". Ferruccio Busoni's 1920 piece, Piano Sonatina No. 6 (Fantasia da camera super Carmen), is based on themes from Carmen. In 1967, the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin adapted parts of the Carmen music into a ballet, the Carmen Suite, written for his wife Maya Plisetskaya, then the Bolshoi Ballet's principal ballerina.
In 1983 the stage director Peter Brook produced an adaptation of Bizet's opera known as La Tragedie de Carmen in collaboration with the writer Jean-Claude Carrière and the composer Marius Constant. This 90-minute version focused on four main characters, eliminating choruses and the major arias were reworked for chamber orchestra. Brook first produced it in Paris, and it has since been performed in many cities.
The character "Carmen" has been a regular subject of film treatment since the earliest days of cinema. The films were made in various languages and interpreted by several cultures, and have been created by prominent directors including Gerolamo Lo Savio [it] (1909) [it], Raoul Walsh (1915) with Theda Bara, Cecil B. DeMille (1915), and The Loves of Carmen (1948) with Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford, directed by Charles Vidor. Otto Preminger's 1954 Carmen Jones, with an all-black cast, is based on the 1943 Oscar Hammerstein Broadway musical of the same name, an adaptation of the opera transposed to 1940s North Carolina extending to Chicago. The Wild, Wild Rose is a 1960 Hong Kong film which adapts the plot and main character to the setting of a Wanchai nightclub, including striking renditions of some of the most famous songs by Grace Chang. Other adaptions include Carlos Saura (1983) (who made a flamenco-based dance film with two levels of story telling), Peter Brook (1983) (filming his compressed La Tragédie de Carmen) and Jean-Luc Godard (1984). Francesco Rosi's film of 1984, with Julia Migenes and Plácido Domingo, is generally faithful to the original story and to Bizet's music. Carmen on Ice (1990), starring Katarina Witt, Brian Boitano and Brian Orser, was inspired by Witt's gold medal-winning performance during the 1988 Winter Olympics. Robert Townsend's 2001 film, Carmen: A Hip Hopera, starring Beyoncé Knowles, is a more recent attempt to create an African-American version. Carmen was interpreted in modern ballet by the South African dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo in 2010.
|
4,322,063 |
Typhoon Maemi
| 1,165,019,743 |
Pacific typhoon in 2003
|
[
"2003 Pacific typhoon season",
"2003 disasters in the Philippines",
"Retired Pacific typhoons",
"Tropical cyclones in 2003",
"Typhoons",
"Typhoons in Japan",
"Typhoons in South Korea",
"Typhoons in the Philippines"
] |
Typhoon Maemi () or (), known in the Philippines as Typhoon Pogi, was the most powerful typhoon to strike South Korea since record-keeping began in the country in 1904. Maemi formed on September 4, 2003 from a disturbance in a monsoon trough in the western Pacific Ocean. It slowly intensified into Tropical Storm Maemi while moving northwestward, becoming a typhoon on September 8. That day, favorable conditions facilitated more rapid strengthening; the storm developed a well-defined eye and reached peak maximum sustained winds of 195 km/h (121 mph). While near peak intensity, Maemi decelerated and began turning to the north-northeast. Soon after, the eyewall passed over the Japanese island of Miyako-jima on September 10 and produced an air pressure reading of 912 mbar (26.9 inHg), the fourth-lowest recorded in the nation. Due to warm waters, Maemi was able to maintain much of its intensity before it made landfall just west of Busan, South Korea, on September 12. The typhoon became extratropical in the Sea of Japan the next day, although its remnants persisted for several days, lashing northern Japan with strong winds.
The typhoon first affected the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. On Miyako-jima, strong winds damaged 104 buildings and left 95% of residents without power. Maemi caused heavy rainfall there, with rates of 58.5 mm (2.30 in) in an hour and 402.5 mm (15.85 in) in 24 hours, the latter setting a record. One person died on Miyako-jima after being struck by airborne debris. Elsewhere in Japan, the storm caused flights to be canceled, and rainfall-induced landslides blocked roads. There were two other deaths in Japan, and damage totaled ¥11.3 billion yen (JPY, \$96 million USD). Damage was heaviest in South Korea, particularly where it moved ashore. On Jeju Island, Maemi produced a peak wind gust of 216 km/h (134 mph) and a minimum pressure of 950 mbar (28 inHg), both setting records for the country; the pressure reading broke the longstanding lowest pressure set by Typhoon Sarah in 1959. Winds in Busan near the landfall location reached 154 km/h (96 mph), the second-highest on record. The port there sustained heavy damage, restricting exports in the months following the storm. Nationwide, the high winds destroyed about 5,000 houses and damaged 13,000 homes and businesses, leaving 25,000 people homeless. About 1.47 million households lost power, and widespread crop damage occurred, resulting in the poorest rice harvest in 23 years. Across South Korea, Maemi killed 117 people, and overall damage totaled ₩5.52 trillion won (KRW, US\$4.8 billion).
## Meteorological history
In early September 2003, a monsoon trough created a tropical disturbance near Guam. The system consisted of a disorganized area of convection, or thunderstorms, in an area of moderate wind shear. By September 4, the convection was becoming better organized around a weak low-level circulation. Despite the wind shear, the system continued to develop, becoming a tropical depression north of Chuuk State. At 0200 UTC on September 5, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert, and later that day initiated advisories on Tropical Depression 15W just west of Guam. By that time, the convection had increased over the center. For the first week of its existence, the cyclone tracked generally northwestward, steered by a subtropical ridge to the north.
Early on September 6, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) upgraded the depression to a tropical storm and named it Maemi. With more favorable conditions, including lesser wind shear and enhanced outflow, the storm continued to intensify. The JMA upgraded Maemi to a severe tropical storm on September 7 and to typhoon status – winds of over 119 km/h (74 mph) – the next day. The JTWC had upgraded Maemi to typhoon status on September 7 after an eye feature appeared on satellite imagery. Also around that time, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) began issuing advisories on the storm, giving it the local name "Pogi", although the typhoon would remain away from the country. On September 8, Maemi began undergoing rapid deepening due to enhanced outflow, aided by the flow of an approaching shortwave trough. At 1200 UTC on September 9, the JTWC estimated 1-minute sustained winds of 240 km/h (150 mph) and designated Maemi as a super typhoon. The next day, the same agency estimated peak winds of 280 km/h (170 mph) and gusts to 335 km/h (208 mph), the equivalent of a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. At 1200 UTC on September 10, the JMA estimated peak 10-minute winds of 195 km/h (121 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 910 mbar (27 inHg) while the storm was 155 km (96 mi) southeast of the Japanese island of Miyako-jima. At peak intensity, Maemi was a small typhoon, with gale-force winds extending only 240 km (150 mi) from the well-defined eye.
Around the time of peak intensity, Maemi was slowing its forward motion and began turning to the north, after the eastward-moving trough weakened the ridge. At 1900 UTC on September 10, the typhoon passed within 10 km (6.2 mi) of Miyako-jima. While the eye was passing over the island, the pressure fell to 912 mbar (26.9 inHg) and winds reached 250 km/h (160 mph). Maemi weakened slightly as it continued north, passing about 220 km (140 mi) west of Okinawa on September 11 while undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle. Increasingly hostile conditions from the approaching trough caused further weakening, and the JTWC estimated the typhoon passed just east of Jeju Island with 1-minute winds of 185 km/h (115 mph) at 0600 UTC on September 12. Shortly after, Maemi made landfall just west of Busan, South Korea, with the JMA estimating 10-minute winds of 140 km/h (87 mph), and JTWC estimating 1-minute winds of 165 km/h (103 mph). Risk Management Solutions estimated landfall winds of 190 km/h (120 mph), which surpassed Typhoon Sarah in 1959. This made Maemi the strongest typhoon to strike the country since the Korea Meteorological Administration began keeping records in 1904. The storm was able to maintain much of its intensity due to warm sea surface temperatures and its fast forward motion. Maemi rapidly weakened to tropical storm status while moving over land, and was undergoing extratropical transition by the time it entered the Sea of Japan. Increasing wind shear removed the convection from the increasingly ill-defined circulation center. The JTWC issued its final warning on Maemi early on September 13, declaring the storm extratropical. The JMA followed suit later that day, tracking Maemi over northern Japan and declaring it extratropical over the Sea of Okhotsk. The remnants of Maemi persisted for several more days, until the JMA stopped tracking it on September 16 southwest of the Kamchatka Peninsula. According to the Mariners Weather Log, the remnants of Maemi continued to the east, eventually striking the coast of Alaska on September 21.
## Preparations
In Japan, the threat of the typhoon caused airlines to cancel 145 flights, mostly in and around Okinawa. About 50 American army bases in Okinawa were closed, and non-essential workers were told to remain home.
Before Maemi made landfall in South Korea, officials issued flood warnings along the Nakdong River due to dams opening floodgates. About 25,000 people were forced to evacuate, either to schools or relatives' houses. The Korea Meteorological Administration advised travelers to take precaution in advance of the storm. Ferry and airplane services were canceled to Jeju island, stranding residents ahead of the Chuseok holiday.
Officials in Primorsky Krai in the Russian Far East issued a storm warning, noting the potential for strong winds and heavy rainfall.
## Impact
### Japan
Typhoon Maemi first affected the Japanese island of Miyako-jima, where gusts reached 266 km/h (165 mph), and sustained winds reached 152 km/h (94 mph). For 16 hours, excluding the 2-hour passage of the eye, the pressure fell to 912 mbar (26.9 inHg), the second-lowest on record on the island after Typhoon Sarah in 1959, and at the time the fourth lowest in all of Japan. The typhoon produced heavy rainfall on Miyako-jima totaling 470 mm (19 in), of which 402.5 mm (15.85 in) fell in 24 hours, breaking the daily record. Also on the island, 58.5 mm (2.30 in) fell in one hour, and 22 mm (0.87 in) fell in just 10 minutes. On the island, Maemi damaged 104 buildings, including two severely damaged houses. The storm damaged roads in 36 locations and caused a power outage, affecting about 20,900 people, or 95% of the island. One person on Miyako-jima died after being struck by flying glass.
News agencies considered Maemi the strongest typhoon to affect Okinawa since 1968. Elsewhere in Okinawa Prefecture, wind gusts reached 109 km/h (68 mph) in Nago. On Ishigaki Island, strong winds damaged houses and crops, while high tides flooded low-lying buildings. Across the region, 94 people were injured, mostly from broken glass.
Shortly before Maemi made its final landfall, it produced wind gusts of 167 km/h (104 mph) at Izuhara, a Japanese island halfway between South Korea and Japan. Along the southwest coast of Japan, a weather station in Hirado reported gusts of 113 km/h (70 mph). The typhoon resulted in heavy rainfall on the Japanese main island of Kyushu, reaching 457 mm (18.0 in) at a station in Miyazaki Prefecture. Rainfall-induced landslides in Nagasaki forced 191 people to evacuate their homes. Heavy rainfall also caused landslides in Ōita Prefecture, and Kōchi Prefecture, where several roads were closed. The threat of the storm caused schools to close in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The storm spawned an F1 tornado in Kōchi that damaged several houses and flipped over a car, injuring a woman inside. As an extratropical storm, Maemi left 2,500 people in Hokkaido without power after producing gusts of 108 km/h (67 mph) in Hakodate. Wind gusts reached 116 km/h (72 mph) in Akita, the third-highest September wind gust at the station. A falling tree in Sapporo killed one person and injured two others. High waves damaged fisheries and 54 ships in Matsumae alone, and nationwide 262 ships were damaged. Rough seas also killed one person in Akita Prefecture. The typhoon destroyed 1,498 homes across the country and flooded 363 others. The storm also damaged 9 ha (22 acres) of fields. In total, Maemi killed three people and injured 107 in Japan, two severely. Overall damage totaled ¥11.3 billion (JPY, \$96 million USD).
### South Korea
Since Typhoon Maemi took a path closer to the form of a parabolic, a typical pattern of typhoons from outbreak to extinction, it was relatively possible to predict its course and the possibility of landing on the Korean Peninsula was expected fairly early. The Korea Meteorological Administration officially announced the typhoon's possible landing off the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula at 5 p.m. on Sept. 10, making the news widely known through major media organizations. When Typhoon Maemi struck South Korea, it caused heavy rainfall that peaked at 453 mm (17.8 in). Rainfall reached 401.5 mm (15.81 in) in Namhae County, and 255 mm (10.0 in) on Jeju Island. The rain was less widespread and caused less flooding than Typhoon Rusa, which struck the country a year prior, but damage from Maemi was heavier due to strong winds. On Jeju Island, Maemi produced a wind gust of 216 km/h (134 mph) and a minimum pressure of 950 mbar (28 inHg), both setting records for the country. The winds broke the record of 210 km/h (130 mph) set by Typhoon Prapiroon in 2000, and the pressure was 1.5 mbar lower than that during Typhoon Sarah in 1959, which was one of the strongest storms to strike South Korea after Maemi. On the South Korean mainland, the Pusan International Airport reported wind gusts of 143 km/h (89 mph). Winds in Busan reached 154 km/h (96 mph), the second-highest wind speed for the city after Typhoon Thelma in 1987. Due to high winds, five nuclear power plants were shut down automatically, but were ultimately unaffected.
In South Korea, damage was heaviest in South Gyeongsang Province, where 71 people were killed. Damage was particularly heavy in Busan, as well in as Yecheon, Ulsan, and Daegu. In Busan, strong winds wrecked 11 lifting cranes, each weighing about 900 tons, which injured five people and killed two in one incident. Many shipyards in the region were closed, and initial reports estimated it would take a year to fully reopen the Busan port. The estimated damage to the Busan port was about \$50 million (USD), causing cargo capacity to be cut by 20%. High waves turned a large ship on its side in Busan, and in Ulsan the waves knocked an offshore shipbuilding plant into a petroleum facility, damaging them both. Sixteen people were killed in Busan.
High tides flooded hundreds of houses along the coast, particularly in areas without seawalls. In Masan, the storm caused 12 fatalities when it flooded an underground shopping center. On Jeju Island to the south of the country, Maemi destroyed sets of the Korean drama TV series All In, and wrecked 32 houses. Two people were killed on the island, one of whom while attempting to secure his boat. Throughout the country, 465 boats were damaged or beached. The heavy rainfall caused mudslides, one of which in Chungcheong derailed a train, injuring 28 aboard. Mudslides closed several roads, and damaged five rail lines in ten locations. Nationwide, the storm damaged 2,278 roads and bridges, as well as nearly 40,000 cars. Intense rainfall also caused flooding along the Nakdong River, reaching a flood stage of 5.06 m (16.6 ft) near Busan. There, the river produced a discharge of about 13,000 m<sup>3</sup>/s (460,000 ft<sup>3</sup>/s), strong enough to destroy a section of the Gupo bridge. Along a tributary of the Nakdong River, floods destroyed a dyke near Daegu. Maemi also flooded 37,986 ha (93,870 acres) of fields before the fall harvest, causing widespread damage to the rice crop. On Ulleungdo island off the eastern coast, Maemi washed away the primary road and many houses, killing three. Residents there complained about the lack of advance warning.
Typhoon Maemi left about 1.47 million electric customers without power around the country, causing ₩12.9 billion (KRW, US\$11.61 million) in damage to power companies. Widespread damage interrupted mobile and cell phone service. United States military bases in the country sustained about \$4.5 million in damage. Nationwide, Maemi destroyed about 5,000 houses and damaged 13,000 homes and businesses, leaving 25,000 people homeless. About 150 businesses in Gangwon Province were destroyed by Typhoon Rusa in 2002, only to be destroyed again by Maemi when they were rebuilt. Insured damages from Maemi were estimated at ₩650 billion (KRW, \$565 million), mostly property damage. The insured damage was over four times the amount of insured damage from Typhoon Rusa the year prior. Overall damage was estimated at ₩5.52 trillion (KRW, US\$4.8 billion). By comparison, this total was ₩2.52 trillion (KRW, US\$1.9 billion) less than Rusa; the discrepancy between the insured and overall damage was due to Maemi causing heavier industrial damage, while Rusa caused more damage overall. The storm killed 117 people throughout South Korea.
### Elsewhere
Although the typhoon prompted the PAGASA to hoist warnings – and in spite of initial concerns that the cyclone would enhance monsoonal rainfall – Maemi did not cause any damage in the Philippines.
While recurving east of Taiwan, Maemi dropped significant rainfall, peaking at 227.5 mm (8.96 in) in Ilan County. The rains helped ease drought conditions and replenished parched reservoirs.
In North Korea, Maemi produced about 186 mm (7.3 in) of rainfall, although further details of the storm's effects there were unknown due to press censorship.
## Aftermath
Following the storm, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun declared the entire of the country excluding Seoul and Incheon as special disaster areas, after touring the storm damage in Busan. The government provided tax breaks and allocated ₩1.4 trillion (KRW, \$1.2 billion) in assistance to the affected residents, after an additional budget was passed in late September 2003. This included ₩100 billion (KRW, US\$90 million) in immediate funds for search and rescue missions. After the storm, residents complained they did not receive adequate warning and not enough coastal areas were evacuated, which led to the high death toll. Widespread damage and continued flooding caused traffic jams in the days following the storm. A damaged rail line prompted operators to provide alternate bus service. Landslides throughout the country forced travelers to use alternate routes. By three days after the storm, most damaged roads and highways were reopened. About 33,000 members of the South Korean Army were deployed to assist in relief efforts, such as clearing roads and delivering aid to storm victims. Workers quickly restored power to 95% of customers within 24 hours. The government installed four new cranes for the Busan port, and assisted operators to ensure exports would not be delayed. Heavy crop damage caused fruit and vegetable prices to rise, and fish and crop exports rose 9.2% on average. The rice harvest was the lowest in 23 years, due to the storm and a government effort to limit production. To assist farmers, the government increased purchases in federal contracts. Three government-run banks provided low-rate loans for businesses damaged by the storm. Residual flooding from Maemi contributed to an outbreak of conjunctivitis in the southern portion of the country. To prevent additional outbreaks, the Korean National Institute of Health sent 1,000 workers to storm-damaged areas. The Korea Exchange fell 1.8% due to fears that storm damage would disrupt exports.
For the month of September 2003, the Korea Electric Power Corporation waived electric bills for residents who lost their homes, and cut bills in half for residents and businesses who lost power. The South Korean government allowed companies to increase premiums for car insurance by 3.5% due to the widespread car damage. Due to storm damage, 34 companies were forced to temporarily close. Loss of production and disruptions were expected to subtract 0.5% from the forecast economic growth in 2003. The Consumer Confidence Index dropped to its lowest level in five years, largely due to the typhoon damage and weakened economic conditions. Following the strikes of Rusa and Maemi in consecutive years, the South Korean government worked on disaster management and mitigation programs. In March 2004, the government passed the "Emergency and Safety Management Basic Act", largely due to the storm as well as the Daegu metro fire, which effectively set up a nationwide emergency management system. The Gupo bridge damaged during the storm was repaired in 2007.
Although the South Korean government did not request international aid, several countries sent aid to the country. A few days after Maemi struck, the United States Agency for International Development sent \$50,000 (USD) to the Korean Red Cross. Later, the government of Japan sent ¥9.5 million (US\$85,000) worth of supplies to South Korea, including sleeping mats, generators, and water units. Taiwan also provided \$100,000 in aid. The Republic of Korea National Red Cross utilized 700 volunteers and 200 staff members to distribute food and blankets to 8,190 houses, while local offices provided over 5,500 meals. Members of Food for the Hungry delivered food and clothing to storm-damaged residents in Masan.
As a result of the damage and deaths caused by the storm, the World Meteorological Organization retired the name Maemi in 2006 and replaced it with Mujigae.
## See also
- Typhoons in the Korean Peninsula
- List of retired Pacific typhoon names
- Typhoon Sanba (2012), another strong typhoon that struck South Korea
- Typhoon Neoguri (2014)
- Typhoon Chaba (2016)
- Typhoon Kong-rey (2018), took a similar track
- Typhoon Hinnamnor (2022), also struck South Korea as a strong typhoon
|
2,325,724 |
Neil Brooks
| 1,172,434,778 |
Australian swimmer
|
[
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"Australian male freestyle swimmers",
"Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia",
"Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming",
"Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia",
"English emigrants to Australia",
"Living people",
"Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics",
"Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics",
"Medallists at the 1982 Commonwealth Games",
"Medallists at the 1986 Commonwealth Games",
"Olympic bronze medalists for Australia",
"Olympic bronze medalists in swimming",
"Olympic gold medalists for Australia",
"Olympic gold medalists in swimming",
"Olympic silver medalists for Australia",
"Olympic silver medalists in swimming",
"Olympic swimmers for Australia",
"People educated at Churchlands Senior High School",
"Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal",
"Sportspeople from Crewe",
"Swimmers at the 1980 Summer Olympics",
"Swimmers at the 1982 Commonwealth Games",
"Swimmers at the 1984 Summer Olympics",
"Swimmers at the 1986 Commonwealth Games",
"Swimmers from Perth, Western Australia",
"Western Australian Sports Star of the Year winners"
] |
Neil Brooks (born 27 July 1962) is an Australian former sprint freestyle swimmer best known for winning the 4 × 100 m medley relay at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow as part of the Quietly Confident Quartet. Brooks was as much known for his swimming achievements as he was for disciplinary incidents, and he often found himself in conflict with officialdom and threatened with sanctions.
Born in England, Brooks emigrated to Australia as a toddler and started swimming lessons after nearly drowning in a childhood accident. After initially being known for his lack of technique, Brooks quickly rose through the youth ranks. Brooks made his debut at the Australian Championships in 1976, but it was not until 1979 that he medalled at national level and made his debut for Australia at a FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) Swimming World Cup meet. In 1980, he gained prominence by breaking the Australian record in the 100 m freestyle and being invited to a national team camp. There he had his first clash with officialdom, walking out after accusing the officials of neglecting him. He then qualified for the Australian team for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, defying political pressure to boycott the Games in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Arriving in Moscow, Brooks' experience in the 100 m freestyle was an unpleasant one, suffering an asthma attack and missing the final. The peak of his swimming career came in the 4 × 100 m medley relay, when he caught and passed the Soviet Union's Sergey Kopliakov during the anchor leg to seal a narrow victory for Australia. This victory remains the only time that the United States did not win the event at Olympic level.
Following the Olympics, Brooks was expelled from the Australian Institute of Sport by Don Talbot for disciplinary reasons. He accepted a swimming scholarship at the University of Arkansas, where he enjoyed the more liberal disciplinary standards. He returned to Australia for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and again raised the ire of officials during a preparatory training camp. After lobbying for improved accommodation conditions, Brooks was involved in a physical altercation with the team manager. As a result, he was given a suspension that was to take effect after the Commonwealth Games. However, his teammates protested and threatened to walk out, resulting in the ban being rescinded. Despite the turbulent preparation, Brooks had a successful meet, winning the 100 m freestyle and anchoring the 4 × 100 m freestyle and medley relays to gold medals. Brooks competed at his second Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 Games, where he won silver in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay and bronze for swimming the heats of the medley relay.
Brooks' international career ended at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh with silver in the 100 m freestyle and gold in the freestyle relay, after which he was suspended for drinking 46 cans of beer on the return flight to Australia. In retirement, he became a news presenter and sports commentator, but was sacked in 1999 after a string of incidents amidst an alcohol addiction. Later in life he faced a number of legal issues.
## Early years
An only child, Brooks was born in Crewe, England, before migrating to Western Australia when he was four, along with his working-class parents Mick and Norah. His first aquatic adventure was almost his last. Aged seven, he was playing with a friend on the shore of the Swan River when they climbed into a boat that drifted deeper into water and overturned. Brooks was forced to cling to the boat as his friend swam ashore to seek help. His parents immediately enrolled him in swimming lessons at the Marylands Swim Club. Shortly after, he switched to the tutelage of Kevin Duff, who coached him for the next fifteen years. After just six weeks under Duff, Brooks came third in the 50 m breaststroke at the State Age Championships. Despite coaching the likes of Olympic medallists Kevin O'Halloran, Lyn McClements, David Dickson and Lynne Watson, Duff was virtually unknown outside Western Australia. Brooks was known for his rebellious nature, and had a glowing assessment of his coach, opining that "He's not pushy like many other Australian coaches and he's not in the politics of Australian swimming".
At the age of 13, Brooks suffered a loss of confidence. After being champion in all four strokes for the previous four years, he was now frequently losing. The other children had grown more at the start of their adolescence and he was struggling to match them. Within a year, Brooks' physical growth began to catch up and he started to regain the dominant position. He also switched from distance to sprint events.
Brooks attended Hale Primary School and trained at Beatty Park Pool, routinely dominating the State Age Championships. He won bronze in the 100 m and 200 m backstroke, and silver in the 200 m freestyle at the 1974 Australian Age Championships. Owing to a lack of style, he was known during his primary school years as "Basher Brooks", but by the time he entered Churchlands Senior High School, his stroke had become more technically refined. Nevertheless, he was always confident in his mental ability, stating "before I just swam on guts, now I had the stroke as well as the guts. I was always the toughest kid in the race."
## Swimming career
### National debut
In 1976, at the age of 13, Brooks competed at his first open Australian Championships, but did not gain any podium finishes and as such missed selection in the team for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. In the same year, the Australian team came to Perth for its pre-Olympic training camp and were billeted in the homes of members of the local swimming community. Brooks' family took his future relay team-mate Mark Tonelli, who had a reputation for indiscipline. Brooks, however, was inspired by Tonelli and cited him as a key motivating factor in him wanting to become an Olympian.
During the 1976–77 season, Brooks came to prominence as a possible Australian representative sprinter. He broke six records in winning two events at the 1977 Western Australian Championships. He swam the 100 m freestyle in 56.56 s, breaking the state records for 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds, before repeating the achievement in the 200 m backstroke. Still aged 14, he competed at his second Australian Championships and came fourth in the 100 m freestyle. In 1978, he came third in the 100 m freestyle and missed selection for the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada by 0.03 s. He spent the rest of the year training and studying accounting at Leederville Technical College. During the year, Brooks set Australian age group records in the 200 m individual medley, the 200 m backstroke and the 100 m freestyle. At the inaugural Australian Short Course Championships in Launceston, Tasmania in 1979, he won silver in the 200 m individual medley and bronze in the 100 m freestyle. His performances earned him selection in the Australian team for the first time, competing in the FINA Swimming World Cup event in Tokyo in April 1979, aged 16 years and nine months.
Aged 17, Brooks swam 51.91 s in Perth in January 1980, breaking Tonelli's Australian record in the 100 m freestyle. As a result, he was invited to his first national training camp under Bill Sweetenham for prospective Olympic swimmers. He had the first of his many clashes with sporting administrators, first claiming that the officials did not want him to board with Tonelli's family and then stating that Sweetenham had only coached him two or three times, which he felt was insufficient. Brooks walked out of the camp and returned to Perth to train under Duff. At the Australian Championships, the 100 m was seen as a clash between Tonelli and Brooks. The latter came second in the 100 m freestyle, outsprinted in the dying stages by Tonelli, who reclaimed his national record in a time of 51.80 s. As a result, Brooks was selected in both the individual event and the 4 × 100 m medley relay.
However, another obstacle arose with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which resulted in a boycott of the Games by a large part of the Western World, led by the United States. The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was also the patron of the Australian Olympic Committee, and significant political pressure came to bear on the athletes to boycott the Games. Tonelli, however, realised that only the sportspeople would suffer from a boycott and that trade relations would continue unabated. He took a leadership role among the athletes to fight for their right to compete.
### Moscow Olympics
The 4 × 100 m medley relay was the focal point of Brooks' Moscow campaign and it came only two days before his 18th birthday. The event had always been won by the United States since its inception at Olympic level in 1960, and their boycott had opened up the field in the event. In the five times the event had been contested, Australia's best result was a silver in the inaugural race. A bronze in 1964 was the only other medal success and the 1976 edition of the medley relay had seen Australia eliminated in the heats. This time, Australia were regarded as a medal chance, but were not seen as the main threats; Sweden, Great Britain and the Soviet Union were the most heavily fancied teams. The hosts boasted the silver medallists in the 100 m backstroke and breaststroke, and their butterflyer had come fifth; their freestyler would place fourth a few days later. The British had Duncan Goodhew, the breaststroke gold medallist, while Sweden's butterflyer and backstroker had won their respective events and their freestyle swimmer would come second in the 100 m. On paper, Australia's team paled in comparison. Peter Evans was the only individual medallist over a 100 m race, claiming bronze in the breaststroke. Mark Kerry had been eliminated in the backstroke semifinals, while Tonelli was swimming as a makeshift butterflyer, despite having performed better than Kerry in the 100 m backstroke. Adding to the pressure was the fact that Australia won no gold medals at the 1976 Olympics in any sport, and were yet to win in Moscow, so the public were still awaiting their first victory since Munich in 1972. Coming into the Olympics, Australia were ranked seventh out of the thirteen competing countries. Australia's prospects improved after the morning heats in which Sweden was disqualified. Tonelli, the eldest swimmer in the quartet at the age of 23, convened the team as its de facto leader. He asked his team-mates to commit to swimming their legs in a certain time; Kerry vowed to swim the backstroke in 57 s, Evans the breaststroke in 63 s flat, Tonelli the butterfly in 54 s and Brooks promised to anchor the team in 49.8 s, even though he had never gone faster than 51 s. Tonelli named the foursome as the Quietly Confident Quartet, and they exhibited a quiet confidence as they lined up for the race.
Kerry led off in a faster time than he had clocked in the individual event, but it was still two seconds slower than his personal best time of 57.87 s. This left Australia in fourth place at the end of the first leg. Evans then swam a personal best of 63.01 s, leaving the team almost level with the host nation at the halfway mark. Tonelli then swam his leg in 54.94 s, almost two seconds faster than his previous best. He did so with an uneven arm technique due to the disparity in the strength of his arms. He began to lose ground in the last 50 m and was a bodylength behind until a late surge brought him to within a metre of the lead by the end of his leg. Brooks then made a powerful, well-timed dive and surfaced almost even with his Soviet counterpart. At the halfway mark, he had drawn level and made a superior turn to take the lead. The Soviet freestyler Kopliakov pulled level at the 25 m mark before Brooks again sprinted away to seal an Australian victory by 0.22 s. He did not breathe in the last ten metres, and claimed to be laughing for the final five metres, confident that his opponent could not pass him. The Australian freestyler had finished his leg in 49.86 s as he had vowed to his team mates. The time of 3 m 45.70 s sealed Australia's first ever win in a medley relay at the Olympics, for men or women. Brooks dedicated the team's win to his mother, who had died from cancer the previous Christmas. Upon returning to Australia, he was greeted as a hero, but he considered retiring due to waning desire for success after his triumph in Moscow. In 2000, Brooks and the other members of the quartet were each awarded the Australian Sports Medal for their victory in Moscow.
In the individual event, which occurred after the relay, Brooks had come equal first in his heat with eventual bronze medallist Per Johansson from Sweden in a time of 52.11 s. This made him the seventh fastest qualifier for the semi-finals, but he suffered a severe asthma attack and had to be hospitalised. He swam the semi-final regardless, despite having a heart-rate before the start of race of 120, compared to his usual 72. He finished seventh in a time of 52.70 s, which saw him place 14th, missing the final by 0.83 s.
### US college career
Brooks suffered from a lack of motivation after the Olympics. He was recruited to the Australian Institute of Sport by swimming coaches Bill Sweetenham and Dennis Pursley, but his stay was brief. The inaugural director Don Talbot, a former head coach of the Australian swimming team, expelled him for indiscipline. He then won the 1981 Australian title in the 100 m freestyle without training, but his time of 52.61 s was substantially slower than his personal best. Brooks then accepted a scholarship to go to the University of Arkansas to train under Sam Freas. He enjoyed the more liberal culture in the American collegiate system, particularly the relationship between swimmers and their coaches. He enjoyed the less paternalistic treatment that the coaches accorded to their swimmers, saying that "In Australia, after a race they want to lock you in your room. In America, you can share a beer after the meet with the coach." The shortcourse pools used in the United States played into the hands of Brooks, as his strong legs gave him an advantage in pushing away from the turns, which came twice as often in comparison to longcourse (50 m) pools. He had initially planned to stay in the United States for only a year, but decided to extend his stay by a year, having enjoyed the high frequency of racing and the recognition accorded to university athletes in the United States. In both years, he won the 50 m and 100 m freestyle double in the Southwest Conference, and was fourth in the 100 m freestyle at the 1981 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships. He also came second in the 100 m freestyle at the AACC Championships to Rowdy Gaines.
Despite his successes in America, the Australian Swimming Union did not offer to fund a return home for Brooks for the 1982 Australian Championships, but the University of Arkansas paid his fare as a reward for his performances in collegiate competition. Despite failing to defend his 100 m title, he qualified for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. The team then went into a five-week training camp in the seaside Sydney suburb of South Coogee. The team resided at a migrant hostel, which at the time was primarily occupied by Vietnamese refugees from the Vietnam War. Brooks spoke out about the quality of the accommodation, leading officials to make improvements.
### Suspension and 1982 Commonwealth Games
Brooks' protests against the accommodation was overshadowed by a much-publicised physical confrontation with a team official. He telephoned his coach in the United States to make return travel arrangements for the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games. Due to the difference in time zones, he made his call after the team curfew, prompting team manager Jeff Hare to attempt to disconnect the line. After Hare threatened to expel him from the team, Brooks lost his temper and pinned the manager against the wall. The swimmer was summoned to a meeting with ASU officials the following day, where he remained unrepentant. He received a one-month ban, effective after the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games. Brooks demanded that if the ASU were to suspend him, they should do so immediately for the Commonwealth Games, rather than letting him compete and win medals before punishing him. His complaints about the training conditions had gained the attention of his team-mates, and several senior swimmers threatened to leave if he was banned. In the end, the ASU rescinded the suspension. Brooks has remained strongly critical of the attitude of swimming bureaucracy, claiming that "too many officials expect unquestioning obedience", calling for the formation of a swimmers' committee.
Arriving in Brisbane for the Commonwealth Games, Brooks and some of his fellow sprinters shaved their heads, something that received much attention from the Australian public. He won his heat of the 100 m freestyle in a Commonwealth and Commonwealth Games record of 51.09 s. He swam slower in the final, but his time of 51.14 s was enough to secure the gold medal in a close contest. Just 0.43 s separated him and the bronze and silver medallists Greg Fasala and Michael Delany, both of Australia.
Brooks then won gold as part of the winning 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, anchoring the team of Fasala, Delany and Graeme Brewer to a victory by almost three seconds, putting in a split of 50.56 s. The shaven-headed quartet was dubbed the Mean Machine. He collected another gold in the medley relay, combining with David Orbell, Evans and Jon Sieben, this time completing his freestyle anchor leg in 50.44 s. Canada had finished the race far ahead of the Australians, but were disqualified for an early changeover. After the games, Brooks completed the American college season before returning to Australia. He was named as Western Australia's Sportsman of the Year.
### Los Angeles Olympics
Brooks came into the 1984 Australian Championships as the favourite, but this time he was on the receiving end of a close result. He placed third in the 100 m freestyle behind Mark Stockwell and Delany, missing individual selection by 0.05 s. The trio was separated by a total of only 0.15 s. Selected as a relay swimmer only, he went to Los Angeles hoping to win the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, an event that the United States had always won.
During the heats, the Australian team of Brooks, Fasala, Delany and Stockwell showed their intention to deny the Americans the gold for the first time at Olympic level. Drawn alongside the Americans in the third and final heat, the Australians set a new Olympic record of 3 m 19.94 s. Brooks led off in the heat, setting a time of 50.36 s, before Stockwell made up a deficit of 0.41 s during the anchor leg to beat the hosts by 0.20 s. Australia and the United States had stamped their authority on the event, qualifying almost four seconds faster than third-placed Sweden. However, the Americans had more speed in reserve, having rested 200 m freestyle silver medalist Mike Heath and 100 m freestyle gold medallist Rowdy Gaines, whereas Australia used its full-strength team.
In the final, Australian coach Terry Buck switched the swimming order, putting Fasala as the leadoff leg, while the Americans brought in Heath and Gaines. Fasala's time of 51.00 s put the Australians second at the first change, behind the Americans, for whom Chris Cavanaugh had built a 0.17 s lead. After the first leg, the race was still close—0.90 s separated all the teams. Brooks completed his leg in 49.36 s, the fourth fastest in the race, 0.24 s faster than his American counterpart Heath, giving the Australians a slender 0.07 s lead at the halfway point. Australia and the United States had broken away from the field, which was now the best part of two seconds in arrears. However, the Australian lead was short-lived. Matt Biondi took 0.59 s from Delany and Gaines took another 0.13 s from Stockwell, as the United States won in a world record time of 3 m 19.03 s. Australia were 0.65 s behind with Sweden a further 2.99 s in arrears. Brooks remained adamant that either he or Stockwell should have led off, stating that "the gold was there for the taking".
Brooks collected a bronze in the medley relay after swimming the freestyle leg in the heats before being replaced by first-choice Stockwell in the final. Competing in the third and final heat, Australia and the United States were equal at the last change before Brooks posted the fastest freestyle leg in the heats, pulling out a 0.40 s margin over Tom Jager. Australia again qualified fastest, but the Americans again had more in reserve, having rested all of their first-choice quartet in the heats. Stockwell combined with Kerry, Evans and Glenn Buchanan to finish behind the United States and Canada in the final, missing silver by just 0.02 s. Australia improved on their qualifying time by only 0.68 s, while the Americans sped up by 5.03 s.
### 1986 Commonwealth Games and retirement from swimming
In 1985, Brooks dead-heated with Stockwell in the 100 m freestyle at the Australian Championships, clocking a time of 51.12 s. He then combined with Tom Stachewicz, Paul Lee and Barry Armstrong, as Western Australia won the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay for the first time. Brooks maintained his form and despite not defending his Australian 100 m title, was selected for the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, where he came second to Fasala in the 100 m freestyle in a time of 51.01 s. He claimed gold in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay along with Fasala, Stockwell and Matthew Renshaw, anchoring the quartet in setting a Commonwealth Games record.
On the return flight from the games, Brooks consumed 46 cans of beer and was banned for six months after he talked about the incident during a television interview. In his memoirs, Talbot, a non-drinker, cited Brooks and his Mean Machine teammates as being one of the biggest proponents of a hard-drinking culture that had permeated the Australian swimming scene at the time. In particular, he singled out Brooks as being a focal point of disruptive activity during his time at the Australian Institute of Sport. Talbot sees alcohol as the main reason behind the collapse of Australia's standing in the swimming world in the 1970s and the subsequent prolonged period of international uncompetitiveness in the 1980s.
Brooks retired thereafter, moving to Nambour, Queensland and starting a rock band called The Union. He played the electric guitar, and also wrote his own music and songs. He also represented Western Australia in water polo and indoor cricket and played Australian rules football at district level.
## Media career
Having graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in journalism in 1985, Brooks entered the media after his retirement from swimming. Before his graduation, he had been a cadet with the Seven Network in Perth for five years, and was again hired by Seven and read the sports segment on the weekday evening news. He served as a commentator for Seven's coverage of the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics. Aside from covering the swimming and water polo, he also commentated on volleyball and in 1998, he called various downhill skiing events at the Nagano Winter Olympics. Brooks also called Australian Football League matches, and for three years hosted Brooksy's Footy Show. He also hosted a Western Australian travel/holiday show called Wild West, and in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics, co-hosted The Games with Tracey Holmes.
However, Brooks' media career began to unravel in the late-1990s. He became addicted to alcohol, leading to a series of on-screen incidents. He once read the sports news segment while inebriated, and was then involved in a drunken argument with the Nine Network's Australian rules football pundit Sam Newman. In early 1999, in an interview with a magazine that had not been authorised by Seven, Brooks was asked what event he was looking forward to most at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and replied "The after-Olympics piss-up". Seven suspended Brooks from on-screen duties for six weeks after he made the comments, which they deemed to be "tasteless and offensive", and he was eventually sacked, denying him the opportunity to commentate on the swimming events and costing him an annual salary of AUD700,000.
Having moved to South Australia in 2003, Brooks started Local, which he billed as the state's leading lifestyle magazine. The venture was run solely by him and his wife, and was dominated by advertising. Journalist Peter FitzSimons criticised the lack of grammar checking and copyediting, citing a quote from Kieren Perkins, which was rendered thus in the publication: "I was over the moon. Winning is something you strive to do but when I consider all the factors being married two children twenty seven years of age competing in my third Games and I broke fifteen minutes twice in two days it really was quite outstanding and whichever way you cut it Grant Hackett was just the next generation of swimmer [sic]."
## Personal life
Brooks stood 200 cm and weighed 95 kg during his career, but in the early part of the 21st century fought a battle with obesity, after ballooning to 150 kg. As of 2007, he had lost substantial weight and fought off his alcohol problems.
Brooks' first marriage was to Lynette Quinlivan in January 1985. Their son Luke is a member of the Australian water polo team, playing as a goalkeeper. In 2000, he married his third wife Linda. As of 2022 the Brooks reside in Bali, Indonesia.
## Legal issues
In late 2000, Brooks was declared bankrupt by the Federal Court of Australia in Perth after failing to repay a \$15,000 debt to Bankwest. In May 2001, the police raided Brooks' Perth home and found a metre-high cannabis plant. Brooks claimed that the plant belonged to a friend, and then announced that he would be leaving the state.
Brooks later became a partner in Nitro Energy Drink Company, which was involved in motorsport sponsorship. However, the firm suffered from financial trouble and he had a falling out with his business partner. In 2009, Brooks was removed from the board and the company was put into administration, and both he and his former partner started legal proceedings.
On 13 October 2017 Linda Brooks was arrested in Perth after returning there from Bali. An extradition request to Queensland was granted, and police questioned her over an alleged fraud in 2008 relating to a sports clothing company which she was a director of. Neil Brooks was later arrested upon entering the country from Hong Kong, and both were charged with fraud. It is alleged that both made dishonest representations about the success of their business in order to persuade two investors to purchase a stake in their company. Both were later released on bail and were allowed to return overseas.
In April 2022 Brooks and his wife were ordered to return to Australia in order to face court over the fraud allegations after being earlier unable to due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2022 they returned to Australia and faced a two-day committal hearing that will determine whether the case will go to trial.
## See also
- List of Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming (men)
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
|
19,605 |
Main sequence
| 1,170,137,074 |
Continuous band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness
|
[
"Concepts in astronomy",
"Main-sequence stars",
"Star types",
"Stellar evolution"
] |
In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell. Stars on this band are known as main-sequence stars or dwarf stars. These are the most numerous true stars in the universe and include the Sun.
After condensation and ignition of a star, it generates thermal energy in its dense core region through nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium. During this stage of the star's lifetime, it is located on the main sequence at a position determined primarily by its mass but also based on its chemical composition and age. The cores of main-sequence stars are in hydrostatic equilibrium, where outward thermal pressure from the hot core is balanced by the inward pressure of gravitational collapse from the overlying layers. The strong dependence of the rate of energy generation on temperature and pressure helps to sustain this balance. Energy generated at the core makes its way to the surface and is radiated away at the photosphere. The energy is carried by either radiation or convection, with the latter occurring in regions with steeper temperature gradients, higher opacity, or both.
The main sequence is sometimes divided into upper and lower parts, based on the dominant process that a star uses to generate energy. The Sun, along with main sequence stars below about 1.5 times the mass of the Sun (), primarily fuse hydrogen atoms together in a series of stages to form helium, a sequence called the proton–proton chain. Above this mass, in the upper main sequence, the nuclear fusion process mainly uses atoms of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen as intermediaries in the CNO cycle that produces helium from hydrogen atoms. Main-sequence stars with more than two solar masses undergo convection in their core regions, which acts to stir up the newly created helium and maintain the proportion of fuel needed for fusion to occur. Below this mass, stars have cores that are entirely radiative with convective zones near the surface. With decreasing stellar mass, the proportion of the star forming a convective envelope steadily increases. Main-sequence stars below undergo convection throughout their mass. When core convection does not occur, a helium-rich core develops surrounded by an outer layer of hydrogen.
The more massive a star is, the shorter its lifespan on the main sequence. After the hydrogen fuel at the core has been consumed, the star evolves away from the main sequence on the HR diagram, into a supergiant, red giant, or directly to a white dwarf.
## History
In the early part of the 20th century, information about the types and distances of stars became more readily available. The spectra of stars were shown to have distinctive features, which allowed them to be categorized. Annie Jump Cannon and Edward C. Pickering at Harvard College Observatory developed a method of categorization that became known as the Harvard Classification Scheme, published in the Harvard Annals in 1901.
In Potsdam in 1906, the Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung noticed that the reddest stars—classified as K and M in the Harvard scheme—could be divided into two distinct groups. These stars are either much brighter than the Sun or much fainter. To distinguish these groups, he called them "giant" and "dwarf" stars. The following year he began studying star clusters; large groupings of stars that are co-located at approximately the same distance. For these stars, he published the first plots of color versus luminosity. These plots showed a prominent and continuous sequence of stars, which he named the Main Sequence.
At Princeton University, Henry Norris Russell was following a similar course of research. He was studying the relationship between the spectral classification of stars and their actual brightness as corrected for distance—their absolute magnitude. For this purpose, he used a set of stars that had reliable parallaxes and many of which had been categorized at Harvard. When he plotted the spectral types of these stars against their absolute magnitude, he found that dwarf stars followed a distinct relationship. This allowed the real brightness of a dwarf star to be predicted with reasonable accuracy.
Of the red stars observed by Hertzsprung, the dwarf stars also followed the spectra-luminosity relationship discovered by Russell. However, giant stars are much brighter than dwarfs and so do not follow the same relationship. Russell proposed that "giant stars must have low density or great surface brightness, and the reverse is true of dwarf stars". The same curve also showed that there were very few faint white stars.
In 1933, Bengt Strömgren introduced the term Hertzsprung–Russell diagram to denote a luminosity-spectral class diagram. This name reflected the parallel development of this technique by both Hertzsprung and Russell earlier in the century.
As evolutionary models of stars were developed during the 1930s, it was shown that, for stars of uniform chemical composition, a relationship exists between a star's mass and its luminosity and radius. That is, for a given mass and composition, there is a unique solution for determining the star's radius and luminosity. This became known as the Vogt–Russell theorem; named after Heinrich Vogt and Henry Norris Russell. By this theorem, when a star's chemical composition and its position on the main sequence are known, so too are the star's mass and radius. (However, it was subsequently discovered that the theorem breaks down somewhat for stars of the non-uniform composition.)
A refined scheme for stellar classification was published in 1943 by William Wilson Morgan and Philip Childs Keenan. The MK classification assigned each star a spectral type—based on the Harvard classification—and a luminosity class. The Harvard classification had been developed by assigning a different letter to each star based on the strength of the hydrogen spectral line before the relationship between spectra and temperature was known. When ordered by temperature and when duplicate classes were removed, the spectral types of stars followed, in order of decreasing temperature with colors ranging from blue to red, the sequence O, B, A, F, G, K, and M. (A popular mnemonic for memorizing this sequence of stellar classes is "Oh Be A Fine Girl/Guy, Kiss Me".) The luminosity class ranged from I to V, in order of decreasing luminosity. Stars of luminosity class V belonged to the main sequence.
In April 2018, astronomers reported the detection of the most distant "ordinary" (i.e., main sequence) star, named Icarus (formally, MACS J1149 Lensed Star 1), at 9 billion light-years away from Earth.
## Formation and evolution
When a protostar is formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud of gas and dust in the local interstellar medium, the initial composition is homogeneous throughout, consisting of about 70% hydrogen, 28% helium, and trace amounts of other elements, by mass. The initial mass of the star depends on the local conditions within the cloud. (The mass distribution of newly formed stars is described empirically by the initial mass function.) During the initial collapse, this pre-main-sequence star generates energy through gravitational contraction. Once sufficiently dense, stars begin converting hydrogen into helium and giving off energy through an exothermic nuclear fusion process.
When nuclear fusion of hydrogen becomes the dominant energy production process and the excess energy gained from gravitational contraction has been lost, the star lies along a curve on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (or HR diagram) called the standard main sequence. Astronomers will sometimes refer to this stage as "zero-age main sequence", or ZAMS. The ZAMS curve can be calculated using computer models of stellar properties at the point when stars begin hydrogen fusion. From this point, the brightness and surface temperature of stars typically increase with age.
A star remains near its initial position on the main sequence until a significant amount of hydrogen in the core has been consumed, then begins to evolve into a more luminous star. (On the HR diagram, the evolving star moves up and to the right of the main sequence.) Thus the main sequence represents the primary hydrogen-burning stage of a star's lifetime.
## Properties
The majority of stars on a typical HR diagram lie along the main-sequence curve. This line is pronounced because both the spectral type and the luminosity depends only on a star's mass, at least to zeroth-order approximation, as long as it is fusing hydrogen at its core—and that is what almost all stars spend most of their "active" lives doing.
The temperature of a star determines its spectral type via its effect on the physical properties of plasma in its photosphere. A star's energy emission as a function of wavelength is influenced by both its temperature and composition. A key indicator of this energy distribution is given by the color index, B − V, which measures the star's magnitude in blue (B) and green-yellow (V) light by means of filters. This difference in magnitude provides a measure of a star's temperature.
## Dwarf terminology
Main-sequence stars are called dwarf stars, but this terminology is partly historical and can be somewhat confusing. For the cooler stars, dwarfs such as red dwarfs, orange dwarfs, and yellow dwarfs are indeed much smaller and dimmer than other stars of those colors. However, for hotter blue and white stars, the difference in size and brightness between so-called "dwarf" stars that are on the main sequence and so-called "giant" stars that are not, becomes smaller. For the hottest stars the difference is not directly observable and for these stars, the terms "dwarf" and "giant" refer to differences in spectral lines which indicate whether a star is on or off the main sequence. Nevertheless, very hot main-sequence stars are still sometimes called dwarfs, even though they have roughly the same size and brightness as the "giant" stars of that temperature.
The common use of "dwarf" to mean the main sequence is confusing in another way because there are dwarf stars that are not main-sequence stars. For example, a white dwarf is the dead core left over after a star has shed its outer layers, and is much smaller than a main-sequence star, roughly the size of Earth. These represent the final evolutionary stage of many main-sequence stars.
## Parameters
By treating the star as an idealized energy radiator known as a black body, the luminosity L and radius R can be related to the effective temperature T<sub>eff</sub> by the Stefan–Boltzmann law:
$L = 4 \pi \sigma R^2 T_\text{eff}^4$
where σ is the Stefan–Boltzmann constant. As the position of a star on the HR diagram shows its approximate luminosity, this relation can be used to estimate its radius.
The mass, radius, and luminosity of a star are closely interlinked, and their respective values can be approximated by three relations. First is the Stefan–Boltzmann law, which relates the luminosity L, the radius R and the surface temperature T<sub>eff</sub>. Second is the mass–luminosity relation, which relates the luminosity L and the mass M. Finally, the relationship between M and R is close to linear. The ratio of M to R increases by a factor of only three over 2.5 orders of magnitude of M. This relation is roughly proportional to the star's inner temperature T<sub>I</sub>, and its extremely slow increase reflects the fact that the rate of energy generation in the core strongly depends on this temperature, whereas it has to fit the mass-luminosity relation. Thus, a too-high or too-low temperature will result in stellar instability.
A better approximation is to take ε = L/M, the energy generation rate per unit mass, as ε is proportional to T<sub>I</sub><sup>15</sup>, where T<sub>I</sub> is the core temperature. This is suitable for stars at least as massive as the Sun, exhibiting the CNO cycle, and gives the better fit R ∝ M<sup>0.78</sup>.
### Sample parameters
The table below shows typical values for stars along the main sequence. The values of luminosity (L), radius (R), and mass (M) are relative to the Sun—a dwarf star with a spectral classification of G2 V. The actual values for a star may vary by as much as 20–30% from the values listed below.
## Energy generation
All main-sequence stars have a core region where energy is generated by nuclear fusion. The temperature and density of this core are at the levels necessary to sustain the energy production that will support the remainder of the star. A reduction of energy production would cause the overlaying mass to compress the core, resulting in an increase in the fusion rate because of higher temperature and pressure. Likewise, an increase in energy production would cause the star to expand, lowering the pressure at the core. Thus the star forms a self-regulating system in hydrostatic equilibrium that is stable over the course of its main-sequence lifetime.
Main-sequence stars employ two types of hydrogen fusion processes, and the rate of energy generation from each type depends on the temperature in the core region. Astronomers divide the main sequence into upper and lower parts, based on which of the two is the dominant fusion process. In the lower main sequence, energy is primarily generated as the result of the proton–proton chain, which directly fuses hydrogen together in a series of stages to produce helium. Stars in the upper main sequence have sufficiently high core temperatures to efficiently use the CNO cycle (see chart). This process uses atoms of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen as intermediaries in the process of fusing hydrogen into helium.
At a stellar core temperature of 18 million Kelvin, the PP process and CNO cycle are equally efficient, and each type generates half of the star's net luminosity. As this is the core temperature of a star with about 1.5 , the upper main sequence consists of stars above this mass. Thus, roughly speaking, stars of spectral class F or cooler belong to the lower main sequence, while A-type stars or hotter are upper main-sequence stars. The transition in primary energy production from one form to the other spans a range difference of less than a single solar mass. In the Sun, a one solar-mass star, only 1.5% of the energy is generated by the CNO cycle. By contrast, stars with 1.8 or above generate almost their entire energy output through the CNO cycle.
The observed upper limit for a main-sequence star is 120–200 . The theoretical explanation for this limit is that stars above this mass can not radiate energy fast enough to remain stable, so any additional mass will be ejected in a series of pulsations until the star reaches a stable limit. The lower limit for sustained proton-proton nuclear fusion is about 0.08 or 80 times the mass of Jupiter. Below this threshold are sub-stellar objects that can not sustain hydrogen fusion, known as brown dwarfs.
## Structure
Because there is a temperature difference between the core and the surface, or photosphere, energy is transported outward. The two modes for transporting this energy are radiation and convection. A radiation zone, where energy is transported by radiation, is stable against convection and there is very little mixing of the plasma. By contrast, in a convection zone the energy is transported by bulk movement of plasma, with hotter material rising and cooler material descending. Convection is a more efficient mode for carrying energy than radiation, but it will only occur under conditions that create a steep temperature gradient.
In massive stars (above 10 ) the rate of energy generation by the CNO cycle is very sensitive to temperature, so the fusion is highly concentrated at the core. Consequently, there is a high temperature gradient in the core region, which results in a convection zone for more efficient energy transport. This mixing of material around the core removes the helium ash from the hydrogen-burning region, allowing more of the hydrogen in the star to be consumed during the main-sequence lifetime. The outer regions of a massive star transport energy by radiation, with little or no convection.
Intermediate-mass stars such as Sirius may transport energy primarily by radiation, with a small core convection region. Medium-sized, low-mass stars like the Sun have a core region that is stable against convection, with a convection zone near the surface that mixes the outer layers. This results in a steady buildup of a helium-rich core, surrounded by a hydrogen-rich outer region. By contrast, cool, very low-mass stars (below 0.4 ) are convective throughout. Thus the helium produced at the core is distributed across the star, producing a relatively uniform atmosphere and a proportionately longer main-sequence lifespan.
## Luminosity-color variation
As non-fusing helium ash accumulates in the core of a main-sequence star, the reduction in the abundance of hydrogen per unit mass results in a gradual lowering of the fusion rate within that mass. Since it is the outflow of fusion-supplied energy that supports the higher layers of the star, the core is compressed, producing higher temperatures and pressures. Both factors increase the rate of fusion thus moving the equilibrium towards a smaller, denser, hotter core producing more energy whose increased outflow pushes the higher layers further out. Thus there is a steady increase in the luminosity and radius of the star over time. For example, the luminosity of the early Sun was only about 70% of its current value. As a star ages this luminosity increase changes its position on the HR diagram. This effect results in a broadening of the main sequence band because stars are observed at random stages in their lifetime. That is, the main sequence band develops a thickness on the HR diagram; it is not simply a narrow line.
Other factors that broaden the main sequence band on the HR diagram include uncertainty in the distance to stars and the presence of unresolved binary stars that can alter the observed stellar parameters. However, even perfect observation would show a fuzzy main sequence because mass is not the only parameter that affects a star's color and luminosity. Variations in chemical composition caused by the initial abundances, the star's evolutionary status, interaction with a close companion, rapid rotation, or a magnetic field can all slightly change a main-sequence star's HR diagram position, to name just a few factors. As an example, there are metal-poor stars (with a very low abundance of elements with higher atomic numbers than helium) that lie just below the main sequence and are known as subdwarfs. These stars are fusing hydrogen in their cores and so they mark the lower edge of the main sequence fuzziness caused by variance in chemical composition.
A nearly vertical region of the HR diagram, known as the instability strip, is occupied by pulsating variable stars known as Cepheid variables. These stars vary in magnitude at regular intervals, giving them a pulsating appearance. The strip intersects the upper part of the main sequence in the region of class A and F stars, which are between one and two solar masses. Pulsating stars in this part of the instability strip intersecting the upper part of the main sequence are called Delta Scuti variables. Main-sequence stars in this region experience only small changes in magnitude, so this variation is difficult to detect. Other classes of unstable main-sequence stars, like Beta Cephei variables, are unrelated to this instability strip.
## Lifetime
The total amount of energy that a star can generate through nuclear fusion of hydrogen is limited by the amount of hydrogen fuel that can be consumed at the core. For a star in equilibrium, the thermal energy generated at the core must be at least equal to the energy radiated at the surface. Since the luminosity gives the amount of energy radiated per unit time, the total life span can be estimated, to first approximation, as the total energy produced divided by the star's luminosity.
For a star with at least 0.5 , when the hydrogen supply in its core is exhausted and it expands to become a red giant, it can start to fuse helium atoms to form carbon. The energy output of the helium fusion process per unit mass is only about a tenth the energy output of the hydrogen process, and the luminosity of the star increases. This results in a much shorter length of time in this stage compared to the main-sequence lifetime. (For example, the Sun is predicted to spend 130 million years burning helium, compared to about 12 billion years burning hydrogen.) Thus, about 90% of the observed stars above 0.5 will be on the main sequence. On average, main-sequence stars are known to follow an empirical mass–luminosity relationship. The luminosity (L) of the star is roughly proportional to the total mass (M) as the following power law:
$L\ \propto\ M^{3.5}$
This relationship applies to main-sequence stars in the range 0.1–50 .
The amount of fuel available for nuclear fusion is proportional to the mass of the star. Thus, the lifetime of a star on the main sequence can be estimated by comparing it to solar evolutionary models. The Sun has been a main-sequence star for about 4.5 billion years and it will become a red giant in 6.5 billion years, for a total main-sequence lifetime of roughly 10<sup>10</sup> years. Hence:
<math>\tau\_\text{MS} \approx
` 10^{10} \text{years} \left[ \frac{M}{M_\bigodot} \right] \left[ \frac{L_\bigodot}{L} \right] =`
` 10^{10} \text{years} \left[ \frac{M}{M_\bigodot} \right]^{-2.5}`
</math>
where M and L are the mass and luminosity of the star, respectively, $M_\bigodot$ is a solar mass, $L_\bigodot$ is the solar luminosity and $\tau_\text{MS}$ is the star's estimated main-sequence lifetime.
Although more massive stars have more fuel to burn and might intuitively be expected to last longer, they also radiate a proportionately greater amount with increased mass. This is required by the stellar equation of state; for a massive star to maintain equilibrium, the outward pressure of radiated energy generated in the core not only must but will rise to match the titanic inward gravitational pressure of its envelope. Thus, the most massive stars may remain on the main sequence for only a few million years, while stars with less than a tenth of a solar mass may last for over a trillion years.
The exact mass-luminosity relationship depends on how efficiently energy can be transported from the core to the surface. A higher opacity has an insulating effect that retains more energy at the core, so the star does not need to produce as much energy to remain in hydrostatic equilibrium. By contrast, a lower opacity means energy escapes more rapidly and the star must burn more fuel to remain in equilibrium. A sufficiently high opacity can result in energy transport via convection, which changes the conditions needed to remain in equilibrium.
In high-mass main-sequence stars, the opacity is dominated by electron scattering, which is nearly constant with increasing temperature. Thus the luminosity only increases as the cube of the star's mass. For stars below 10 , the opacity becomes dependent on temperature, resulting in the luminosity varying approximately as the fourth power of the star's mass. For very low-mass stars, molecules in the atmosphere also contribute to the opacity. Below about 0.5 , the luminosity of the star varies as the mass to the power of 2.3, producing a flattening of the slope on a graph of mass versus luminosity. Even these refinements are only an approximation, however, and the mass-luminosity relation can vary depending on a star's composition.
## Evolutionary tracks
When a main-sequence star has consumed the hydrogen at its core, the loss of energy generation causes its gravitational collapse to resume and the star evolves off the main sequence. The path which the star follows across the HR diagram is called an evolutionary track.
Stars with less than are predicted to directly become white dwarfs when energy generation by nuclear fusion of hydrogen at their core comes to a halt, but stars in this mass range have main-sequence lifetimes longer than the current age of the universe, so no stars are old enough for this to have occurred.
In stars more massive than , the hydrogen surrounding the helium core reaches sufficient temperature and pressure to undergo fusion, forming a hydrogen-burning shell and causing the outer layers of the star to expand and cool. The stage as these stars move away from the main sequence is known as the subgiant branch; it is relatively brief and appears as a gap in the evolutionary track since few stars are observed at that point.
When the helium core of low-mass stars becomes degenerate, or the outer layers of intermediate-mass stars cool sufficiently to become opaque, their hydrogen shells increase in temperature and the stars start to become more luminous. This is known as the red-giant branch; it is a relatively long-lived stage and it appears prominently in H–R diagrams. These stars will eventually end their lives as white dwarfs.
The most massive stars do not become red giants; instead, their cores quickly become hot enough to fuse helium and eventually heavier elements and they are known as supergiants. They follow approximately horizontal evolutionary tracks from the main sequence across the top of the H–R diagram. Supergiants are relatively rare and do not show prominently on most H–R diagrams. Their cores will eventually collapse, usually leading to a supernova and leaving behind either a neutron star or black hole.
When a cluster of stars is formed at about the same time, the main-sequence lifespan of these stars will depend on their individual masses. The most massive stars will leave the main sequence first, followed in sequence by stars of ever lower masses. The position where stars in the cluster are leaving the main sequence is known as the turnoff point. By knowing the main-sequence lifespan of stars at this point, it becomes possible to estimate the age of the cluster.
## See also
- Lists of astronomical objects
|
24,431,456 |
Suillus brevipes
| 1,170,072,614 |
Species of edible fungus in the family Suillaceae found throughout North America
|
[
"Edible fungi",
"Fungi described in 1885",
"Fungi of Asia",
"Fungi of New Zealand",
"Fungi of North America",
"Suillus"
] |
Suillus brevipes is a species of fungus in the family Suillaceae. First described by American mycologists in the late 19th century, it is commonly known as the stubby-stalk or the short-stemmed slippery Jack. The fruit bodies (mushrooms) produced by the fungus are characterized by a chocolate to reddish-brown cap covered with a sticky layer of slime, and a short whitish stipe that has neither a partial veil nor prominent, colored glandular dots. The cap can reach a diameter of about 10 cm (3+7⁄8 in), while the stipe is up to 6 cm (2+3⁄8 in) long and 2 cm (3⁄4 in) thick. Like other bolete mushrooms, S. brevipes produces spores in a vertically arranged layer of spongy tubes with openings that form a layer of small yellowish pores on the underside of the cap.
Suillus brevipes grows in a mycorrhizal association with various species of two- and three-needled pines, especially lodgepole and ponderosa pine. The fungus is found throughout North America, and has been introduced to several other countries via transplanted pines. In the succession of mycorrhizal fungi associated with the regrowth of jack pine after clearcutting or wildfires, S. brevipes is a multi-stage fungus, found during all stages of tree development. The mushrooms are edible, and are high in the essential fatty acid linoleic acid.
## Taxonomy
The species was first described scientifically as Boletus viscosus by American mycologist Charles Frost in 1874. In 1885, Charles Horton Peck, who had found specimens in pine woods of Albany County, New York, explained that the species name was a taxonomic homonym (Boletus viscosus was already in use for another species named by Ventenat in 1863), and so renamed it to Boletus brevipes. Its current name was assigned by German Otto Kuntze in 1898. William Alphonso Murrill renamed it as Rostkovites brevipes in 1948; the genus Rostkovites is now considered to be synonymous with Suillus.
Agaricales specialist Rolf Singer included Suillus brevipes in the subsection Suillus of genus Suillus, an infrageneric (a taxonomic level below genus) grouping of species characterized by a cinnamon-brown spore print, and pores less than 1 mm wide.
The specific epithet is derived from the Latin brevipes, meaning "short-footed". The mushroom is commonly known as the "stubby-stalk" or the "short-stemmed slippery Jack".
## Description
The cap is deep brown to reddish-brown, fading to tan or yellowish with age, and it does not bruise with handling. The cap surface is smooth, and, depending on the moisture in the environment, may range from sticky to the touch to slimy. Depending on its maturity, the cap shape may range from spherical to broadly convex. The cap diameter measures 5–10 cm (2–3+7⁄8 in), and the cap cuticle can be peeled from the surface. The tubes are yellow, becoming olive-green with age, and they have an attachment to the stipe that ranges from adnate (with most of the tube fused to the stipe) to decurrent (with the tubes broadly attached, but running somewhat down the length of the stipe). They are typically up to 1 cm (3⁄8 in) deep, and there are about 1–2 tube mouths (pores) per millimeter. The pores are pale yellow, round, 1–2 mm wide, and do not change color when bruised.
The stipe is white to pale yellow, dry, solid, not bruising, and pruinose (having a very fine whitish powder on the surface). A characteristic feature of many Suillus species are the glandular dots found on the stipe—clumps of hyphal cell ends through which the fungus secretes various metabolic wastes, leaving a sticky or resinous "dot". In S. brevipes, the form of the glandular dots is variable: they may be absent, slightly underdeveloped or obscurely formed with age. The stipe is usually short in comparison to the diameter of the cap, typically 2–6 cm (3⁄4–2+3⁄8 in) long and 1–2 cm (3⁄8–3⁄4 in) thick. It is either of equal width throughout, or may taper downwards; its surface bears minute puncture holes at maturity, and is it slightly fibrous at the base. Collections made in New Zealand tend to have a reddish coloration at the very base of the stipe. The flesh of the mushroom is initially white, but turns pale yellow in age. The odor and taste are mild. The spore print is cinnamon-brown.
### Microscopic characteristics
The spores are elliptical to oblong, smooth, and have dimensions of 7–10 by 3–4 μm. The spore-bearing cells, the basidia, are thin-walled, club-shaped to roughly cylindrical, and measure 2–25 by 5–7 μm. They bear either two or four spores. The pleurocystidia (cystidia that are found on the face of a gill) are roughly cylindrical with rounded ends, thin-walled, and 40–55 by 5–8 μm. The cells often have brown contents, and in the presence of 2% potassium hydroxide (KOH) will appear hyaline (translucent) or vinaceous (red wine-colored); in Melzer's reagent they become pale yellow or brown. The cheilocystidia (cystidia found on the edge of a gill) are 30–60 by 7–10 μm, club-shaped to almost cylindrical, thin-walled, with brown incrusting material at the base, and arranged like a bundle of fibers. In KOH they appear hyaline, and are pale yellow in Melzer's reagent. Caulocystidia (found on the stipe) are 60–90 by 7–9 μm, mostly cylindrical with rounded ends, and arranged in bundles with brown pigment particles at the base. The caulocystidia stain vinaceous in KOH. The cuticle of the cap is made of a layer of interwoven gelatinous hyphae that are individually 2–5 μm thick; the gelatinous hyphae are responsible for the sliminess of the cuticle. There are no clamp connections in the hyphae.
### Edibility
Like many species of the genus Suillus, S. brevipes is edible, and the mushroom is considered choice by some. The odor is mild, and the taste mild or slightly acidic. Field guides typically recommended to remove the slimy cap cuticle, and, in older specimens, the tube layer before consumption. The mushrooms are common in the diet of grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park.
The fatty acid composition of S. brevipes fruit bodies has been analyzed. The cap contained a higher lipid content than the stipe—18.4% of the dry weight, compared to 12.4%. In the cap, linoleic acid made up 50.7% of the total lipids (65.7% in the stipe), oleic acid was 29.9% (12.4% in the stipe), followed by palmitic acid at 10.5% (12.6% in the stipe). Linoleic acid—a member of the group of essential fatty acids called omega-6 fatty acids—is an essential dietary requirement for humans.
### Similar species
Several Suillus species which grow under pines could be confused with S. brevipes. S. granulatus has a longer stipe, and distinct raised granules on the stipe. S. brevipes is differentiated from S. albidipes by not having a cottony roll of velar tissue (derived from a partial veil) at the margin when young. S. pallidiceps is by distinguished its pale yellow cap color; and S. albivelatus has a veil. S. pungens has a characteristic pungent odor, compared to the mild smell of S. brevipes, and like S. granulatus, has glandular dots on the stipe. Boletus flaviporus is also similar.
Molecular phylogenetic analyses of ribosomal DNA sequences shows that the most closely related species to S. brevipes include S. luteus, S. pseudobrevipes, and S. weaverae.
## Ecology
Suillus brevipes is a mycorrhizal fungus, and it develops a close symbiotic association with the roots of various tree species, especially pine. The underground mycelia form a sheath around the tree rootlets, and the fungal hyphae penetrate between the cortical cells of the root, forming ectomycorrhizae. In this way, the fungus can supply the tree with minerals, while the tree reciprocates by supplying carbohydrates created by photosynthesis. In nature, it associates with two- and three-needle pines, especially lodgepole and ponderosa pine. Under controlled laboratory conditions, the fungus has been shown to form ectomycorrhizae with ponderosa, lodgepole, loblolly, eastern white, patula, pond, radiata, and red pines. In vitro mycorrhizal associations formed with non-pine species include Pacific madrone, bearberry, western larch, Sitka spruce, and coast Douglas-fir. Fungal growth is inhibited by the presence of high levels of the heavy metals cadmium (350 ppm), lead (200 ppm), and nickel (20 ppm).
During the regrowth of pine trees after disturbance like clearcutting or wildfire, there appears an orderly sequence of mycorrhizal fungi as one species is replaced by another. A study on the ecological succession of ectomycorrhizal fungi in Canadian jack pine forests following wildfire concluded that S. brevipes is a multi-stage fungus. It appears relatively early during tree development; fruit bodies were common in 6-year-old tree stands, and the fungus colonized the highest proportion of root tips. The fungus persists throughout the life of the tree, having been found in tree stands that were 41, 65, and 122 years old. There is, however, a relative reduction in the prevalence of the fungus with increasing stand age, which may be attributed to increased competition from other fungi, and a change in habitat brought about by closure of the forest canopy. Generally, S. brevipes responds favorably to silvicultural practices such as thinning and clearcutting. A 1996 study demonstrated that fruit bodies increased in abundance as the severity of disturbance increased. It has been suggested that the thick-walled, wiry rhizomorphs produced by the fungus may serve as an adaptation that helps it to survive and remain viable for a period of time following disturbance.
## Habitat and distribution
Suillus brevipes grows singly, scattered, or in groups on the ground in late summer and autumn. A common—and sometimes abundant—mushroom, it occurs over most of North America (including Hawaii), south to Mexico, and north to Canada. This species has been found in Puerto Rico growing under planted Pinus caribaea, where it is thought to have been introduced inadvertently from North Carolina by the USDA Forest Service in 1955. Other introductions have also occurred in exotic pine plantations in Argentina, India, New Zealand, Japan, and Taiwan.
## See also
- List of North American boletes
|
44,627,124 |
Style (Taylor Swift song)
| 1,173,730,793 |
2015 single by Taylor Swift
|
[
"2014 songs",
"2015 singles",
"American disco songs",
"American pop rock songs",
"American synth-pop songs",
"Big Machine Records singles",
"Italo disco songs",
"Republic Records singles",
"Ryan Adams songs",
"Song recordings produced by Ali Payami",
"Song recordings produced by Max Martin",
"Song recordings produced by Shellback (record producer)",
"Songs written by Ali Payami",
"Songs written by Max Martin",
"Songs written by Shellback (record producer)",
"Songs written by Taylor Swift",
"South African Airplay Chart number-one singles",
"Taylor Swift songs",
"Universal Music Group singles"
] |
"Style" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the third single from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). Swift wrote the song with producers Max Martin, Shellback, and Ali Payami. "Style" was released to radio on February 9, 2015, by Big Machine in partnership with Republic Records. An incorporation of pop, funk, disco, and electronic styles, "Style" is built on an electric guitar riff, pulsing synthesizers, and dense vocal reverb. The lyrics are about an on-and-off couple stuck in an unhealthy relationship because they are never "out of style".
When "Style" was first released, critics generally praised the production and deemed it a highlight of 1989, but a few considered the lyrics unsophisticated. In retrospect, critics have regarded it as one of Swift's best songs. "Style" was ranked in year-end best-of lists by Pitchfork (2014) and Pazz & Jop (2015). In the US, the single peaked at number six and was 1989's third consecutive top-ten single on the Billboard Hot 100, and it was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Style" also reached the top ten and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia and Canada.
Filmmaker Kyle Newman directed the song's music video featuring actor Dominic Sherwood as Swift's love interest. Premiering on February 13, 2015, the video featured a darker and more abstract atmosphere compared to those for previous 1989 singles "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space". Swift included "Style" on regular set lists for three of her world tours: the 1989 World Tour (2015), the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), and the Eras Tour (2023).
## Production and release
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift was inspired by 1980s synth-pop and its experimentation with synthesizers, drum pads, and overlapped vocals to embrace a pop production for her fifth studio album, 1989. She described 1989 as her first official pop album and abandoned the country stylings of her past works. Swift began working on the album in mid-2013 and recorded much of it with Swedish producers Max Martin and Shellback, who produced the electronic-pop tracks including the US pop radio number-one single "I Knew You Were Trouble" on her fourth album, Red (2012). She enlisted Martin as co-executive producer, and Martin and Shellback produced seven songs for the 13-track standard edition.
"Style" was one of the last songs produced for 1989. It was originally composed by producer Ali Payami and guitarist Niklas Ljungfelt for themselves. Ljungfelt finished a guitar-driven instrumental inspired by "funky electronic music" artists such as Daft Punk. Payami played the instrumental to Martin, and Swift became fond of the track after overhearing it. Swift and Martin wrote new lyrics, and the two are credited as the song's writers with Shellback and Payami. Martin, Shellback, and Payami are credited as producers. Michael Illbert and Sam Holland, assisted by Cory Bice, recorded the track at MXM Studios in Stockholm and Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles. The song was mixed by Serban Ghenea and John Hanes at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, and it was mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound in New York City.
The song debuted as a snippet in a Target commercial for the album on October 22, 2014. On December 28, 2014, Scott Borchetta, CEO of Swift's former record label Big Machine held an impromptu Q&A via Twitter. When asked by a fan about 1989's upcoming single following "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space", Borchetta responded that he was in favor of "Style". On February 9, 2015, Republic Records, in partnership with Big Machine, serviced the track to US hot adult contemporary radio as the third single. The following day, Republic serviced "Style" to US contemporary hit and rhythmic contemporary radio. The song was released to Italy's contemporary hit radio on April 3, 2015.
## Music and lyrics
As with the rest of 1989, "Style" features prominent electronic stylings and marks a dramatic change from Swift's past country-music songs—it incorporates pulsing synthesizers, a throbbing bassline, and dense vocal reverb. The track exhibits influences of eclectic genres: it is built on a recurring electric guitar riff that evokes funk, R&B, and 1980s rock, and its groove is propelled by a 1970s-disco-tinged beat. Critics categorized "Style" as synth-pop, pop rock, Italo disco, or "funk-pop". Ed Masley in The Arizona Republic and musicologist James E. Perone deemed it a hybrid of disco and new wave. The refrain's first half is built on major chords of D and G, which create a relatively radiant atmosphere that complements a more sorrow one of the second half brought by a B minor chord.
Many critics remarked that "Style" not only resembles music of the 1980s that inspired 1989 but also features a modern-leaning production. Masley remarked that the track "would have sounded right at home on MTV a few years earlier than 1989", and Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone deemed it "extremely 1986-sounding". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian likened the opening guitar riff to that on Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" (1983) and the electronic soundscape to the music of the soundtrack Drive (2011) and Daft Punk's Random Access Memories (2013). In NME, Matthew Horton said the "retro-modern atmosphere" evokes 1980s "piano-house" and the music of Electric Youth and Blood Orange. Two critics from Slate compared the guitar riff to the sound of Nile Rodgers, and the song to music of Don Henley and Madonna's "Into the Groove" (1985). Perone summed up that although "Style" strongly evokes 1980s music, it does not reference any particular influence.
Swift was inspired to write "Style" by an unstable relationship which she compared to "fashion staples that ... we never throw out of our closet". The lyrics are about a couple who is in an on-and-off unhealthy relationship but could not end it because they are never "out of style". The opening lines set a scene, "Midnight/ You come and pick me up, no headlights"; for some critics, these lyrics allude to sex, a theme Swift had not openly embraced—Jon Caramanica of The New York Times cited them as an example of her relinquishing the youthful innocence of her past songs. The refrain depicts the couple as conventionally attractive: the male lover resembles the 1950s actor James Dean with his "daydream look in [his] eye", and the female narrator flaunts her "red lip classic thing that you like" and "good girl faith and a tight little skirt". Some journalists wrote that the beauty depicted is rather conservative and embedded with racial undertones. In the second pre-chorus, both characters mutually admit to cheating. For Swift, the lyrics represented her evolved viewpoints on past relationships by admitting wrongdoings of both sides instead of her "I was right, you were wrong" mindset in previous songs.
> I say, "I heard that you've been out and about with some other girl"
> He says, "What you've heard is true, but I,
> Can't stop thinking about you and I"
> I said, "I've been there too a few times"
## Critical reception
In reviews of 1989, many critics regarded "Style" as an album highlight. Kitty Empire from The Observer called it a "percolating" song that "satisfies on every level". PopMatters's Corey Beasley was impressed by Swift's departure from country to new styles that "fit her like a cashmere-lined leather glove" and deemed the song "immaculate". Now's Benjamin Boles selected "Style" as the album's highlight. Houston Chronicle writer Joey Guerra praised the song as "compelling". Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times also named the track the album's standout for its "sensual" atmosphere. Robert Leedham of Drowned in Sound praised the track's theme of celebrating past relationships and embracing positivity instead of Swift's traditional "[playing] the victim."
Caramanica labelled "Style" the "high mark" of 1989 that embodies Swift's "savage, wry, and pointed" maturity from her previous albums. Billboard's Kristen He praised "Style" for showcasing "Swift's songwriting at its purest" by evoking "worlds of emotion" despite utilizing a generic song structure. The Independent's Andy Gill described the song's theme as a "piquancy", and its music direction as "desperately inclusive electropop grooves and corporate rebel clichés". Consequence's Sasha Geffen lauded the song's musical styles, but criticized its theme of conventional beauty standards of "white people" as a cliché that blemishes Swift's "girl-next-door likability" on the album.
Critics have retrospectively considered "Style" one of Swift's best songs. Pitchfork ranked "Style" at number 50 on their list of 2014's best songs. On behalf of the publication, Jordan Sargent remarked that while the lyrics embraced Swift's "familiar tropes of Western romance" on previous releases, the instrumentation as well as Swift's "tense and restrained" vocals signaled her transformation in music and image. The song placed at number 24 on the 2015 Pazz & Jop poll, an annual mass critics' poll conducted by The Village Voice. At the 2016 BMI Awards, the track was one of the Award-Winning Songs that earned Swift the honor of Songwriter of the Year. "Style" also received a nomination for International Work of the Year at the APRA Music Awards of 2016. In 2020, Hannah Mylrea of NME placed the song among the 10 best songs by Swift, labelling it as "Swift at her best". In 2021, Clash critics picked "Style" as one of Swift's 15 best songs.
## Commercial performance
After 1989 was released, "Style" debuted at number 60 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart week ending November 15, 2014. Following Swift's performance at the 2014 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, the song re-entered the chart at number 75 on the issue date December 27, 2014. After Borchetta announced that "Style" would likely be released as a single in December 2014, the track debuted at number 39 on the Pop Songs chart dated January 12, 2015. The single reached number ten on the Hot 100 chart on February 28, 2015, becoming 1989's third consecutive Hot 100 top ten following the number-one singles "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space". It peaked at number six on the March 21, 2015, chart.
The single also achieved success on Billboard component charts, peaking atop Pop Songs, Adult Pop Songs, and Adult Contemporary. "Style" was the seventh-best-performing song on the Billboard Radio Songs chart of 2015, earning over 3.163 billion audience impressions from 550,000 plays throughout the year. It was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which denotes three million units based on sales and streams. By November 2017, "Style" had sold 2.2 million digital copies in the US.
In Canada, the single peaked at number six on the Canadian Hot 100 and has received 3x platinum certification by Music Canada (MC). "Style" achieved moderate success in Europe, charting in the top twenty on the national charts in Scotland (nine), the Czech Republic (11), Poland (13), Slovakia (14), and Hungary (18). The single reached number 21 on the UK Singles Chart and has received a platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which denotes track-equivalent sales and streams of 600,000. It was more commercially successful in Oceania, peaking at number eight and 11 on the Australian and New Zealand charts, respectively. The track has been certified double platinum by both the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ). It also peaked atop the South African music chart.
## Music video
American filmmaker Kyle Newman directed the music video for "Style", which was shot in Los Angeles and completed within four days in summer 2014. Before its release, Swift posted several teaser images and short clips from the video on her social media accounts. She planned to premiere the video on Good Morning America on the morning of February 13, 2015, but Canadian music channel Much released it at midnight. Swift uploaded the video to her Vevo account on the same day. In the video, English actor Dominic Sherwood plays Swift's love interest. Swift contacted him by text message roughly a month before the shooting; the two had known of each other through mutual friends. By the time they worked on the video, Sherwood had finished the film Take Down, which was later renamed Billionaire Ransom (released in 2016).
The video does not have a clear narrative but features disparate flashbacks of Swift and her love interest by the seashore, in the woods, and on car rides. At some points, the broken mirror pieces, through which Swift and her lover see each other, symbolize memories of a past relationship that linger on. Media publications noted and praised the video's darker, more abstract and sensual atmosphere compared to the videos for "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space". Vox's Kelsey McKinney opined that Swift embraced her sexuality using "sensual imagery" of her touching herself, which showcased her maturity as an artist. Emilee Lindner of MTV called the video "mature, tasteful, and ... sexy". Spence Kornhaber from The Atlantic, meanwhile, remarked that Swift expressed her sexuality in a more conservative manner compared to her contemporaries that distinguished her from "the pop obsession with women's bodies." InStyle writer Hayley Spencer deemed it "Swift's most cinematic video to date."
Several images in the video featuring silhouettes of Swift's head overlaid by other scenes of her lover, the forests, smoking clouds, or thunder storms, were compared to the opening credits of the crime drama series True Detective. The Wall Street Journal's Michael Driscoll, meanwhile, compared the video's atmosphere to that of 1980s pop videos, specifically Chris Isaak's 1989 single "Wicked Game". Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times labelled the visual "a creepy homage" to David Lynch's mystery film Mulholland Drive (2001).
## Live performances and other usage
Swift first performed "Style" live as part of the "1989 Secret Session", which took place on the rooftop of the Empire State Building and was broadcast live by Yahoo! and iHeartRadio on October 27, 2014. On December 2, she performed the song along with "Blank Space" at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2014 in London. "Style" was included on the set list for Swift's headlining 2015 world tour in support of 1989. Swift also included the song on the set list for her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour, where it was part of a medley with "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me".
On April 23, 2019, Swift performed an acoustic version of the song at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts during the Time 100 Gala, where she was honored as one of the "100 most influential people" of the year. Swift again performed the song on the Wango Tango festival on June 1, during the Amazon Prime Day concert on July 10, and at the City of Lover one-day concert in Paris on September 9, 2019. She included "Style" in the regular set list of her sixth headlining tour, the Eras Tour (2023–2024).
Rock singer-songwriter Ryan Adams covered "Style" on his 2015 track-by-track cover album of Swift's 1989. Adams changed the original James Dean-referenced lyric to "You've got that 'Daydream Nation' look in your eye", a tribute to 1980s rock band Sonic Youth. His version incorporated rock-oriented styles, which critics compared to the music by Irish rock band U2 and its lead singer Bono. Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club deemed it a standout on Adams's 1989, praising the cover as a "yearning, '80s college rock fever dream with snarling punk stabs". Slant Magazine's Jeremy Winograd, by contrast, called the version "a bad U2 song."
## Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of 1989.
- Taylor Swift – vocals, background vocals, songwriter
- Max Martin – producer, songwriter, keyboard
- Shellback – producer, songwriter, keyboard, programming, additional guitars
- Ali Payami – producer, songwriter, keyboard, programming
- Michael Ilbert – recording
- Niklas Ljungfelt – guitar
- Sam Holland – recording
- Cory Bice – assistant recording
- Serban Ghenea – mixing
- John Hanes – engineered for mix
- Tom Coyne – mastering
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
## Release history
## See also
- List of Billboard Adult Contemporary number ones of 2015
- List of Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles in 2015
- List of Billboard Mainstream Top 40 number-one songs of 2015
- List of number-one singles of 2015 (South Africa)
|
1,959,977 |
1911 Atlantic hurricane season
| 1,152,695,202 |
Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean
|
[
"1910s Atlantic hurricane seasons",
"1911 meteorology",
"1911 natural disasters",
"Articles which contain graphical timelines"
] |
The 1911 Atlantic hurricane season was a relatively inactive hurricane season, with only six known tropical cyclones forming in the Atlantic during the summer and fall. There were three suspected tropical depressions, including one that began the season in February and one that ended the season when it dissipated in December. Three storms intensified into hurricanes, two of which attained Category 2 status on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. Storm data is largely based on the Atlantic hurricane database, which underwent a thorough revision for the period between 1911 and 1914 in 2005.
Most of the cyclones directly impacted land. A westward-moving hurricane killed 17 people and severely damaged Charleston, South Carolina, and the surrounding area in late August. A couple of weeks earlier, the Pensacola, Florida area had a storm in the Gulf of Mexico that produced winds of 80 mph (130 km/h) over land. The fourth storm of the season struck the coast of Nicaragua, killing 10 and causing extensive damage.
## Season summary
The Atlantic hurricane database (HURDAT) officially recognizes six tropical cyclones from the 1911 season. Only three attained hurricane status, with winds of 75 mph (121 km/h) or greater. The third hurricane of the season was the most intense storm, with a minimum central air pressure of 972 mbar (28.7 inHg). A week after its dissipation, another hurricane formed with wind speeds that matched the previous storm, but with unknown air pressure. Three weak tropical depressions developed and remained below tropical storm force; the first formed in February and the third in December. The first storm to reach tropical storm intensity developed on August 4, and the final tropical storm of the year dissipated on October 31.
The early 1900s lacked modern forecasting and documentation. The hurricane database from these years is sometimes found to be incomplete or incorrect, and new storms are continually being added as part of the ongoing Atlantic hurricane reanalysis. The period from 1911 through 1914 was reanalyzed in 2005. Two previously unknown tropical cyclones were identified using records including historical weather maps and ship reports, and information on the known storms was amended and corrected. These storms are referred to simply by their number in chronological order, since tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean were not given official names until much later.
The season's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) rating of 35, below the 1911–1920 average of 58.7. ACE is a metric used to express the energy used by a tropical cyclone during its lifetime. Therefore, a storm with a longer duration will have high values of ACE. It is only calculated at six-hour increments in which specific tropical and subtropical systems are either at or above sustained wind speeds of 39 mph (63 km/h), which is the threshold for tropical storm intensity. Thus, tropical depressions are not included here.
## Timeline
## Systems
### Tropical Storm One
Identified by its lack of associated frontal boundaries and closed circulation center, the first tropical cyclone of the 1911 season formed on August 4 over southern Alabama in the United States. At only tropical depression strength, it tracked eastward and emerged into the Atlantic Ocean the next day. Several days later, while located near Bermuda, the depression became a tropical storm and turned northeastward. The storm lasted several more days until dissipating on August 11. The storm produced heavy rainfall on the Bermuda, but no gale-force winds were reported. The storm was unknown until the 2005 Atlantic hurricane database revision recognized it as a tropical storm.
### Hurricane Two
Based on ship observations in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, a low-pressure area developed north of Key West in early August. It developed into a tropical depression at 12:00 UTC on August 8, and strengthened into a tropical storm at 06:00 UTC on August 9 while moving northwestward off the west coast of Florida. Gradual intensification continued, and at 06:00 UTC on August 11 the storm strengthened to hurricane status. At 22:00 UTC on August 11, the hurricane reached its peak intensity and concurrently made landfall near the border between Alabama and Florida as a small tropical cyclone. During this time, the storm's maximum sustained winds were estimated at 80 mph (130 km/h), making it the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane on the modern day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. A lull in the storm accompanied the nearby passage of its eye before conditions once again deteriorated. Although the lowest barometric pressure measured on land was 1007 mbar (hPa; 29.74 inHg) in Pensacola, Florida, the storm's pressure was estimated to be much lower at 982 mbar (hPa: 29.00 inHg). After making landfall, the hurricane weakened and slowly drifted westward, weakening to a tropical depression over Louisiana on August 13, before dissipating over Arkansas by 12:00 UTC the next day.
While developing in the Gulf of Mexico, the tropical cyclone brought light rainfall to Key West, amounting to 1.82 in (46 mm) over two days. The hurricane's outer rainbands affected the Florida panhandle as early as August 10, producing winds as strong as 80 mph (130 km/h) in Pensacola, where it was considered the worst since 1906. During the afternoon of August 11, the United States Weather Bureau issued storm warnings for coastal areas of the gulf coast where the hurricane was expected to impact. Upon making landfall, the storm brought heavy precipitation, peaking at 10 in (250 mm) in Molino, Florida, although the heaviest rainfall was localized from Mississippi to central Alabama. Some washouts occurred during brief episodes of heavy rain as the storm drifted westward after landfall. Strong winds in the Pensacola area downed telecommunication lines and disrupted power, cutting off communication to outside areas for 24 hours. A pavilion on Santa Rosa Island had a third of its roof torn, and some other buildings inland were also unroofed. Offshore, twelve barges were grounded after being swept by the rough surf. Heavy losses were reported to timber after they were swept away when log booms failed. Damage figures from the Pensacola area were conservatively estimated at US\$12,600, considered lighter than expected, although there were some deaths.
### Hurricane Three
Over a week after the dissipation of the previous hurricane, the third storm of the season developed on August 23 and slowly tracked west-northwestward. After attaining hurricane status, the storm turned more towards the northwest, and several days later reached its peak wind speeds of 100 mph (155 km/h); a barometric pressure of 972 mbar (hPa) was reported. The center passed inland a few miles north of Savannah, Georgia, on August 28; upon making landfall, the hurricane rapidly degenerated. It deteriorated into a tropical depression on August 29 and persisted over land until dissipating a couple of days later.
The hurricane, relatively small in size, caused widespread damage between Savannah and Charleston, South Carolina. Savannah itself received only minor damage, although the storm's center passed close by. Along the coast of Georgia, torrential rainfall caused numerous washouts on railroads. Crops, livestock and roads in the area took heavy damage. At Charleston, winds were estimated at 106 mph (171 km/h) after an anemometer, last reporting 94 mph (151 km/h), failed, and 4.90 in (124 mm) of precipitation fell over three days.
The storm raged for more than 36 hours, causing severe damage; the winds unroofed hundreds of buildings, demolished many houses and had an extensive impact on power and telephone services. Tides 10.6 ft (3.2 m) above normal left a "confused mass of wrecked vessels and damaged wharfs", according to a local forecaster in Charleston, while six navy torpedo boats were ripped from their moorings and blown ashore. In total, 17 people were killed in the hurricane, and property damage in Charleston was estimated at \$1 million (1911 USD, \$ 2014 USD).
### Hurricane Four
The next storm formed well to the east of the Lesser Antilles on September 3 and moved westward, attaining tropical storm status about a day later. The storm slowed and curved toward the southwest, nearing the northern coast of Colombia before pulling away from land and strengthening into a hurricane. It further intensified to Category 2 status before striking Nicaragua on September 10. Quickly weakening to a tropical storm, the cyclone continued westward across Central America and briefly entered the eastern Pacific Ocean. It dissipated shortly thereafter. In the town of Corinto, a report indicated the deaths of 10 people and 50 additional injuries. About 250 houses were destroyed, leaving approximately \$2 million (1911 USD, \$ 2014 USD) in damage. Data on this storm is extremely scarce; as such, only minor revisions could be made to its chronology in the hurricane database.
### Tropical Storm Five
The fifth official tropical cyclone of the year was also previously unknown until contemporary reassessments. It exhibited some hybrid characteristics, and may have qualified for subtropical cyclone status according to the modern classification scheme. On September 15, the storm formed over the central Atlantic and initially moved westward. It gradually intensified as it turned northwestward, and on September 19 it transitioned into an extratropical cyclone southeast of New England. The system was subsequently absorbed by a more powerful frontal boundary approaching from the northwest.
### Tropical Storm Six
The final storm was first observed as a disturbance near Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea in late October. The disturbance was the precursor to a tropical depression which developed over the southern Bahamas and headed west-southwestward across Cuba, where, at Havana, winds blew from the southeast at 44 mph (71 km/h). It became a tropical storm on October 27 and drifted southwestward. Near the eastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula, the storm turned sharply northward. An area of high pressure over the United States prevented the cyclone from turning eastward toward Florida, and it continued into the Gulf of Mexico. However, on October 31, the storm curved eastward and moved ashore over northern Florida. The storm decreased in intensity as it passed into the Atlantic. The storm's circulation center remained poorly defined throughout its course. It was long believed to have developed south of Cuba, although a reevaluation of ship data indicated the depression had actually formed east of the island. On October 26, the Weather Bureau hoisted hurricane warnings along the east coast of Florida from Key West to West Palm Beach, and on the west coast up to Tampa.
### Tropical depressions
In addition to the six officially recognized tropical storms and hurricanes, three tropical depressions in the 1911 season have been identified. The first developed in February from a trough of low pressure in the open Atlantic and progressed westward. Although a ship dubiously reported winds of over 50 mph (80 km/h) in association with the system, a lack of supporting evidence precludes its designation as a tropical storm. The cyclone dissipated by February 21. The second depression evolved from an extratropical cyclone in mid- to late May, becoming a tropical cyclone on May 22 northeast of Bermuda. It persisted for three days as it meandered around the same general area before being absorbed by another non-tropical storm. The modern-day documentation of this system was also hindered by a lack of data. On December 11, the third tropical depression formed near the Turks and Caicos Islands. It progressed westward and was situated just north of eastern Cuba the next day. The system began to weaken on December 13 and dissipated shortly thereafter.
## See also
- 1900–1940 South Pacific cyclone seasons
- 1900–1950 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone seasons
- 1910s Australian region cyclone seasons
|
23,663,117 |
Horse Protection Act of 1970
| 1,161,980,844 |
United States federal law banning soring of horses
|
[
"1970 in American law",
"91st United States Congress",
"Animal welfare and rights legislation in the United States",
"Equine welfare"
] |
The Horse Protection Act of 1970 (HPA); (codified ) is a United States federal law, under which the practice of soring is a crime punishable by both civil and criminal penalties, including fines and jail time. It is illegal to show a horse, enter it at a horse show, or to auction, sell, offer for sale, or transport a horse for any of these purposes if it has been sored.
Soring is the practice of applying irritants or blistering agents to the front feet or forelegs of a horse, making it pick its feet up higher in an exaggerated manner that creates the movement or "action" desired in the show ring. Soring is an act of animal cruelty that gives practitioners an unfair advantage over other competitors. The Horse Protection Act of 1970 is enforced by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Although violations of the law are seen most often in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry, the Horse Protection Act covers all breeds.
Originally all inspectors were from APHIS, but a lack of funding led to a 1976 amendment to the act, which allows non-USDA employees to be trained and certified as inspectors. This program has not always been successful, with some non-USDA inspectors being more lenient on violators than others, and citations for violations tend to increase significantly when USDA inspectors are present at a show. Several methods are used to detect violations of the act, including observation, palpation and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to identify chemicals on horses' legs. Certain training techniques and topical anesthetics can be used to avoid detection by the first two methods. There have been a number of unsuccessful challenges to the act on the grounds on constitutionality, as well as challenges on varying other issues. In 2013, an amendment to the act was proposed in the United States House of Representatives. The amendment would allow only USDA employees to perform inspections, toughen penalties for violations, and outlaw the use of action devices and "stacks", or layers of pads attached to the bottom of the front hooves.
## Background
Soring began in the 1950s with gaited horse trainers who were looking to improve their chances of winning at horse shows. To do this, they developed methods to enhance the desired high action gaits to levels greater than that produced by traditional training methods. Thus began the use of irritants, including chemicals and physical objects, or abusive shoeing and hoof-trimming practices on the front legs. Attempting to relieve the pain in its legs, a sored horse lifts its front feet off the ground more quickly, creating a flashier gait. By the 1960s, soring had gained popularity, as horses so treated gained an edge in competition. However, public opposition to the practice also grew, and in 1966, the American Horse Protection Association was created in part to address the issue of soring. In 1969, Senator Joseph Tydings sponsored legislation to prohibit soring, leading to the passing of the Horse Protection Act in 1970, amended in 1976. While Tennessee Walking Horses, Racking Horses and other "high-stepping breeds" are generally targeted by these abusive practices, the Horse Protection Act covers all breeds.
Soring is defined by the HPA with four meanings:
> (3)(A) an irritating or blistering agent has been applied, internally or externally, by a person to any limb of a horse,
> (B) any burn, cut, or laceration has been inflicted by a person on any limb of a horse,
> (C) any tack, nail, screw, or chemical agent has been injected by a person into or used by a person on any limb of a horse, or
> (D) any other substance or device has been used by a person on any limb of a horse or a person has engaged in a practice involving a horse, and, as a result of such application, infliction, injection, use, or practice, such horse suffers, or can reasonably be expected to suffer, physical pain or distress, inflammation, or lameness when walking.
## Contents
The Horse Protection Act is found in Title 15 of the United States Code, which covers commerce and trade. Section (§) 1821 covers the definitions of the terms used in the act and §1822 details the Congressional statement of findings. The requirements placed upon horse shows and exhibitions are covered in §1823. §1824 covers the core provisions of the act, prohibiting the "shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, or receiving of any horse which is sore" as well as the actual showing, exhibition, entry into a show, sale, or auction of a sored horse, including offering a sored horse for sale, as well as outlining the responsibilities of show management and recordkeeping requirements. The export of horses is covered in §1824a. §1825 covers penalties for violations detailed previously in the act, which may be civil or criminal, with fines of up to \$50,000 and imprisonment of up to five years. §1826 details the required notice of violations to the Attorney General of the United States. The utilization of USDA and state government staff is covered in §1827, as is non-financial assistance to states. Rules and regulations pertaining to the act's statutes are covered in §1828. §1829 covers federal preemption of state laws, concurrent jurisdiction, and prohibitions on certain state actions. §1830 is currently reserved for future use, and §1831 details the authorization of appropriations for expenses related to the enforcement of the provisions of the act.
## Implementation
As originally enacted, the Horse Protection Act was to be enforced by Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), a branch of the USDA. However, a lack of staff and funding meant little success, leading to the 1976 amendment to the act. With this amendment, Congress created a Designated Qualified Person (DQP) program. This program allows non-USDA employees from within the equine community to take training and certification programs run by Horse Industry Organizations (HIOs) and supervised by the USDA; after completing the training, they may complete inspections for violations of the HPA at public events. The USDA is then able to double check the work of DQP participants by making random inspections at a small number of shows. One member of the Tennessee Walking Horse world states that this creates "the potential for a "fox guarding the chicken coop" situation", as if the HIO is not fully interested in preventing or detecting the practice of soring, the DQPs may not be fully trained or may deliberately overlook instances of soring. When APHIS inspectors are present at horse shows, the number of citations for violations increases significantly. Competitors and trainers at shows, viewing themselves as unjustly persecuted, have been known to leave when they find APHIS inspectors present, rather than allowing the inspectors to see their horses. In June 2012, the USDA published a new rule requiring violations found by HIOs to have penalties assessed at a rate equal to or exceeding those given by APHIS inspectors. Previously, HIOs were allowed to set their own penalty rates, resulting in some organizations acting leniently towards violators of the HPA.
For the first decades following passage of the act, foreign substances applied to the legs, including chemicals, were detected by feel, sight or smell. Since 2006, the USDA has used gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to identify chemicals found on horses' legs at events. Samples of suspicious substances are swabbed at the show, and sent to a laboratory for analysis; owners and trainers are later informed of the results. However, this method is only used by APHIS veterinary medical officers at present.
Soring can be also detected by observing the horse for lameness, assessing its stance and palpating the lower legs. Some trainers evaded detection from inspectors by training horses not to react to the pain that palpation may cause, often by severely punishing the horse for flinching after the sored area is touched. The practice is called "stewarding", in reference to the horse show steward. Others use topical anesthetics, such as lidocaine and benzocaine, which are timed to wear off before the horse goes into the show ring. Use of chemicals can be completely avoided if pressure shoeing is also used. This process involves placing some type of hard foreign object (such as a small piece of wood, stone, hard acrylic, or sharp object such as a tack or nail) against the sole of the horse's foot before applying the horseshoe and pads. It can also be done by trimming down the horse's hoof to its sensitive structures, then shoeing. Either method causes pain when the horse places its foot on the ground.
## Impact
There have been a number of challenges to the Horse Protection Act on the grounds of constitutionality, mainly regarding due process and equal protection, none of which were successful. Courts have also ruled on other issues with regard to the act, including whether knowledge of soring or intent to sore is required in order to prove a violation of the act, and courts have repeatedly held that it is not. The issue of digital palpation, one of the main methods used by inspectors to find and verify soreness, has been contested in several courts, and is the only issue that has had courts come to varying conclusions on its legitimacy. The majority of courts with appeals rising to the Circuit Court level, have held that palpation is a legitimate method for identifying soreness, and that soreness found through palpation is grounds for penalties under the Horse Protection Act. However, in a decision promulgated by the Fifth Circuit Court, it was found that soreness found through digital palpation alone was not sufficient evidence upon which to base penalties.
The largest association in the United States for equine veterinarians, the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), called the practice of soring "one of the most significant welfare issues affecting any equine breed or discipline" after releasing a white paper on the subject in 2008. The organization pointed out that despite over three decades of work, the HPA law had failed to prevent sored horses from being trained, shown, and sold. The AAEP blamed this failure on what they called the "woefully inadequate" level of funding for enforcement, which the law caps at \$500,000 annually. The federal Office of Inspector General found in 2010 that the self-enforcement system of HIOs and DQPs was inadequate for eliminating the practice of soring. This led to the June 2012 strengthening of penalty systems.
In 2010, the Friends of Sound Horses launched a website containing the names of the over 8,700 people who had received suspensions from the horse showing and training world under the Horse Protection Act between 1986 and 2010. This list was developed as part of the USDA Horse Protection Operating Plan for 2007–2009, and supported by most of the USDA-certified HIOs. Despite the work being done to dissuade trainers from soring horses, APHIS inspectors found hundreds of violations in the course of their work during the 2012 year.
### Proposed amendments
Since the 1976 amendment, there have been several other proposed changes to the act, all unsuccessful so far. In 2005, HR 503, titled the "Horse Slaughter Prohibition Bill", was introduced by U.S. Representative John E. Sweeney (R-NY). The bill would have made major changes to the focus of the Horse Protection Act, by prohibiting the "shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption." It passed the House of Representatives in 2006, but died in the Senate.
In September 2012, U.S. Representatives Ed Whitfield, a Republican from Kentucky, and Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, proposed HR 6388, titled the "Horse Protection Act Amendments of 2012". That bill died in committee. A similar bill, HR 1518, titled the "Prevent All Soring Tactics Act" was introduced on April 11, 2013. If passed, the bill, nearly identical to HR 6388, would amend the Horse Protection Act of 1970 to increase fines to \$5,000, increase prison time to three years, and increase other penalties. It would also mandate the USDA to assign a licensed inspector if a show management indicates its intent to hire one, currently a voluntary practice. The bill would prohibit the use of "action devices" and "stacks". Action devices are weights attached around the pasterns of horses, and if attached so that they move, they can rub or irritate sored areas and thus further enhance gaits. Stacks are layers of pads attached to the bottom of the front hooves between the horseshoe and the hoof, which increase the lift of the foot and the impact with the ground by adding height and weight to horses' front feet. The final change would be to increase penalties for violations of the act. The bill was assigned to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Both bills have been opposed by some organizations within the Tennessee Walking Horse industry. The President and executive committee of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association (TWHBEA) voted to support this legislation, but the full board of directors chose not to. The initial bill was supported by several outside organizations, including the AAEP, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
## See also
- Gingering
|
327,421 |
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
| 1,172,536,776 | null |
[
"1987 albums",
"Albums produced by Bob Ezrin",
"Albums produced by David Gilmour",
"Albums recorded at A&M Studios",
"Albums recorded in a home studio",
"Albums with cover art by Storm Thorgerson",
"Columbia Records albums",
"EMI Records albums",
"Pink Floyd albums"
] |
A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the thirteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in the UK on 7 September 1987 by EMI and the following day in the US on Columbia. It was recorded primarily on guitarist David Gilmour's converted houseboat, Astoria.
A Momentary Lapse of Reason was the first Pink Floyd album recorded without founding member Roger Waters, who departed in 1985. The production was marred by legal fights over the rights to the Pink Floyd name, which were not resolved until several months after release. It also saw the return of keyboardist and founding member Richard Wright, who was fired from the band by Waters during the recording of The Wall (1979).
Unlike most earlier Pink Floyd records, A Momentary Lapse of Reason is not a concept album. It includes writing contributions from outside songwriters, following Gilmour's decision to include material once intended for his third solo album. The album was promoted with three singles: the double A-side "Learning to Fly" / "Terminal Frost", "On the Turning Away", and "One Slip".
A Momentary Lapse of Reason received mixed reviews; some critics praised the production and instrumentation but criticised Gilmour's songwriting, and it was derided by Waters. It was nonetheless a commercial comeback for the band, reaching number three in the UK and US, and outsold Pink Floyd's previous album The Final Cut (1983). The album was supported by a highly successful world tour between 1987 and 1989, including free performance on a barge floating on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy.
## Background
After the release of Pink Floyd's 1983 album The Final Cut, viewed by some as a de facto solo record by bassist and songwriter Roger Waters, the band members worked on solo projects. Guitarist David Gilmour expressed feelings about his strained relationship with Waters on his second solo album, About Face (1984), and finished the accompanying tour as Waters began touring to promote his debut solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Although both had enlisted a range of successful performers, including in Waters' case Eric Clapton, their solo acts attracted fewer fans than Pink Floyd; poor ticket sales forced Gilmour to cancel several concerts, and critic David Fricke felt that Waters' show was "a petulant echo, a transparent attempt to prove that Roger Waters was Pink Floyd". Waters returned to the US in March 1985 with a second tour, this time without the support of CBS Records, which had expressed its preference for a new Pink Floyd album; Waters criticised the corporation as "a machine".
After drummer Nick Mason attended one of Waters' London performances in 1985, he found he missed touring under the Pink Floyd name. His visit coincided with the release in August of his second solo album, Profiles, on which Gilmour sang. With a shared love of aviation, Mason and Gilmour were taking flying lessons and together bought a de Havilland Dove aeroplane. Gilmour was working on other collaborations, including a performance for Bryan Ferry at 1985's Live Aid concert, and co-produced the Dream Academy's self-titled debut album.
In December 1985, Waters announced that he had left Pink Floyd, which he believed was "a spent force creatively". After the failure of his About Face tour, Gilmour hoped to continue with the Pink Floyd name. The threat of a lawsuit from Gilmour, Mason and CBS Records was meant to compel Waters to write and produce another Pink Floyd album with his bandmates, who had barely participated in making The Final Cut; Gilmour was especially critical of the album, labelling it "cheap filler" and "meandering rubbish".
According to Gilmour, "I told [Waters] before he left, 'If you go, man, we're carrying on. Make no bones about it, we would carry on', and Roger replied: 'You'll never fucking do it.'" Waters had written to EMI and Columbia declaring his intention to leave the group and asking them to release him from his contractual obligations. He also dispensed with the services of Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs. This left Gilmour and Mason, in their view, free to continue with the Pink Floyd name. In 2013, Waters said he regretted the lawsuit and had not understood English jurisprudence.
In Waters' absence, Gilmour had been recruiting musicians for a new project. Months previously, keyboardist Jon Carin had jammed with Gilmour at his Hook End studio, where he composed the chord progression that became "Learning to Fly", and so was invited onto the team. Gilmour invited Bob Ezrin (co-producer of 1979's The Wall) to help consolidate their material; Ezrin had turned down Waters' offer of a role on the development of his new solo album, Radio K.A.O.S., saying it was "far easier for Dave and I to do our version of a Floyd record". Ezrin arrived in England in mid-1986 for what Gilmour later described as "mucking about with a lot of demos".
At this stage, there was no commitment to a new Pink Floyd release, and Gilmour maintained that the material might become his third solo album. CBS representative Stephen Ralbovsky hoped for a new Pink Floyd album, but in a meeting in November 1986, told Gilmour and Ezrin that the music "doesn't sound a fucking thing like Pink Floyd". By the end of that year, Gilmour had decided to make the material into a Pink Floyd project, and agreed to rework the material that Ralbovsky had found objectionable.
## Recording
Gilmour experimented with songwriters such as Eric Stewart and Roger McGough, but settled on Anthony Moore, who was credited as co-writer of "Learning to Fly" and "On the Turning Away". Whereas many prior Pink Floyd albums are concept albums, Gilmour chose a more conventional approach of a collection of songs without a thematic link. Gilmour later said that the project had been difficult without Waters.
A Momentary Lapse of Reason was recorded in several studios, mainly Gilmour's houseboat studio Astoria, moored on the Thames; according to Ezrin, "working there was just magical, so inspirational; kids sculling down the river, geese flying by...". Andy Jackson was brought in to engineer. During sessions held between November 1986 and February 1987, Gilmour's band worked on new material, which in a change from previous Pink Floyd albums was mostly recorded with a 32-track ProDigi digital recorder apart from the drum tracks, which were recorded with a 24-track analogue machine. This trend of using new technologies continued with the use of MIDI synchronisation, aided by an Apple Macintosh computer.
Ezrin suggested incorporating rap, an idea dismissed by Gilmour. After agreeing to rework the material that Ralbovsky had found objectionable, Gilmour employed session musicians such as Carmine Appice and Jim Keltner. Both drummers replaced Mason on several songs; Mason was concerned that he was too out of practice to perform on the album, and instead busied himself with its sound effects. Some drum parts were also performed by drum machines. In his memoir, Mason wrote: "In hindsight, I really should have had the self-belief to play all the drum parts. And in the early days of life after Roger, I think David and I felt that we had to get it right, or we would be slaughtered."
During the sessions, Gilmour was asked by the wife of Pink Floyd's former keyboardist, Richard Wright, if he could contribute. A founding member of the band, Wright had left in 1981, and there were legal obstacles to his return; after a meeting in Hampstead he was recruited as a paid musician on a weekly wage of \$11,000. Gilmour said in an interview that Wright's presence "would make us stronger legally and musically". However, his contributions were minimal; most of the keyboard parts had already been recorded, and so from February 1987 Wright played some background reinforcement on a Hammond organ, and a Rhodes piano, and added vocal harmonies. He also performed a solo in "On the Turning Away", which was discarded, according to Wright, "not because they didn't like it ... they just thought it didn't fit".
Gilmour later said: "Both Nick and Rick were catatonic in terms of their playing ability at the beginning. Neither of them played on this at all really. In my view, they'd been destroyed by Roger." Gilmour's comments angered Mason, who said: "I'd deny that I was catatonic. I'd expect that from the opposition, it's less attractive from one's allies. At some point, he made some sort of apology." Mason conceded that Gilmour was nervous about how the album would be perceived.
"Learning to Fly" was inspired by Gilmour's flying lessons, which occasionally conflicted with his studio duties. The track also contains a recording of Mason's voice during takeoff. The band experimented with samples, and Ezrin recorded the sound of Gilmour's boatman Langley Iddens rowing across the Thames. Iddens' presence at the sessions became vital when Astoria began to lift in response to the rapidly rising river, which was pushing the boat against the pier on which it was moored.
"The Dogs of War" is a song about "physical and political mercenaries", according to Gilmour. It came about through a mishap in the studio when a sampling machine began playing a sample of laughter, which Gilmour thought sounded like a dog's bark. "Terminal Frost" was one of Gilmour's older demos, which he decided to leave as an instrumental. Conversely, the lyrics for "Sorrow" were written before the music. The song's opening guitar solo was recorded in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. A 24-track mobile studio piped Gilmour's guitar tracks through a public address system, and the resulting mix was then recorded in surround sound.
### Legal disputes
The sessions were interrupted by the escalating disagreement between Waters and Pink Floyd over who had the rights to the Pink Floyd name. O'Rourke, believing that his contract with Waters had been terminated illegally, sued Waters for £25,000 of back-commission. In a late-1986 board meeting of Pink Floyd Music Ltd (Pink Floyd's clearing house for all financial transactions since 1973), Waters learnt that a bank account had been opened to deal exclusively with all monies related to "the new Pink Floyd project". He immediately applied to the High Court to prevent the Pink Floyd name from being used again, but his lawyers discovered that the partnership had never been formally confirmed. Waters returned to the High Court in an attempt to gain a veto over further use of the band's name. Gilmour's team responded by issuing a press release affirming that Pink Floyd would continue to exist; however, Gilmour told a Sunday Times reporter: "Roger is a dog in the manger and I'm going to fight him, no one else has claimed Pink Floyd was entirely them. Anybody who does is extremely arrogant."
Waters twice visited Astoria, and with his wife had a meeting in August 1986 with Ezrin, who later suggested that he was being "checked out". As Waters was still a shareholder and director of Pink Floyd Music, he was able to block any decisions made by his former bandmates. Recording moved to Mayfair Studios in February 1987, and from February to March – under the terms of an agreement with Ezrin to record close to his home – to A&M Studios in Los Angeles: "It was fantastic because ... the lawyers couldn't call in the middle of recording unless they were calling in the middle of the night." The bitterness of the row between Waters and Pink Floyd was covered in a November 1987 issue of Rolling Stone, which became the magazine's best-selling issue of that year. The legal disputes were resolved out of court by the end of 1987.
## Packaging and title
Careful consideration was given to the album's title, with the initial three contenders being Signs of Life, Of Promises Broken and Delusions of Maturity. The final title appears as a line in the chorus of "One Slip".
For the first time since 1977's Animals, designer Storm Thorgerson was employed to work on a Pink Floyd studio album cover. His finished design was a long river of hospital beds arranged on a beach, inspired by a phrase from "Yet Another Movie" and Gilmour's vague hint of a design that included a bed in a Mediterranean house, as well as "vestiges of relationships that have evaporated, leaving only echoes". The cover shows hundreds of hospital beds assembled in July 1987 on Saunton Sands in North Devon, where some of the scenes for Pink Floyd – The Wall were filmed. The beds were arranged by Thorgerson's colleague Colin Elgie. A hang glider in the sky references "Learning to Fly". The photographer, Robert Dowling, won a gold award at the Association of Photographers Awards for the image, which took about two weeks to create. Some versions of the cover do not feature the hang glider, and other versions feature a nurse making one of the beds.
To emphasise that Waters had left the band, the inner gatefold featured a photograph of just Gilmour and Mason shot by David Bailey. Its inclusion marked the first time since Meddle (1971) that a group photo had been used in the artwork of a Pink Floyd album. Wright was represented only by name, on the credits. According to Mason, Wright's leaving agreement contained a clause that prevented him rejoining the band, and "consequently we had to be careful about what constituted being a member".
## Release and reception
A Momentary Lapse of Reason was released in the UK and US on 7 September 1987. It went straight to number three in both countries, held from the top spot in the US by Michael Jackson's Bad and Whitesnake's self-titled album. It spent 34 weeks on the UK Albums Chart. It was certified silver and gold in the UK on 1 October 1987, and gold and platinum in the US on 9 November. It went double platinum on 18 January the following year, triple platinum on 10 March 1992, and quadruple platinum on 16 August 2001, greatly outselling The Final Cut.
Gilmour presented A Momentary Lapse as a return to an older Pink Floyd sound, citing his belief that under Waters' tenure, lyrics had become more important than music. He said that their albums The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here were successful "not just because of Roger's contributions, but also because there was a better balance between the music and the lyrics [than on later albums]". Waters said of the album: "I think it's very facile, but a quite clever forgery ... The songs are poor in general; the lyrics I can't quite believe. Gilmour's lyrics are very third-rate." Wright later said Waters' criticisms were "fair".
In Q, Phil Sutcliffe wrote that it "does sound like a Pink Floyd album" and highlighted the two-part "A New Machine" as "a chillingly beautiful vocal exploration" and a "brilliant stroke of imagination". He concluded: "A Momentary Lapse is Gilmour's album to much the same degree that the previous four under Floyd's name were dominated by Waters ... Clearly it wasn't only business sense and repressed ego but repressed talent which drove the guitarist to insist on continuing under the band brand-name." Recognising the return to a more music-oriented approach, Sounds said the album was "back over the wall to where diamonds are crazy, moons have dark sides, and mothers have atom hearts".
Conversely, Greg Quill of the Toronto Star wrote: "Something's missing here. This is, for all its lumbering weight, not a record that challenges and provokes as Pink Floyd should. A Momentary Lapse of Reason, sorry to say, is mundane, predictable." Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote: "You'd hardly know the group's conceptmaster was gone – except that they put out noticeably fewer ideas." In 2016, AllMusic critic William Ruhlmann described it as a "Gilmour solo album in all but name".
In 2016, Nick Shilton chose A Momentary Lapse of Reason as one of the "Top 10 Essential 80s Prog Albums" for Prog. He wrote: "While it's not a patch on the Floyd masterworks of the 70s, it merits inclusion here. The ironically titled 'Signs of Life' is an instrumental prelude for 'Learning to Fly' which showcases Gilmour's guitar, while the pulsating 'The Dogs of War' is considerably darker, and the uplifting 'On the Turning Away' simply sublime."
## Reissues
The album was reissued in 1988 as a limited-edition vinyl album, complete with posters, and a guaranteed ticket application for the band's upcoming UK concerts. It was digitally remastered and re-released in 1994, and a tenth anniversary edition was issued in the US three years later.
A Momentary Lapse of Reason was reissued again as part of the Later Years box set released in December 2019. The album was "updated and remixed" by Gilmour and Jackson, with restored contributions from Wright and newly recorded drum tracks from Mason to "restore the creative balance between the three Pink Floyd members". Rolling Stone described this version as "more tasteful ... [it] doesn't drown in eighties reverb the way the original did ... Although none of the Momentary Lapse remixes will be dramatic enough to sway the band's critics, they add clarity to what Gilmour was trying to achieve." A standalone album was released on 29 October 2021.
## Tour
Pink Floyd decided to tour for the album before it was complete. Early rehearsals were chaotic; Mason and Wright were out of practice, and, realising he had taken on too much work, Gilmour asked Ezrin to take charge. Matters were complicated when Waters contacted several US promoters and threatened to sue if they used the Pink Floyd name. Gilmour and Mason funded the start-up costs; Mason, separated from his wife, used his Ferrari 250 GTO as collateral. Some promoters were offended by Waters' threat, and several months later 60,000 tickets went on sale in Toronto, selling out within hours.
As the new line-up (with Wright) toured throughout North America, Waters' Radio K.A.O.S. tour was sometimes close by. Waters forbade the members of Pink Floyd to attend his concerts, which were generally in smaller venues. Waters also issued a writ for copyright fees for use of the Pink Floyd flying pig; Pink Floyd responded by attaching a huge set of male genitalia to the balloon's underside to distinguish it from Waters' design. By November 1987, Waters had given up, and on 23 December a legal settlement was reached at a meeting on Astoria.
The Momentary Lapse tour beat box office records in every US venue it booked, and was the most successful US tour that year. Tours of Australia, Japan, and Europe followed, before two more tours of the US. Almost every venue was sold out. A live album, Delicate Sound of Thunder, was released on 22 November 1988, followed in June 1989 by a concert video. A few days later, the live album was played in orbit, on board Soyuz TM-7. The tour eventually came to an end by closing the Silver Clef Award Winners Concert, at Knebworth Park on 30 June 1990, after 200 performances, a gross audience of 4.25 million fans, and box office receipts of more than £60 million (not including merchandising). The tour included a free performance on a barge floating on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy.
## Track listing
All lead vocals performed by David Gilmour except where noted.
Note
- Since the 2011 remasters, and the Discovery box set, "Yet Another Movie" and "Round and Around" are indexed as individual tracks.
- Tracks 1–5 on side one and 6–11 on side two of vinyl releases
## Personnel
Pink Floyd
- David Gilmour – vocals, guitars, keyboards, sequencers, production
- Nick Mason – electronic and acoustic drums, spoken vocals, sound effects
Additional personnel
- Richard Wright – backing vocals, piano, Hammond organ, Kurzweil synthesiser (credited as full group member on 2011 reissue)
- Bob Ezrin – keyboards, percussion, sequencers, production
- Jon Carin – keyboards
- Patrick Leonard – synthesizers
- Bill Payne – Hammond organ
- Michael Landau – guitar
- Tony Levin – bass guitar, Chapman Stick
- Jim Keltner – drums
- Carmine Appice – drums
- Steve Forman – percussion
- Tom Scott – alto saxophone, soprano saxophone
- John Helliwell – saxophone (credited as John Halliwell)
- Scott Page – tenor saxophone
- Darlene Koldenhoven (credited as Darlene Koldenhaven) – backing vocals
- Carmen Twillie – backing vocals
- Phyllis St. James – backing vocals
- Donny Gerrard – backing vocals
Technical personnel
- Andrew Jackson – engineering, mixing
- Robert (Ringo) Hyrcyna – assistant
- Marc Desisto – assistant
- Stan Katayama – assistant
- Jeff Demorris – assistant
- James Guthrie – additional re-mixing, 2011 remastering at Das Boot Recording
- Joel Plante – 2011 remastering at Das Boot Recording
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications and sales
|
747,788 |
Wiley Rutledge
| 1,165,274,123 |
US Supreme Court justice from 1943 to 1949
|
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"Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States",
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Wiley Blount Rutledge Jr. (July 20, 1894 – September 10, 1949) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1943 to 1949. The ninth and final justice appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he is best known for his impassioned defenses of civil liberties. Rutledge favored broad interpretations of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause, and he argued that the Bill of Rights applied in its totality to the states. He participated in several noteworthy cases involving the intersection of individual freedoms and the government's wartime powers. Rutledge served on the Court until his death at the age of fifty-five. Legal scholars have generally thought highly of the justice, although the brevity of his tenure has minimized his impact on history.
Born in Cloverport, Kentucky, Rutledge attended several colleges and universities, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1922. He briefly practiced law in Boulder, Colorado, before accepting a position on the faculty of the University of Colorado Law School. Rutledge also taught law at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri, of which he became the dean; he later served as dean of the University of Iowa College of Law. As an academic, he vocally opposed Supreme Court decisions striking down parts of the New Deal and argued in favor of President Roosevelt's unsuccessful attempt to expand the Court. Rutledge's support of Roosevelt's policies brought him to the President's attention: he was considered as a potential Supreme Court nominee and was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where he developed a record as a supporter of individual liberties and the New Deal. When Justice James F. Byrnes resigned from the Supreme Court, Roosevelt nominated Rutledge to take his place. The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed Rutledge by voice vote, and he took the oath of office on February 15, 1943.
Rutledge's jurisprudence placed a strong emphasis on the protection of civil liberties. In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), he authored an influential dissenting opinion in support of the separation of church and state. He sided with Jehovah's Witnesses seeking to invoke the First Amendment in cases such as West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) and Murdock v. Pennsylvania (1943); his majority opinion in Thomas v. Collins (1945) endorsed a broad interpretation of the Free Speech Clause. In a famed dissent in the wartime case of In re Yamashita (1946), Rutledge voted to void the war crimes conviction of the Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita, condemning in ringing terms a trial that, in his view, violated the basic principles of justice and fairness enshrined in the Constitution. By contrast, he joined the majority in two cases—Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) and Korematsu v. United States (1944)—that upheld the Roosevelt administration's decision to intern tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II. In other cases, Rutledge fervently supported broad due process rights in criminal cases, and he opposed discrimination against women, racial minorities, and the poor.
Rutledge was among the most liberal justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court. He favored a flexible and pragmatic approach to the law that prioritized the rights of individuals. On the Court, his views aligned most often with those of Justice Frank Murphy. Rutledge died in 1949, having suffered a massive stroke, after six years' service on the Supreme Court. President Harry S. Truman appointed the considerably more conservative Sherman Minton to replace him. Although Rutledge frequently found himself in dissent during his lifetime, many of his views received greater acceptance during the era of the Warren Court.
## Early life and education
Wiley Blount Rutledge Jr. was born just outside of Cloverport, Kentucky, on July 20, 1894, to Mary Lou (née Wigginton) and Wiley Blount Rutledge. Wiley Sr., a native of western Tennessee, was a fundamentalist Baptist clergyman who believed firmly in the literal inerrancy of the Bible. He attended seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and then moved with his wife to pastor a church in Cloverport. After Wiley Jr.'s birth, his mother contracted tuberculosis; the family left Kentucky in search of a healthier climate. They moved first to Texas and Louisiana and then to Asheville, North Carolina, where the elder Rutledge took up a pastorate. After his wife's death in 1903, Wiley Sr. relocated his family throughout Tennessee and Kentucky, where he held temporary pastorates before eventually accepting a permanent post in Maryville, Tennessee.
In 1910, the sixteen-year-old Wiley Jr. enrolled at Maryville College. He studied Latin and Greek, successfully maintaining high grades throughout. One of his Greek instructors was Annabel Person, whom he later married. At Maryville, Rutledge participated vigorously in debate; he argued in support of Woodrow Wilson and against the progressivism of Theodore Roosevelt. He also played football, developed a reputation as a practical jokester, and began a romantic relationship with Person, who was five years his senior. For reasons that are not altogether clear, Rutledge—who had planned to study law upon his graduation and whose lowest grades were in the sciences—left Maryville, enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and decided to study chemistry. Lonely and struggling in his classwork, Rutledge had a difficult time in Wisconsin, and he later characterized it as being one of the "hardest" and most "painful" periods of his life. He graduated in 1914 with an A. B. degree.
Realizing that his talents did not lie in chemistry, Rutledge resumed his original plan to study law. Since he was unable to afford the University of Wisconsin Law School, he moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where he taught high school and enrolled part-time at the Indiana University Law School. The difficulty of simultaneously working and studying put a serious strain on his health, and, by 1915, he had developed a life-threatening case of tuberculosis. The ailing Rutledge removed himself to a sanatorium and gradually began to recover from his disease; while there, he married Person. Upon recovering, he moved with his wife to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he took a position teaching high school business classes. In 1920, Rutledge enrolled at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder; he continued teaching high school as he again pursued the study of law. One of his professors was Herbert S. Hadley, the former governor of Missouri. Rutledge later stated that he "owe[d] more professionally to Governor Hadley than to any other person"; Hadley's support for Roscoe Pound's progressive theory of sociological jurisprudence influenced Rutledge's view of the law. Rutledge graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1922.
## Career
Rutledge passed the bar examination in June 1922 and took a job with the law firm of Goss, Kimbrough, and Hutchison in Boulder. In 1924, he accepted the position of associate professor of law at his alma mater, the University of Colorado. He taught a wide variety of classes, and his colleagues commented that he was experiencing "very considerable success". In 1926, Hadley—who had recently become chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis—offered Rutledge a full professorship at his university's law school; Rutledge accepted the offer and moved to St. Louis with his family that year. He spent nine years there, continuing to teach classes pertaining to many aspects of the law. From 1930 to 1935, Rutledge served as dean of the law school; he then spent four years as dean of the University of Iowa College of Law.
During his time in academia, Rutledge did not function primarily as a scholar: for instance, he only published two articles in law reviews. Yet his students and colleagues thought highly of him as a teacher, and the legal scholar William Wiecek noted that he was recalled as "dedicated and demanding" by those whom he taught. Rutledge frequently weighed in on questions of public importance, supporting academic freedom and free speech at Washington University and opposing the Supreme Court's approach to child labor laws. His tenure as dean overlapped with the New Deal-period clash between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a Supreme Court whose decisions thwarted his agenda. Rutledge came down firmly on Roosevelt's side: he denounced the Court's rulings striking down portions of the New Deal and voiced support for the President's unsuccessful "court-packing plan", which attempted to make the Court more amenable to Roosevelt's agenda by increasing the number of justices. In Rutledge's view, the justices of his era had "imposed their own political philosophy" rather than the law in their decisions; as such, he felt that expanding the Court was a regrettable but necessary way for Congress to bring it back into line. Roosevelt's proposal was extremely unpopular in the Midwest, and Rutledge's support for it was loudly denounced: his position even led some members of the Iowa legislature to threaten to freeze faculty salaries. Still, Roosevelt noticed Rutledge's outspoken support for him, and it garnered the dean prominence on the national stage. In the words of Rutledge himself, "[t]he Court bill gave me my chance".
## Court of Appeals (1939–1943)
Having attracted the attention of Roosevelt, Rutledge was seriously considered as a potential Supreme Court nominee when a vacancy arose in 1939. Although the President ultimately appointed Felix Frankfurter to that seat, he decided that it would be politically advantageous to appoint someone from west of the Mississippi—such as Rutledge—to fill the next opening. Roosevelt selected William O. Douglas, who had lived in the states of Minnesota and Washington, instead of Rutledge when that vacancy arose, but he simultaneously offered Rutledge a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia—one of the nation's most influential appellate courts—which he accepted. Rutledge appeared before a Senate subcommittee; its members promptly endorsed the nomination. The full Senate speedily confirmed him by voice vote on April 4, 1939, and he took the oath of office on May 2.
At the time, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard a unique variety of matters: appeals from the federal district court in Washington, petitions to review the decisions of administrative agencies, and cases (similar to those decided by state supreme courts) arising from the District's local court system. As a judge of that court, therefore, Rutledge had the opportunity to write opinions on a wide variety of topics. In Wiecek's words, his 118 opinions "reflected his sympathetic views toward organized labor, the New Deal, and noneconomic individual rights". In Busey v. District of Columbia, for instance, he dissented when the majority upheld several Jehovah's Witnesses' convictions for distributing religious literature without securing a license and paying a tax. Writing that "[t]axed speech is not free speech", Rutledge argued that the government could not charge those who wished to communicate on the streets. His opinion for the court in Wood v. United States reversed a conviction for robbery that had been secured after the defendant pleaded guilty at a preliminary hearing without having been informed of his right against self-incrimination. Rutledge wrote that the preliminary hearing was not supposed to be "a trap for luring the unwary into confession or admission which is fatal or prejudicial"; he held that a plea was not voluntary if the defendant was not aware of his constitutional rights. Rutledge's jurisprudence emphasized the spirit of the law over the letter of the law; he rejected the use of technicalities to penalize individuals or to circumvent a law's underlying purpose. During his time on the Court of Appeals, he never rendered a single decision adverse to organized labor, and his rulings tended to be favorable toward administrative agencies and the New Deal more generally.
## Supreme Court nomination
In October 1942, Justice James F. Byrnes resigned from the Supreme Court, creating the ninth and final vacancy of Roosevelt's presidency. As a result of Roosevelt's many previous appointments to the Court, there was "no obvious successor, no obvious political debt to be paid", according to the scholar Henry J. Abraham. Some prominent figures, including Justices Felix Frankfurter and Harlan F. Stone, encouraged Roosevelt to appoint the distinguished jurist Learned Hand. However, the President was uncomfortable appointing the seventy-one-year-old Hand due to his age, as Roosevelt feared the appearance of hypocrisy due to the fact that he had cited the advanced age of Supreme Court justices to justify his plan to expand the Court. Attorney General Francis Biddle, who had disclaimed any interest in serving on the court himself, was asked by Roosevelt to search for a suitable nominee. A number of candidates were considered, including federal judge John J. Parker, Solicitor General Charles Fahy, U.S. Senator Alben W. Barkley, and Dean Acheson. But the journalist Drew Pearson soon named another possibility, whom he identified as "the candidate of Chief Justice Stone" in his columns and radio broadcasts: Wiley Rutledge.
Rutledge had no desire to be nominated to the Supreme Court, but his friends nonetheless wrote to Roosevelt and Biddle on his behalf. He wrote to Biddle disclaiming all interest in the position, and he admonished his friends with the words: "For God's sake, don't do anything about stirring up the matter! I am uncomfortable enough as it is." Still, Rutledge's supporters, most notably the well-regarded journalist Irving Brant, continued to lobby the White House to nominate him, and he stated in private that he would not decline the nomination if Roosevelt offered it to him. Biddle directed his assistant Herbert Wechsler to review Rutledge's record; Wechsler's report convinced Biddle that Rutledge's judicial opinions were "a bit pedestrian" but nonetheless "sound". Biddle, joined by Roosevelt loyalists such as Douglas, Senator George W. Norris, and Justice Frank Murphy, thus recommended to the President that Rutledge be appointed. After meeting with Rutledge at the White House and being convinced by Biddle that the judge's judicial philosophy was fully aligned with his own, Roosevelt agreed. According to the scholar Fred L. Israel, Roosevelt found Rutledge to be "a liberal New Dealer who combined the President's respect for the academic community with four years of service on a leading federal appellate court". Additionally, the fact that Rutledge was a Westerner weighed in his favor. The President told his nominee: "Wiley, we had a number of candidates for the Court who were highly qualified, but they didn't have geography—you have that".
Roosevelt formally nominated Rutledge, who was then forty-eight years old, to the Supreme Court on January 11, 1943. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on February 1 to approve Rutledge's nomination; the vote was 11–0, with four abstentions. Those four senators—North Dakota's William Langer, West Virginia's Chapman Revercomb, Montana's Burton K. Wheeler, and Michigan's Homer S. Ferguson—abstained due to uneasiness about Rutledge's support for Roosevelt's court-expansion plan. Ferguson later spoke with Rutledge and indicated that his concerns had been resolved, but Wheeler, who had strongly opposed Roosevelt's efforts to enlarge the Court, said that he would vote against the nomination when it came before the full Senate. The only senator to speak on the Senate floor in opposition to Rutledge was Langer, who characterized Rutledge as "a man who, so far as I can ascertain, never practiced law inside a courtroom or, so far as I know, seldom even visited one until he came to take a seat on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia" and commented that "[t]he Court is not without a professor or two already." The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed Rutledge by a voice vote on February 8, and he took the oath of office on February 15.
## Supreme Court (1943–1949)
Rutledge served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1943 until his death in 1949. He penned a total of sixty-five majority opinions, forty-five concurrences, and sixty-one dissents. The deeply fractured Court to which he was appointed consisted of a conservative bloc—Justices Frankfurter, Robert H. Jackson, Stanley Forman Reed, and Owen Roberts—and a liberal bloc consisting of Justices Hugo Black, Murphy, Douglas, Rutledge, and sometimes Stone. On a Court plagued by internecine squabbles, Rutledge was, according to the legal historian Lucas A. Powe Jr., "the sole member both personally liked and intellectually respected by every other member". He found it challenging to write opinions, and his writing style has been criticized as unnecessarily prolix and difficult to read. Rutledge frequently and strenuously dissented—the scholar Alfred O. Canon wrote that he was "in many respects ... the chief dissenter of the Roosevelt Court".
Rutledge was one of the most liberal justices in the history of the Court. His approach to the law strongly emphasized the preservation of civil liberties, motivated by a fervent belief that the freedoms of individuals should be protected. Rutledge voted more often than any of his colleagues in favor of individuals who brought suit against the government, and he forcefully advocated for equal protection, access to the courts, due process, and the rights protected by the First Amendment.According to the legal scholar Lester E. Mosher, Rutledge "may be classed as a 'natural law realist' who combined the humanitarianism of Thomas Jefferson with the pragmatism of John Dewey—he employed the tenets of pragmatism as a juristic tool or technique in applying 'natural law' concepts". His views particularly overlapped with those of Murphy, with whom he agreed in nearly seventy-five percent of the Court's non-unanimous cases. The Supreme Court at large did not often embrace Rutledge's views during his lifetime, but during the era of the Warren Court they gained considerable acceptance.
### First Amendment
Rutledge's appointment had an immediate effect on a Court that was decidedly split on questions involving the freedoms protected by the First Amendment. For instance, in Jones v. City of Opelika, a 1942 case decided before Rutledge's ascension to the Court, a 5–4 majority had upheld the convictions of Jehovah's Witnesses for selling religious literature without obtaining a license and paying a tax. Rutledge's arrival the subsequent year gave that case's erstwhile dissenters a majority; in Murdock v. Pennsylvania, they overruled Jones and struck down the tax as unconstitutional. Rutledge also joined the majority in another precedent-altering case involving Jehovah's Witnesses and the First Amendment: West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette. In that landmark decision, the Court reversed its previous holding in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, ruling instead that the First Amendment forbade public schools from requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Writing for a 6–3 majority that included Rutledge, Justice Jackson wrote that: "[i]f there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein". According to the jurist and scholar John M. Ferren, Rutledge, by his vote in Barnette, "established himself early as a concerned protector of religious freedom".
Among Rutledge's most influential free-speech opinions was in the 1945 case of Thomas v. Collins. Writing for a 5–4 majority, he ruled unconstitutional a Texas statute that required union organizers to register and obtain a license before they could solicit individuals to join labor unions. The case arose when R. J. Thomas, an official of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, gave a pro-union address in Texas without having registered; he argued that the law was an unconstitutional prior restraint on his First Amendment rights. Rutledge rejected Texas's arguments that the law was subject only to rational-basis review because labor organizing was akin to the sort of ordinary business activity that states could freely regulate. Writing that "the indispensable democratic freedoms secured by the First Amendment" had a "preferred place" that could be abridged only in light of a "clear and present danger", he held that the law imposed an unjustified burden on Thomas's constitutional rights. In dissent, Justice Roberts argued that it was not constitutionally problematic to impose a neutral licensing requirement on organizers of public meetings. According to Ferren, Rutledge's "celebrated and controversial" opinion in Thomas exemplifies both the Court's pervasive 5–4 division on First Amendment issues throughout the 1940s and Rutledge's "nearly absolutist" interpretation of the Free Speech Clause.
In the case of Everson v. Board of Education, Rutledge rendered a noteworthy dissent in defense of the separation of church and state. Everson was among the first decisions to interpret the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which forbids the enactment of laws "respecting an establishment of religion". Writing for the majority, Justice Black concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Establishment Clause, meaning that it applied to the states as well as to the federal government. Quoting Thomas Jefferson, he argued that "the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation between Church and State'". But despite what Wiecek called a "fusillade of sweeping dicta", Black nonetheless held for a 5–4 majority that the specific law at issue—a New Jersey statute that permitted parents to be reimbursed for the costs of sending their children to private religious schools by bus—did not violate the Establishment Clause. In dissent, Rutledge favored an even stricter understanding of the Establishment Clause than Black, maintaining that its purpose "was to create a complete and permanent separation of the spheres of religious activity and civil authority by comprehensively forbidding every form of public aid or support for religion". On that basis, he argued that the New Jersey law was unconstitutional because it provided indirect financial support for religious education. Although Rutledge's position in Everson was not vindicated by the Court's later Establishment Clause jurisprudence, Ferren argued that his dissent "remains as powerful a statement as any Supreme Court justice has written" in support of church–state separation.
In other cases, Rutledge evinced a near-uniform tendency to embrace defenses rooted in the First Amendment: in Terminiello v. City of Chicago, he sided with a priest whose rhetorical attacks on Jews and the Roosevelt administration had provoked a riot; in United Public Workers v. Mitchell and Oklahoma v. United States Civil Service Commission, he dissented when the Court upheld the Hatch Act's restrictions on civil servants' political activity; in Marsh v. Alabama, he joined the majority in holding a company town's restrictions on the distribution of religious literature unconstitutional. In only a single case—Prince v. Massachusetts—did he vote to reject an attempt to invoke the First Amendment. Prince involved a Jehovah's Witness who had been convicted of violating a Massachusetts child labor law by bringing her nine-year-old niece to distribute religious literature with her. Writing for a 5–4 majority, Rutledge held that Massachusetts's interest in protecting children's welfare outweighed the child's First Amendment rights; he argued that "parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow [that] they are free ... to make martyrs of their children." His usual ally Murphy disagreed, arguing in dissent that the state had not demonstrated "the existence of any grave or immediate danger to any interest which it may lawfully protect". Rutledge's decision to reject the First Amendment argument presented in Prince may have stemmed more from his longstanding opposition to child labor than from his views on religious freedom.
### Criminal procedure
In 80 percent of the criminal cases heard by the Supreme Court during his tenure, Rutledge voted in favor of the defendant—substantially more often than the Court as a whole, which did so in only 52 percent of criminal cases. He supported an expansive definition of due process and construed ambiguous statutes in favor of defendants, particularly in cases involving capital punishment. In Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, Rutledge dissented from the Court's 5–4 holding that Louisiana could again endeavor to execute a prisoner after the electric chair malfunctioned during the previous attempt. He joined the opinion of Justice Harold H. Burton, who maintained that "death by installments" was a form of cruel and unusual punishment that violated the Due Process Clause. In the case of In re Oliver, Rutledge agreed with the majority that a conviction for contempt of court was unlawful because a single judge, sitting as a one-man grand jury, had held proceedings in secret and given the defendant no opportunity to defend himself. Concurring separately, he argued for a broader definition of due process, decrying the Court's willingness to permit "selective departure[s]" from the "scheme of ordered personal liberty established by the Bill of Rights" in other cases. Rutledge's dissent in Ahrens v. Clark demonstrated what Ferren characterized as his "continued impatience ... with procedural rules barring access to the federal courts". The Court in Ahrens ruled 6–3 that German nationals seeking writs of habeas corpus to stop their deportations could not lawfully sue in federal court in the District of Columbia. Aided by his law clerk John Paul Stevens, Rutledge dissented, concluding that the court in the District of Columbia had jurisdiction because the person having custody over the prisoners—the Attorney General—was located there. He argued against what he viewed as "a jurisdictional limitation so destructive of the writ's availability and adaptability to all the varying conditions and devices by which liberty may be unlawfully restrained". Stevens later served on the Supreme Court himself; in his majority opinion in Rasul v. Bush, he cited Rutledge's Ahrens dissent to conclude that federal courts had jurisdiction over suits brought by detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Rutledge maintained that the provisions of the Bill of Rights protected all criminal defendants, regardless of whether they were being tried in state or federal court. He dissented in Adamson v. California, in which the Court, by a vote of 5–4, held that the Fifth Amendment's protection against forced self-incrimination did not apply to the states. Joining a dissent written by Murphy, he agreed with Justice Black's position that the Due Process Clause incorporated the entirety of the Bill of Rights, but he went further than Black to suggest that it also conferred additional due process protections not found elsewhere in the Constitution. In another incorporation dispute, Wolf v. Colorado, Rutledge dissented when the Court ruled 6–3 that the exclusionary rule—the prohibition against using illegally seized evidence in court—did not apply to the states. He joined a dissent by Murphy and penned a separate opinion of his own, in which he argued that, without the exclusionary rule, the Fourth Amendment prohibition of unlawful searches and seizures "was a dead letter". Rutledge's dissent was eventually vindicated: in its 1961 decision in Mapp v. Ohio, the Court expressly overruled Wolf.
### Wartime cases
#### In re Yamashita
In the 1946 case of In re Yamashita, Rutledge rendered an opinion that was later characterized by Ferren as "one of the Court's truly great, and influential, dissents". The case involved the Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita, who commanded soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines during World War II. At the end of the war, troops under Yamashita's command killed tens of thousands of Filipinos, many of whom were civilians. On the basis that he was responsible for the actions of his troops, Yamashita was charged with war crimes and tried before a military commission. At trial, the prosecution could not demonstrate either that Yamashita was aware of the atrocities committed by his troops or that he had any control over their actions; witnesses testified that they were responsible for the killings and that Yamashita had no knowledge of them. The commission, which consisted of five American generals, nonetheless found him guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging. Yamashita petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the conviction was unlawful due to a bevy of procedural irregularities, including the admission of hearsay and fabricated evidence, restrictions on the defense's ability to cross-examine witnesses, a lack of time for the defense to prepare its case, and a dearth of proof that Yamashita (as opposed to his troops) was guilty. Although the justices desired to stay out of questions of military justice, Rutledge and Murphy, who were gravely worried by what they viewed as serious procedural problems, convinced their colleagues to grant review and hear arguments in the case.
On February 4, 1946, the Court ruled by a 6–2 vote against Yamashita, upholding the result of the trial. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Stone stated that the Court could consider only whether the military commission was validly formed, not whether Yamashita was innocent or guilty. Since the United States had not yet signed a peace treaty with Japan, he maintained that the Articles of War permitted military trials to be conducted without complying with the Constitution's due process requirements. Arguing that military tribunals "are not courts whose rulings and judgments are made subject to review by this Court", he declined to address the other issues presented by the case. The two dissenters—Murphy and Rutledge—each filed separate opinions; according to Yamashita's lawyer, they read them "in tones so bitter and in language so sharp that it was readily apparent to all listeners that even more acrimonious expression must have marked the debate behind the scenes". In a dissent that scholars have characterized as "eloquent", "moving", and "magisterial", Rutledge decried the trial as an egregious violation of the ideals of justice and fairness protected by the Constitution. He denounced the majority opinion as an abdication of the Court's responsibility to apply the rule of law to all, even to the military. Rutledge wrote:
> More is at stake than General Yamashita's fate. There could be no possible sympathy for him if he is guilty of the atrocities for which his death is sought. But there can be and should be justice administered according to the law ... It is not too early, it is never too early, for the nation steadfastly to follow its great constitutional traditions, none older or more universally protective against unbridled power than due process of law in the trial and punishment of men, that is, of all men, whether citizens, aliens, alien enemies or enemy belligerents. It can become too late.
Rutledge wrote privately that he felt the case would "outrank Dred Scott in the annals of the Court". In his dissent, he rejected the majority's holding that the Fifth Amendment was inapplicable, writing that: "[n]ot heretofore has it been held that any human being is beyond its universally protecting spread in the guaranty of a fair trial in the most fundamental sense. That door is dangerous to open. I will have no part in opening it. For once it is ajar, even for enemy belligerents, it can be pushed back wider for others, perhaps ultimately for all." Rebutting Stone's contentions point by point, Rutledge concluded that the charges against Yamashita were defective, that the evidence against him was inadequate and unlawfully admitted, and that the trial had violated the Articles of War, the 1929 Geneva Convention, and the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause. In closing, he quoted the words of Thomas Paine: "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." Although Rutledge's dissent did not prevent Yamashita from being hanged, the legal historian Melvin I. Urofsky has written that its "influence, however, cannot be gainsaid ... The Court has not been involved with any war crimes trials in several decades, but aside from the jurisdictional issue it is clear that the ideas expressed by Wiley Rutledge—in terms of both due process and command accountability—have triumphed."
#### Japanese internment
In an act characterized by Urofsky as "the worst violation of civil liberties in American history", the Roosevelt administration ordered in 1942 that approximately 110,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry—including about 70,000 native-born American citizens—be detained on the basis that they posed a threat to the war effort. The Supreme Court, with the agreement of Rutledge, conferred its imprimatur on this decision in the cases of Hirabayashi v. United States and Korematsu v. United States. The first of these cases arose when Gordon Hirabayashi, a college student born in the United States, was arrested, convicted, and jailed for refusing to comply with the order to report for relocation. Before the Supreme Court, he argued that the order unlawfully discriminated against Japanese Americans on the basis of race. The Court unanimously rejected his plea: in an opinion by Chief Justice Stone, it refused to question the military's assertion that the relocation program was critical to national security. Rutledge wrote privately that he had experienced "more anguish over this case" than almost any other, but he eventually voted to sustain Hirabayashi's conviction. In a brief concurrence, he disagreed with Stone's argument that courts had no authority whatsoever to review wartime actions of the military but joined the remainder of the majority opinion.
When the Korematsu case arrived at the Court the subsequent year, it had become clear to many that the internment program was unjustifiable: not a single Japanese American had been charged with treason or espionage, and the American military had largely neutralized the threat that Japan posed. Yet by a 6–3 vote, the Court rejected Fred Korematsu's challenge to the orders, again choosing to defer to the military and to Congress. Writing for the majority, Justice Black authored what Wiecek called "an almost schizophrenic opinion, unpersuasive in its arguments and ambiguous in its ultimate impact". Justices Roberts, Jackson, and Murphy dissented: Roberts decried the "clear violation of Constitutional rights" implicit in punishing an American citizen "for not submitting to imprisonment in a concentration camp, based on his ancestry, and solely because of his ancestry, without evidence or inquiry concerning his loyalty and good disposition toward the United States", while Murphy characterized the orders as a "fall ... into the ugly abyss of racism". Rutledge joined Black's opinion immediately and unreservedly, silently taking part in what Ferren called "one of the saddest episodes in the Court's history".
The legal scholar Lester E. Mosher wrote that Rutledge's vote in Korematsu "represents the only deviation in his record as a champion of civil rights". Addressing the question of why the justice chose to depart from his customary support for equality and civil liberties in Yamashita, the law professor Craig Green observes that Rutledge had great faith in the Roosevelt administration and was hesitant to question its assertions that the internment orders were vital to national security. Green also argues that the modern condemnation of the Court's decision benefits substantially from hindsight: after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the threat of sabotage appeared serious, and the government had hidden information that would have raised doubts about the accuracy of its assessments. There is no evidence that Rutledge ever expressed regret for his vote in Korematsu, unlike Douglas, who later condemned the decision in his memoirs. Ferren suggests two possibilities: either Rutledge "abandon[ed] principle out of loyalty to his president" or he "act[ed] instead with a kind of courage" by reluctantly reaching an unpalatable conclusion that he felt the Constitution required. In Ferren's view, "[t]he irony for Wiley Rutledge, when viewed in hindsight, is that he participated in a ruling of the sort that he would have berated, in other contexts, as another 'Dred Scott decision'".
### Equal protection
In cases involving equal protection, Rutledge opposed discrimination against women, the poor, and racial minorities. His dissent in Goesaert v. Cleary, according to Ferren, constituted "the first modern gender discrimination opinion". In Goesaert, the majority upheld a Michigan law that prevented women from being bartenders unless they were related to a male bar-owner. Writing that the Equal Protection Clause "require[s] lawmakers to refrain from invidious distinctions of the sort drawn by the statute challenged in this case", Rutledge maintained that Michigan's law was arbitrary and irrational. His focus on the law's rationality mirrored the strategy pursued by future Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her efforts as an ACLU attorney to challenge laws that discriminated on the basis of gender. Dissenting in Foster v. Illinois, Rutledge voted to reverse the convictions of defendants who had not been informed of their right to counsel. He invoked the Due Process Clause but also maintained that equal protection had been violated, writing that poorer defendants, lacking an understanding of their rights, would receive "only the shadow of constitutional protections". His Foster dissent was among the first opinions in which a Supreme Court justice argued against poverty-based discrimination on equal-protection grounds. In his opinion in Fisher v. Hurst, Rutledge expressed concern about discrimination against racial minorities. The Court had previously ordered Oklahoma to allow Ada Lois Sipuel, an African-American woman, to study law. In Fisher, the Court rejected Thurgood Marshall's mandamus petition to enforce that ruling. Rutledge dissented, arguing that Oklahoma's law school should be shut down in its entirety if the state refused to admit Sipuel. With the exception of Murphy, who would have held a hearing on the matter, Rutledge was the only justice to dissent.
Cases involving voting rights were the only ones in which Rutledge rejected attempts to invoke the Equal Protection Clause. In Colegrove v. Green, voters challenged an Illinois congressional apportionment scheme that created districts with unequal numbers of people, arguing that it violated federal law and the Constitution. The Court, by a vote of 4–3, rejected that argument; in a plurality opinion, Frankfurter concluded that claims of malapportionment presented political questions that the federal courts lacked the authority to resolve. Rutledge agreed with the dissenters—Black, Douglas, and Murphy—that the dispute did not present a nonjusticiable political question, but he nonetheless voted with the majority. Stating that an insufficient amount of time remained for Illinois to redraw its districts before the election, he concluded in a separate opinion concurring in the judgment that it would be inequitable to strike down the map at that time. In MacDougall v. Green, Rutledge similarly voted to defer to the states on questions involving election procedures. Although the Progressive Party had collected the 25,000 signatures required for it to appear on the Illinois ballot, it had not satisfied the requirement to collect 200 signatures from each of 50 counties—a requirement that harmed parties whose voters were concentrated in urban areas. The Court, relying on Colegrove, upheld Illinois's requirement. Again parting ways with Black, Douglas, and Murphy but refusing to join the majority's analysis, Rutledge declined to grant the Progressive Party relief, maintaining that there was not enough time before the election for the state to print new ballots. In both cases, Rutledge's vote was based on his concern that any possible remedy for the constitutional problem would be unfair as well.
### Business, labor, and the Commerce Clause
Rutledge's dissent in United States v. United Mine Workers was perhaps his most noteworthy opinion that did not involve questions of civil liberties. A federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order enjoining John L. Lewis and his union of coal miners—the United Mine Workers—from striking against the federal government, which had seized the coal mines due to labor unrest. The union ignored the order and went on strike; the judge held both Lewis and the union in civil and criminal contempt and levied a \$3.5 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) fine. Before the Supreme Court, the union argued that the injunction against it had violated the Norris–La Guardia Act, which forbade the courts from issuing injunctive relief against striking workers. The Court rejected the union's claims, holding that the Norris–La Guardia Act applied only to disputes between employees and employers and that the federal government was not considered an employer under the statute. A splintered majority thus upheld the injunction and the contempt convictions, although the fine was reduced to \$700,000 (equivalent to \$ million in ). In dissent, Rutledge argued that the temporary restraining order did violate the Norris–La Guardia Act. He also decried the district court's decision to hold the union in both civil and criminal contempt, writing that "the idea that a criminal prosecution and a civil suit for damages or equitable relief could be hashed together in a single criminal-civil hodgepodge would be shocking to every American lawyer and to most citizens". Rutledge's dissent was rendered in the midst of substantial hostility among political leaders and the general public toward the union's actions, and the scholar Fred L. Israel characterized it as "courageous".
In cases involving the Constitution's Commerce Clause, Rutledge favored a pragmatic approach that endeavored to balance the interests of states and the federal government. Writing for the Court in Bob-Lo Excursion Co. v. Michigan, he ruled against a ferry company that had been charged with violating a Michigan civil rights law by refusing to serve African-Americans. The ferry company, noting that its boats sailed from Detroit to Bois Blanc Island in Ontario, Canada, had argued that it was engaged in foreign commerce that was exempt from state regulation under the dormant Commerce Clause doctrine. In a narrow ruling, Rutledge held that, although Michigan was technically regulating foreign commerce, the statute imposed no serious burden on it because the island was for all practical purposes a part of Detroit. The case exemplified his flexible approach to the Commerce Clause. In Prudential Insurance Co. v. Benjamin, Rutledge's opinion for the Court upheld a South Carolina tax on out-of-state insurers against a Commerce Clause challenge. The McCarran–Ferguson Act, passed by Congress in 1945, had authorized state regulation of the insurance market; Rutledge concluded that the act permissibly allowed South Carolina to discriminate against interstate commerce—something it otherwise lacked the power to do. His conclusion that Congress could consent to state regulations of interstate commerce demonstrated his support for what one scholar called "flexibility in the operations of the federal system".
## Personal life and death
Rutledge and his wife Annabel had three children: a son, Neal, and two daughters, Mary Lou and Jean Ann. Raised a Southern Baptist, Rutledge later became a Christian humanist; his religious views resembled those of Unitarianism. He was universally regarded as a pleasant and friendly man who genuinely cared about everyone with whom he interacted.
Rutledge's perfectionism and penchant for hard work drove him to the point of exhaustion by the summer of 1949, and his friends and family expressed worry about his health. On August 27, while in Ogunquit, Maine, he experienced a hemorrhagic stroke and was hospitalized in nearby York Harbor. The fifty-five-year-old justice drifted in and out of consciousness and, on September 10, died. President Harry S. Truman, writing to Rutledge's wife Annabel, stated that a "tower of strength has been lost to our national life"; Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson praised the justice as "true to his ideals and, in all, a great American". Rutledge's funeral service, conducted by A. Powell Davies, was held at All Souls' Unitarian Church on September 14. A headstone in Rutledge's memory was placed at Mountain View Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado, but the grave is empty: as of 2008, his physical remains are held at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland, pending further instructions from his family. Rutledge's death was almost simultaneous with that of Murphy; Truman's appointments of Sherman Minton and Tom C. Clark, respectively, to replace them led to a considerably more conservative Court.
## Legacy
Legal scholars have generally looked favorably upon Rutledge's tenure on the Supreme Court, although the brevity of his service has lessened his historical importance. In a 1965 biography, Fowler V. Harper opined that "[h]istory is writing Wiley Rutledge into the slender volume of 'Justices in the Great Tradition'". The political scientist A. E. Keir Nash responded in 1994 that "calling him a great justice looks somewhat like calling John Kennedy a great president. It substitutes a wistful 'what might have been' for a realistic 'what was'." A 1970 survey of judges and legal academics ranked Rutledge as the twenty-fourth-greatest justice of the Supreme Court; a similar 1993 assessment found that he had fallen to thirty-fifth place. Observing that "short tenure naturally tends to depress rankings", the scholar William G. Ross suggested that "bright and able persons" such as Rutledge "would have received higher rankings—perhaps even as 'greats'—if their tenures had not been cut short". Timothy L. Hall argued in 2001 that Rutledge's judicial career "was like the unfinished first symphony of a composer who might have gone on to create great masterpieces but who died before they could ever flow from his pen ... [H]is steady outpouring of opinions over the course of six years yielded only a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been."
## See also
- List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
- List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
- List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 3)
- United States Supreme Court cases during the Stone Court
- United States Supreme Court cases during the Vinson Court
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Ankylosaurus
| 1,173,319,359 |
Ankylosaurid dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous Period
|
[
"Ankylosaurids",
"Fossil taxa described in 1908",
"Hell Creek fauna",
"Lance fauna",
"Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America",
"Maastrichtian genus extinctions",
"Maastrichtian genus first appearances",
"Ornithischian genera",
"Paleontology in Alberta",
"Paleontology in Montana",
"Paleontology in Wyoming",
"Scollard fauna",
"Taxa named by Barnum Brown"
] |
Ankylosaurus is a genus of armored dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in geological formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 68–66 million years ago, in western North America, making it among the last of the non-avian dinosaurs. It was named by Barnum Brown in 1908; it is monotypic, containing only A. magniventris. The generic name means "fused" or "bent lizard", and the specific name means "great belly". A handful of specimens have been excavated to date, but a complete skeleton has not been discovered. Though other members of Ankylosauria are represented by more extensive fossil material, Ankylosaurus is often considered the archetypal member of its group, despite having some unusual features.
Possibly the largest-known ankylosaurid, Ankylosaurus is estimated to have been between 6 and 8 meters (20 and 26 ft) long and to have weighed between 4.8 and 8 metric tons (5.3 and 8.8 short tons). It was quadrupedal, with a broad, robust body. It had a wide, low skull, with two horns pointing backward from the back of the head, and two horns below these that pointed backward and down. Unlike other ankylosaurs, its nostrils faced sideways rather than towards the front. The front part of the jaws was covered in a beak, with rows of small, leaf-shaped teeth farther behind it. It was covered in armor plates, or osteoderms, with bony half-rings covering the neck, and had a large club on the end of its tail. Bones in the skull and other parts of the body were fused, increasing their strength, and this feature is the source of the genus name.
Ankylosaurus is a member of the family Ankylosauridae, and its closest relatives appear to be Anodontosaurus and Euoplocephalus. Ankylosaurus is thought to have been a slow-moving animal, able to make quick movements when necessary. Its broad muzzle indicates it was a non-selective browser. Sinuses and nasal chambers in the snout may have been for heat and water balance or may have played a role in vocalization. The tail club is thought to have been used in defense against predators or in intraspecific combat. Specimens of Ankylosaurus have been found in the Hell Creek, Lance, Scollard, Frenchman, and Ferris formations, but it appears to have been rare in its environment. Although it lived alongside a nodosaurid ankylosaur, their ranges and ecological niches do not appear to have overlapped, and Ankylosaurus may have inhabited upland areas. Ankylosaurus also lived alongside dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Edmontosaurus.
## History of discovery
In 1906, an American Museum of Natural History expedition led by American paleontologist Barnum Brown discovered the type specimen of Ankylosaurus magniventris (AMNH 5895) in the Hell Creek Formation, near Gilbert Creek, Montana. The specimen (found by collector Peter Kaisen) consisted of the upper part of a skull, two teeth, part of the shoulder girdle, cervical, dorsal, and caudal vertebrae, ribs, and more than thirty osteoderms (armor plates). Brown scientifically described the animal in 1908; the generic name is derived from the Greek words αγκυλος ankulos ('bent' or 'crooked'), referring to the medical term ankylosis, the stiffness produced by the fusion of bones in the skull and body, and σαυρος sauros ('lizard'). The name can be translated as "fused lizard", "stiff lizard", or "curved lizard". The type species name, magniventris, is derived from the Latin: magnus ('great') and Latin: venter ('belly'), referring to the great width of the animal's body.
The skeletal reconstruction accompanying the 1908 description restored the missing parts in a fashion similar to Stegosaurus, and Brown likened the result to the extinct armored mammal Glyptodon. In contrast to modern depictions, Brown's stegosaur-like reconstruction showed robust forelimbs, a strongly arched back, a pelvis with prongs projecting forwards from the ilium and pubis, as well as a short, drooping tail without a tail club, which was unknown at the time. Brown also reconstructed the armor plates in parallel rows running down the back; this arrangement was purely hypothetical. Brown's reconstruction became highly influential, and restorations of the animal based on his diagram were published as late as the 1980s. In a 1908 review of Brown's Ankylosaurus description, the American paleontologist Samuel Wendell Williston criticised the skeletal reconstruction as being based on too few remains, and claimed that Ankylosaurus was merely a synonym of the genus Stegopelta, which Williston had named in 1905. Williston also stated that a skeletal reconstruction of the related Polacanthus by Hungarian paleontologist Franz Nopcsa was a better example of how ankylosaurs would have appeared in life. The claim of synonymy was not accepted by other researchers, and the two genera are now considered distinct.
Brown had collected 77 osteoderms while excavating a Tyrannosaurus specimen in the Lance Formation of Wyoming in 1900. He mentioned these osteoderms (specimen AMNH 5866) in his description of Ankylosaurus but thought they belonged to the Tyrannosaurus instead. Paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn also expressed this view when he described the Tyrannosaurus specimen as the now synonymous genus Dynamosaurus in 1905. More recent examination has shown them to be similar to those of Ankylosaurus; it seems that Brown had compared them with some Euoplocephalus osteoderms, which had been erroneously cataloged as belonging to Ankylosaurus at the AMNH.
In 1910, another AMNH expedition led by Brown discovered an Ankylosaurus specimen (AMNH 5214) in the Scollard Formation by the Red Deer River in Alberta, Canada. This specimen included a complete skull, mandibles, the first and only tail club known of this genus, as well as ribs, vertebrae, limb bones, and armor. In 1947 the American fossil collectors Charles M. Sternberg and T. Potter Chamney collected a skull and mandible (specimen CMN 8880, formerly NMC 8880), 1 kilometer (5⁄8 mile) north of where the 1910 specimen was found. This is the largest-known Ankylosaurus skull, but it is damaged in places. A section of caudal vertebrae (specimen CCM V03) was discovered in the 1960s in the Powder River drainage, Montana, part of the Hell Creek Formation. In addition to these five incomplete specimens, many other isolated osteoderms and teeth have been found.
In 1990, American paleontologist Walter P. Coombs pointed out that the teeth of two skulls assigned to A. magniventris differed from those of the holotype specimen in some details, and though he expressed a "considerate temptation" to name a new species of Ankylosaurus for these, he refrained from doing so, as the range of variation in the species was not completely documented. He also raised the possibility that the two teeth associated with the holotype specimen perhaps did not belong to it, as they were found in matrix within the nasal chambers. The American paleontologist Kenneth Carpenter accepted the teeth as belonging to A. magniventris in 2004, and that all the specimens belonged to the same species, noting that the teeth of other ankylosaurs are highly variable.
Most of the known Ankylosaurus specimens were not scientifically described at length, though several paleontologists planned to do so until Carpenter redescribed the genus in 2004. In 2017 the Canadian paleontologists Victoria M. Arbour and Jordan Mallon redescribed the genus in light of newer ankylosaur discoveries, including elements of the holotype that had not been previously mentioned in the literature (such as parts of the skull and the cervical half-rings). They concluded that though Ankylosaurus is the best-known member of its group, it was bizarre in comparison to related ankylosaurs, and therefore not representative of the group. In spite of its familiarity, it is known from far fewer remains than its closest relatives.
## Description
Ankylosaurus was the largest-known ankylosaurine dinosaur and possibly the largest ankylosaurid. In 2004 Carpenter estimated that the individual with the largest-known skull (specimen CMN 8880), which is 64.5 centimeters (2 ft 1+1⁄2 in) long and 74.5 cm (2 ft 5+1⁄4 in) wide, was about 6.25 m (20 ft 6 in) long and had a hip height of about 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in). The smallest-known skull (specimen AMNH 5214) is 55.5 cm (1 ft 9+3⁄4 in) long and 64.5 cm (2 ft 1+1⁄2 in) wide, and Carpenter estimated that it measured about 5.4 m (17 ft 9 in) long and about 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) tall at the hips. The American paleontologist Roger B. J. Benson and colleagues estimated the weight for AMNH 5214 at 4.78 metric tons (5.27 short tons) in 2014.
In 2017, based on comparisons with more complete ankylosaurines, Arbour and Mallon estimated a length of 7.56 to 9.99 m (24 ft 9+1⁄2 in to 32 ft 9+1⁄2 in) for CMN 8880, and 6.02 to 7.95 m (19 ft 9 in to 26 ft 1 in) for AMNH 5214. Though the latter is the smallest specimen of Ankylosaurus, its skull is still larger than those of any other ankylosaurins. A few other ankylosaurs reached about 6 m (20 ft) in length. Because the vertebrae of AMNH 5214 are not significantly larger than those of other ankylosaurines, Arbour and Mallon considered their upper range estimate of nearly 10 meters (33 ft) for large Ankylosaurus too long, and suggested a length of 8 m (26 ft) instead. Arbour and Mallon estimated a weight of 4.78 t (5.27 short tons) for AMNH 5214, and tentatively estimated the weight of CMN 8880 at 7.95 t (8.76 short tons).
### Skull
The three known Ankylosaurus skulls differ in various details; this is thought to be the result of taphonomy (changes happening during decay and fossilization of the remains) and individual variation. The skull was low and triangular in shape, and wider than it was long; the back of the skull was broad and low. The skull had a broad beak on the premaxillae. The orbits (eye sockets) were almost round to slightly oval and did not face directly sideways because the skull tapered towards the front. The braincase was short and robust, as in other ankylosaurines. Crests above the orbits merged into the upper squamosal horns (their shape has been described as "pyramidal"), which pointed backwards to the sides from the back of the skull. The crest and horn were probably separate elements originally, as seen in the related Pinacosaurus and Euoplocephalus. Below the upper horns, jugal horns were present, which pointed backward and down. The horns may have originally been osteoderms that fused to the skull. The scale-like cranial ornamentation on the surfaces of ankylosaurs skulls is called "caputegulae", and were the result of remodeling of the skull itself. This obliterated the sutures between skull elements, which is common for adult ankylosaurs. The caputegulum pattern of the skull was variable between specimens, though some details are shared. The caputegulae are named according to their position on the skull, and those of Ankylosaurus include a relatively large, hexagonal (or diamond-shaped) nasal caputegulum at the front of the snout between the nostrils, which had a loreal caputegulum on each side, an anterior and posterior supraorbital caputegulum above each orbit, and a ridge of nuchal caputegulae at the back of the skull.
The snout region of Ankylosaurus was unique among ankylosaurs, and had undergone an "extreme" transformation compared to its relatives. The snout was arched and truncated at the front, and the nostrils were elliptical and were directed downward and outward, unlike in all other known ankylosaurids where they faced obliquely forward or upward. Additionally, the nostrils were not visible from the front because the sinuses were expanded to the sides of the premaxilla bones, to a larger extent than seen in other ankylosaurs. Large loreal caputegulae—strap-like, side osteoderms of the snout—completely roofed the enlarged opening of the nostrils, giving a bulbous appearance. The nostrils also had an intranarial septum, which separated the nasal passage from the sinus. Each side of the snout had five sinuses, four of which expanded into the maxilla bone. The nasal cavities (or chambers) of Ankylosaurus were elongated and separated by a septum at the midline, which divided the inside of the snout into two mirrored halves. The nasal chambers had two openings, including the choanae (internal nostrils), and the air passage was looped. The maxillae expanded to the sides, giving the impression of a bulge, which may have been due to the sinuses inside. The maxillae had a ridge that may have been the attachment site for fleshy cheeks; the presence of cheeks in ornithischians is controversial, but some nodosaurs had armor plates that covered the cheek region, which may have been embedded in the flesh.
Specimen AMNH 5214 has 34–35 dental alveoli (tooth sockets) in the maxilla. The tooth rows in the maxillae of this specimen are about 20 centimeters (7.9 in) long. Each alveolus had a foramen (opening) near its side where a replacement tooth could be seen. Compared to other ankylosaurs, the mandible of Ankylosaurus was low in proportion to its length, and, when seen from the side, the tooth row was almost straight instead of arched. The mandibles are completely preserved only in the smallest specimen (AMNH 5214) and are about 41 centimeters (16 in) long. The incomplete mandible of the largest specimen (CMN 8880) is the same length. AMNH 5214 has 35 dental alveoli in the left dentary bone () and 36 in the right, for a total of 71. The predentary bone of the tip of the mandibles has not yet been found. Like other ankylosaurs, Ankylosaurus had small, phylliform (leaf-shaped) teeth, which were compressed sideways. The teeth were mostly taller than they were wide, and were very small; their size in proportion to the skull meant that the jaws of Ankylosaurus could accommodate more teeth than other ankylosaurines. The teeth of the largest Ankylosaurus skull are smaller than those of the smallest skull in the absolute sense. Some teeth from behind in the tooth row curved backwards, and tooth crowns were usually flatter on one side than the other. Ankylosaurus teeth are diagnostic and can be distinguished from the teeth of other ankylosaurids based on their smooth sides. The denticles were large, their number ranging from six to eight on the front part of the tooth, and five to seven behind.
### Postcranial skeleton
The structure of much of the skeleton of Ankylosaurus, including most of the pelvis, tail, and feet, is still unknown. It was quadrupedal, and its hind limbs were longer than its forelimbs. In the holotype specimen, the scapula (shoulder blade) measures 61.5 cm (2 ft 1⁄4 in) long and was fused with the coracoid (a rectangular bone connected to the lower end of the scapula). It also had entheses (connective tissue) for various muscle attachments. The humerus (upper arm bone) of AMNH 5214 was short, very broad and about 54 cm (1 ft 9+1⁄2 in) long. The femur (thigh bone), also from AMNH 5214, was 67 cm (2 ft 2+1⁄2 in) long and very robust. While the feet of Ankylosaurus are incompletely known, the hindfeet probably had three toes, as is the case in advanced ankylosaurids.
The cervical vertebrae had broad neural spines that increased in height towards the body. The front part of the neural spines had well-developed entheses, which was common among adult dinosaurs, and indicates the presence of large ligaments, which helped support the massive head. The dorsal vertebrae had centra (or bodies) that were short relative to their width, and their neural spines were short and narrow. The dorsal vertebrae were tightly spaced, which limited the downwards movement of the back. The neural spines had ossified (turned to bone) tendons, which also overlapped some of the vertebrae. The ribs of the last four back vertebrae were fused to the diapophyses and parapophyses (the structures that articulated the ribs with the vertebrae), and the ribcage was very broad in this part of the body. The caudal vertebrae had centra that were slightly amphicoelous, meaning they were concave on both sides.
### Armor
A prominent feature of Ankylosaurus was its armor, consisting of knobs and plates of bone known as osteoderms, or scutes, embedded in the skin. These have not been found in articulation, so their exact placement on the body is unknown, though inferences can be made based on related animals, and various configurations have been proposed. The osteoderms ranged from 1 centimeter (1⁄2 in) in diameter to 35.5 cm (14 in) in length, and varied in shape. The osteoderms of Ankylosaurus were generally thin walled and hollowed on the underside. Compared to Euoplocephalus, the osteoderms of Ankylosaurus were smoother. Many smaller osteoderms and ossicles probably occupied the space between the larger ones, as in other ankylosaurids. The osteoderms covering the body were very flat, though with a low keel at one margin. In contrast, the nodosaurid Edmontonia had high keels stretching from one margin to the other on the midline of its osteoderms. Ankylosaurus had some smaller osteoderms with a keel across the midline.
Like other ankylosaurids, Ankylosaurus had cervical half-rings (armor plates on the neck), but these are known only from fragments, making their exact arrangement uncertain. Carpenter suggested that when seen from above, the plates would have been paired, creating an inverted V-shape across the neck, with the midline gap probably being filled with small ossicles (round bony scutes) to allow for movement. He believed the width of this armor belt was too wide to have fitted solely on the neck, and that it covered the base of the neck and continued onto the shoulder region. Arbour and the Canadian paleontologist Philip J. Currie disagreed with Carpenter's interpretation in 2015 and pointed out that the cervical half-ring fragments of the holotype specimen did not fit together in the way proposed by Carpenter (though this could be due to breakage). They instead suggested that the fragments represented the remains of two cervical half-rings, which formed two semi-circular plates of armor around the upper part of the neck, as in the closely related Anodontosaurus and Euoplocephalus. Arbour and Mallon elaborated on this idea, describing the shape of these half-rings as "continuous U-shaped yokes" over the upper part of the neck, and suggested that Ankylosaurus had six keeled osteoderms with oval bases on each half-ring.
The first osteoderms behind the second cervical half-ring would have been similar in shape to those in the first half-ring, and the osteoderms on the back probably decreased in diameter hindwards. The largest osteoderms were probably arranged in transverse and longitudinal rows across most of the body, with four or five transverse rows separated by creases in the skin. The osteoderms on the flanks would probably have had a more square outline than those on the back. There may have been four longitudinal rows of osteoderms on the flanks. Unlike some basal ankylosaurs and many nodosaurs, ankylosaurids do not appear to have had co-ossified pelvic shields above their hips. Some osteoderms without keels may have been placed above the hip region of Ankylosaurus, as in Euoplocephalus. Ankylosaurus may have had three or four transverse rows of circular osteoderms over the pelvic region, which were smaller than those on the rest of the body, as in Scolosaurus. Smaller, triangular osteoderms may have been present on the sides of the pelvis. Flattened, pointed plates resemble those on the sides of the tail of Saichania, and may have been distributed similarly on Ankylosaurus. Osteoderms with oval keels could have been placed on the upper side of the tail or the side of the limbs. Compressed, triangular osteoderms found with Ankylosaurus specimens may have been placed on the sides of the pelvis or the tail. Ovoid, keeled, and teardrop-shaped osteoderms are known from Ankylosaurus, and may have been placed on the forelimbs, like those known from Pinacosaurus, but it is unknown whether the hindlimbs bore osteoderms.
The tail club (or tail knob) of Ankylosaurus was composed of two large osteoderms, with a row of small osteoderms at the midline, and two small osteoderms at the tip; these osteoderms obscured the last tail vertebra. As only the tail club of specimen AMNH 5214 is known, the range of variation between individuals is unknown. The tail club of AMNH 5214 is 60 cm (23+1⁄2 in) long, 49 cm (19+1⁄2 in) wide, and 19 cm (7+1⁄2 in) tall. The club of the largest specimen may have been 57 cm (22+1⁄2 in) wide. The tail club of Ankylosaurus was semicircular when seen from above, similar to those of Euoplocephalus and Scolosaurus but unlike the pointed club osteoderms of Anodontosaurus or the narrow, elongated club of Dyoplosaurus. The last seven tail vertebrae formed the "handle" of the tail club. These vertebrae were in contact, with no cartilage between them, and were sometimes co-ossified, which made them immobile. Ossified tendons attached to the vertebrae in front of the tail club, and these features together helped strengthen it. The interlocked zygapophyses (articular processes) and neural spines of the handle vertebrae were U-shaped when seen from above, whereas those of most other ankylosaurids are V-shaped, which may be due to the handle of Ankylosaurus being wider. The larger width may indicate that the tail of Ankylosaurus was shorter in relation to its body length than those of other ankylosaurids, or that it had the same proportions but with a smaller club.
## Classification
Brown considered Ankylosaurus so distinct that he made it the type genus of a new family, Ankylosauridae, typified by massive, triangular skulls, short necks, stiff backs, broad bodies, and osteoderms. He also classified Palaeoscincus (only known from teeth), and Euoplocephalus (then only known from a partial skull and osteoderms) as part of the family. Due to the fragmentary condition of the remains, Brown was unable to fully distinguish between Euoplocephalus and Ankylosaurus. Having for comparison only a few, incomplete members of the family, he believed the group was part of the suborder Stegosauria. In 1923 Osborn coined the name Ankylosauria, thereby placing the ankylosaurids in their own suborder.
Ankylosauria and Stegosauria are now grouped together within the clade Thyreophora. This group first appeared in the Sinemurian age, and survived for 135 million years until disappearing in the Maastrichtian. They were widespread and inhabited a broad range of environments. As more complete specimens and new genera have been discovered, theories about ankylosaurian interrelatedness have become more complex, and hypotheses have often changed between studies. In addition to Ankylosauridae, Ankylosauria has been divided into the families Nodosauridae, and sometimes Polacanthidae (these families lacked tail clubs). Ankylosaurus is considered part of the subfamily Ankylosaurinae (members of which are called ankylosaurines) within Ankylosauridae. Ankylosaurus appears to be most closely related to Anodontosaurus and Euoplocephalus. The following cladogram is based on a 2015 phylogenetic analysis of the Ankylosaurinae conducted by Arbour and Currie:
Because Ankylosaurus and other Late Cretaceous North American ankylosaurids were grouped with Asian genera (in a tribe the authors named Ankylosaurini), Arbour and Currie suggested that earlier North American ankylosaurids had gone extinct by the late Albian or Cenomanian ages of the Middle Cretaceous. Ankylosaurids thereafter recolonized North America from Asia during the Campanian or Turonian ages of the Late Cretaceous, and there diversified again, leading to genera such as Ankylosaurus, Anodontosaurus, and Euoplocephalus. The theory explains a 30-million-year gap in the fossil record of North American ankylosaurids between the ages.
## Paleobiology
### Feeding
Like other ornithischians, Ankylosaurus was herbivorous. Its wide muzzle was adapted for non-selective low-browse cropping, although not to the extent seen in some related genera, especially Euoplocephalus. Though ankylosaurs may not have fed on fibrous and woody plants, they may have had a varied diet, including tough leaves and pulpy fruits. Ankylosaurus probably fed on abundant ferns and low-growing shrubs. Assuming it was endothermic, Ankylosaurus would have eaten 60 kilograms (130 pounds) of ferns per day, similar to the amount of dry vegetation a large elephant would consume. The requirements for nutrition could have been more effectively met if Ankylosaurus ate fruit, which its small, cusp-like teeth and the shape of its beak seem well adapted for, compared to for example Euoplocephalus. Certain invertebrates, which the small teeth may have been adapted for handling, could also have provided supplemental nutrition.
Fossils of Ankylosaurus teeth exhibit wear on the face of the crown rather than on the tip of the crown, as in nodosaurid ankylosaurs. In 1982 Carpenter ascribed to baby Ankylosaurus two very small teeth that originate from the Lance and Hell Creek Formations and measure 3.2 to 3.3 mm (1⁄8 to 17⁄128 in) in length, respectively. The smaller tooth is heavily worn, leading Carpenter to suggest that ankylosaurids in general or at least the young did not swallow their food whole but employed some sort of chewing. Since adult Ankylosaurus did little chewing of its food, it would have spent less time in the day foraging than an elephant. Based on the broadness of the ribcage, the digestion of unchewed food may have been facilitated by hindgut fermentation like in modern herbivorous lizards, which have several chambers in their enlarged colon.
In 1969, Austrian paleontologist Georg Haas concluded that despite the large size of ankylosaur skulls, the associated musculature was relatively weak. He also thought jaw movement was limited to up and down movements. Extrapolating from this, Haas suggested that ankylosaurs ate relatively soft non-abrasive vegetation. Later research on Euoplocephalus indicates that forward and sideways jaw movement was possible in these animals, the skull being able to withstand considerable forces. A 2016 study of the dental occlusion (contact between the teeth) of ankylosaur specimens found that the ability for backwards (palinal) jaw movement evolved independently in different ankylosaur lineages, including Late Cretaceous North American ankylosaurids like Ankylosaurus and Euoplocephalus.
The retracted position of the nostrils of Ankylosaurus have been compared to those of fossorial (digging) worm lizards and blind snakes, and though it was probably not a burrowing animal, the snout of Ankylosaurus may indicate earth-moving behavior. These factors, as well as the low rate of tooth formation in ankylosaurs compared to other ornithischians, indicate that Ankylosaurus may have been omnivorous (eating both plant and animal matter). It may also (or alternatively) have dug in the ground for roots and tubers.
### Airspaces and senses
In 1977, the Polish paleontologist Teresa Maryańska proposed that the complex sinuses and nasal cavities of ankylosaurs may have lightened the weight of the skull, housed a nasal gland, or acted as a chamber for vocal resonance. Carpenter rejected these hypotheses, arguing that tetrapod animals make sounds through the larynx, not the nostrils, and that reduction in weight was minimal, as the spaces only accounted for a small percent of the skull volume. He also considered a gland unlikely and noted that the sinuses may not have had any specific function. It has also been suggested that the respiratory passages were used to perform a mammal-like treatment of inhaled air, based on the presence and arrangement of specialized bones.
A 2011 study of the nasal passages of Euoplocephalus by the Japanese paleontologist Tetsuto Miyashita and colleagues supported their function as a heat and water balancing system, noting the extensive blood vessel system and an increased surface area for the mucosa membrane (used for heat and water exchange in modern animals). The researchers also supported the idea of the loops acting as a resonance chamber, comparable to the elongated nasal passages of saiga antelope and the looping trachea of cranes and swans. Reconstructions of the inner ear suggest adaptation to hearing at low frequencies, such as the low-toned resonant sounds possibly produced by the nasal passages. They disputed the possibility that the looping is related to olfaction (sense of smell) as the olfactory region is pushed to the sides of the main airway.
According to Carpenter, the shape of the nasal chambers of Ankylosaurus indicate that airflow was unidirectional (looping through the lungs during inhalation and exhalation), although it may also have been bidirectional in the posterior nasal chamber, with air directed past the olfactory lobes. The enlarged olfactory region of ankylosaurids indicates a well-developed sense of smell. Though hindwards retraction of the nostrils is seen in aquatic animals and animals with a proboscis, it is unlikely either possibility applies to Ankylosaurus, as the nostrils tend to be reduced or the premaxilla extended. In addition, though the widely separated nostrils may have allowed for stereo-olfaction (where each nostril senses smells from different directions), as has been proposed for the moose, little is known about this feature. The position of the orbits of Ankylosaurus suggest some stereoscopic vision.
### Limb movements
Reconstructions of ankylosaur forelimb musculature made by Coombs in 1978 suggest that the forelimbs bore the majority of the animal's weight, and were adapted for high force delivery on the front feet, possibly for food gathering. In addition, Coombs suggested that ankylosaurs may have been capable diggers, though the hoof-like structure of the manus would have limited fossorial activity. Ankylosaurs were likely to have been slow-moving and sluggish animals, though they may have been capable of quick movements when necessary.
### Growth
The squamosal horns of the largest Ankylosaurus specimen are blunter than those of the smallest specimen, which is also the case in Euoplocephalus, and this may represent ontogenetic variation (related to growth development). Studies of specimens of Pinacosaurus of different ages found that during ontogenetic development, the ribs of juvenile ankylosaurs fused with their vertebrae. The forelimbs strongly increased in robustness while the hindlimbs did not become larger relative to the rest of the skeleton, further evidence that the arms bore most of the weight. In the cervical half-rings, the underlying bone band developed outgrowths connecting it with the underlying osteoderms, which simultaneously fused to each other. On the skull, the middle bone plates first ossified at the snout and the rear rim, with ossification gradually extending towards the middle regions. On the rest of the body, ossification progressed from the neck backward in the direction of the tail.
### Defense
The osteoderms of ankylosaurids were thin in comparison to those of other ankylosaurs, and appear to have been strengthened by randomly distributed cushions of collagen fibers. Structurally similar to Sharpey's fibres, they were embedded directly into the bone tissue, a feature unique to ankylosaurids. This would have provided the ankylosaurids with an armor covering that was both lightweight and highly durable, being resistant to breakage and penetration by the teeth of predators. The palpebral bones over the eyes may have provided additional protection for them. Carpenter suggested in 1982 that the heavily vascularized armor may also have had a role in thermoregulation as in modern crocodilians.
The tail club of Ankylosaurus seems to have been an active defensive weapon, capable of producing enough of an impact to break the bones of an assailant. The tendons of the tail were partially ossified and were not very elastic, allowing great force to be transmitted to the club when it was used as a weapon. Coombs suggested in 1979 that several hindlimb muscles would have controlled the swinging of the tail, and that violent thrusts of the club would have been able to break the metatarsal bones of large theropods.
A 2009 study estimated that ankylosaurids could swing their tails at 100 degrees laterally, and the mainly cancellous clubs would have had a lowered moment of inertia and been effective weapons. The study also found that while adult ankylosaurid tail clubs were capable of breaking bones, those of juveniles were not. Despite the feasibility of tail-swinging, the researchers could not determine whether ankylosaurids used their clubs for defense against potential predators, in intraspecific combat, or both. Other studies have found evidence of ankylosaurids using their tail clubs for intraspecific combat. One specimen of Tarchia showed signs of injury on both the pelvic and tail area and the club was found to be asymmetrical, a sign of being worn down by the strikes.
In 1993, Tony Thulborn proposed that the tail club of ankylosaurids primarily acted as a decoy for the head, as he thought the tail too short and inflexible to have an effective reach; the "dummy head" would lure a predator close to the tail, where it could be struck. Carpenter has rejected this idea, as tail club shape is highly variable among ankylosaurids, even in the same genus.
## Paleoenvironment
Ankylosaurus existed between 68 and 66 million years ago, in the final, or Maastrichtian, stage of the Late Cretaceous Period. It was among the last dinosaur genera that appeared before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The type specimen is from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, while other specimens have been found in the Lance and Ferris Formations in Wyoming, the Scollard Formation in Alberta, and the Frenchman Formation in Saskatchewan, all of which date to the end of the Cretaceous.
Fossils of Ankylosaurus are rare in the sediments it is known from, and the distribution of its remains suggests that it was ecologically rare, or restricted to the uplands of the formations, where it would have been less likely to fossilize, rather than the coastal lowlands. Another ankylosaur, a nodosaur referred to as Edmontonia sp., is also found in the same formations, but according to Carpenter, the range of the two genera does not seem to have overlapped. Their remains have so far not been found in the same localities, and the nodosaur appears to have inhabited the lowlands. The narrower muzzle of the nodosaur suggests it had a more selective diet than Ankylosaurus, further indicating ecological separation, whether their range overlapped or not.
With its low center of gravity, Ankylosaurus would have been unable to knock down trees like modern elephants do. It was also incapable of chewing bark and thus unlikely to have practiced bark stripping. As an adult, Ankylosaurus does not appear to have congregated in groups (though some ankylosaurs appear to have congregated when young). It is therefore improbable that Ankylosaurus was able to modify the landscape of its ecosystem in the way elephants do; hadrosaurids may instead have had such an "ecosystem engineer" role.
The formations where Ankylosaurus fossils have been found represent different sections of the western shore of the Western Interior Seaway dividing western and eastern North America during the Cretaceous, a broad coastal plain extending westward from the seaway to the newly formed Rocky Mountains. These formations are composed largely of sandstone and mudstone, which have been attributed to floodplain environments. The regions where Ankylosaurus and other Late Cretaceous ankylosaurs have been found had a warm subtropical/temperate climate, which was monsoonal, had occasional rainfall, tropical storms, and forest fires. In the Hell Creek Formation, many types of plants were supported, primarily angiosperms, with less common conifers, ferns and cycads. An abundance of fossil leaves found at dozens of different sites indicates that the area was largely forested by small trees. Ankylosaurus shared its environment with other dinosaurs that included the ceratopsids Triceratops and Torosaurus, the hypsilophodont Thescelosaurus, the hadrosaurid Edmontosaurus, an indeterminate nodosaur, the pachycephalosaurian Pachycephalosaurus, and the theropods Struthiomimus, Ornithomimus, Pectinodon, and Tyrannosaurus.
## Cultural significance
Carpenter noted in 2004 that Ankylosaurus has become the archetypal member of its group, and the best-known ankylosaur in popular culture, perhaps due to a life-sized reconstruction of the animal being featured at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. Arbour and Mallon called Ankylosaurus an "iconic" dinosaur in 2017, and noted that the World's Fair sculpture, as well as the American artist Rudolph Zallinger's 1947 mural The Age of Reptiles and other later popular depictions, showed Ankylosaurus with a tail club, following the first discovery of the feature in 1910.
Many traditional popular depictions show Ankylosaurus in a squatting posture and with a huge tail club being dragged over the ground. Modern reconstructions show the animal with a more upright limb posture and with the tail held off the ground. Likewise, large spines projecting sideways from the body (similar to those of nodosaurid ankylosaurs) are present in many traditional depictions, but are not known from Ankylosaurus itself. The armor of Ankylosaurus has often been conflated with that of Edmontonia (earlier referred to as Palaeoscincus); in addition to Ankylosaurus being depicted with spikes, Edmontonia has also been depicted with an Ankylosaurus-like tail club (a feature nodosaurids did not have), including in a mural by the American artist Charles R. Knight from 1930. Ankylosaurus has been featured in the Jurassic Park franchise, where they are depicted as attacking with their tails and running, abilities that have been criticized as unlikely by paleontologists.
## See also
- Timeline of ankylosaur research
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Gas tungsten arc welding
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Welding process
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[
"Arc welding",
"Tungsten"
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Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), also known as tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, is an arc welding process that uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode to produce the weld. The weld area and electrode are protected from oxidation or other atmospheric contamination by an inert shielding gas (argon or helium). A filler metal is normally used, though some welds, known as autogenous welds, or fusion welds do not require it. When helium is used, this is known as heliarc welding. A constant-current welding power supply produces electrical energy, which is conducted across the arc through a column of highly ionized gas and metal vapors known as a plasma. TIG welding is most commonly used to weld thin sections of stainless steel and non-ferrous metals such as aluminum, magnesium, and copper alloys. The process grants the operator greater control over the weld than competing processes such as shielded metal arc welding and gas metal arc welding, allowing stronger, higher-quality welds. However, TIG welding is comparatively more complex and difficult to master, and furthermore, it is significantly slower than most other welding techniques. A related process, plasma arc welding, uses a slightly different welding torch to create a more focused welding arc and as a result is often automated.
## Development
After the discovery of the short pulsed electric arc in 1801 by Humphry Davy and of the continuous electric arc in 1802 by Vasily Petrov, arc welding developed slowly. C. L. Coffin had the idea of welding in an inert gas atmosphere in 1890, but even in the early 20th century, welding non-ferrous materials such as aluminum and magnesium remained difficult because these metals react rapidly with the air, resulting in porous, dross-filled welds. Processes using flux-covered electrodes did not satisfactorily protect the weld area from contamination. To solve the problem, bottled inert gases were used in the beginning of the 1930s. A few years later, a direct current, gas-shielded welding process emerged in the aircraft industry for welding magnesium.
In early 1940s Northrop Aircraft was developing an experimental aircraft from magnesium designated XP-56, for which Vladimir Pavlecka, Tom Piper and Russell Meredith developed a welding process named Heliarc because it used a tungsten electrode arc and helium as a shielding gas (the torch design was patented by Meredith in 1941). It is now often referred to as tungsten inert gas welding (TIG), especially in Europe, but the American Welding Society's official term is gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). Linde Air Products developed a wide range of air-cooled and water-cooled torches, gas lenses to improve shielding, and other accessories that increased the use of the process. Initially, the electrode overheated quickly and, despite tungsten's high melting temperature, particles of tungsten were transferred to the weld. To address this problem, the polarity of the electrode was changed from positive to negative, but the change made it unsuitable for welding many non-ferrous materials. Finally, the development of alternating current units made it possible to stabilize the arc and produce high quality aluminum and magnesium welds.
Developments continued during the following decades. Linde developed water-cooled torches that helped prevent overheating when welding with high currents. During the 1950s, as the process continued to gain popularity, some users turned to carbon dioxide as an alternative to the more expensive welding atmospheres consisting of argon and helium, but this proved unacceptable for welding aluminum and magnesium because it reduced weld quality, so it is rarely used with GTAW today. The use of any shielding gas containing an oxygen compound, such as carbon dioxide, quickly contaminates the tungsten electrode, making it unsuitable for the TIG process. In 1953, a new process based on GTAW was developed, called plasma arc welding. It affords greater control and improves weld quality by using a nozzle to focus the electric arc, but is largely limited to automated systems, whereas GTAW remains primarily a manual, hand-held method. Development within the GTAW process has continued as well, and today a number of variations exist. Among the most popular are the pulsed-current, manual programmed, hot-wire, dabber, and increased penetration GTAW methods.
## Operation
Manual gas tungsten arc welding is a relatively difficult welding method, due to the coordination required by the welder. Similar to torch welding, GTAW normally requires two hands, since most applications require that the welder manually feed a filler metal into the weld area with one hand while manipulating the welding torch in the other. Maintaining a short arc length, while preventing contact between the electrode and the workpiece, is also important.
To strike the welding arc, a high-frequency generator (similar to a Tesla coil) provides an electric spark. This spark is a conductive path for the welding current through the shielding gas and allows the arc to be initiated while the electrode and the workpiece are separated, typically about 1.5–3 mm (0.06–0.12 in) apart.
Once the arc is struck, the welder moves the torch in a small circle to create a welding pool, the size of which depends on the size of the electrode and the amount of current. While maintaining a constant separation between the electrode and the workpiece, the operator then moves the torch back slightly and tilts it backward about 10–15 degrees from vertical. Filler metal is added manually to the front end of the weld pool as it is needed.
Welders often develop a technique of rapidly alternating between moving the torch forward (to advance the weld pool) and adding filler metal. The filler rod is withdrawn from the weld pool each time the electrode advances, but it is always kept inside the gas shield to prevent oxidation of its surface and contamination of the weld. Filler rods composed of metals with a low melting temperature, such as aluminum, require that the operator maintain some distance from the arc while staying inside the gas shield. If held too close to the arc, the filler rod can melt before it makes contact with the weld puddle. As the weld nears completion, the arc current is often gradually reduced to allow the weld crater to solidify and prevent the formation of crater cracks at the end of the weld.
The physics of GTAW involves several complex processes, including thermodynamics, plasma physics, and fluid dynamics. The non-consumable tungsten electrode can be operated as a Cathode or Anode and is used to produce an electric arc between the electrode and the workpiece. In order to initially create the arc, the welding area is flooded with inert gas and a high strike voltage (typically 1 kV per 1 mm) is generated by the welding machine to overcome the electric resistivity of the atmosphere surrounding the welding area. With the arc established, the voltage is lowered and current flows between the work piece and electrode. Despite the high temperatures of this electric arc, the main heat transfer mechanism in GTAW is the joule heating resulting from this current flow.
### Safety
Welders wear protective clothing, including light and thin leather gloves and protective long sleeve shirts with high collars, to avoid exposure to strong ultraviolet light. Due to the absence of smoke in GTAW, the electric arc light is not covered by fumes and particulate matter as in stick welding or shielded metal arc welding, and thus is a great deal brighter, subjecting operators to strong ultraviolet light. The welding arc has a different range and strength of UV light wavelengths from sunlight, but the welder is very close to the source and the light intensity is very strong. Potential arc light damage includes accidental flashes to the eye or arc eye and skin damage similar to strong sunburn. Operators wear opaque helmets with dark eye lenses and full head and neck coverage to prevent this exposure to UV light. Modern helmets often feature a liquid crystal-type face plate that self-darkens upon exposure to the bright light of the struck arc. Transparent welding curtains, made of a strongly colored polyvinyl chloride plastic film, are often used to shield nearby workers and bystanders from exposure to the UV light from the electric arc.
Welders are also often exposed to dangerous gases and particulate matter. While the process doesn't produce smoke, the brightness of the arc in GTAW can break down surrounding air to form ozone and nitric oxides. The ozone and nitric oxides react with lung tissue and moisture to create nitric acid and ozone burn. Ozone and nitric oxide levels are moderate, but exposure duration, repeated exposure, and the quality and quantity of fume extraction, and air change in the room must be monitored. Welders who do not work safely can contract emphysema and oedema of the lungs, which can lead to early death. Similarly, the heat from the arc can cause poisonous fumes to form from cleaning and degreasing materials. Cleaning operations using these agents should not be performed near the site of welding, and proper ventilation is necessary to protect the welder.
### Applications
While the aerospace industry is one of the primary users of gas tungsten arc welding, the process is used in a number of other areas. Many industries use GTAW for welding thin workpieces, especially nonferrous metals. It is used extensively in the manufacture of space vehicles and is also frequently employed to weld small-diameter, thin-wall tubing such as that used in the bicycle industry. In addition, GTAW is often used to make root or first-pass welds for piping of various sizes. In maintenance and repair work, the process is commonly used to repair tools and dies, especially components made of aluminum and magnesium. Because the weld metal is not transferred directly across the electric arc like most open arc welding processes, a vast assortment of welding filler metal is available to the welding engineer. In fact, no other welding process permits the welding of so many alloys in so many product configurations. Filler metal alloys, such as elemental aluminum and chromium, can be lost through the electric arc from volatilization. This loss does not occur with the GTAW process. Because the resulting welds have the same chemical integrity as the original base metal or match the base metals more closely, GTAW welds are highly resistant to corrosion and cracking over long time periods, making GTAW the welding procedure of choice for critical operations like sealing spent nuclear fuel canisters before burial.
## Quality
Gas tungsten arc welding, because it affords greater control over the weld area than other welding processes, can produce high-quality welds when performed by skilled operators. Maximum weld quality is assured by maintaining cleanliness—all equipment and materials used must be free from oil, moisture, dirt and other impurities, as these cause weld porosity and consequently a decrease in weld strength and quality. To remove oil and grease, alcohol or similar commercial solvents may be used, while a stainless steel wire brush or chemical process can remove oxides from the surfaces of metals like aluminum. Rust on steels can be removed by first grit blasting the surface and then using a wire brush to remove any embedded grit. These steps are especially important when negative polarity direct current is used, because such a power supply provides no cleaning during the welding process, unlike positive polarity direct current or alternating current. To maintain a clean weld pool during welding, the shielding gas flow should be sufficient and consistent so that the gas covers the weld and blocks impurities in the atmosphere. GTAW in windy or drafty environments increases the amount of shielding gas necessary to protect the weld, increasing the cost and making the process unpopular outdoors.
The level of heat input also affects weld quality. Low heat input, caused by low welding current or high welding speed, can limit penetration and cause the weld bead to lift away from the surface being welded. If there is too much heat input, however, the weld bead grows in width while the likelihood of excessive penetration and spatter (emission of small, unwanted droplets of molten metal) increases. Additionally, if the welding torch is too far from the workpiece the shielding gas becomes ineffective, causing porosity within the weld. This results in a weld with pinholes, which is weaker than a typical weld.
If the amount of current used exceeds the capability of the electrode, tungsten inclusions in the weld may result. Known as tungsten spitting, this can be identified with radiography and can be prevented by changing the type of electrode or increasing the electrode diameter. In addition, if the electrode is not well protected by the gas shield or the operator accidentally allows it to contact the molten metal, it can become dirty or contaminated. This often causes the welding arc to become unstable, requiring that the electrode be ground with a diamond abrasive to remove the impurity.
## Equipment
The equipment required for the gas tungsten arc welding operation includes a welding torch utilizing a non-consumable tungsten electrode, a constant-current welding power supply, and a shielding gas source.
### Welding torch
GTAW welding torches are designed for either automatic or manual operation and are equipped with cooling systems using air or water. The automatic and manual torches are similar in construction, but the manual torch has a handle while the automatic torch normally comes with a mounting rack. The angle between the centerline of the handle and the centerline of the tungsten electrode, known as the head angle, can be varied on some manual torches according to the preference of the operator. Air cooling systems are most often used for low-current operations (up to about 200 A), while water cooling is required for high-current welding (up to about 600 A). The torches are connected with cables to the power supply and with hoses to the shielding gas source and where used, the water supply.
The internal metal parts of a torch are made of hard alloys of copper or brass so it can transmit current and heat effectively. The tungsten electrode must be held firmly in the center of the torch with an appropriately sized collet, and ports around the electrode provide a constant flow of shielding gas. Collets are sized according to the diameter of the tungsten electrode they hold. The body of the torch is made of heat-resistant, insulating plastics covering the metal components, providing insulation from heat and electricity to protect the welder.
The size of the welding torch nozzle depends on the amount of shielded area desired. The size of the gas nozzle depends upon the diameter of the electrode, the joint configuration, and the availability of access to the joint by the welder. The inside diameter of the nozzle is preferably at least three times the diameter of the electrode, but there are no hard rules. The welder judges the effectiveness of the shielding and increases the nozzle size to increase the area protected by the external gas shield as needed. The nozzle must be heat resistant and thus is normally made of alumina or a ceramic material, but fused quartz, a high purity glass, offers greater visibility. Devices can be inserted into the nozzle for special applications, such as gas lenses or valves to improve the control shielding gas flow to reduce turbulence and the introduction of contaminated atmosphere into the shielded area. Hand switches to control welding current can be added to the manual GTAW torches.
### Power supply
Gas tungsten arc welding uses a constant current power source, meaning that the current (and thus the heat flux) remains relatively constant, even if the arc distance and voltage change. This is important because most applications of GTAW are manual or semiautomatic, requiring that an operator hold the torch. Maintaining a suitably steady arc distance is difficult if a constant voltage power source is used instead since it can cause dramatic heat variations and make welding more difficult.
The preferred polarity of the GTAW system depends largely on the type of metal being welded. Direct current with a negatively charged electrode (DCEN) is often employed when welding steels, nickel, titanium, and other metals. It can also be used in automatic GTAW of aluminum or magnesium when helium is used as a shielding gas. The negatively charged electrode generates heat by emitting electrons, which travel across the arc, causing thermal ionization of the shielding gas and increasing the temperature of the base material. The ionized shielding gas flows toward the electrode, not the base material, and this can allow oxides to build on the surface of the weld. Direct current with a positively charged electrode (DCEP) is less common, and is used primarily for shallow welds since less heat is generated in the base material. Instead of flowing from the electrode to the base material, as in DCEN, electrons go the other direction, causing the electrode to reach very high temperatures. To help it maintain its shape and prevent softening, a larger electrode is often used. As the electrons flow toward the electrode, ionized shielding gas flows back toward the base material, cleaning the weld by removing oxides and other impurities and thereby improving its quality and appearance.
Alternating current, commonly used when welding aluminum and magnesium manually or semi-automatically, combines the two direct currents by making the electrode and base material alternate between positive and negative charge. This causes the electron flow to switch directions constantly, preventing the tungsten electrode from overheating while maintaining the heat in the base material. Surface oxides are still removed during the electrode-positive portion of the cycle and the base metal is heated more deeply during the electrode-negative portion of the cycle. Some power supplies enable operators to use an unbalanced alternating current wave by modifying the exact percentage of time that the current spends in each state of polarity, giving them more control over the amount of heat and cleaning action supplied by the power source. In addition, operators must be wary of rectification, in which the arc fails to reignite as it passes from straight polarity (negative electrode) to reverse polarity (positive electrode). To remedy the problem, a square wave power supply can be used, as can high-frequency to encourage arc stability.
### Electrode
The electrode used in GTAW is made of tungsten or a tungsten alloy, because tungsten has the highest melting temperature among pure metals, at 3,422 °C (6,192 °F). As a result, the electrode is not consumed during welding, though some erosion (called burn-off) can occur. Electrodes can have either a clean finish or a ground finish—clean finish electrodes have been chemically cleaned, while ground finish electrodes have been ground to a uniform size and have a polished surface, making them optimal for heat conduction. The diameter of the electrode can vary between 0.5 and 6.4 millimetres (0.02 and 0.25 in), and their length can range from 75 to 610 millimetres (3.0 to 24.0 in).
A number of tungsten alloys have been standardized by the International Organization for Standardization and the American Welding Society in ISO 6848 and AWS A5.12, respectively, for use in GTAW electrodes, and are summarized in the adjacent table.
- Pure tungsten electrodes (classified as WP or EWP) are general purpose and low cost electrodes. They have poor heat resistance and electron emission. They find limited use in AC welding of e.g. magnesium and aluminum.
- Thorium oxide (or thoria) alloy electrodes offer excellent arc performance and starting, making them popular general purpose electrodes. However, thorium is somewhat radioactive, making inhalation of vapors and dust a health risk, and disposal an environmental risk.
- Cerium oxide (or ceria) as an alloying element improves arc stability and ease of starting while decreasing burn-off. Cerium addition is not as effective as thorium but works well, and cerium is not radioactive.
- An alloy of lanthanum oxide (or lanthana) has a similar effect as cerium, and is also not radioactive.
- Electrodes containing zirconium oxide (or zirconia) increase the current capacity while improving arc stability and starting while also increasing electrode life.
Filler metals are also used in nearly all applications of GTAW, the major exception being the welding of thin materials. Filler metals are available with different diameters and are made of a variety of materials. In most cases, the filler metal in the form of a rod is added to the weld pool manually, but some applications call for an automatically fed filler metal, which often is stored on spools or coils.
### Shielding gas
As with other welding processes such as gas metal arc welding, shielding gases are necessary in GTAW to protect the welding area from atmospheric gases such as nitrogen and oxygen, which can cause fusion defects, porosity, and weld metal embrittlement if they come in contact with the electrode, the arc, or the welding metal. The gas also transfers heat from the tungsten electrode to the metal, and it helps start and maintain a stable arc.
The selection of a shielding gas depends on several factors, including the type of material being welded, joint design, and desired final weld appearance. Argon is the most commonly used shielding gas for GTAW, since it helps prevent defects due to a varying arc length. When used with alternating current, argon shielding results in high weld quality and good appearance. Another common shielding gas, helium, is most often used to increase the weld penetration in a joint, to increase the welding speed, and to weld metals with high heat conductivity, such as copper and aluminum. A significant disadvantage is the difficulty of striking an arc with helium gas, and the decreased weld quality associated with a varying arc length.
Argon-helium mixtures are also frequently utilized in GTAW, since they can increase control of the heat input while maintaining the benefits of using argon. Normally, the mixtures are made with primarily helium (often about 75% or higher) and a balance of argon. These mixtures increase the speed and quality of the AC welding of aluminum, and also make it easier to strike an arc. Another shielding gas mixture, argon-hydrogen, is used in the mechanized welding of light gauge stainless steel, but because hydrogen can cause porosity, its uses are limited. Similarly, nitrogen can sometimes be added to argon to help stabilize the austenite in austenitic stainless steels and increase penetration when welding copper. Due to porosity problems in ferritic steels and limited benefits, however, it is not a popular shielding gas additive.
## Materials
Gas Tungsten Arc Welding is most commonly used to weld stainless steel and nonferrous materials, such as aluminum and magnesium, but it can be applied to nearly all metals, with a notable exception being zinc and its alloys. Its applications involving carbon steels are limited not because of process restrictions, but because of the existence of more economical steel welding techniques, such as gas metal arc welding and shielded metal arc welding. Furthermore, GTAW can be performed in a variety of other-than-flat positions, depending on the skill of the welder and the materials being welded.
### Aluminum and magnesium
Aluminum and magnesium are most often welded using alternating current, but the use of direct current is also possible, depending on the properties desired. Before welding, the work area should be cleaned and may be preheated to 175 to 200 °C (347 to 392 °F) for aluminum or to a maximum of 150 °C (302 °F) for thick magnesium workpieces to improve penetration and increase travel speed. Alternating current can provide a self-cleaning effect, removing the thin, refractory aluminum oxide layer that forms on aluminum metal within minutes of exposure to air. This oxide layer must be removed for welding to occur. When alternating current is used, pure tungsten electrodes or zirconiated tungsten electrodes are preferred over thoriated electrodes, as the latter are more likely to "spit" electrode particles across the welding arc into the weld. Blunt electrode tips are preferred, and pure argon shielding gas should be employed for thin workpieces. Introducing helium allows for greater penetration in thicker workpieces, but can make arc starting difficult.
Direct current of either polarity, positive or negative, can be used to weld aluminum and magnesium as well. Direct current with a negatively charged electrode (DCEN) allows for high penetration. Argon is commonly used as a shielding gas for DCEN welding of aluminum. Shielding gases with high helium contents are often used for higher penetration in thicker materials. Thoriated electrodes are suitable for use in DCEN welding of aluminum. Direct current with a positively charged electrode (DCEP) is used primarily for shallow welds, especially those with a joint thickness of less than 1.6 mm (0.063 in). A thoriated tungsten electrode is commonly used, along with pure argon shielding gas.
### Steels
For GTAW of carbon and stainless steels, the selection of filler material is important to prevent excessive porosity. Oxides on the filler material and workpieces must be removed before welding to prevent contamination, and immediately prior to welding, alcohol or acetone should be used to clean the surface. Preheating is generally not necessary for mild steels less than one inch thick, but low alloy steels may require preheating to slow the cooling process and prevent the formation of martensite in the heat-affected zone. Tool steels should also be preheated to prevent cracking in the heat-affected zone. Austenitic stainless steels do not require preheating, but martensitic and ferritic chromium stainless steels do. A DCEN power source is normally used, and thoriated electrodes, tapered to a sharp point, are recommended. Pure argon is used for thin workpieces, but helium can be introduced as thickness increases.
### Dissimilar metals
Welding dissimilar metals often introduce new difficulties to GTAW welding, because most materials do not easily fuse to form a strong bond. However, welds of dissimilar materials have numerous applications in manufacturing, repair work, and the prevention of corrosion and oxidation. In some joints, a compatible filler metal is chosen to help form the bond, and this filler metal can be the same as one of the base materials (for example, using a stainless steel filler metal with stainless steel and carbon steel as base materials), or a different metal (such as the use of a nickel filler metal for joining steel and cast iron). Very different materials may be coated or "buttered" with a material compatible with particular filler metal, and then welded. In addition, GTAW can be used in cladding or overlaying dissimilar materials.
When welding dissimilar metals, the joint must have an accurate fit, with proper gap dimensions and bevel angles. Care should be taken to avoid melting excessive base material. Pulsed current is particularly useful for these applications, as it helps limit the heat input. The filler metal should be added quickly, and a large weld pool should be avoided to prevent dilution of the base materials.
## Process variations
### Pulsed-current
In the pulsed-current mode, the welding current rapidly alternates between two levels. The higher current state is known as the pulse current, while the lower current level is called the background current. During the period of pulse current, the weld area is heated and fusion occurs. Upon dropping to the background current, the weld area is allowed to cool and solidify. Pulsed-current GTAW has a number of advantages, including lower heat input and consequently a reduction in distortion and warpage in thin workpieces. In addition, it allows for greater control of the weld pool, and can increase weld penetration, welding speed, and quality. A similar method, manual programmed GTAW, allows the operator to program a specific rate and magnitude of current variations, making it useful for specialized applications.
### Dabber
The dabber variation is used to precisely place weld metal on thin edges. The automatic process replicates the motions of manual welding by feeding a cold or hot filler wire into the weld area and dabbing (or oscillating) it into the welding arc. It can be used in conjunction with pulsed current, and is used to weld a variety of alloys, including titanium, nickel, and tool steels. Common applications include rebuilding seals in jet engines and building up saw blades, milling cutters, drill bits, and mower blades.
|
324,996 |
John Tyndall (far-right activist)
| 1,172,993,552 |
British neo-Nazi (1934–2005)
|
[
"1934 births",
"2005 deaths",
"20th-century English criminals",
"Antisemitism in England",
"British Holocaust deniers",
"British National Party politicians",
"British fascists",
"British people convicted of hate crimes",
"English agnostics",
"English conspiracy theorists",
"English far-right politicians",
"English neo-Nazis convicted of crimes",
"English politicians convicted of crimes",
"English prisoners and detainees",
"Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom",
"Leaders of the National Front (UK)",
"People educated at Beckenham and Penge County Grammar School",
"Politicians from Exeter",
"Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales"
] |
John Hutchyns Tyndall (14 July 1934 – 19 July 2005) was a British fascist political activist. A leading member of various small neo-Nazi groups during the late 1950s and 1960s, he was chairman of the National Front (NF) from 1972 to 1974 and again from 1975 to 1980, and then chairman of the British National Party (BNP) from 1982 to 1999. He unsuccessfully stood for election to the House of Commons and European Parliament on several occasions.
Born in Devon and educated in Kent, Tyndall undertook national service prior to embracing the extreme-right. In the mid-1950s, he joined the League of Empire Loyalists (LEL) and came under the influence of its leader, Arthur Chesterton. Finding the LEL too moderate, in 1957 he and John Bean founded the National Labour Party (NLP), an explicitly "National Socialist" (Nazi) group. In 1960, the NLP merged with Colin Jordan's White Defence League to found the first British National Party (BNP). Within the BNP, Tyndall and Jordan established a paramilitary wing called Spearhead, which angered Bean and other party members. They expelled Tyndall and Jordan, who went on to establish the National Socialist Movement and then the international World Union of National Socialists. In 1962, they were convicted and briefly imprisoned for their paramilitary activities. After a split with Jordan, Tyndall formed his Greater Britain Movement (GBM) in 1964. Although never changing his basic beliefs, by the mid-1960s, Tyndall was replacing his overt references to Nazism with appeals to British nationalism.
In 1967, Tyndall joined Chesterton's newly founded National Front (NF) and became its leader in 1972, overseeing growing membership and electoral growth. His leadership was threatened by various factions within the party which eventually led to him losing his position as leader in 1974. He resumed this position in 1975, although the latter part of the 1970s saw the party's prospects decline. Following an argument with long-term comrade Martin Webster, Tyndall resigned from the party in 1980 and formed his short-lived New National Front (NNF). In 1982, he merged the NNF into his own newly formed British National Party (BNP). Under Tyndall, the BNP established itself as the UK's most prominent extreme-right group during the 1980s, although electoral success eluded it. Tyndall's refusal to moderate the BNP's policies or image caused anger among a growing array of "modernisers" in the party, who ousted him in favour of Nick Griffin in 1999. In 2005, Tyndall was charged with incitement to racial hatred for comments made at a BNP meeting. He died two days before his trial was due to take place.
Tyndall promoted a racial nationalist belief in a distinct white "British race", arguing that this race was threatened by a Jewish conspiracy to encourage non-white migration into Britain. He called for the establishment of an authoritarian state which would deport all non-whites from the country, engage in a eugenics project, and re-establish the British Empire through the military conquest of parts of Africa. He never gained any mainstream political respectability in the United Kingdom although he proved popular among sectors of the British far-right.
## Early life
### 1934–1958: Youth
John Tyndall was born in Stork Nest, Topsham Road in Exeter, Devon, on 14 July 1934, the son of Nellie Tyndall, née Parker and George Francis Tyndall. Through the Tyndall family line, he was related to the early English translator of the Bible, William Tyndale and the physicist John Tyndall. His paternal family were British Unionists living in County Waterford, Ireland, who had a long line of service in the Royal Irish Constabulary. His grandfather had been a district inspector in the Constabulary and he had also fought against the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. His father had moved to England, working as a Metropolitan Police officer, and then he worked as a warden at St George's House, a YMCA hostel in Southwark. Tyndall later stated that despite the fact that his father had been raised in a British Unionist family, the latter had adopted internationalist views. He claimed that his mother exhibited "a kind of basic British patriotism" and he also claimed that it was she who shaped his early political views. His upbringing was emotionally stable and materially secure. Tyndall studied at the Beckenham and Penge Grammar School in west Kent, where he attained three O-levels, a "moderate" result. At the school, his achievements had been sporting rather than academic, because he enjoyed playing cricket and association football and he also developed a passion for fitness.
Tyndall completed his national service in West Germany from 1952 to 1954. A member of the Royal Horse Artillery, he achieved the rank of lance-bombardier. On completion, he returned to Britain and turned his attention to political issues. Initially interested in socialism, he attended the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students which was held in Moscow, the capital city of the Soviet Union, in 1957. Nevertheless, he began to believe that left-wing politics was being infused with "anti-British attitudes", moving swiftly to the political right. He was devoted to the preservation of the British Empire and he was hostile to what he believed was the growing permissiveness of British society, stating that "the smell everywhere was one of decadence". During that decade he read Mein Kampf, the autobiography and political manifesto of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, growing sympathetic to Hitler's political beliefs and Nazism. In particular, Tyndall approved of "the descriptions of the workings of certain Jewish forces in Germany, which seemed uncannily similar to what I had observed of the same kinds of forces in Britain." He concluded that Britain's decision to go to war against Nazi Germany was ultimately the result of a conspiracy which was primarily headed by Jews, a conspiracy which he thought had also masterminded non-white immigration to Britain after the war.
Around 1957–58, Tyndall decided to commit himself to his political cause full-time, which he was able to do because his job as a salesman allowed him to keep flexible working hours. He decided against joining the Union Movement which was led by the prominent British fascist Oswald Mosley, disagreeing with its promotion of the political union of Britain with continental Europe. Instead, he was attracted to the League of Empire Loyalists (LEL) – a right-wing group founded by Arthur Chesterton – after seeing coverage of one of their demonstrations on television. He visited their basement office in Westminster, where he was given some of their literature. He enjoyed Chesterton's writings and concurred with his conspiracy theory that Jewish people had been plotting to bring down the British Empire. Tyndall began associating with other young men who had joined the LEL. At a February 1957 by-election in Lewisham North, Tyndall aided the LEL campaign, during which he met another party member, John Bean, an industrial chemist. Both Tyndall and Bean were frustrated by the LEL's attempts to exert pressure on the mainstream Conservative Party. They wanted to be involved in a more radical party, one that would combine "nationalism" with "popular socialism" and which would reach out to the white working class through appeals against immigration from the Caribbean.
### 1958–1962: National Labour Party and the first British National Party
In April 1958, Tyndall and Bean founded their own extreme-right group, the National Labour Party (NLP). The group was based at Thornton Heath, Croydon and attracted its early membership from former LEL members living in south and east London. According to the historian Richard Thurlow, the NLP promoted an "English" variant of Nazism and was more pronounced in its "explicit racism" than the LEL had been, focusing less on bemoaning the decline of the British Empire and more on criticising the arrival of non-white immigrants from former British colonies.
The NLP began co-operating with another extreme-right group, the White Defence League, which had been established by Colin Jordan, a secondary school teacher. Together the two groups embarked on a project of stirring up racial tensions among white Britons and black Caribbean immigrants in Notting Hill. Tyndall briefly left the NLP and in his absence Bean and Jordan merged their respective groups into the British National Party (BNP) in 1960. The BNP were racial nationalists, calling for the preservation of a "Nordic race"—of which the "British race" was considered a branch—by removing both immigrants and Jewish influences from Britain. Tyndall soon joined this new BNP, and became a close confidante of Jordan, who helped Tyndall to further embrace neo-Nazism. Tyndall also developed a friendship with Martin Webster, who became a long-term comrade after watching Tyndall speak at a Trafalgar Square rally in 1962.
In April 1961, Tyndall self-published his pamphlet, The Authoritarian State: Its Meaning and Function, which helped to cement his reputation within the British far-right. In the pamphlet, he attacked democratic systems of government as part of a conspiracy orchestrated by Jews, quoting from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It called for the replacement of the United Kingdom's liberal democratic system with an authoritarian one in which a "Leader" is given absolute power.
Within the BNP, Tyndall established an elite group known as Spearhead, members of which wore military-style uniforms inspired by those of the Nazis and underwent paramilitary and ideological training. Tyndall had a great liking for wearing jackboots - Jordan related that on the way to a far-right meeting in Germany, Tyndall made his entourage look for a shoe shop so that he could purchase a pair of genuine German jackboots. It is likely that there were no more than 60 members of Spearhead. The group campaigned on behalf of imprisoned Nazi war criminals Rudolf Hess and Adolf Eichmann. According to the anti-fascist activist Gerry Gable, Spearhead represented the first "terrorist group" founded by neo-Nazis in Britain. Both Bean and another senior BNP member, Andrew Fountaine, were concerned about the overt neo-Nazism embraced by Tyndall and Jordan, instead thinking that the BNP should articulate a more British-oriented form of racial nationalism. In 1962, Bean held a meeting at which Tyndall and Jordan were expelled from the party.
### 1962–1967: National Socialist Movement and Greater Britain Movement
Tyndall and Jordan then regrouped around twenty members of Spearhead and formed the National Socialist Movement (NSM) on 20 April 1962, a date symbolically chosen as Hitler's birthday. They celebrated the event with a cake decorated with a Nazi swastika. According to the historian Richard Thurlow, the NSM was "the most blatant Nazi" group active in Britain during the mid-20th century. The NSM gained few members; an estimate in August 1962 suggested that it had only thirty to fifty. The NSM gained the attention of the media as well as Special Branch. In July 1962, Tyndall was arrested for breaching the peace at a Trafalgar Square rally in which he had been attacked by Jewish military veterans and other anti-fascists after calling the Jewish community a "poisonous maggot feeding on a body in an advanced state of decay". His comments resulted in him being convicted of inciting racial hatred and he was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment, reduced to a fine on appeal. The police then raided the group's London headquarters, after which its leading members were brought to trial at the Old Bailey, where they were found guilty of establishing a paramilitary group in contravention of Section Two of the Public Order Act 1936. Tyndall received a six-month prison sentence, while Jordan received nine months.
Although the British authorities had prohibited the American neo-Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell from entering the UK, the NSM managed to smuggle him in via Ireland to attend a summer camp in August 1962. There, the NSM took part in the formation of the World Union of National Socialists (WUNS), at which Jordan was elected 'world führer' and Rockwell as his heir. Among those in attendance were the neo-Nazi Savitri Devi and the former SS officer Fred Borth.
Jordan had been courting the French socialite Françoise Dior, but while he had been imprisoned, she entered a relationship with Tyndall and they were engaged to be married. On Jordan's release, Dior left Tyndall and instead married Jordan in October 1963. This contributed to a growing personal feud between the two men, with Jordan accusing Tyndall and Webster of making obscene phone calls to Dior. Tyndall was also angry at what he perceived as Jordan's deviation from orthodox Nazi thought and by the fact that Jordan's relationship with Dior had been attracting negative sensationalist press attention for the NSM. In the spring of 1964 Tyndall and Webster tried to oust Jordan as the head of the NSM but failed. In later years Tyndall expressed the view that his involvement in the NSM had been a "profound mistake", arguing that then he "still had a lot to learn" and that "when one sees one's nation and people in danger there is less dishonour in acting and acting wrongly than in not acting at all."
Now based in Battersea, Tyndall left Jordan and the NSM and formed his own rival, the Greater Britain Movement (GBM). According to Tyndall, "the Greater Britain Movement will uphold and preach pure National Socialism". According to the political scientist Stan Taylor, the GBM reflected Tyndall's desire for "a specifically British variant of National Socialism". It called for the criminalisation of sexual relations and marriages between white Britons and non-whites and called for the sterilisation of those it deemed unfit to reproduce. The group established its base in a run-down building in Notting Hill, with swastikas being sprayed onto the exterior and an image of Hitler decorating the interior. Tyndall tried to convince the WUNS to accept his GBM as its British representative, but Rockwell—concerned not to encourage schismatic dissenters in his own American Nazi Party—sided with Jordan and the NSM. Tyndall then established contact with Rockwell's main rival in the American neo-Nazi scene, the National States' Rights Party.
Tyndall formed a publishing company, Albion Press, and launched a new magazine which he titled Spearhead after his former paramilitary group. Spearhead initially labelled itself "an organ of National Socialist opinion in Britain" and described Nazi Germany as "one of the greatest social experiments of our century". According to the historian Alan Sykes, this magazine became "increasingly influential" in the British far-right. The magazine advertised portraits of Hitler and swastika badges for sale. Much of the material that Tyndall wrote for the journal was less openly neo-Nazi and extreme than his previous writings, something which may have resulted from caution surrounding the Race Relations Act 1965. The GBM engaged in several stunts to raise publicity; in 1964 for instance Webster assaulted the Kenyan leader Jomo Kenyatta outside his London hotel while Tyndall hurled insults at him through a loudspeaker. In 1965, the group staged a shooting incident at its Norwood headquarters, claiming that it had been an attack by anti-fascists. In another instance they distributed stickers emblazoned with a portrait of Hitler and the slogan "he was right". In 1966, several GBM members were arrested for carrying out arson attacks against synagogues.
## Later career
### 1967–1980: National Front
In the mid-1960s, there were five extreme-right groups operating in Britain and Tyndall believed that they could achieve more if they united. To that end, Spearhead abandoned its open affiliation with neo-Nazism in 1966. That year, Tyndall issued a pamphlet titled Six Principles of British Nationalism which made no mention of neo-Nazism or Jewish conspiracies. It also dropped the insistence on armed takeovers present in his earlier thought, acknowledging the possibility that extreme-right nationalists could gain power through the British electoral process. Chesterton read the pamphlet and was impressed, entering into talks with Tyndall's GBM about a potential merger of their respective organisations. Independently, Chesterton had also been discussing the issue of a unification with Bean's BNP. This proved successful, as the LEL and BNP merged to form the National Front (NF) in 1967. According to Thurlow, the formation of the NF was "the most significant event on the radical right and fascist fringe of British politics" since the internment of the country's fascists during the Second World War.
The new NF initially excluded Tyndall and his GBM from joining, concerned that he might seek to mould it in a specifically neo-Nazi direction, although they soon agreed to allow both him and other GBM members to join on probation. On entering, the former GBM soon became the most influential faction within the NF, with many of its members rapidly rising to positions of influence. Tyndall became the party's vice chairman and remained loyal to Chesterton, who was the party's first chairman, for instance by supporting him when several members of the party directorate rebelled against his leadership in 1970. Although remaining Tyndall's private property, Spearhead became the de facto monthly magazine of the NF. Chesterton resigned as chairman in 1970 and was replaced by the Powellite John O'Brien. In 1972, O'Brien and eight other members of the party's directorate resigned in protest at Tyndall's links to neo-Nazi groups in Germany. This allowed Tyndall to take control as party chairman in 1972.
According to Thurlow, under Tyndall the NF represented "an attempt to portray the essentials of Nazi ideology in more rational language and seemingly reasonable arguments", functioning as an attempt to "convert racial populists" angry about immigration "into fascists". Capitalising on anger surrounding the arrival of Ugandan Asian migrants in the country in 1972, Tyndall oversaw the NF during the period of its largest growth. Membership of the party doubled between October 1972 and June 1973, possibly reaching as high as 17,500. Relations had apparently warmed between Tyndall and Jordan, for they met up after the latter was released from prison in 1968, and Tyndall again met with Jordan in Coventry in 1972 and invited him to join the NF. A poor showing in the February 1974 general election resulted in Tyndall being challenged by two groups within the party, the 'Strasserites' and the 'Populists', the latter of whom were largely Powellite ex-members of the Conservative Party. The Populist challenge was successful and in October 1974 Tyndall was replaced as chairman by John Kingsley Read. Tyndall then used Spearhead as a vehicle to criticise rival factions with the NF. As a result, he was expelled from the party during a disciplinary tribunal in November 1975. Tyndall took the issue to the high court, who overturned the expulsion. The 'Populists' then left the party, splitting to form the National Party in January 1976, which for a short time proved more electorally successful than the NF. Back in the party and with his main rivals gone, Tyndall regained the position of chairman.
Encouraged by Webster and new confidante Richard Verrall, in the mid-1970s Tyndall returned to his openly hardline approach of promoting biological racist and antisemitic ideas. This did not help the NF's electoral prospects. In the 1979 general election, the NF mounted the largest challenge of any insurgent party since the Labour Party in 1918, with 303 candidates. Among them were Tyndall's wife, mother-in-law and father-in-law. Tyndall stood in Hackney South and Shoreditch, securing 7.6%; this was the Front's best result that election, but was down from the 9.4% they had gained in that constituency in October 1974. In the election, the NF "flopped dismally", securing only 1.3% of the total vote, down from 3.1% in October 1974. This decline may have been due to the increased anti-fascist campaigning of the previous few years, or because the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher had adopted an increasingly tough stance on immigration which attracted many of the votes that had previously gone to the NF. NF membership had also declined and by 1979 had fallen to approximately 5,000. Tyndall nevertheless refused to dilute or moderate his party's policies, stating that to do so would be the "naïve chasing of moonbeams". In November 1979, Fountaine unsuccessfully tried to oust Tyndall as leader, subsequently establishing the National Front Constitutional Movement.
Tyndall had grown distant from Webster over their differences and in the late 1970s began blaming him for the party's problems. Webster had for instance disagreed with Tyndall's support for Chesterton's leadership, while Tyndall was upset with Webster's attempts to encourage more skinheads and football hooligans to join the party. Tyndall in particular began criticizing the fact that Webster was a homosexual, emphasising allegations that Webster had been making sexual advances toward young men in the party. More widely, he complained about a "homosexual network" among leading NF members. In October 1979, he called a meeting of the NF directorate at which he urged them to call for Webster's resignation. At the meeting, Webster apologised for his conduct and the directorate stood by him against Tyndall. Angered, Tyndall then tried convincing the directorate to grant him greater powers in his position as chairman, but they refused. Tyndall resigned in January 1980, subsequently referring to the party as the "gay National Front".
In June 1980, Tyndall founded the New National Front (NNF). The NNF claimed that a third of the NF's membership defected to join them. Tyndall stated that "I have one wish in this operation and one wish alone, to cleanse the National Front of the foul stench of perversion which has politically crippled it". As his choice of party name suggested, he remained hopeful that his breakaway group could eventually be re-merged back into the NF. There developed a great rivalry between the two groups, and as the NF's new leadership moved it away from the Tyndallite approach, Tyndall realised that he may never have the opportunity to regain his position within it.
### 1981–1989: Establishing the British National Party
In January 1981, Tyndall was contacted by far-right activist Ray Hill, who had become an informant for the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. Hill suggested that Tyndall establish a new political party through which he could unite many smaller extreme-right groups. While Hill's real intention had been to cause a further schism among the British far-right and thus weaken it, Tyndall deemed his suggestion to be a good idea. Tyndall made suggestions of unity to a number of other small extreme-right groups and together they established a Committee for Nationalist Unity (CNU) in January 1982.
In March 1982 the CNU held a conference at Charing Cross Hotel in central London and while the NF officially refused to send a delegation, several NF members did attend. The fifty extreme-rightists in attendance agreed that they would establish a new political party, to be known as the British National Party (BNP). According to Tyndall, "The BNP is a racial nationalist party which believes in Britain for the British, that is to say racial separatism." Under Tyndall's leadership, in 1982 the BNP issued its first policy on immigration as "immigration into Britain by non-Europeans ... should be terminated forthwith and we should organise a massive programme of repatriation and resettlement overseas of those peoples of non-European origin already resident in this country."
Tyndall was to be the leader of this new party, with the majority of its members coming from the NNF, although others were defectors from the NF, British Movement, British Democratic Party and Nationalist Party. The party was formally launched at a press conference held in a Victoria hotel on 7 April 1982. At the conference, Tyndall described the BNP as the "SDP of the far right", thereby referencing the recent growth of the centrist Social Democratic Party. The historian Nigel Copsey has noted that while the BNP under Tyndall could be described as "Neo-Nazi", it was not "crudely mimetic" of the original German Nazism. Its stated policy objectives were identical to those that the NF had had under Tyndall's leadership in the 1970s. But its constitution was very different. Whereas the NF had a directorate which helped to guide the direction of the party and could replace the leader, Tyndall's new BNP gave full executive powers to the chairman. Tyndall ran the BNP from his home, "Seacroft", in Hove, East Sussex, and he rarely left the county. In 1986 Tyndall was convicted of inciting racial hatred and sentenced to a year's imprisonment; he served only four months before his release. In 1987, the BNP opened discussions with an NF faction, the National Front Support Group (NFSG), to discuss the possibility of a merger, but the NFSG decided against it, remaining cautious about Tyndall's total domination of the BNP.
By 1988, Searchlight reported that the party's membership had declined to around 1,000. Tyndall responded by trying to raise finances, calling for greater sales of their newspaper and increasing the price of membership by 50%. He also promised that he would make the BNP the largest extreme-right group in the UK and that he would establish a professional headquarters for the party. This was achieved in 1989, as a party headquarters was opened in Welling, Southeast London, an area chosen because it was a recipient of significant 'white flight' from inner London. That year also witnessed the BNP become the most prominent force on the British far-right as the NF collapsed amid internal arguments and schisms.
### 1990–1999: Growth of the British National Party
In the early 1990s, a paramilitary group known as Combat 18 (C18) was formed to protect BNP events from anti-fascist protesters. Tyndall was displeased that by 1992, C18 was having an increased influence over the BNP's street activities. Relations between the groups deteriorated such that by August 1993, activists from the BNP and C18 were physically fighting each other. In December 1993, Tyndall issued a bulletin to BNP branches declaring C18 to be a proscribed organisation, furthermore suggesting that it may have been established by agents of the state to discredit the party. To counter C18's influence, he secured the American white nationalist militant William Pierce as a guest speaker at the BNP's annual rally in November 1995.
Tyndall had observed the electoral success achieved by Jean-Marie Le Pen and the French National Front during the 1980s and hoped that by learning from their activities he could improve the BNP's electoral prospects. He saw the issue as being one of credibility among the electorate, declaring that "we should be looking for ways to overcome our present image of weakness and smallness". He ignored the significant impact that had been achieved by the French NF through moderating its policies and thereby gaining greater respectability among the electorate. While Tyndall had sought to keep skinheads and football hooligans out of the BNP, he still kept a range of Holocaust deniers and convicted criminals close to him. He expressed the view that "we should not be looking for ways of applying ideological cosmetic surgery to ourselves in order to make our features more appealing to our public". Conversely, in the early 1990s a 'moderniser' faction emerged in the party that favoured a more electorally palatable strategy and an emphasis on building grassroots support to win local elections. They were impressed by Le Pen's move to disassociate his party from biological racism and focus on the perceived cultural incompatibility of different racial groups. Tyndall opposed many of the modernisers' ideas and sought to stem their growing influence in the party,
In the 1992 general election, the party stood 13 candidates. Tyndall stood in Bow and Poplar, gaining 3% of the vote. In a council by-election in September 1993, the BNP gained one council seat—won by Derek Beackon in the East London neighbourhood of Millwall—after a campaign that targeted the anger of local whites over the perceived preferential treatment received by Bangladeshi migrants in social housing. At the time Tyndall described this as the BNP's "moment in history", deeming it a sign that the party was entering the political mainstream. Following an anti-BNP campaign launched by anti-fascist and local religious groups it lost its Millwall seat during the 1994 local elections.
Tyndall stood as the BNP candidate in the 1994 Dagenham by-election, in which he gained 9% of the vote and had his electoral deposit returned. This was the first time that an extreme right candidate had retained their deposit since Webster's 1973 showing for the NF in West Bromwich. In the 1997 general election, the party stood over fifty candidates. Tyndall stood in the East London constituency of Poplar and Canning Town, where he received 7.26% of the vote. Tyndall was attacked and badly beaten by anti-fascists at an election meeting in Stratford, East London. He was also photographed with the London nail bomber, David Copeland. Tyndall claimed that following the election, the party received between 2,500 and 3,000 enquiries—roughly the same as they had received after the 1983 general election—although far fewer of these enquirers became members. The party was stagnating, and Tyndall's "political career was now on borrowed time".
After the BNP's poor performance at the 1997 general election, opposition to Tyndall's leadership grew. His position was damaged by a lack of financial transparency in the party, with concerns being raised that large donations to the party had been used instead by Tyndall for personal expenses. The modernisers challenged his control of the party, resulting in its first ever leadership election, held in October 1999. Tyndall was challenged by Nick Griffin, who offered an improved administration, financial transparency and greater support for local branches. 80% of party members voted, with two-thirds backing Griffin; Tyndall had secured only 411 votes, representing 30% of the total membership. Tyndall accepted his defeat with equanimity and stood down as chairman. He stated that he would become "an ordinary member", telling his supporters that "we have all got to pull together in the greater cause of race and nation".
### 1999–2005: Final years
Tyndall remained a member of the BNP and continued to support it in the pages of Spearhead. But Griffin sought to restrain Tyndall's ongoing influence in the party, curtailing the distribution of Spearhead among BNP members and instead emphasising his own magazine, Identity, which was established in January 2000. To combat the influence of declining sales, Tyndall established the group 'Friends of Spearhead''', whose members were asked to contribute £10 a month.
By 2000, Tyndall was beginning to agitate against Griffin's leadership, criticising the establishment of the party's Ethnic Liaison Committee – which had one half-Turkish member (Lawrence Rustem) – as a move towards admitting non-whites into the party. He was also critical of Griffin's abandonment of the party's idea of compulsory removal of migrants and non-whites from the country, believing that if they stayed in a segregated system then Britain would resemble apartheid-era South Africa, which he did not think was preferable. His main criticisms were focused not on the party's changing direction, but on Griffin's character itself, portraying him as unscrupulous and self-centred. Tyndall was determined to retake control of the party, and in this was supported by a group of party hardliners. During a proposed leadership challenge, Tyndall put forward his name, although withdrew it following the 2001 general election when Griffin led the BNP to a clear growth in electoral support. Tyndall nevertheless believed that the BNP's electoral success had less to do with Griffin's reforms and more to do with external factors such as the 2001 Oldham riots. In turn, Griffin criticised Tyndall in the pages of Identity, claiming that the latter was committed to "the sub-Mosleyite wackiness of Arnold Leese's Imperial Fascist League and the Big Government mania of the 1930s". Griffin expelled Tyndall from the party in August 2003, but had to allow his return following an out-of-court settlement shortly after.
Tyndall gave a speech at a BNP event in which he claimed that Asians and Africans had only produced "black magic, witchcraft, voodoo, cannibalism and Aids", also attacking the Jewish leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard, as an "interloper, this immigrant or son of immigrants, who has no roots at all in Britain". The speech was filmed by undercover investigator Jason Gwynne and included in a 2004 BBC documentary, The Secret Agent. On 12 December 2004, these comments resulted in Tyndall being arrested on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred. That month, Tyndall was again expelled from the BNP, this time permanently. The police then charged him, although he was granted unconditional bail in April 2005. Tyndall died of heart failure at his flat—52 Westbourne Villas in Hove—on 19 July 2005. He had been due to stand trial at Leeds Magistrates' Court two days later. He was survived by his wife and his daughter, Marina.
## Policies and views
Tyndall has been described as a racial nationalist, and a British nationalist, as well as a fascist, neo-fascist, and a neo-Nazi. Tyndall adhered to neo-Nazism during the 1960s, although from the 1970s onward he increasingly concealed this behind the rhetoric of "British patriotism". According to Thurlow, this was because by this time Tyndall had realised that "open Nazism was counter-productive" to his cause. This was in accordance with a wider trend among Britain's far-right to avoid the term "British fascism", with its electorally unpalatable connotations and instead refer to "British nationalism" in its public appeals. Sykes stated that Tyndall split with Jordan because—in contrast to the latter's neo-Nazi focus on pan-'Aryan' unity—he "thought more traditionally in terms of British nationalism, the British race and the British Empire". Jordan himself accused Tyndall of being "an extreme Tory imperialist, a John Bull, unable to recognise the call of race beyond Britain's frontiers".
Tyndall later described his membership of these openly neo-Nazi groups as a "youthful indiscretion". He expressed the view that while he regretted his involvement in them, he was not ashamed of having done so: "though some of my former beliefs were mistaken, I will never acknowledge that there was anything dishonourable about holding them." As leader of the NF he continued to openly approve of Hitler's social and economic programme and well as his policies of German territorial expansion. In his 1988 autobiography The Eleventh Hour, he stated that while he thought that "many of [Hitler's] intentions were good ones and many of his achievements admirable", he did not think "that it is right for a British movement belonging to an entirely different phase of history to model itself on the movement of Hitler".
Following this shift away from overt allegiance to Nazism, Tyndall's supporters and detractors continued to dispute whether he remained a convinced Nazi. Academic commentators consider that his basic ideological world-view did not change. In 1981, Nigel Fielding stated that while Tyndall's views had "moderated remarkably", in the NF he had still "preserve[d] and defend[ed]" "those traits which were the hallmark" of earlier neo-Nazi groups. Walker noted that in October 1975 Tyndall wrote articles for Spearhead which had clearly "returned to the language and ideology of the Nazi days", and that another article printed the previous month was "pure Nazism in that it reflects exactly the mood and spirit of Mein Kampf." The historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke stated that Tyndall simply "cloaked his former extremism in British nationalism", while the journalist Daniel Trilling commented that "Tyndall's claim to have moderated his views was merely expedient". On his death, The Guardian stated that Tyndall had remained "a racist, violent neo-Nazi to the end", while Trilling described Tyndall as having had "a long pedigree in the most extreme and violent quarters of Britain's far right".
The political scientist Nigel Copsey believed that Chesterton had been the "seminal influence" on Tyndall's thought. Thurlow disagreed, arguing that Tyndall had been influenced less by Chesterton and Mosley and more by a third figure in Britain's "fascist tradition", Arnold Leese. Thurlow noted that Tyndall adopted Leese's "political intransigence... his refusal to compromise with political reality and his willingness to martyr himself for his beliefs". According to Trilling, the "two guiding stars in... Tyndall's political universe" were Hitler and the British Empire. In contrast to many of his contemporaries in the British far-right, Tyndall was "thoroughly indifferent" to the ideas of the Nouvelle Droite, a French extreme-right movement which had emerged in the 1960s. Whereas the Nouvelle Droite sought to move away from the approach adopted by the fascist movements of the 1930s and 1940s, Tyndall remained wedded to white racial nationalism, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and nostalgia for the British Empire, all approaches generally repudiated by the Nouvelle Droite.
### Race and nationalism
Tyndall had "deeply entrenched" biologically racist views, akin to those of earlier fascists like Hitler and Leese. He believed that there was a biologically distinct white-skinned "British race" which was one branch of a wider Nordic race. Tyndall was of the view that race defined a nation and that "if that is lost we will have no nation in the future." He believed the Nordic race to be superior to others, and under his leadership, the BNP promoted a variety of pseudoscientific claims in support of white supremacy. Those parties he controlled restricted membership to people of Northern European ethnic heritage.
Over the course of his career in far-right politics, Tyndall became less outspoken on race after his prosecution under the race relations legislation. In the mid-1970s, Tyndall used Spearhead to claim that "the negro has a smaller brain and a much less complex cerebral structure" than white Europeans. In 1988, Tyndall described his crime as having "dared to publish an honest and frank opinion on the relative merits of Whites and Negroes." Tyndall argued that non-whites were unassimilable to Britain and that those living in Britain should be repatriated. Tyndall strongly objected to interracial relationships and miscegenation and remarked in his book The Eleventh Hour: "I feel deeply sorry for the child of a mixed marriage, but I can have no sympathy whatever for the parents... They produced an offspring that will never wholly fit and will undoubtedly face a life much harder than the normal person born of pure race." In contrast to his views on non-white migration, he spoke positively of white immigrants from Ireland, Poland, Hungary and the Baltic states, regarding them as being racially similar and sharing the "same basic culture" as the British and were thus easily able to assimilate "within a generation or two".
Tyndall was antisemitic. From earlier fascists like Chesterton, he had inherited a belief that there was a global conspiracy of Jews bent on world domination, opining that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was genuine evidence for this. He believed that Jews were responsible for both communism and international finance capitalism, using both to their own ends and that they were responsible for undermining the British Empire and the British race. Tyndall also believed that both democratic government and immigration into Europe were parts of a Jewish conspiracy to weaken other races. In an early edition of Spearhead, he had expressed the view that "if Britain were to become Jew-clean she would have no nigger neighbours to worry about... It is the Jews who are our misfortune: T-h-e J-e-w-s. Do you hear me? THE JEWS?" Another of his comments, made in 1963, was that "Jewry is a world pest wherever it is found in the world today. The Jews are more clever and more financially powerful than other people and have to be eradicated before they destroy the Aryan peoples".
Tyndall also engaged in Holocaust denial, declaring that the Holocaust was a hoax created by Jews to gain sympathy for themselves and thus aid their plot for world domination. In The Eleventh Hour, Tyndall spoke approvingly of Holocaust denier David Irving. In promoting Holocaust denial, Tyndall and those close to him may have been seeking to rehabilitate Hitler and the Nazi government in the British public's view.
### Governance
In the early 1960s, Tyndall espoused the idea of replacing Britain's liberal democratic government—which he regarded as a front for the Jewish world conspiracy—with an authoritarian system that he believed would be free of Jewish influence. Between 1961 and 1966 there was a shift in Tyndall's publicly espoused views. This focused largely on his beliefs about the structure of an ideal government for—while not rejecting the idea of an authoritarian dictatorship altogether—he placed greater emphasis on the need for the government to be more acceptable to the population. Rather than self-describing himself as an authoritarian, by the mid-1960s he was accusing the country's mainstream parties (and the "liberal minority" whom he alleged ran them) of being the real authoritarians, thus portraying himself as a champion of democracy. In this he presented his arguments in a populist manner.
Tyndall believed that liberal democracy was damaging to British society, claiming that liberalism was a "doctrine of decay and degeneration". Under Tyndall, the NF and BNP sought to dismantle the UK's liberal democratic system of parliamentary governance, although both groups were vague about what they sought to replace this system with. In his 1988 work The Eleventh Hour, Tyndall wrote of the need for "an utter rejection of liberalism and a dedication to the resurgence of authority". Tyndall's BNP perceived itself as a revolutionary force that would bring about a national rebirth in Britain, entailing a radical transformation of society. It proposed a state in which the Prime Minister would have full executive powers and would be elected directly by the population for an indefinite period of time. This Prime Minister could be dismissed from office in a further election that could be called if Parliament passed a vote of no confidence. It stated that rather than having any political parties, candidates standing for election to the parliament would be independent.
Tyndall described his approach to the economy as "National Economics", expressing the view that "politics must lead and not be led by, economic forces". His approach rejected economic liberalism because it did not serve "the national interest", although still saw advantages in a capitalist system, looking favourably on individual enterprise. He called on capitalist elements to be combined with socialist ones, with the government playing a role in planning the economy. He promoted the idea of the UK becoming an autarky which was economically self-sufficient, with domestic production protected from foreign competition. This attitude was heavily informed by the corporatist system that had been introduced in Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy.
Under Tyndall, the NF alleged that internationalist institutions and organisations were part of the global Jewish conspiracy. Under Tyndall's leadership, the BNP had overt anti-Europeanist tendencies, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s he maintained the party's opposition to the European Economic Community. Arguing that Britain should establish a White Commonwealth bloc, Tyndall called for a better relationship with South Africa and Rhodesia, and urged those nations to permanently retain their systems of racial segregation. He claimed that "power and responsibility" should not be given to the indigenous Africans living in these countries because they were "ill-fitted to use [it] wisely". He expressed support for Hitler's lebensraum policy of territorial expansion and claimed that the British race required something similar. In The Eleventh Hour, he called for the British to re-colonise parts of Africa.
### Social
During Tyndall's period of leadership the BNP promoted eugenics, calling for the forced sterilisation of those with genetically transmittable disabilities. In party literature, it talked of improving the British "racial stock" by removing "inferior strains within the indigenous races of the British Isles". In his magazine Spearhead, Tyndall had stated that "sub-human elements", "perverts" and "asocials" should be eliminated from Britain through "the gas chamber system". When questioned as to whether Tyndall would seek to exterminate other races if he was in power, he denied it; although not objecting to said exterminations on moral grounds, he stated that such a programme would incur international unpopularity. It is unclear if these statements reflected his genuine views or were tactical justifications designed to not upset potential NF voters.
Tyndall presented himself as an agnostic although expressed admiration for what he claimed were the moral values of Christianity. Tyndall called for a "complete moral regeneration of the national life". He objected to homosexuality and advocated for it to be outlawed, writing that "the literary and artistic products of the homosexual mind can only flourish in a society where heterosexual values have been gravely weakened." He expressed the view that the NF "was itself by no means immune to this sickening cult" and he disapproved of the presence of homosexuals in the party. Under Tyndall, the BNP called for the re-criminalisation of homosexual activity.
## Personal life
American journalist George Thayer, who met with Tyndall in the 1960s, described him as being "blonde and balding" with "cold, evasive eyes". Thayer stated that Tyndall "had not the slightest spark of humour. He was suspicious, nervous and excitable and moved with all the stiffness of a Prussian in Court." In his study of the National Front, the journalist Martin Walker described Tyndall as giving off "an impression of absolute, if brittle, self control". Nigel Fielding, another to have studied the NF, described Tyndall as "a rather small man with a hard, unlined face and pale blue eyes. His movements are abrupt and energetic and he speaks in a loud voice with a clipped inflection." Walker described him as having a "keen political mind", with a "concern for organisation [and] meticulous planning". Tyndall lived a life of temperance and regular exercise, and—according to Walker—his early morning runs had "long been a joke in Nationalist circles".
Thurlow thought that Tyndall's oratorical style was learned from Mosley's example, while Trilling instead believed that it was based on that of Hitler. According to Trilling, Tyndall's "speeches were pompous but studied... [he] copied the hand gestures, the rising delivery that ended in a crescendo of angry epithets [from Hitler]... But it was flat and tedious, like a provincial PE teacher trying to show his bored pupils how the rugby or football greats might have done it." After Tyndall's death, the BNP spokesman Phil Edwards said that "he was a marvellous speaker. He could hold a room and mesmerise them, but he did not have the answer to the problems." Copsey stated that "Tyndall may have been a rousing speaker, but his tactical intelligence and vision left much to be desired". The East London BNP activist Eddy Butler noted that at a 1986 party rally in Dewsbury, Tyndall "lost them completely. He knew how to talk to a small room of nationalists, but he didn't know how to talk to a thousand Yorkshire young geezers. He hadn't got a clue about normal people or normal politics. He'd go on about the Britain of Sir Francis Drake; you'd think 'what's he on about?'".
Walker described Tyndall as being "very close to his mother", with whom he lived until 1977. On 19 November 1977, he married Valerie Dawn Olliff, a divorcée and fellow right-wing activist. The couple had a daughter named Marina. Valerie died on 24 June 2011 in Hove.
## Reception
Walker noted that during the 1960s, Tyndall was "well known" yet "unpopular within Nationalist circles because of his arrogance, his overbearing personal manner and the way he brought the authoritarianism of his politics into his personal life". In contrast, Fielding noted that within the NF of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tyndall's standing among "ordinary members" was "very high", with some of them even chanting his name during his speeches. At Tyndall's death, the anti-fascist activist Nick Lowles stated that Tyndall had been "someone that the more hardline nationalists" in the BNP "have always looked up to and rallied around" and that he "still had a lot of support" in the party, particularly in the North West and parts of south London. Despite his standing within the British far-right, The Telegraph'' noted that Tyndall's devotion to neo-Nazism "prevented his cause from acquiring the slightest veneer of political respectability."
## Elections contested by John Tyndall
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Sentence spacing
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[
"Punctuation",
"Typography",
"Whitespace"
] |
Sentence spacing concerns how spaces are inserted between sentences in typeset text and is a matter of typographical convention. Since the introduction of movable-type printing in Europe, various sentence spacing conventions have been used in languages with a Latin alphabet. These include a normal word space (as between the words in a sentence), a single enlarged space, and two full spaces.
Until the 20th century, publishing houses and printers in many countries used additional space between sentences. There were exceptions to this traditional spacing method—some printers used spacing between sentences that was no wider than word spacing. This was French spacing—a term synonymous with single-space sentence spacing until the late 20th century. With the introduction of the typewriter in the late 19th century, typists used two spaces between sentences to mimic the style used by traditional typesetters. While wide sentence spacing was phased out in the printing industry in the mid-20th century, the practice continued on typewriters and later on computers. Perhaps because of this, many modern sources now incorrectly claim that wide spacing was created for the typewriter.
The desired or correct sentence spacing is often debated, but most sources now state that an additional space is not necessary or desirable. From around 1950, single sentence spacing became standard in books, magazines, and newspapers, and the majority of style guides that use a Latin-derived alphabet as a language base now prescribe or recommend the use of a single space after the concluding punctuation of a sentence. However, some sources still state that additional spacing is correct or acceptable. Some people preferred double sentence spacing because that was how they were taught to type. The few direct studies conducted since 2002 have produced inconclusive results as to which convention is more readable.
## History
### Traditional typesetting
Shortly after the invention of movable type, highly variable spacing was created, which could create spaces of any size and allowed for perfectly even justification. Early American, English, and other European typesetters' style guides (also known as printers' rules) specified spacing standards that were all essentially identical from the 18th century onwards. These guides—e.g., Jacobi in the UK (1890) and MacKellar, Harpel, and De Vinne (1866–1901) in the U.S.—indicated that sentences should be em-spaced, and that words should be 1/3 or 1/2 em-spaced. The relative size of the sentence spacing would vary depending on the size of the word spaces and the justification needs. For most countries, this remained the standard for published work until the 20th century. Yet, even in this period, there were publishing houses that used a standard word space between sentences.
### Mechanical type and the advent of the typewriter
Mechanical type systems introduced near the end of the 19th century, such as the Linotype and Monotype machines, allowed for some variable sentence spacing similar to hand composition. Just as these machines revolutionized the mass production of text, the advent of the typewriter around the same time revolutionized the creation of personal and business documents. But the typewriters' mechanical limitations did not allow variable spacing—typists could only choose the number of times they pressed the space bar. Typists in some English-speaking countries initially learned to insert three spaces between sentences to approximate the wider sentence spacing used in traditional printing, but later settled on two spaces, a practice that continued throughout the 20th century. This became known as English spacing and marked a divergence from French typists, who continued to use French spacing.
### Transition to single spacing
In the early 20th century, some printers began using one and a half interword spaces (an "en quad") to separate sentences. This standard continued in use, to some extent, into the 1990s.
Magazines, newspapers, and books began to adopt the single-space convention in the United States in the 1940s and in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Typists did not move to single spacing simultaneously.
Technological advances began affecting sentence spacing methods. In 1941, IBM introduced the Executive, a typewriter capable of proportional spacing, which had been used in professional typesetting for hundreds of years. This innovation broke the hold that the monospaced font had on the typewriter, reducing the severity of its mechanical limitations. However, this innovation did not spread throughout the typewriter industry; the majority of mechanical typewriters, including all of the widely distributed models, remained monospaced, while a small minority of special models carried the innovations. By the 1960s, electronic phototypesetting systems ignored runs of white space in text. This was also true for the World Wide Web, as HTML normally ignores additional spacing, although in 2011 the CSS 2.1 standard officially added an option that can preserve additional spaces. In the 1980s, desktop publishing software provided the average writer with more advanced formatting tools.
## Modern literature
### Typography
Early positions on typography (the "arrangement and appearance of text") supported traditional spacing techniques in English publications. In 1954, Geoffrey Dowding's book Finer Points in the Spacing and Arrangement of Type underscored the widespread shift from a single enlarged em space to a standard word space between sentences.
With the advent of the computer age, typographers began deprecating double spacing, even in monospaced text. In 1989, Desktop Publishing by Design stated that "typesetting requires only one space after periods, question marks, exclamation points, and colons" and identified single sentence spacing as a typographic convention. Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works (1993) and Designing with Type: The Essential Guide to Typography (2006) both indicate that uniform spacing should be used between words, including between sentences.
More recent works on typography weigh in strongly. Ilene Strizver, founder of the Type Studio, says: "Forget about tolerating differences of opinion: typographically speaking, typing two spaces before the start of a new sentence is absolutely, unequivocally wrong." The Complete Manual on Typography (2003) states that "The typewriter tradition of separating sentences with two-word spaces after a period has no place in typesetting" and that the single space is "standard typographic practice". The Elements of Typographic Style (2004) advocates a single space between sentences, noting that "your typing as well as your typesetting will benefit from unlearning this quaint [double spacing] Victorian habit".
David Jury's book About Face: Reviving the Rules of Typography (2004)—published in Switzerland—clarifies the contemporary typographic position on sentence spacing:
> Word spaces, preceding or following punctuation, should be optically adjusted to appear to be of the same value as a standard word space. If a standard word space is inserted after a full point or a comma, then, optically, this produces a space of up to 50% wider than that of other word spaces within a line of type. This is because these punctuation marks carry space above them, which, when added to the adjacent standard word spaces, combines to create a visually larger space. Some argue that the "additional" space after a comma and full point serves as a "pause signal" for the reader. But this is unnecessary (and visually disruptive) since the pause signal is provided by the punctuation mark itself.
### Style and language guides
#### Style guides
Early style guides for typesetting used a wider space between sentences than between words—"traditional spacing", as shown in the illustration to the right. During the 20th century, style guides commonly mandated two spaces between sentences for typewritten manuscripts, which were used prior to professionally typesetting the work. As computer desktop publishing became commonplace, typewritten manuscripts became less relevant and most style guides stopped making distinctions between manuscripts and final typeset products. In the same period, style guides began changing their guidance on sentence spacing. The 1969 edition of the Chicago Manual of Style used em spaces between sentences in its text; by the 2003 edition it had changed to single sentence spacing for both manuscript and print. By the 1980s, the United Kingdom's Hart's Rules (1983) had shifted to single sentence spacing. Other style guides followed suit in the 1990s. Soon after the beginning of the 21st century, the majority of style guides had changed to indicate that only one word space was proper between sentences.
Modern style guides provide standards and guidance for the written language. These works are important to writers, since "virtually all professional editors work closely with one of them in editing a manuscript for publication". Late editions of comprehensive style guides, such as the Oxford Style Manual (2003) in the United Kingdom and the Chicago Manual of Style (2010) in the United States, provide standards for a wide variety of writing and design topics, including sentence spacing. The majority of style guides now prescribe the use of a single space after terminal punctuation in final written works and publications. A few style guides allow double sentence spacing for draft work, and the Gregg Reference Manual makes room for double and single sentence spacing based on author preferences. Web design guides do not usually provide guidance on this topic, as "HTML refuses to recognize double spaces altogether". These works themselves follow the current publication standard of single sentence spacing.
The European Union's Interinstitutional Style Guide (2008) indicates that single sentence spacing is to be used in all European Union publications—encompassing 23 languages. For the English language, the European Commission's English Style Guide (2010) states that sentences are always single-spaced. The Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers (2007), first published in 1966 by the Commonwealth Government Printing Office of Australia, stipulates that only one space is used after "sentence-closing punctuation" and that "Programs for word processing and desktop publishing offer more sophisticated, variable spacing, so this practice of double spacing is now avoided because it can create distracting gaps on a page."
National languages not covered by an authoritative language academy typically have multiple style guides, only some of which may discuss sentence spacing. This is the case in the United Kingdom. The Oxford Style Manual (2003) and the Modern Humanities Research Association's MHRA Style Guide (2002) state that only single spacing should be used. In Canada, both the English- and French-language sections of the Canadian Style, A Guide to Writing and Editing (1997), prescribe single sentence spacing. In the United States, many style guides—such as the Chicago Manual of Style (2003)—allow only single sentence spacing. The most important style guide in Italy, Il Nuovo Manuale di Stile (2009), does not address sentence spacing, but the Guida di Stile Italiano (2010), the official guide for Microsoft translation, tells users to use single sentence spacing "instead of the double spacing used in the United States".
#### Language guides
Some languages, such as French and Spanish, have academies that set language rules. Their publications typically address orthography and grammar as opposed to matters of typography. Style guides are less relevant for such languages, as their academies set prescriptive rules. For example, the Académie française publishes the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française for French speakers worldwide. The 1992 edition does not provide guidance on sentence spacing, but is single-sentence-spaced throughout—consistent with historical French spacing. The Spanish language is similar. The most important body within the Association of Spanish Language Academies, the Royal Spanish Academy, publishes the Diccionario de la lengua española, which is viewed as prescriptive for the Spanish language worldwide. The 2001 edition does not provide sentence-spacing guidance, but is itself single-sentence-spaced. The German language manual Empfehlungen des Rats für deutsche Rechtschreibung ("Recommendations of the Council for German Orthography"; 2006) does not address sentence spacing. The manual itself uses one space after terminal punctuation. Additionally, the Duden, the German-language dictionary most commonly used in Germany, indicates that double sentence spacing is an error.
### Grammar guides
A few reference grammars address sentence spacing, as increased spacing between words is punctuation in itself. Most do not. Grammar guides typically cover terminal punctuation and the proper construction of sentences—but not the spacing between sentences. Moreover, many modern grammar guides are designed for quick reference and refer users to comprehensive style guides for additional matters of writing style. For example, the Pocket Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Punctuation (2005) points users to style guides such as the MLA Style Manual for consistency in formatting work and for all other "editorial concerns". The Grammar Bible (2004) states that "The modern system of English punctuation is by no means simple. A book that covers all the bases would need to be of considerable breadth and weight and anyone interested in such a resource is advised to consult the Chicago Manual of Style."
## Computer era
In the computer era, spacing between sentences is handled in several different ways by various software packages. Some systems accept whatever the user types, while others attempt to alter the spacing or use the user input as a method of detecting sentences. Computer-based word processors and typesetting software such as troff and TeX allow users to arrange text in a manner previously only available to professional typesetters.
The text-editing environment in Emacs uses a double space following a period to identify the end of sentences unambiguously; the double-space convention prevents confusion with periods within sentences that signify abbreviations. How Emacs recognizes the end of a sentence is controlled by the settings sentence-end-double-space and sentence-end.
The Unix typesetter program Troff uses two spaces to mark the end of a sentence. This allows the typesetter to distinguish sentence endings from abbreviations and to typeset them differently. Early versions of Troff, which only typeset in fixed-width fonts, would automatically add a second space between sentences, which were detected based on the combination of terminal punctuation and a line feed.
In the April 2020 update, Microsoft Word started highlighting two spaces after a period as an error and offers a correction of one space.
Multiple spaces are eliminated by default in most World Wide Web content, whether or not they are associated with sentences. There are options for preserving spacing, such as the CSS white-space property, and the `<pre>` tag.
## Controversy
James Felici, author of the Complete Manual of Typography, says that the topic of sentence spacing is "the debate that refuses to die ... In all my years of writing about type, it's still the question I hear most often, and a search of the web will find threads galore on the subject."
Many people are opposed to single sentence spacing for various reasons. Some state that the habit of double spacing is too deeply ingrained to change. Others claim that additional space between sentences improves the aesthetics or readability of text. Proponents of double sentence spacing also state that some publishers may still require double-spaced manuscript submissions from authors. A key example noted is the screenwriting industry's monospaced standard for screenplay manuscripts, Courier, 12-point font, although some works on screenwriting indicate that Courier is merely preferred—proportional fonts may be used. Some reliable sources state simply that writers should follow their particular style guide, but proponents of double spacing caution that publishers' guidance takes precedence, including those that ask for double-sentence-spaced manuscripts.
One of the most popular arguments against wider sentence spacing is that it was created for monospaced fonts of the typewriter and is no longer needed with modern proportional fonts. However, proportional fonts existed together with wide sentence spacing for centuries before the typewriter and remained for decades after its invention. When the typewriter was first introduced, typists were most commonly taught to use three spaces between sentences. This gradually shifted to two spaces, while the print industry remained unchanged in its wide em-spaced sentences. Some sources now state it is acceptable for monospaced fonts to be single-spaced today, although other references continue to specify double spacing for monospaced fonts. The double-space typewriter convention has been taught in schools in typing classes and remains the practice in many cases. Some voice concern that students will later be forced to relearn how to type.
Most style guides indicate that single sentence spacing is proper for final or published work today, and most publishers require manuscripts to be submitted as they will appear in publication—with single sentence spacing. Writing sources typically recommend that prospective authors remove extra spaces before submitting manuscripts, although other sources state that publishers will use software to remove the spaces before final publication.
## Effects on readability and legibility
Claims abound regarding the legibility and readability of the single and double sentence spacing methods—by proponents on both sides. Supporters of single spacing assert that familiarity with the current standard in books, magazines, and the Web enhances readability, that double spacing looks strange in text using proportional fonts, and that the "rivers" and "holes" caused by double spacing impair readability. Proponents of double sentence spacing state that the extra space between sentences enhances readability by providing clearer breaks between sentences and making text appear more legible.
However, typographic opinions are typically anecdotal with no basis in evidence. "Opinions are not always safe guides to legibility of print", and when direct studies are conducted, anecdotal opinions—even those of experts—can turn out to be false. Text that seems legible (visually pleasing at first glance) may be shown to actually impair reading effectiveness when subjected to scientific study.
### Studies
Direct studies on sentence spacing include those by Loh, Branch, Shewanown, and Ali (2002); and Clinton, Branch, Holschuh, and Shewanown (2003); with results favoring neither single, double, nor triple spacing. The 2002 study tested participants' reading speed for passages of on-screen text with single and double sentence spacing. The authors stated that "the 'double space group' consistently took longer time to finish than the 'single space' group" but concluded that "there was not enough evidence to suggest that a significant difference exists". The 2003 study analyzed on-screen single, double, and triple spacing. In both cases, the authors stated that there was insufficient evidence to draw a conclusion. Ni, Branch, Chen, and Clinton conducted a similar study in 2009 using identical spacing variables. The authors concluded that the "results provided insufficient evidence that time and comprehension differ significantly among different conditions of spacing between sentences". A 2018 study of 60 students found that those who used two word spaces between sentences read the same text 3 percent faster than with a monospaced font (Courier New).
### Related studies
There are other studies that could be relevant to sentence spacing, such as the familiarity of typographic conventions on readability. Some studies indicate that "tradition" can increase the readability of text, and that reading is disrupted when conventional printing arrangements are disrupted or violated. The standard for the Web and published books, magazines, and newspapers is single sentence spacing.
David Jury's book What is Typography? notes, "Changes in spacing either between letters and words, or between the words only ... do not appear to affect legibility. [These rather extraordinary conclusions are contrary to all other surveys on readability of texts.]"
A widespread observation is that increased sentence spacing creates "rivers" or "holes" within text, making it visually unattractive, distracting, and difficult to locate the end of sentences. Comprehensive works on typography describe the negative effect on readability caused by inconsistent spacing, which is supported in a 1981 study which found that "comprehension was significantly less accurate with the river condition." Another 1981 study on Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) displays concluded that "more densely packed text is read more efficiently ... than is more loosely packed text." This statement is supported in other works as well. Canadian typographer Geoffrey Dowding suggests possible explanations of this phenomenon:
> A carefully composed text page appears as an orderly series of strips of black separated by horizontal channels of white space. Conversely, in a slovenly setting the tendency is for the page to appear as a grey and muddled pattern of isolated spats, this effect being caused by the over-widely separated words. The normal, easy, left-to-right movement of the eye is slowed down simply because of this separation; further, the short letters and serifs are unable to discharge an important function – that of keeping the eye on "the line". The eye also tends to be confused by a feeling of vertical emphasis, that is, an up & down movement, induced by the relative isolation of the words & consequent insistence of the ascending and descending letters. This movement is further emphasized by those "rivers" of white which are the inseparable & ugly accompaniment of all carelessly set text matter.
Some studies suggest that readability can be improved by breaking sentences into separate units of thought—or varying the internal spacing of sentences. Mid-20th century research on this topic resulted in inconclusive findings. A 1980 study split sentences into 1–5 word phrases with additional spacing between segments. The study concluded that there was no significant difference in efficacy, but that a wider study was needed. Numerous other similar studies in 1951–1991 resulted in disparate and inconclusive findings. Finally, although various studies have been conducted on the readability of proportional vs. monospaced fonts, the studies typically did not decrease sentence spacing when using proportional fonts, or did not specify whether sentence spacing was changed.
## See also
- Leading
- Scriptio continua
|
44,075,819 |
Florence Nagle
| 1,159,293,678 |
Breeder and trainer of race horses
|
[
"1894 births",
"1988 deaths",
"British racehorse trainers",
"Dog breeders",
"English feminists",
"People educated at Wycombe Abbey",
"People from Fallowfield",
"People from Sulhamstead",
"People from West Chiltington"
] |
Florence Nagle (26 October 1894 – 30 October 1988) was a British trainer and breeder of racehorses, a breeder of pedigree dogs, and an active feminist. Nagle purchased her first Irish Wolfhound in 1913, and went on to own or breed twenty-one United Kingdom Champions. Best in Show at Crufts in 1960 was awarded to Sulhamstead Merman, who was bred, owned and exhibited by Nagle. She also competed successfully in field trials with Irish Setters, from the 1920s until the mid-1960s resulting in eighteen Field Trial Champions. The male dog who was a linchpin in the 1970s revival of the Irish Red and White Setter breed was descended from one of Nagle's Irish Setters.
Described as "the Mrs. Pankhurst of British horse racing", Nagle trained her first racehorse in 1920, the Irish-bred colt Fernley. At that time women were forced to employ men to hold a Jockey Club trainers licence on their behalf, or to have licences in their husbands' names. Nagle worked peacefully to redress such injustices to her sex. She successfully challenged the well-established leading gentlemen's clubs of the racing and canine worlds over their gender inequality, and in 1966 became one of the first two women in the United Kingdom licensed to train racehorses. The first racehorse officially trained in Nagle's name was Mahwa, registered as being owned by her friend Miss Newton Deakin, with whom she jointly owned some of her dogs.
Dissatisfied with the lack of opportunities for women jockeys, Nagle sponsored the Florence Nagle Girl Apprentices' Handicap first run in 1986 at Kempton Park. She died at her home in West Chiltington, Sussex, two years later at the age of 94, leaving funds in her will for the continuation of the race.
## Background and early life
Born in Fallowfield, Manchester, Nagle was the daughter of Sir William George Watson, 1st Baronet of Sulhamstead (1861–1930) and his second wife Bessie (née Atkinson); she was also the elder sister of art connoisseur Peter Watson. Nagle was educated at Wycombe Abbey before studying domestic economy at Evendine Court, from which she was expelled after visiting Worcester Cathedral without permission. Accompanied by the daughter of a canon, Nagle had hired a car for the excursion – she was one of the first women in Berkshire to hold a driving licence, gaining it when she was fifteen years old. Her education was completed at a finishing school after which she spent some time in Paris, where she became friends with Megan Lloyd George.
Sulhamstead Abbots, Nagle's family home in Berkshire, was used as a hospital during the First World War. There she met James Nagle, a native of Ireland who had emigrated to Canada but returned to serve with the King's Royal Rifle Corps and then had been sent to Sulhamstead Abbots to recuperate. Against her parents' wishes the couple were married on 1 July 1916, resulting in them threatening to disinherit her. The early days of Nagle's marriage were hard; she was used to a wealthy lifestyle – her family money came from her father's successful business, Maypole Dairies – but her parents offered the couple no financial assistance. Nagle always worked hard and subsidised their income by making cream teas, cleaning windows and scrubbing toilets. The couple had two children, a son, David, and a daughter, Patricia. The marriage was not a success, and her husband ran off with one of the kennel maids. Obtaining a divorce was not easy in the 1920s; when asked in court for the reason James left, Nagle answered "He must have got bored with me." The divorce took place in 1928, five years before her husband's death. At the time of the divorce she was living on a smallholding near Headley, but returned to Sulhamstead in 1932 after inheriting land and money from Sir William. Ten years later, in 1942, she purchased Westerlands, a farm in Petworth, so she could personally oversee the stables.
Working in Folkestone during the Second World War, Nagle managed a canteen for the ARP. She also donated the full cost of £5,000 to purchase a Spitfire named Sulhamstead for the Royal Air Force.
## Dog breeding
As a child, Nagle had a Pomeranian and a Bulldog, but was promised she could have a larger dog once her schooling was completed. In 1913 her dream came to fruition with the purchase of her first Irish Wolfhound, Manin Michael, for £5. James Nagle subsequently registered the dog with the Kennel Club, before it was transferred to the ownership of Mr and Mrs Nagle, and its name changed to Sir Michael of Sheppey in May 1917. Food shortages during the First World War resulted in an official prohibition on dog breeding, but Nagle ignored it and bred her first litter from a bitch called Lady Alma of Sheppey.
During her marriage, while residing in Concara, Sulhamstead, near Reading, she began breeding dogs and served as a judge of Irish Wolfhounds and Setters; Great Danes and Deerhounds were other breeds she judged at championship show level. Her dogs were exhibited at shows by her husband, who was also a judge of Wolfhounds, and they were entered in his name until the couple divorced.
A bitch puppy, the runt of the litter, was purchased for £48 in 1923 and she became Nagle's first dog to gain the title of Champion. Named Sulhamstead Thelma, she was declared the best Irish Wolfhound bitch and awarded the Challenge Certificate at three consecutive Crufts, in 1925, 1926 and 1927. Her next Champion was Sulhamstead Conncara, a male dog, born in 1925. Conncara was blind, possibly owing to an accident as a young puppy, but Nagle kept that secret until three years after his death, believing that his qualities would have been overlooked by other breeders if they had known. According to Nagle's biographer, Ferelith Somerfield, this dog was "one of the great sires of all time in the breed" and an "outstanding show dog". A prepotent sire, he produced several Champions and other top-class show specimens.
Nagle owned or bred forty-five Wolfhounds who were awarded Challenge Certificates, twenty-one of them Champions. She believed dogs should be capable of carrying out the work the breed was developed to do, and she promoted coursing.
Irish Wolfhounds bred by Nagle were also successful in America; she began exporting dogs there in 1933. Best of breed awards at the Irish Wolfhound Club of America speciality shows were secured by Champion Sulhamstead Matador of Killybracken in 1960 and by Sulhamstead Mars of Riverlawn in 1963. She also judged the national speciality there twice and judged Irish Setters and Irish Wolfhounds at Westminster in 1937. Other countries she exported Wolfhounds to included Sweden, Italy and Uruguay. As late as 1960, Sulhamstead Merman, a 150-pound Irish Wolfhound bred, owned and shown by Nagle at "London's big dog show", Crufts, won the Hound Group and went on to be declared Best in Show or "supreme champion"; the judges were H. S. Lloyd and Fred Cross. She judged the breed twice at Crufts: in 1961, the only time in a nine-year period her dogs were not best of breed there; and in 1970.
Nagle acquired her first Irish Setter, whom she named Sulhamstead D'Or, in 1924 to keep a wolfhound puppy company. In April 1930 she entered him into the All-Aged Stakes at the Kennel Club field trials. In August 1932 she entered a dog named Sulhamstead Token D'Or into the Scottish Field Trials in the same category. At the Kennel Club field trials of April 1933, Nagle entered Sulhamstead Bob D'Or into the All-Aged Stakes and the judge awarded her the prize presented by the Irish Setter Association of England. In September 1934, she entered her Irish Setter Sulhamstead Snip D'Or into the Novice Stake of the Devon and Cornwall Pointer and Setter Society's 12th working trials at Pynes, near Exeter.
In July 1935 Nagle entered the field trials of the Irish Setter Association near Ruabon in North Wales, competing in the Open Stake for Irish Setters and the Puppy Stake for Irish Setters, for puppies which were born the previous year. At the 35th International Gun Dog League trials held at Douglas Castle in August 1935, she was awarded a diploma in the Champion Stakes for Pointers and Setters. The following month, Nagle took the silver perpetual challenge trophy in the Open Stake of the field trials of the Devon and Cornwall Pointer and Setter Society at Newlyn, near Newquay, competing with her Irish Setter Sulhamstead Baffle D'Or. At the Kennel Club field trials for pointers and setters in April 1936, she entered Sulhamstead Bluff D'Or into the All-Aged Stake and was awarded the Penheale Challenge Cup by Captain N. R. Colville for the "best constitutioned dog or bitch, displaying the greatest game-finding ability". At the 18th annual Scottish Field Trial Association's field trials for pointers and setters at Yester estate in Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland in August 1936, Nagle won first prize in the Brace Stake with Sulhamstead Bluff D'Or. The Kennel Club own a pastel painting by Cecil Aldin of two of Nagle's Irish Setters, the Field Trial Champions Sulhamstead Sheilin D'Or and Sulhamstead Valla D'Or. Field trials saw a general downturn in popularity of Irish Setters competing in the 1930s; during the following decade the breed was principally represented by Nagle's dogs. Nagle had eighteen Irish Setter field trial champions during the period she was active in the breed from the 1920s to the mid-1960s. The male dog Harlequin of Knockalla was pivotal in the revival of the Irish Red and White Setter breed in the 1970s; he was a descendant of Nagle's Irish Setter Sulhamstead Natty D'Or, so the Sulhamstead bloodline is behind most modern day red and whites. Nagle withdrew from the field-trial scene in the mid-1960s following the retirement of her handler, George Abbott.
Other breeds she owned included Golden Retrievers and Pointers. Nagle's activities were not confined to dogs and horses. A Berkshire boar named Pamber Ugly Duckling was champion at the Royal Show in 1921. Later he was exported to Argentina, after the purchaser paid what at the time was a record price of £750. During the 1930s she owned Prince Everett of Auchterarder, a prize-winning Aberdeen Angus.
## Racehorse training and breeding
According to the Encyclopedia of British Horseracing, Nagle trained her first racehorse in 1920, the Irish-bred colt Fernley. Her fascination with the sport stemmed from a much earlier time pre-dating her decision to concentrate on breeding dogs but it was particularly the breeding aspect of racehorses she was drawn to. Nagle owned the winner of the Newport Nursery Handicap in 1932, a horse named Solano, and a reporter recorded that "While Solano is not Mrs Nagle's first winner, it is some years since the 'rifle green, red cross-belts' caught the judge's eye". On 5 July 1935, she entered her racehorse Comanche at Newmarket.
Nagle entered The Derby in 1937; that horse, Sandsprite, ridden by John Crouch at odds of 100–1, finished second to Mid-day Sun, owned by Mrs Lettice Miller, the first woman owner ever to win the Derby. This was the first horse Nagle bred herself and reactions from commentators were mixed. One report described the horse as a "commanding individual", whereas another reporter's opposing opinion was revealed by Nagle when after Sandsprite's success at Epsom she stated "Not bad for a horse which one newspaper said was only good enough to give rides at the seaside". Sandsprite's dam was Wood Nymph, a mare purchased by Nagle for 240 guineas. She wanted to have her mated by the stallion Sansovino but had to settle for using his son, Sandwich, as she could not afford his stud fee. Sandsprite had several other outings in which he gained second or third placings, but was put down at the onset of his stud career after breaking a leg.
One of Nagle's early equine purchases was 15-year-old Rose of England, the winner of the 1930 Oaks, for 3,500 guineas. The mare had already produced the 1937 St. Leger winner, Chulmleigh, and the 1939 top winning two-year-old, British Empire. In Nagle's ownership she foaled Westerlands Rose, by the stallion Colombo who produced several winners. These included Westerlands Chalice, by Chamossaire, who won three races in 1957; and Game Rose, by Big Game, another winner during the 1950s. Other winning progeny from Westerlands Rose were Westerlands Champagne, Westerlands Prince and Westerlands Rosebud. These five horses accounted for ten race wins between them.
At the December Newmarket sales in 1944 Nagle bought the two-year-old Carpatica, by the Epsom Derby winner, Hyperion out of Campanula, the 1,000 Guineas Stakes winner, for a record 15,000 guineas with the intention of looking after the filly's training at her stables in Petworth. She also bought a five-year-old mare in foal, Hay Harvest, for 5,500 guineas. When bred to Sayajirao, Carpatica produced the 1950s winner, Cavina.
One of the main winners in the Nagle stables in the early 1960s was Gelert, trained by Nagle and owned by Miss Newton Deakin. Sired by Owen Tudor out of Westerlands Rosebud, he won a race at Ascot. His dam had been successfully raced in the early 1950s and then proved herself as a useful brood.
In the first half of the 20th century women trainers were not unknown – Norah Wilmot was training horses for The Queen. But women trained in an unofficial capacity, and were forced to employ men to hold the training licence on their behalf, or to have licences in their husbands' names. Thus, beginning in 1932, the divorced Nagle employed Alfred Stickley, a licensed trainer, to work at her stables in the capacity of head lad. Mahwa, by Match III out of Media, was owned by Newton Deakin and was the first winning horse to be officially listed as trained by Nagle. As late as 1975, she trained twelve horses and recommended feeding them some seaweed to provide iodine. She was also a great believer in the beneficial effects of fresh air, insisting that her horses' top stable doors were permanently left open. She was vehemently opposed to the vaccination of horses against equine influenza, and challenged a Jockey Club decision to make vaccination compulsory. She thought the hardest part of animal breeding was "to breed for 'guts'. You can produce lovely looking animals that go well – till they are on a race course with a stiff race to win."
## Activism
For twenty years Nagle worked to end the Jockey Club's ban on licensing women as race horse trainers, which she saw as an injustice: eventually, frustrated by the Jockey Club's persistent refusal to grant training licences to women, Nagle sought legal redress. It has been suggested that the club used its considerable influence within the Establishment to have her claim blocked twice. Her fight finally reached the Court of Appeal in 1966. Following her third appearance in court, Nagle emerged victorious. The verdict of the three presiding judges, Lord Denning, Lord Justice Dankwerts and Lord Justice Salmon, was, in the words of Lord Denning, that "If she is to carry on her trade without stooping to subterfuge she has to have a licence." Lord Denning went on to describe the refusal to grant Nagle a training licence as "arbitrary and capricious", and Lord Justice Danckwerts called it "restrictive and nonsensical". Of the Jockey Club itself, Lord Justice Danckwerts went on to pronounce that "The courts have the right to protect the right of a person to work when it is being prevented by the dictatorial powers of a body which holds a monopoly." All three judges also referred to the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. Faced with the court's damning and embarrassing decision, the Jockey Club capitulated, and on 3 August 1966 Florence Nagle and Norah Wilmot became the first women in Britain to receive licences to train racehorses.
Nagle credited herself with "dragging the Jockey Club into the twentieth century". She said: "This was a matter of principle. I am a feminist. I believe in equal rights for women. Things should be decided by ability, not sex". At odds with Nagle's view, in her court case Lord Justice Salmon commented that "No doubt there are occupations, such as boxing, which may be reasonably regarded inherently unsuitable for women", and Lord Denning had gone on to say that "It is not as if the training of horses could be regarded as an unsuitable occupation for a woman, like that of a jockey or speedway-rider"; it was another eight years before Jockey Club rules permitted women jockeys in 1972. When asked by a journalist in the late 1970s if she thought women could ever match men on the racecourse, Nagle replied: "My dear man, it used to be said women couldn't stand up to three-day-eventing. Now they're beating the men regularly – and the same will happen in racing. Give them time." Her endeavours led to her being described as "the Mrs Pankhurst of British horse racing" in Stud & Stable Magazine and "Racing's Emily Pankhurst".
At the age of 83 Nagle was still pursuing gender equality, accusing the Kennel Club of sexual discrimination in their insistence on male-only membership and taking them to court over the matter. After the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was enacted, Nagle was proposed as a member of the Kennel Club at the end of September 1977; the nomination was refused in January 1978 because the Kennel Club's constitution restricted membership to men only. Nagle referred the matter to an Industrial Tribunal five months later. She was Chairwoman of the Ladies Joint Committee, a group set up in 1975 as a part of the Kennel Club hierarchy, but the committee was not allowed any input into general club decisions. Her actions against the club were fully supported by the other members of the Ladies Committee. Legal technicalities caused the tribunal to reject the case, but it recommended that the Equal Opportunities Commission should be approached as discrimination was clearly demonstrated. Nagle was determined and stated her intention to appeal the decision. Leonard Pagliero was Chairman of the Kennel Club at the time, and before Nagle was able to complete the appeal he contacted the canine press, Dog World and Our Dogs, on 8 September 1978 announcing that the Club's General Committee was recommending that the club's constitution be changed to allow women members. The proposal was carried unanimously at a meeting held on 23 November 1978. The result was that Nagle and many other ladies were accepted as members of the Kennel Club at a formal meeting held on 10 April 1979. The total number of women approved for membership at the landmark meeting was 80; the costs of the campaign were funded by Nagle.
## Later life
In the 1980s, still dissatisfied with the lack of opportunities for women jockeys, Nagle sponsored a race at Kempton Park, The Florence Nagle Girl Apprentices' Handicap. The first event took place in 1986; after the race John Oaksey wrote in the Daily Telegraph that Nagle was no doubt looking down from her celestial cloud with approval. She subsequently wrote to inform him that she was still alive, but that when the time came she expected to end up in a hotter place – "and there to meet most of her racing friends". Nagle left a bequest in her will to ensure the race's survival.
Nagle died at her home, Little Mayfield in West Chiltington, Sussex, at the age of 94.
|
251,713 |
Qibla
| 1,166,596,197 |
Direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays during salah
|
[
"Arabic words and phrases",
"Islamic architectural elements",
"Islamic architecture",
"Kaaba",
"Mosque architecture",
"Orientation (geometry)",
"Salah",
"Salah terminology"
] |
The qibla (Arabic: قِبْلَة, romanized: qiblah, lit. 'direction') is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to be a sacred site built by prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, and that its use as the qibla was ordained by Allah in several verses of the Quran revealed to Muhammad in the second Hijri year. Prior to this revelation, Muhammad and his followers in Medina faced Jerusalem for prayers. Most mosques contain a mihrab (a wall niche) that indicates the direction of the qibla.
The qibla is also the direction for entering the ihram (sacred state for the hajj pilgrimage); the direction to which animals are turned during dhabihah (Islamic slaughter); the recommended direction to make dua (supplications); the direction to avoid when relieving oneself or spitting; and the direction to which the deceased are aligned when buried. The qibla may be observed facing the Kaaba accurately (ayn al-ka'bah) or facing in the general direction (jihat al-ka'bah). Most Islamic scholars consider that jihat al-ka'bah is acceptable if the more precise ayn al-ka'bah cannot be ascertained.
The most common technical definition used by Muslim astronomers for a location is the direction on the great circle—in the Earth's Sphere—passing through the location and the Kaaba. This is the direction of the shortest possible path from a place to the Kaaba, and allows the exact calculation (hisab) of the qibla using a spherical trigonometric formula that takes the coordinates of a location and of the Kaaba as inputs (see formula below). The method is applied to develop mobile applications and websites for Muslims, and to compile qibla tables used in instruments such as the qibla compass. The qibla can also be determined at a location by observing the shadow of a vertical rod on the twice-yearly occasions when the sun is directly overhead in Mecca—on 27 and 28 May at 12:18 Saudi Arabia Standard Time (09:18 UTC), and on 15 and 16 July at 12:27 SAST (09:27 UTC).
Before the development of astronomy in the Islamic world, Muslims used traditional methods to determine the qibla. These methods included facing the direction that the companions of Muhammad had used when in the same place; using the setting and rising points of celestial objects; using the direction of the wind; or using due south, which was Muhammad's qibla in Medina. Early Islamic astronomy was built on its Indian and Greek counterparts, especially the works of Ptolemy, and soon Muslim astronomers developed methods to calculate the approximate directions of the qibla, starting from the mid-9th century. In the late 9th and 10th centuries, Muslim astronomers developed methods to find the exact direction of the qibla which are equivalent to the modern formula. Initially, this "qibla of the astronomers" was used alongside various traditionally determined qiblas, resulting in much diversity in medieval Muslim cities. In addition, the accurate geographic data necessary for the astronomical methods to yield an accurate result was not available before the 18th and 19th centuries, resulting in further diversity of the qibla. Historical mosques with differing qiblas still stand today throughout the Islamic world. The spaceflight of a devout Muslim, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2007 generated a discussion with regard to the qibla direction from low Earth orbit, prompting the Islamic authority of his home country, Malaysia, to recommend determining the qibla "based on what is possible" for the astronaut.
## Location
The qibla is the direction of the Kaaba, a cube-like building at the centre of the Sacred Mosque (al-Masjid al-Haram) in Mecca, in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. Other than its role as qibla, it is also the holiest site for Muslims, also known as the House of God (Bait Allah) and where the tawaf (the circumambulation ritual) is performed during the Hajj and umrah pilgrimages. The Kaaba has an approximately rectangular ground plan with its four corners pointing close to the four cardinal directions. According to the Quran, it was built by Abraham and Ishmael, both of whom are prophets in Islam. Few historical records remain detailing the history of the Kaaba before the rise of Islam, but in the generations prior to Muhammad, the Kaaba had been used as a shrine of the pre-Islamic Arabic religion.
The qibla status of the Kaaba (or the Sacred Mosque in which it is located) is based on the verses 144, 149, and 150 of the al-Baqarah chapter of the Quran, each of which contains a command to "turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque" (fawalli wajhaka shatr al-Masjid il-Haram). According to Islamic traditions, these verses were revealed in the month of Rajab or Shaban in the second Hijri year (623 CE), or about 15 or 16 months after Muhammad's migration to Medina. Prior to these revelations, Muhammad and the Muslims in Medina had prayed towards Jerusalem as the qibla, the same direction as the prayer direction—the mizrah—used by the Jews of Medina. Islamic tradition says that these verses were revealed during a prayer congregation; Muhammad and his followers immediately changed their direction from Jerusalem to Mecca in the middle of the prayer ritual. The location of this event became the Masjid al-Qiblatayn ("The Mosque of the Two Qiblas").
There are different reports of the qibla direction when Muhammad was in Mecca (before his migration to Medina). According to a report cited by historian al-Tabari and exegete (textual interpreter) al-Baydawi, Muhammad prayed towards the Kaaba. Another report, cited by al-Baladhuri and also by al-Tabari, says that Muhammad prayed towards Jerusalem while in Mecca. Another report, mentioned in Ibn Hisham's biography of Muhammad, says that Muhammad prayed in such a way as to face the Kaaba and Jerusalem simultaneously. Today Muslims of all branches, including the Sunni and the Shia, all pray towards the Kaaba. Historically, one major exception was the Qarmatians, a now-defunct syncretic Shia sect which rejected the Kaaba as the qibla; in 930, they sacked Mecca and for a time took the Kaaba's Black Stone to their centre of power in Al-Ahsa, with the intention of starting a new era in Islam.
## Religious significance
Etymologically, the Arabic word qibla (قبلة) means "direction". In Islamic ritual and law, it refers to a special direction faced by Muslims during prayers and other religious contexts. Islamic religious scholars agree that facing the qibla is a necessary condition for the validity of salah—the Islamic ritual prayer—in normal conditions; exceptions include prayers during a state of fear or war, as well as non-obligatory prayers during travel. The hadith (Muhammad's tradition) also prescribes that Muslims face the qibla when entering the ihram (sacred state for hajj), after the middle jamrah (stone-throwing ritual) during the pilgrimage. Islamic etiquette (adab) calls for Muslims to turn the head of an animal when it is slaughtered, and the faces of the dead when they are buried, toward the qibla. The qibla is the preferred direction when making a supplication and is to be avoided when defecating, urinating, and spitting.
Inside a mosque, the qibla is usually indicated by a mihrab, a niche in its qibla-facing wall. In a congregational prayer, the imam stands in it or close to it, in front of the rest of the congregation. The mihrab became a part of the mosque during the Umayyad period and its form was standardised during the Abbasid period; before that, the qibla of a mosque was known from the orientation of one of its walls, called the qibla wall. The term mihrab itself is attested only once in the Quran, but it refers to a place of prayer of the Israelites rather than a part of a mosque. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat, Egypt, one of the oldest mosques, is known to have been built originally without a mihrab, though one has since been added.
### Ayn al-ka'bah and jihat al-ka'bah
Ayn al-ka'bah ("standing so as to face the Kaaba head-on") is a position facing the qibla so that an imaginary line extending from the person's line of sight would pass through the Kaaba. This manner of observing the qibla is easily done inside the Great Mosque of Mecca and its surroundings, but given that the Kaaba is less than 20 metres (66 ft) wide, this is virtually impossible from distant locations. For example, from Medina, with a 338-kilometre (210 mi) straight-line distance from the Kaaba, a one-degree deviation from the precise imaginary line—an error hardly noticeable when setting one's prayer mat or assuming one's posture—results in a 5.9-kilometre (3.7 mi) shift from the site of the Kaaba. This effect is amplified when further than Mecca: from Jakarta, Indonesia—some 7,900 km (4,900 mi) away, a one-degree deviation causes more than a 100-kilometre (62 mi) shift, and even an arc second's deviation—(1⁄3600 of a degree)—causes a more than 100-metre (330 ft) shift from the location of the Kaaba. In comparison, the construction process of a mosque can easily introduce an error of up to five degrees from the calculated qibla, and the installation of prayer rugs inside the mosque as indicators for worshipers can add another deviation of five degrees from the mosque's orientation.
A minority of Islamic religious scholars—for example Ibn Arabi (d. 1240)—consider ayn al-ka'bah to be obligatory during the ritual prayer, while others consider it obligatory only when one is able. For locations further than Mecca, scholars such as Abu Hanifa (d. 699) and Al-Qurtubi (d. 1214) argue that it is permissible to assume jihat al-ka'bah, facing only the general direction of the Kaaba. Others argue that the ritual condition of facing the qibla is already fulfilled when the imaginary line to the Kaaba is within one's field of vision. For instance, there are legal opinions that accept the entire southeastern quadrant in Al-Andalus (Islamic Iberian Peninsula), and the southwestern quadrant in Central Asia, to be valid qibla. Arguments for the validity of jihat al-ka'bah include the wording of the Quran, which commands Muslims only to "turn [one's] face" toward the Great Mosque, and to avoid imposing requirements that would be impossible to fulfill if ayn al-ka'bah were to be obligatory in all places. The Shafi'i school of Islamic law, as codified in Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi's 11th-century Kitab al-Tanbih fi'l-Fiqh, argues that one must follow the qibla indicated by the local mosque when one is not near Mecca or, when not near a mosque, to ask a trustworthy person. When this is not possible, one is to make one's own determination—to exercise ijtihad—by the means at one's disposal.
## Determination
### Theoretical basis: the great circle
A great circle, also called the orthodrome, is any circle on a sphere whose centre is identical to the centre of the sphere. For example, all lines of longitude are great circles of the Earth, while the equator is the only line of latitude that is also a great circle (other lines of latitude are centered north or south of the centre of the Earth). The great circle is the theoretical basis in most models that seek to mathematically determine the direction of the qibla from a locality. In such models, the qibla is defined as the direction of the great circle passing through the locality and the Kaaba. One of the properties of a great circle is that it indicates the shortest path connecting any pair of points along the circle—this is the basis of its use to determine the qibla. The great circle is similarly used to find the shortest flight path connecting the two locations—therefore the qibla calculated using the great circle method is generally close to the direction of the locality to Mecca. As the ellipsoid is a more accurate figure of the Earth than a perfect sphere, modern researchers have looked into using ellipsoidal models to calculate the qibla, replacing the great circle by the geodesics on an ellipsoid. This results in more complicated calculations, while the improvement in accuracy falls well within the typical precision of the setting out of a mosque or the placement of a mat. For example, calculations using the GRS 80 ellipsoidal model yields the qibla of 18°47′06′′ for a location in San Francisco, while the great circle method yields 18°51′05′′.
### Calculations with spherical trigonometry
The great circle model is applied to calculate the qibla using spherical trigonometry—a branch of geometry that deals with the mathematical relations between the sides and angles of triangles formed by three great circles of a sphere (as opposed to the conventional trigonometry which deals with those of a two-dimensional triangle). In the accompanying figure (captioned "Calculating the qibla"), a location $O$, the Kaaba $Q$, and the north pole $N$ form a triangle on the sphere of the earth. The qibla is indicated by $OQ$, which is the direction of the great circle passing through both $O$ and $Q$. The qibla can also be expressed as an angle, $\angle NOQ$ (or $\angle q$), of the qibla with respect to the north, also called the inhiraf al-qibla. This angle can be calculated as a mathematical function of the local latitude $\phi$, the latitude of the Kaaba $\phi_Q$, and the longitude difference between the locality and the Kaaba $\Delta L$. This function is derived from the cotangent rule which applies to any spherical triangle with angles $A$, $B$, $C$ and sides $a$, $b$, $c$:
$\cos a\,\cos C=\cot b\,\sin a - \cot B \,\sin C$
Applying this formula in the spherical triangle $\triangle NOQ$ (substituting $B = \angle q = \angle NOQ$) and applying trigonometric identities obtain:
$\tan q = \frac{\sin \Delta L}{\sin \phi \cos \Delta L - \cos \phi \tan \phi_Q}$, or
$q = \arctan \left( \frac{\sin \Delta L}{\sin \phi \cos \Delta L - \cos \phi \tan \phi_Q}\right)$
For example, the qibla from the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, can be calculated as follows. The city's coordinates, $\phi$, are 7.801389°S, 110.364444°E, while the Kaaba's coordinates, $\phi_Q$, are 21.422478°N, 39.825183°E. The longitude difference $\Delta L$ is (110.364444 minus 39.825183) 70.539261. Substituting the values into the formula obtains: $q = \arctan \left( \frac{\sin (70.539261^{\circ}) }{\sin (-7.801389^{\circ}) \cdot \cos (70.539261^{\circ}) - \cos (-7.801389^{\circ}) \cdot \tan (21.422478^{\circ}) }\right)$. which gives:
$q \approx 295^{\circ}$.
The calculated qibla for the city of Yogyakarta is therefore 295°, or 25° north of west.
This formula was derived by modern scholars, but equivalent methods have been known to Muslim astronomers since the 9th century (3rd century AH), developed by various scholars, including Habash al-Hasib (active in Damascus and Baghdad c. 850), Al-Nayrizi (Baghdad, c. 900), Ibn Yunus (10th–11th century), Ibn al-Haytham (11th century), and Al-Biruni (11th century). Today spherical trigonometry also underlies nearly all applications or websites which calculate the qibla.
When the qibla angle with respect to the north, $\angle q$, is known, true north needs to be known to find the qibla in practice. Common practical methods to find it include the observation of the shadow at the culmination of the sun—when the sun crosses exactly the local meridian. At this point, any vertical object would cast a shadow oriented in the north–south direction. The result of this observation is very accurate, but it requires an accurate determination of the local time of culmination as well as making the correct observation at that exact moment. Another common method is using the compass, which is more practical because it can be done at any time; the disadvantage is that the north indicated by a magnetic compass differs from true north. This magnetic declination can measure up to 20°, which can vary in different places on Earth and changes over time.
### Shadow observation
As observed from Earth, the sun appears to "shift" between the Northern and Southern Tropics seasonally; additionally, it appears to move from east to west daily as a consequence of the earth's rotation. The combination of these two apparent motions means that every day the sun crosses the meridian once, usually not precisely overhead but to the north or to the south of the observer. In locations between the two tropics—latitudes lower than 23.5° north or south—at certain moments of the year (usually twice a year) the sun passes almost directly overhead. This happens when the sun crosses the meridian while being at the local latitude at the same time.
The city of Mecca is among the places where this occurs, due to its location at 21°25′ N. It occurs twice a year, firstly on 27/28 May at about 12:18 Saudi Arabia Standard Time (SAST) or 09:18 UTC, and secondly on 15/16 July at 12:27 SAST (09:27 UTC). As the sun reaches the zenith of the Kaaba, any vertical object on earth that receives sunlight cast a shadow that indicates the qibla (see picture). This method of finding the qibla is called rasd al-qiblat ("observing the qibla"). Since night falls on the hemisphere opposite of the Kaaba, half the locations on Earth (including Australia as well as most of the Americas and the Pacific Ocean) cannot observe this directly. Instead, such places observe the opposite phenomenon when the sun passes above the antipodal point of the Kaaba (in other words, the sun passes directly underneath the Kaaba), causing shadows in the opposite direction from those observed during rasd al-qiblat. This occurs twice a year, on 14 January 00:30 SAST (21:30 UTC the previous day) and 29 November 00:09 SAST (21:09 UTC the previous day). Observations made within five minutes of the rasd al-qiblat moments or its antipodal counterparts, or at the same time of the day two days before or after each event, still show accurate directions with negligible difference.
### On the world map
Spherical trigonometry provides the shortest path from any point on earth to the Kaaba, even though the indicated direction might seem counterintuitive when imagined on a flat world map. For example, the qibla from Alaska obtained through spherical trigonometry is almost due north. This apparent counter-intuitiveness is caused by projections used by world maps, which by necessity distort the surface of the Earth. A straight line shown by the world map in using the Mercator projection is called the rhumb line or the loxodrome, which is used to indicate the qibla by a minority of Muslims. It can result in a dramatic difference in some places; for example, in some parts of North America the flat map shows Mecca in the southeast while the great circle calculation shows it to the northeast. In Japan the map shows it to the southwest, while the great circle shows it to the northwest. The majority of Muslims, however, follow the great circle method.
A retroazimuthal projection is any map projection which preserves the angular direction (the azimuth) of the great circle path from any point of the map to a point selected as the center of the map. The initial purpose of its development was to help finding the qibla, by choosing the Kaaba as the center point. The earliest surviving works using this projection were two astrolabe-shaped brass instruments created in 18th-century Iran. They contain grids covering locations between Spain and China, label the locations of major cities along with their names, but do not show any coastline. The first of the two was discovered in 1989; its diameter is 22.5 centimetres (8.9 in) and it has a ruler with which one can read the direction of Mecca from the markings on the instrument's circumference, and the distance to Mecca from the markings on the ruler. Only the second one is signed by its creator, Muhammad Husayn. The first formal design of a retroazimuthal projection in the Western literature is the Craig projection or the Mecca projection, created by the Scottish mathematician James Ireland Craig, who worked at the Survey Department of Egypt, in 1910. His map is centered in Mecca and its range is limited to show the predominantly Muslim lands. Extending the map further than 90° in longitude from the center will result in crowding and overlaps.
### Traditional methods
Historical records and surviving old mosques show that throughout history the qibla was often determined by simple methods based on tradition or "folk science" not based on mathematical astronomy. Some early Muslims used due south everywhere as the qibla, literally following Muhammad's instruction to face south while he was in Medina (Mecca is due south of Medina). Some mosques as far away as al-Andalus to the west and Central Asia to the east face south, even though Mecca is nowhere near that direction. In various places, there are also the "qiblas of the companions" (qiblat al-sahaba), those which were used there by the Companions of the Prophet—the first generation of Muslims, who are considered role models in Islam. Such directions were used by some Muslims in the following centuries, side by side with other directions, even after Muslim astronomers used calculations to find more accurate directions to Mecca. Among the directions described as the qiblas of the companions are due south in Syria and Palestine, the direction of the winter sunrise in Egypt, and the direction of the winter sunset in Iraq. The direction of the winter sunrise and sunset are also traditionally favoured because they are parallel to the walls of the Kaaba.
## Development of methods
### Pre-astronomy
The determination of qibla has been an important problem for Muslim communities throughout history. Muslims are required to know the qibla to perform their daily prayers, and it is also needed to determine the orientation of mosques. When Muhammad lived among the Muslims in Medina (which, like Mecca, is also in the Hejaz region), he prayed due south, according to the known direction of Mecca. Within the few generations after Muhammad's death in 632, Muslims had reached places far away from Mecca, presenting the problem of determining the qibla in new locations. Mathematical methods based on astronomy would develop only at the end of the 8th century or the beginning of the 9th, and even then they were not initially popular. Therefore, early Muslims relied on non-astronomical methods.
There was a wide range of traditional methods in determining the qibla during the early Islamic period, resulting in different directions even from the same place. In addition to due south and the qiblas of the companions, the Arabs also knew a form of "folk" astronomy—called so by the historian of astronomy David A. King to distinguish it from conventional astronomy, which is an exact science—originating from pre-Islamic traditions. It used natural phenomenon, including the observation of the Sun, the Moon, the stars, and wind, without any basis in mathematics. These methods yield specific directions in individual localities, often using the fixed setting and rising points of a specific star, the sunrise or sunset at the equinoxes, or at the summer or the winter solstices. Historical sources record several such qiblas, for example: sunrise at the equinoxes (due east) in the Maghreb, sunset at the equinoxes (due west) in India, the origin of the north wind or the fixed location of the North Star in Yemen, the rising point of the star Suhayl (Canopus) in Syria, and the midwinter sunset in Iraq. Such directions appear in texts of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and texts of folk astronomy. Astronomers (aside from folk astronomers) typically do not comment on these methods, but they were not opposed by Islamic legal scholars. The traditional directions were still in use when methods were developed to calculate the qibla more accurately, and they still appear in some surviving medieval mosques today.
### With astronomy
The study of astronomy—known as ilm al-falak (lit. 'science of the celestial orbs') in the Islamic intellectual tradition—began to appear in the Islamic World in the second half of the 8th century, centred in Baghdad, the principal city of the Abbasid Caliphate. Initially, the science was introduced through the works of Indian authors, but after the 9th century the works of Greek astronomers such as Ptolemy were translated into Arabic and became the main references in the field. Muslim astronomers preferred Greek astronomy because they considered it to be better supported by theoretical explanations and therefore it could be developed as an exact science; however, the influence of Indian astronomy survives especially in the compilation of astronomical tables. This new science was applied to develop new methods of determining the qibla, making use of the concept of latitude and longitude taken from Ptolemy's Geography as well as trigonometric formulae developed by Muslim scholars. Most textbooks of astronomy written in the medieval Islamic World contain a chapter on the determination of the qibla, considered one of the many things connecting astronomy with Islamic law (sharia). According to David A. King, various medieval solutions for the determination of the qibla "bear witness to the development of mathematical methods from the 3rd/9th to the 8th/14th centuries and to the level of sophistication in trigonometry and computational techniques attained by these scholars".
The first mathematical methods developed in the early 9th century were approximate solutions to the mathematical problem, usually using a flat map or two-dimensional geometry. Since in reality the earth is spherical, the directions found were inexact, but they were sufficient for locations relatively close to Mecca (including as far away as Egypt and Iran) because the errors were less than 2°.
Exact solutions, based on three-dimensional geometry and spherical trigonometry, began to appear in the mid-9th century. Habash al-Hasib wrote an early example, using an orthographic projection. Another group of solutions uses trigonometric formulas, for example Al-Nayrizi's four-step application of Menelaus's theorem. Subsequent scholars, including Ibn Yunus, Abu al-Wafa, Ibn al-Haitham and Al-Biruni, proposed other methods which are confirmed to be accurate from the viewpoint of modern astronomy.
Muslim astronomers subsequently used these methods to compile tables showing the qibla from a list of locations, grouped by their latitude and longitude differences from Mecca. The oldest known example, from c. 9th-century Baghdad, contained entries for each degree and arc minute up to 20°. In the 14th century, Shams al-Din al-Khalili, an astronomer who served as a muwaqqit (timekeeper) in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, compiled a qibla table for 2,880 coordinates with longitude differences of up to 60° from Mecca, and with latitudes ranging from 10° to 50°. King opines that among the medieval qibla tables, al-Khalili's work is "the most impressive from the view of its scope and its accuracy".
The accuracy of applying these methods to actual locations depend on the accuracy of its input parameters—the local latitude and the latitude of Mecca, and the longitude difference. At the time of the development of these methods, the latitude of a location could be determined to several arc minutes' accuracy, but there was no accurate method to determine a location's longitude. Common methods used to estimate the longitude difference included comparing the local timing of a lunar eclipse versus the timing in Mecca, or measuring the distance of caravan routes; the Central Asian scholar Al-Biruni made his estimate by averaging various approximate methods. Because of longitudinal inaccuracy, medieval qibla calculations (including those using mathematically accurate methods) differ from the modern values. For example, while the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo was built using the "qibla of the astronomers", but the mosque's qibla (127°) differs somewhat from the results of modern calculations (135°) because the longitude difference used was off by three degrees.
Accurate longitude values in the Islamic world were available only after the application of cartographic surveys in the 18th and 19th centuries. Modern coordinates, along with new technologies such as GPS satellites and electronic instruments, resulted in the development of practical instruments to calculate the qibla. The qibla found using modern instruments might differ from the direction of mosques, because a mosque might be built before the advent of modern data, and orientation inaccuracies might have been introduced during the building process of modern mosques. When this is known, sometimes the direction of the mosque's mihrab is still observed, and sometimes a marker is added (such as lines drawn in the mosque) that can be followed instead of the mihrab.
## Instruments
Muslims use various instruments to find the qibla direction when not near a mosque. The qibla compass is a magnetic compass which includes a table or a list of qibla angles from major settlements. Some electronic versions use satellite coordinates to calculate and indicate the qibla automatically. Qibla compasses have existed since around 1300, supplemented by the list of qibla angles often written on the instruments themselves. Hotel rooms with Muslim guests may use a sticker showing the qibla on the ceiling or a drawer. With the advent of computing, various mobile apps and websites use formulae to calculate the qibla for their users.
## Diversity
### Early Islamic world
Because varying methods have been used to determine the qibla, mosques were built throughout history in different directions, including some that still stand today. Methods based on astronomy and mathematics were not always used, and the same determination method could yield different qiblas due to differences in the accuracy of data and calculations. Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi (d. 1442) recorded various qibla angles used in Cairo at the time: 90° (due east), 117° (winter sunrise, the "qibla of the sahaba"), 127° (calculated by astronomers, such as Ibn Yunus), 141° (Mosque of Ibn Tulun), 156° (the rising point of Suhayl/Canopus), 180° (due south, emulating the qibla of Muhammad in Medina), and 204° (the setting point of Canopus). The modern qibla for Cairo is 135°, which was not known at the time. This diversity also results in the non-uniform layout in Cairo's districts, because the streets are often oriented according to the varying orientation of the mosques. Historical records also indicate the diversity of qiblas in other major cities, including Córdoba (113°, 120°, 135°, 150°, and 180° were recorded in the 12th century) and Samarkand (180°, 225°, 230°, 240°, and 270° were recorded in the 11th century). According to the doctrine of jihat al-ka'bah, the diverse directions of qiblas are still valid as long as they are still in the same broad direction. In Mecca itself, many early mosques were constructed that were not directly facing the Kaaba.
In 1990, the scholar of geography Michael E. Bonine conducted a survey of the main mosques of all major cities in present-day Morocco—constructed from the Idrisid period (8th–10th centuries) up to the Alaouite period (17th century to present). While modern calculations yield the qiblas of between 91° (almost due east) in Marrakesh and 97° in Tangier, only mosques constructed in the Alaouite period are constructed with qiblas relatively close to this range. The qibla of older mosques vary considerably, with concentrations occurring between 155°–160° (slightly east of south) as well as 120°–130° (almost southeast). In 2008, Bonine also published a survey of the main city mosques of Tunisia, in which he found that most were aligned close to 147°. This is the direction of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, originally built in 670 and last rebuilt by the Aghlabids in 862, which is often credited as the model used by the other mosques. Among the mosques surveyed, the Great Mosque of Sousse was the only one with a significant difference, facing further south at 163°. The actual direction to Mecca as calculated using the great circle method ranges from 110° to 113° throughout the country.
### Indonesia
Variations of the qibla also occur in Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population. The astronomically calculated qibla ranges from 291°—295° (21°—25° north of west) depending on the exact location in the archipelago. However, the qibla is often known traditionally simply as "the west", resulting in mosques built oriented due west or to the direction of sunset—which varies slightly throughout the year. Different opinions exist among Indonesian Islamic astronomers: Tono Saksono et al. argues in 2018 that facing the qibla during prayers is more of a "spiritual prerequisite" than a precise physical one, and that an exact direction to the Kaaba itself from thousands of kilometres away requires an extreme precision impossible to achieve when building a mosque or when standing for prayers. On the other hand, Muhammad Hadi Bashori in 2014 opines that "correcting the qibla is indeed a very urgent thing", and can be guided by simple methods such as observing the shadow.
In the history of the region, disputes about the qibla had also occurred in the then-Dutch East Indies in the 1890s. When the Indonesian scholar and future founder of Muhammadiyah, Ahmad Dahlan, returned from his Islamic and astronomy studies in Mecca, he found that mosques in the royal capital of Yogyakarta had inaccurate qiblas, including the Kauman Great Mosque, which faced due west. His efforts in adjusting the qibla were opposed by the traditional ulama of the Yogyakarta Sultanate, and a new mosque built by Dahlan using his calculations was demolished by a mob. Dahlan rebuilt his mosque in the 1900s, and later the Kauman Great Mosque would also be reoriented using the astronomically calculated qibla.
### North America
Places long settled by Muslim populations tend to have resolved the question of the direction of the qibla over time. Other countries, like the United States and Canada, have had large Muslim communities only in the past several decades, and the determination of the qibla can be a matter of debate. The Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. was built in 1953 facing slightly north of east and initially puzzled some observers, including Muslims, because Washington, D.C.'s latitude is 17°30′ north of Mecca. Even though a line drawn on world maps—such as those using the Mercator projection—would suggest a southeastern direction to Mecca, the astronomical calculation using the great circle method does yield a north-of-east direction (56°33′). Nevertheless, most early mosques in the United States face east or southeast, following the apparent direction on world maps. As the Muslim community grew and the number of mosques increased, in 1978, an American Muslim scientist, S. Kamal Abdali, wrote a book arguing that the correct qibla from North America was north or northeast as calculated by the great circle method which identifies the shortest path to Mecca. Abdali's conclusion was widely circulated and then accepted by the Muslim community, and mosques were subsequently reoriented as a result. In 1993, two religious scholars, Riad Nachef and Samir Kadi, published a book arguing for a southeastern qibla, writing that the north/northeast qibla was invalid and resulted from a lack of religious knowledge. In reaction, Abdali published a response to their arguments and criticism in an article entitled "The Correct Qibla" online in 1997. The two opinions resulted in a period of debate about the correct qibla. Eventually most North American Muslims accepted the north/northeast qibla with a minority following the east/southeast qibla.
### Outer space
The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the earth at high speed—the direction from it to Mecca changes significantly within a few seconds. Before his flight to the ISS, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor requested, and the Malaysian National Fatwa Council provided, guidelines which have been translated into multiple languages. The council wrote that the qibla determination should be "based on what is possible" and recommended four options, saying that one should pray toward the first option if possible and, if not, fall back successively on the later ones:
1. the Kaaba itself
2. the position directly above the Kaaba at the altitude of the astronaut's orbit
3. the Earth in general
4. "wherever"
In line with the fatwa council, other Muslim scholars argue for the importance of flexibility and adapting the qibla requirement to what an astronaut is capable of fulfilling. Khaleel Muhammad of San Diego State University opined "God does not take a person to task for that which is beyond his/her ability to work with." Kamal Abdali argued that concentration during a prayer is more important than the exact orientation, and he suggested keeping the qibla direction at the start of a prayer instead of "worrying about possible changes in position". Before Sheikh Muszaphar's mission, at least eight Muslims had flown to space, but none of them publicly discussed issues relating to worship in space.
## See also
- Ad orientem, a comparable concept in traditional Christianity
- Mizrah, the equivalent in the Jewish Faith
- Qiblih, the equivalent in the Baháʼí Faith
- Spatial deixis
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29,800,256 |
Ian Dougald McLachlan
| 1,142,038,126 |
Royal Australian Air Force senior commander
|
[
"1911 births",
"1991 deaths",
"Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire",
"Australian Companions of the Order of the Bath",
"Australian recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)",
"Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies",
"Military personnel from Melbourne",
"People educated at Melbourne High School",
"People from South Yarra, Victoria",
"Royal Australian Air Force air marshals",
"Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II",
"Royal Military College, Duntroon graduates"
] |
Air Vice Marshal Ian Dougald McLachlan, CB, CBE, DFC (23 July 1911 – 14 July 1991) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Born in Melbourne, he was a cadet at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, before joining the Air Force in December 1930. After serving in instructional and general flying roles, he took command of No. 3 Squadron in December 1939, leading it into action in the Middle East less than a year later. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, he returned to Australia in 1942 to command air bases in Canberra and Melbourne. The following year he was posted to the South West Pacific, where he led successively Nos. 71 and 73 Wings. Having been promoted to group captain, he took charge of Southern Area Command in 1944, and No. 81 Wing in the Dutch East Indies the following year.
Raised to acting air commodore in 1946, McLachlan served as senior air staff officer for the British Commonwealth Air Group in Japan until 1948. After leading North-Eastern Area Command in 1951–53, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and posted to Britain, where he attended the Imperial Defence College. Promoted air vice marshal, he returned to Australia in 1957 as Air Officer Commanding Training Command; in this role he carried out two major reviews focussing on the RAAF's educational and command systems. He was Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from 1959 to 1961, and then Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in Washington, D.C., until 1963. Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1966, McLachlan's final post before retiring in 1968 was as Air Member for Supply and Equipment. He was a consultant to Northrop after leaving the RAAF, and lived in Darling Point, Sydney, until his death in 1991.
## Early career
The son of Dugald and Bertha McLachlan, Ian McLachlan was born in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, Victoria, on 23 July 1911. Following education at Melbourne High School, he entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1928. He was one of four cadets sponsored that year by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), which did not at that stage have its own officer training college. Budgetary constraints imposed by the Great Depression necessitated the transfer of these cadets out of Duntroon midway through their four-year course. Although offered positions in the Australian Public Service or nominations for short-term commissions with the Royal Air Force, all were determined to serve with the RAAF, apparently "delighted" at the prospect of entering their chosen service early.
Enlisting in the Air Force on 10 December 1930, McLachlan completed his flight training the following year. He was commissioned as a pilot in 1932, and undertook flight-instruction and general duties roles over the next five years. In 1937, he was a member of the RAAF contingent posted to Britain to celebrate the coronation of King George VI. Ranked flight lieutenant, he was given command of No. 3 (Army Cooperation) Squadron, operating Hawker Demon fighters out of RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales, on 4 December 1939. He was promoted to squadron leader on 1 February 1940, and led his unit to the Middle East on 15 July.
## Combat service
### Middle East
Sailing via Bombay, India, No. 3 Squadron arrived at Suez, Egypt, in late August 1940. In its original army cooperation role supporting the Australian 6th Division in the North African Campaign, the squadron was equipped with obsolescent Gloster Gladiator biplane fighters and Westland Lysander observation aircraft. As part of his unit's work-up for operations, McLachlan organised training exercises with the 6th Division, as well as written exams to test his men's knowledge of army jargon and air-to-ground communications.
Described by historian Alan Stephens as "acerbic but capable", McLachlan led No. 3 Squadron through the Battle of Sidi Barrani in December 1940, followed by the Battle of Bardia and the capture of Tobruk in January 1941. Prior to converting to Hawker Hurricanes that month, the unit was credited with destroying twelve Italian aircraft for the loss of five Gladiators and two pilots; McLachlan shot down a Fiat CR.42 on 10 December 1940, the same action in which fellow squadron member and future ace Gordon Steege claimed his first "kill". Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAF Middle East, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore, praised McLachlan and his squadron for their "high morale and adaptability to desert conditions".
McLachlan was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for his "fine qualities as a fighter pilot" and "determined leadership" in the face of often "overwhelming numbers of enemy aircraft"; the citation was promulgated in the London Gazette on 11 February 1941 under the name "Ian Duncan MacLachlan". He was the first RAAF fighter pilot to be decorated in World War II. Promoted to wing commander, he took charge of the newly established RAF Benina, Benghazi, on 13 February, handing over No. 3 Squadron to Squadron Leader Peter Jeffrey. By May 1941, McLachlan was acting as RAAF Liaison Officer for the new Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, RAF Middle East, Air Marshal Arthur Tedder. The Air Board in Melbourne, chaired by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett, was not consulted over this change of role and took exception to the RAF's "unilateral action" in appointing McLachlan, but eventually acquiesced and permitted him to remain at the post to coordinate facilities for RAAF personnel in the region until July, when he was recalled to Australia.
### South West Pacific
In 1942 McLachlan took command of RAAF Station Canberra, and, later in the year, RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria. Posted for action in New Guinea, he became the inaugural commander of No. 71 Wing at Milne Bay in February 1943. The wing consisted of No. 6 Squadron (flying Lockheed Hudsons), No. 75 Squadron (P-40 Kittyhawks), No. 77 Squadron (Kittyhawks), and No. 100 Squadron (Bristol Beauforts). It came under the control of No. 9 Operational Group, the RAAF's "premier fighting unit" in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA), whose purpose was to act as a mobile strike force in support of advancing Allied troops. In March the Beauforts took part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, "the decisive aerial engagement" in the SWPA according to General Douglas MacArthur, though they were unable to score any hits against Japanese ships.
By June 1943, McLachlan had been promoted group captain and given command of No. 73 Wing. He established his headquarters at Goodenough Island, where he was responsible for organising the wing into a fighter formation consisting of No. 76 Squadron (Kittyhawks), No. 77 Squadron (Kittyhawks) and No. 79 Squadron (Spitfires). As well as providing local air defence, and fighter escort for Australian bombers, the Kittyhawks were armed with incendiary and general-purpose bombs so that they could engage in ground attack missions, a practice that had already been employed by Commonwealth forces in the Middle Eastern theatre. In August, the wing transferred to Kiriwina, and No. 9 Group's other combat formation, No. 71 Wing, took over responsibility for Goodenough. Appointed senior air staff officer (SASO) at No. 9 Group, McLachlan handed over command of No. 73 Wing to Wing Commander Gordon Steege in October 1943. Towards the end of his posting to No. 9 Group, McLachlan told its former commander, Air Commodore Joe Hewitt, that the USAAF was "leaping ahead" of the RAAF, which was being left to "clean up the remnants" of Japanese resistance. He feared that Australian fighter pilots especially would be "increasingly restless if the Americans took all the fighting plums". Barely a year later, morale among senior RAAF fighter pilots had dropped to such an extent that eight of them tried to resign their commissions in the so-called "Morotai Mutiny".
In March 1944, McLachlan took charge of Southern Area Command, Melbourne, with responsibility for maritime patrol, convoy escort and anti-submarine warfare in southern Australian waters; he handed over to Group Captain Charles Eaton the following January. Mentioned in despatches on 9 March 1945 for his "gallant and distinguished service", McLachlan returned to action in the South-West Pacific as commander of No. 81 Wing, which comprised Nos. 76, 77 and 82 Squadrons, operating Kittyhawks. As part of the Australian First Tactical Air Force in the Dutch East Indies, the wing was slated to take part in Operation Oboe One, the Battle of Tarakan, in May but was unable to relocate from Noemfoor to its new base on Morotai in time. It fought in Operation Oboe Six, the invasion of Labuan, from June and was based on the island when the Pacific War ended in August 1945.
## Post-war career
Following the end of hostilities, McLachlan volunteered to serve with the Allied occupation forces in Japan. He married Margaret Helen Chrystal on 5 January 1946; they had a son and a daughter. Promoted to acting air commodore on 1 March, he was appointed SASO of the British Commonwealth Air Group (BCAIR), headquartered in Kure and responsible for No. 81 Wing RAAF, as well as squadrons from the Royal Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force, and Indian Air Force. Returning to Australia in 1948, he served as Air Commodore Operations at RAAF Headquarters, Melbourne, at which time the English Electric Canberra was ordered as Australia's first jet bomber, partly for its ability to deliver nuclear weapons. He completed his term in September 1951 and took over North-Eastern Area Command, based at Townsville, Queensland. Following his appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1954 New Year's Honours, McLachlan was posted to Britain for three years, first attending the Imperial Defence College, London, and then serving as RAF Director of Flying Training at the Air Ministry during 1955–56. Raised to air vice-marshal, he returned to Australia in 1957 to become Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Training Command in Melbourne.
As AOC Training Command, McLachlan undertook two reviews that would have, according to the official history of the post-war RAAF, "a significant effect on the Air Force of the 1960s". In 1957, at the instigation of the Air Member for Personnel, Air Vice Marshal Frederick Scherger, McLachlan formed a committee to review the effectiveness of the syllabus at RAAF College for meeting the future needs of the Air Force in an age of guided missiles and nuclear weaponry. This led to a policy of cadets undertaking academic degrees, in line with similar institutions in the other armed services; the college was subsequently renamed RAAF Academy. The official history of the RAAF considered the result to be only partially successful; although it turned out highly educated officers, they were educated solely in a rigid scientific discipline suited to an Air Force that never came into existence, one relying on missiles rather than manned aircraft. In 1959, McLachlan chaired a committee to review the change in the RAAF's command structure that had taken place in 1953–54, from a geographically based "area" system to a functional system consisting of Home, Maintenance Command, and Training Commands. Concluding that this had reduced duplication and improved efficiency, he proposed further rationalisation by amalgamating Training and Maintenance Commands to form a new organisation, Support Command. His plan was duly implemented, as was his recommendation that Home Command, responsible for air operations, be renamed Operational Command.
McLachlan was appointed Deputy Chief of the Air Staff in 1959, before being posted to Washington, D.C., as attaché heading up the Australian Joint Services Staff in 1961. During his term in the US, Australia ordered the General Dynamics F-111C swing-wing bomber as a replacement for the Canberra. Despite what was touted as a firm timetable and cost schedule for the order, McLachlan confided to a colleague that he had serious concerns about when and if the RAAF would actually get the F-111, and what the final cost would be. According to Air Force historian Alan Stephens, "even for such a shrewd and sardonic man as McLachlan, that was to prove a painfully prescient observation", as the new bomber was delivered six years late and massively over budget. Following his return from Washington, McLachlan became Air Member for Supply and Equipment (AMSE) in February 1964. As AMSE he sat on the Air Board, the service's controlling body that consisted of its most senior officers, chaired by the Chief of the Air Staff. In this position he worked to increase the proportion of tertiary educated supply officers, following similar achievements among engineering officers in the RAAF's Technical Branch. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1966 New Year's Honours, the citation noting particularly his chairmanship of the two "historic" committees that reorganised RAAF College and the Air Force's command structure in the late 1950s. The use of electronic data processing became more widespread during McLachlan's tenure as AMSE, and by 1968 the RAAF's supply system had been computerised.
## Later life
McLachlan completed his term as Air Member for Supply and Equipment on 23 July 1968 and retired from the RAAF; he was divorced from his wife the same year. Upon leaving the military, he became an aeronautical consultant to the Northrop Corporation, and chairman of Information Electronics Pty Ltd from 1983, serving in both positions until 1987. He was also chairman of Pokolbin Winemakers from 1970 through 1975. In retirement he continued to exercise his interest in Australia's defence, joining in 1975 a group of pundits, including former Chief of the Air Staff Sir Alister Murdoch, who promoted the addition of nuclear weapons to the country's arsenal. A resident of Sydney's Darling Point, Ian McLachlan died on 14 July 1991.
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21,051,489 |
Lindsay Hassett with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948
| 1,124,297,505 |
Contributions of Australian vice-captain
|
[
"The Invincibles (cricket)"
] |
Lindsay Hassett was the vice-captain and one of three on-tour selectors for Don Bradman's famous Australian cricket team, which toured England in 1948. The Australians went undefeated in their 34 matches; this unprecedented feat by a Test side touring England earned them the sobriquet The Invincibles, and resulted in them being regarded as one of the greatest teams of all time. A right-handed batsman, Hassett played in all five Tests; he was a middle-order batsman in all but the Fourth Test, when he stood in as an opener due to an injury to Sid Barnes.
As the matches were often played consecutively without a day between fixtures, Australia employed a rotation policy, and as a result, Hassett captained the team in nine tour matches while Bradman was rested. Under Hassett's watch, Australia won seven matches, five of these by an innings, while both draws were rain-affected fixtures in which more than half the playing time was lost. Hassett had two close encounters, both on damp pitches before the First Test. Against Yorkshire, Australia scraped home by four wickets in a low-scoring match with ten men after Sam Loxton succumbed to injury. In a later match against Hampshire, Australia ceded a first innings lead for the first time on tour, but recovered to win by eight wickets.
Hassett ended the first-class matches with 1,563 runs at a batting average of 74.22 including seven centuries. Among the Australians, he had the third highest aggregate behind Bradman and Arthur Morris and the second highest average. His highest score was an unbeaten 200 against the Gentlemen of England. Hassett was less successful in the Tests, scoring 310 runs at 44.28 with one century. This placed him fourth in the Australian aggregates, but only seventh in the averages. His biggest contribution was his 137 in the first innings of the First Test at Trent Bridge. It was a patient innings as England attempted to stop Australia's scoring with defensive leg theory; Hassett helped the tourists set up a first innings lead of 344, which laid the foundation for the eventual victory. He had three scores between 35 and 50 during the Tests, but was unable to convert his starts into large innings. Hassett took 23 catches on the tour, the most by an Australia excluding wicket-keepers.
Hassett was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1949. Wisden remarked that "in addition to his playing ability Hassett's cheerfulness and leadership, which extended to off-the-field relaxation as well as in the more exacting part of the programme, combined to make him an ideal vice-captain able to lift a considerable load off Bradman's busy shoulders".
## Background
The 1948 tour was Hassett's second Test campaign in England. A diminutive right-handed batsman, he toured England under Bradman in 1938, making his Test debut during the series and playing in all four matches. Following the interruption of World War II, Hassett led the Australian Services—a military team—in the Victory Tests. He became a regular member of the Test team and was the vice-captain under Bradman for the series against England and India in Australia during 1946–47 and 1947–48 respectively. In the latter Test series, he averaged 110.66 with the bat, and he was duly selected for the tour of England, continuing in his role as Bradman's deputy.
## Early tour
Australia traditionally fielded its first-choice team in the tour opener, which was customarily against Worcestershire. Hassett thus played as vice-captain of Bradman's first-choice team and took a catch as Australia dismissed the hosts for 233. However, when Australia batted, Bradman rearranged the order and Hassett came in at No. 7 with Australia's score at 5/320 after losing 4/55 in a middle-order collapse. Hassett made 25 in 66 minutes with three fours as Australia declared at 8/462; the hosts were bowled out for 212 to complete an Australian victory by an innings and 17 runs. Hassett was rested for next match against Leicestershire, which resulted in another innings win for the tourists.
The Australians then proceeded to play Yorkshire at Bradford, on a damp pitch that suited slower bowling; rain delayed the start of the match until midway through the first afternoon. Bradman rested himself and returned to London while Hassett led the team. Yorkshire elected to bat and were bowled out in difficult batting conditions for 71, despite Australia losing all rounder Sam Loxton with a hamstring injury. Australia replied with 101 without Loxton, who was unable to bat. Hassett came in at 1/24 and was immediately out for a duck. Australia then bowled out the hosts in the second innings for 89. Chasing 60 for victory, Hassett elected to not ask for the pitch to be rolled. Former Australian Test batsman Jack Fingleton said Hassett "might have made an initial mistake in not having the pitch rolled because whenever there was rain about in England the heavy roller seemed to knock any nonsense [erratic bounce and sideways movement] out of the pitch". Australia lost quick wickets and Hassett came in with the score at 2/5. Keith Miller was then out at 3/13 after attempting to hit a six, while Hassett was nervous after his first innings duck. Ron Hamence joined Hassett and they took the score to 20 before the former was run out attempting a quick single. Without further addition to the score, Hassett attempted a pull shot and top edged it so high that five players had the time to converge and any of these could have caught the ball. The catch was eventually taken directly in front of Hassett, leaving Australia at 5/20. To make matters worse, Loxton was still too injured to bat, so Australia effectively had only four wickets in hand and faced its first loss to an English county since 1912. Neil Harvey had scored a solitary run when he was dropped at short leg. Colin McCool fell at 6/31, and Harvey and new partner Don Tallon were both given lives before the tourists scraped home by four wickets. It was the closest Australia came to defeat for the whole tour, and Hassett was very relieved, playing his head in his hands and muttering "Why me? Why is it always me?" in a reference to his encountering rain-affected wickets as captain.
Bradman returned to lead the Australians in the next match against Surrey at The Oval in London; Australia won the toss and batted first. Sid Barnes and Arthur Morris put on 136, before Bradman and Barnes put on another 207 before the opener fell for 176. Hassett came in and Bradman was dismissed for 146 at 3/403. Hassett struck form and reached his first century for the English summer, posting 110 before being clean bowled by Test seamer Alec Bedser as Australia were bowled out for 632. Bedser pitched an outswinger on leg stump and it moved away to clip Hassett's off stump. Bradman's men then bowled Surrey out for 141 and 195 to win by an innings.
Bradman rested himself for the next match against Cambridge University, and Hassett led the tourists to another innings victory after the hosts won the toss and elected to bat. After Cambridge had made 167, Hassett scored an unbeaten 61 in a partnership of 140 with Bill Brown before declaring at 4/414 when Brown fell for 200. Hassett's bowlers then dismissed the hosts for 196 in the second innings, sealing victory by an innings and 51 runs. In the following match against Essex, Bradman returned and Hassett was rested as Australia won the toss and batted first, scoring a world-record of 721 first-class runs in one day. The visitors then proceeded to victory by an innings and 451 runs, their biggest winning margin for the summer. Bradman then rested himself for the next game against Oxford University, where Hassett oversaw another innings victory. Hassett made a duck, caught from a rearing ball from paceman Philip Whitcombe, as Australia made 431 and then enforced the follow on.
The next match was against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord's. The MCC fielded seven players who would represent England in the Tests, and were basically a full-strength Test team, while Australia selected their first-choice team. Bradman captained the team and batted at No. 3 with Hassett in his customary position at No. 4. Barring one change in the bowling department, the same team would line up for Australia in the First Test, with the top six batsmen in the same position. It was a chance for players from both sides to gain a psychological advantage before the Tests. Australia elected to bat and Hassett came in to join Bradman at 2/171. The pair took the score to 200 before Bradman fell for 98 to leave Australia at 3/200. Hassett then put on 80 with Miller before being trapped leg before wicket (lbw) for 51 by Jack Young. Fingleton hailed Hassett's display as "the prettiest half century we saw in the whole summer. There was not effort in his play. The ball sped quietly and quickly in all directions." Bradman's men went on to amass 552 and bowled out the hosts for 189 and 205 to win by an innings, with Hassett catching Len Hutton and Ken Cranston in the first innings.
The MCC match was followed by Australia's first non-victory of the tour, which was against Lancashire. Hassett was rested as the first day was washed out and the match ended in a draw. In the following match against Nottinghamshire, the hosts batted first and made 179. Hassett made 44 and featured in a partnership of 81 with Keith Miller as the tourists reached 400. However, Nottinghamshire ended at 8/299 to hang on for a draw in the second innings. Bradman rested himself for the following match against Hampshire, and Hassett oversaw another scare. On a drying pitch, Australia were dismissed for 117 in reply to the home side's 195, the first time they had conceded a first innings lead on tour. Australia had made a solid start, reaching 2/70 before Hassett fell for 26, sparking a collapse of 8/47 to be all out for 117. This prompted Bradman to telegram Hassett: "Bradford was bad enough but this is unbearable, heads up and chins down." Hampshire were then bowled out for 103, leaving Australia a target of 182, which they reached to seal an eight-wicket win, with Hassett unbeaten on 27. The final match before the First Test was against Sussex. Hassett was rested as Australia skittled the hosts for 86 and declared at 5/549, before completing another innings victory.
## First Test
Australia headed into the First Test at Trent Bridge with ten wins and two draws from twelve tour matches, including eight innings victories. England captain Norman Yardley won the toss and elected to bat. Pundits predicted that the pitch would be ideal for batting after offering some assistance to fast bowlers in the first hour. The surface had greened up following overnight rain. Australia's fast bowlers reduced England to 8/74 before finishing them off for 165 late on the first day. The tourists had already taken the lead by the time Hassett came in to join Bradman at 4/185 on the second afternoon. The hard-hitting Miller had come in at No. 4, the more Hassett's usual position, indicating that Bradman may have been looking to attack, but the change in batting order failed as Miller was out for a duck.
Australia had been scoring slowly, as they would throughout the day, and following Hassett's entrance, the Australians slowed further as Bradman changed the team strategy to one of attempting to bat only once. Hassett almost holed out early when he knocked a ball from Alec Bedser up in the air and it just evaded the grasp of wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans. Yardley continued to employ leg theory, as he and Charlie Barnett bowled outside leg stump; this tactic stifled the Australian scoring but also limited wicket-taking opportunities. During one over, Bradman did not attempt to hit a single ball and put his hands on his hips to express his displeasure at England's tactics. During the 15 minutes before tea, the Australian skipper did not add a single run and was heckled by the crowd. In the last session, Bradman brought up one of his slowest ever centuries, as Yardley focused on stopping runs rather than taking Australian wickets. Bradman reached stumps on 130. Hassett also batted patiently, with one period of 20 minutes during which his score remained on 30. Australia closed the second day at 4/293 to lead by 128, with Hassett on 41, having combined for an unbroken stand of 108 with Bradman.
Early on the third day, Bradman fell for 138 with the score at 5/305. Yardley again pinned Hassett down with more leg theory. Laker bowled with one slip, while Young had none and employed a pure ring field. The scoring was slow during this passage of play—Young delivered 11 consecutive maiden overs and his 26-over spell conceded only 14 runs. In the face of the slow proceedings, Hassett conducted himself in a humorous way, and English commentator John Arlott said that "only his grace and concealed humour made his innings tolerable". He mainly scored from deflections and was for the most part prepared to take his time. The injured Ray Lindwall came out to join Hassett at 7/365 without a runner. Hassett—who had scored only 30 runs in the first 75 minutes of the morning—swept Laker for four and then hit him for the first six of the match. Hassett added 53 in the two hours of the morning session to reach lunch at 94. Australia were unhurried and remained patient in the face of Yardley's defensive tactics because they had bowled England out on the first day and there was still sufficient time to force a result. After the break, Hassett reached his first Test century on English soil. from 305 minutes. He then accelerated, adding a further 37 runs in 49 minutes, before being bowled by Bedser, having struck 20 fours and a six. This ended an eighth-wicket partnership of 107 with Lindwall with the score at 8/473; Australia ended at 509 to take a 344-run first innings lead.
During England's second innings, Joe Hardstaff, Jr. fell for 43, lofting Ernie Toshack to Hassett on the leg side to end a partnership of 93 with Denis Compton. The ball looped up in the air and travelled half-way to the square leg boundary, but Hassett managed to keep track of its trajectory through the fog. Australia eventually finished off the hosts for 441, leaving them a target of 98 on the final afternoon. Australia proceeded steadily to 38 from 32 minutes before Morris fell. Bradman came in and was out for a duck. This left Australia at 2/48, at which point dark clouds began to close in on the ground, and it appeared that rain might save England. However, it never came, and meanwhile Hassett joined Barnes. The pair attacked, Hassett twice driving Bedser over the infield for boundaries, and later pulling another ball in the air for another four. The tourists reached the target without further loss after 87 minutes of batting. Barnes tied the scores with a swept boundary, but ran off the field with a souvenir stump, believing that the match was over. He returned to the field when he noticed the crowd reaction; Hassett hit the winning run to end with an unbeaten 21.
Between Tests, Bradman rested himself for the match against Northamptonshire, which started the day after the Test. Hassett won the toss and elected to bowl; his bowlers ensured that the decision paid off by bowling out the hosts for 119. When Australia batted, Hassett came in at 1/17 and added 122 runs for the second wicket with Morris before combining for another 104 with Ron Hamence. Hassett was eventually out for the top score of 127, having played with flair and freedom he eschewed in the Tests, before Australia declared at 8/352. The bowlers then removed Northamptonshire for 169, giving Australia a victory by an innings and 64 runs. Hassett also took five catches for the match. He was rested for the second match against Yorkshire, which was drawn.
## Second Test
Australia opted to field an unchanged lineup for the Second Test at Lord's. Bradman elected to bat, allowing Lindwall more time to recover from a groin strain before being required to bowl. Hassett came in to join Morris at 2/87 when Bradman fell soon after lunch on the first day. The new ball was available, but England had declined to take it. Bedser beat Hassett second ball with a delivery that moved back in, but the appeal for lbw was turned down. However, Yardley opted to not take the ball, and Hassett managed to score a single and get off strike before the English captain finally called for a replacement ball. Journalist and retired Australian cricketer Bill O'Reilly said that the failure to take the new ball immediately after the appeal was a failure to maximise the psychological pressure on Hassett.
The pair added 79 before Morris fell for 105 and Miller was out seven runs later at 4/173. By taking two quick wickets, England had put the match back in the balance. Batting out of position in the middle order, Brown came in and helped Hassett to rebuild the innings. Both scored slowly, averaging more than three and half minutes for each run. Hassett was dropped three times before Yardley, who was bowling mainly in order to allow his frontline bowlers to recuperate, broke through his defences with a yorker, dismissing him for 47 after 175 minutes of batting; the English skipper trapped Brown lbw nine runs later to leave Australia 6/225. Australia recovered to 350 on the second morning, and England were then bowled out on the third morning for 215. Australia's top-order scored quickly and Hassett came in with the score at 2/296 after 277 minutes of batting. Yardley bowled Hassett first ball off the inside edge, so Miller came to the crease at 3/296 to face the hat-trick ball. Miller survived a loud lbw appeal to deny the English captain a hat-trick. Australia then declared at 7/460 on the fourth day to leave England a target of 596, which would have taken a world record run-chase for victory. Hassett caught Alec Bedser from the bowling of Bill Johnston as Australia bowled out the hosts for 186 early on the final morning to win by 409 runs.
The next match was against Surrey and started the day after the Lord's Test. Australia elected to field and dismissed the hosts for 221. Brown injured a finger while fielding and was unable to bat in Australia's first innings. Hamence filled in as an opener alongside Hassett but was out for a duck, so Bradman joined his deputy with the score at 1/6. The Australian skipper put on 231 with Hassett, who top-scored with 139. Accelerating after reaching his century, Hassett was out for 4/289 and the tourists collapsed to be all out for 389, after losing 7/100. In the second innings, Australia's makeshift openers Harvey and Sam Loxton chased down the 122 runs required for a 10-wicket win in less than hour, so Hassett was not required to bat.
Bradman rested himself for the following match against Gloucestershire before the Third Test. Hassett led the team and elected to bat as Australia reached 7/774 declared on the second day. It was the tourists' highest score for the tour and the second best by any Australian team on English soil. Hassett instructed his batsmen to attack local off spinner Tom Goddard, who was seen as a possible selection for England in the Third Test. His batsmen used their feet to charge at Goddard, who was used to batsmen playing him from static positions, and could not cope. Goddard took 0/186 from 32 overs and his chances of being selected ended. However, Hassett was unable to join the plunder, making only 21. He then enforced the follow on as the hosts were out for 279 and 132 to cede victory by an innings and 363 runs. Hassett allowed himself to bowl for the first time on tour, sending down two overs for eight runs without taking a wicket.
## Third Test
The teams reassembled at Old Trafford for the Third Test. Australia replaced Brown—who had scored 73 runs at 24.33 in three innings— with the all rounder Loxton, who had made an unbeaten 47 against Surrey and 159 not out against Gloucestershire. England made 363 after electing to bat. On the second day, Australia were in trouble when Hassett came in at 2/13. Morris and Hassett rebuilt the innings, adding 69 for the third wicket in 101 minutes before the latter was beaten in flight by Jack Young. Aiming to break Young's restrictive leg side bowling, Hassett charged down the pitch and lofted a drive for four. However, in attempting a similar lofted drive over cover, he mishit the ball, which was caught by Cyril Washbrook at wide mid-off. This left Australia at 3/82 and they eventually made 221 to avoid the follow on by eight runs.
In England's second innings, Lindwall bounced Washbrook and the England opener went for the hook shot. The ball flew in the air straight towards fine leg, where Hassett dropped the ball on the third attempt. At the time, Washbrook was on 21. The English batsman had moved to 78 when he again hooked Lindwall to long leg and was again dropped by Hassett. The Australian vice-captain responded by borrowing a helmet from a nearby policeman before humorously gesturing to indicate that he was ready for the next catch, much to the amusement of the crowd. On 80, Washbrook was dropped in the slips cordon by Johnson from the bowling of Toshack. After the day's play, Washbrook shouted Hassett a drink; England were in a strong position at 3/174, with an overall lead of 316. Luckily for Australia, the pair of missed chances from the England opener late in the day cost little. Washbrook remained unbeaten on 85 as England declared without further addition to their score midway through the last day; the entire fourth day and the final morning had been lost to rain. Hassett was not required as Australia batted for 61 overs to reach 1/92 and ensure that the match ended in a draw.
After Old Trafford, Hassett was rested as Australia defeated Middlesex by ten wickets in their only county match between Tests.
## Fourth Test
The teams then headed to Headingley for the Fourth Test. Australia made two changes. Neil Harvey replaced the injured Barnes, while Ron Saggers replaced Don Tallon—who had a finger injury—behind the stumps. The reserve opener Brown was not recalled to open in the absence of Barnes; instead, Hassett would improvise and open with Morris, while the teenaged Harvey came into the middle-order. As Australia led 2–0 after three Tests, England needed to win the last two matches to square the series. The home team won the toss and elected to bat on a batsman-friendly pitch. Hassett dropped Len Hutton—who went on to score 81—on 25. England's first-wicket partnership was broken at 168 and was their first opening stand beyond 42 for the series. The hosts were eventually out for 496 on the second day. Hassett caught England wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans, who meekly prodded a ball from Sam Loxton straight to silly mid-on.
With Barnes injured, Hassett moved from the middle-order to open the innings with Morris. Bedser removed Morris for six to leave Australia at 1/13, bringing Bradman to the crease. Hassett batted in a restrained manner, while Bradman attacked. The Australian captain was 31 and his deputy 13 as the tourists reached stumps at 1/63. Bradman did the majority of the scoring during the closing stages of the afternoon, adding 31 in a partnership of 50. On the third morning, play resumed in hot and humid conditions. In the second over delivered by Dick Pollard, the bowler made the second ball lift unexpectedly. Hassett was unable to get out of the way and edged the ball to Jack Crapp for 13. Bradman was out in the same over and Australia were in trouble at 3/68, but they recovered after a middle-order counterattack took them to 458 early on the fourth day. Hassett then caught Bedser during England's second innings.
England declared at 8/365 after two overs on the last day. Batting into the final day allowed Yardley to ask the groundsman to use a heavy roller, which would help to break up the wicket and make it more likely to spin. Bradman elected to not have the pitch rolled at all, demonstrating his belief that such a device would only make batting more difficult.
Yardley's declaration left Australia to chase 404 runs for victory. At the time, this would have been the highest ever fourth innings score to result in a Test victory for the batting team. Australia had only 345 minutes to reach the target; the local press wrote them off and predicted that they would be dismissed by lunchtime on a deteriorating wicket that was expected to favour the spin bowlers. Morris and Hassett started slowly, scoring only six runs in the first six overs on a surface that offered spin and bounce. It appeared that they were playing carefully at first before deciding whether to try and achieve the target at a later point. Only 44 runs came in the first hour, meaning that 360 runs were still needed in 285 minutes. Evans then missed a leg-side stumping opportunity against Hassett as Bedser beat both openers with extra bounce. Hassett was dismissed by Compton's left-arm unorthodox spin for 17 with the score at 57. The Englishman's delivery had caught Hassett's leading edge and he dived forward in his follow through to take a one-handed catch just above the ground. Bradman joined Morris with 347 runs needed in 257 minutes. The English spinners created a number of chances against both batsmen, but multiple catches and stumping opportunities were fumbled. Aside from the missed wicket-taking opportunities, the spinners were erratic in line and length and Bradman and Morris plundered many boundaries. Australia went on to complete the world record chase with seven wickets and 15 minutes in hand, ensuring an unassailable 3–0 series lead.
Hassett was rested as Australia amassed 456 and defeated Derbyshire by an innings immediately after the Fourth Test. He then led the team in place of the resting Bradman in the next match against Glamorgan, a rain-affected draw that did not reach the second innings. The hosts fell for 197 and Hassett was unbeaten on 71 as Australia reached 3/215—having featured in a partnership of 126 with Miller—when the weather ended the match.
In response to the home side's 138, Hassett top-scored with 68 in Australia's first innings of 254 before being trapped leg before wicket by Eric Hollies as the tourists defeated Warwickshire by nine wickets. Hollies's 8/107 was the best innings bowling figures against the Australians for the summer. The feat earned him selection for the Fifth Test, where he dismissed Bradman in his final Test innings for a duck.
Hassett was then rested as Australia faced and drew with Lancashire for the second time on the tour. Bradman then rested himself and Hassett captained in the non-first-class match against Durham, a rain-affected draw that did not reach the second innings. Hassett made three while batting at No. 8 as Australia made 282 and then had the hosts at 5/73 when rain washed out the match after the first day.
## Fifth Test
Australia then headed to The Oval for the Fifth Test. Barnes returned from injury, so Hassett returned to his customary position in the middle order. England elected to bat on a rain-affected pitch. Propelled by Lindwall's 6/20, the tourists skittled Yardley's men for 52 in 42.1 overs on the first afternoon. With the score at 1/10, Bill Edrich attempted to hook a short ball from Bill Johnston. Edrich failed to get the ball in the middle of the bat and it looped up and travelled around 10 m. Hassett caught the ball just behind square leg, diving sideways to get two hands to the ball. Soon after, Lindwall bounced Compton, resulting in an edge that appeared to be heading towards the slips cordon. However, the ball cleared the ring of Australian fielders. Hutton called Compton through for a run, but his surprised partner was too busy watching the ball and dropped his bat in panic. Luckily for Compton, the ball went to Hassett at third man, who waited for Compton to regain his bat and composure before returning the ball, thereby forfeiting the opportunity to effect the run out. However, Compton made only four before being dismissed, so Australia lost little from Hassett's sportsmanship.
In contrast, Australia batted with apparent ease, as the overcast skies cleared and sun came out late on the first afternoon. The opening partnership had reached 117 before Hollies removed Barnes for 61. This brought Bradman to the crease shortly before 18:00. As Bradman had announced that the tour would be his last at international level, the innings would be his last at Test level if Australia batted only once. With 6,996 Test career runs, he needed only four runs to average 100.00 in Test cricket. On the second ball, Hollies bowled Bradman for a duck with a googly that went between bat and pad as the Australian skipper leaned forward. Bradman appeared stunned and slowly turned around and walked back to the pavilion, receiving another large round of applause.
Hassett came in with the score at 2/117 and together with Morris saw Australia to the close at 2/153. Morris was unbeaten on 77 and Hassett 10. The next day, the pair took the score to 226 before their 109-run stand was broken when Young trapped Hassett lbw for 37 after 134 minutes of batting. As the Australians had dismissed their hosts cheaply on the first day and were already well in the lead, they had plenty of time to complete a victory, so Hassett and Morris had no need to take undue risks and scored at a sedate pace. The following batsmen were unable to string together substantial partnerships and Australia ended at 389. When England batted again, Allan Watkins pulled Doug Ring to the leg side and straight into the hands of Hassett, who did not need to move from his position on the boundary, leaving England at 6/167. The home team were eventually out for 188 and Australia thus sealed the series 4–0 with an innings victory.
## Later tour matches
Seven matches remained on Bradman's quest to go through a tour of England without defeat. Hassett was rested as Australia defeated Kent by an innings. In the next match against the Gentlemen of England at Lord's, Hassett came to the crease at 2/221 after Brown was out for 121 and featured in a 110-run third-wicket partnership with Bradman, who then fell for 150. Miller came in and put on 157 with Hassett before being dismissed for 69 on the second day. Australia eventually declared at 5/610 when Hassett reached 200 not out against a team that featured eight Test players. Australia went on to win by an innings after enforcing the follow on. Bradman then rested himself and Hassett led Australia against Somerset. Hassett decided to bat and came to the crease when Brown was run out before Australia had scored a single run. On his 35th birthday, he made 103 and was the next batsman to fall at 2/256, after a second-wicket partnership with Barnes, who retired ill on 42, and Harvey, who went on to make 126. This ended a partnership of 187 in only 110 minutes with Harvey. Australia declared on 5/560 at the end of the first day. Hassett enforced the follow on as Australia went on to win by an innings and 374 runs, skittling the hosts for 115 and 71. Hassett made it three centuries in a row against the South of England. He came in at 2/49 to join Bradman and the pair added 188 for the third wicket before the captain fell for 143 with the total at 3/237. Hassett then put on 175 with Harvey before the latter was out for 110 at 4/412. This ended a partnership of 175 in only 110 minutes. He was eventually out for the top score of 151 while attempting a big hit, leaving the score at 6/446, having anchored the tourists' innings. Australia declared at 7/522 and bowled out the hosts for 298 when rain ended the match. Hassett bowled six wicketless overs and conceded 28 runs in South's only innings.
Australia's biggest challenge in the post-Test tour matches was against the H. D. G. Leveson-Gower's XI. During the last tour in 1938, this team was effectively a full-strength England outfit, but on this occasion Bradman insisted that only six current English Test players be allowed to participate. Bradman then fielded a full-strength team, with the only difference from the Fifth Test team being the inclusion of Ian Johnson at the expense of Doug Ring. The bowlers skittled the hosts for 177, and Hassett came in at No. 10 and made an unbeaten seven as Australia declared at 8/469. The hosts were 2/75 when the match ended in a draw after multiple rain delays. It was the tourists' last first-class match for the tour and when it became obvious that they would not lose, Bradman let Hassett bowl four overs for twelve runs without taking a wicket. The tour ended with two non-first-class matches against Scotland. Hassett missed both matches; Australia won both by an innings.
## Role
Aside from being the vice-captain, Hassett was one of three on-tour selectors along with Bradman and Morris. As matches often started the day after the previous fixture, Australia employed a rotation policy and Hassett led the tourists in nine tour matches while Bradman was rested. Under Hassett's watch, Australia won seven matches, five of these by an innings, while both draws were rain-affected fixtures in which more than half the playing time was lost. Hassett had two close encounters as captain, both on damp pitches before the First Test. Against Yorkshire, Australia scraped home by four wickets with ten men after Sam Loxton was injured in a low-scoring match. In a later game against Hampshire, Australia ceded a first innings lead for the first time on tour after a middle-order collapse, but recovered to win by eight wickets. The matches against Cambridge University, Oxford University, Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset were won by an innings. The wins over the latter two were particularly convincing; Australia amassed its largest score for the tour against Gloucestershire, making 7/774 declared before winning by an innings and 363 runs. After the Tests, Australia compiled 5/560 against Somerset and won by an innings and 374 runs in less than two days. The matches against Durham and Glamorgan were washed out, with at least half the playing time lost.
A right-handed batsman, Hassett played in all five Tests; he batted in the middle-order in all but the Fourth Test at Headingley, when he opened due to an injury to Sid Barnes. Aside from the Headingley Test, Hassett batted at No. 4 after Morris, Barnes and Bradman and in front of Keith Miller, except in the first innings of the series when he batted at No. 6 and made 137. Hassett scored 310 runs at 44.28, placing him fourth in the Australian aggregates, but only seventh in the averages. He took six catches and did not bowl during the Tests.
Hassett ended the first-class tour with 1,563 runs at 74.22 with seven first-class centuries. He had the third highest aggregate behind Bradman and Morris and the second highest average. His highest score was an unbeaten 200 against the Gentlemen of England. In his 27 first-class innings, Hassett batted at Nos. 3, 4, and 5 21 times. Aside from the three instances in which he batted outside these positions in the Tests, Hassett made 139 while opening in the second match against Surrey in place of the injured Bill Brown, and 35 and seven not out against Worcestershire and Leveson-Gower's XI, batting at No. 7 and No. 10 respectively. <sup>N-</sup> An occasional medium pacer, Hassett delivered 12 overs—none in Tests—without taking a wicket. He took 23 catches, the most by an Australian (excluding wicket-keepers).
In recognition of his performances, Hassett was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1949. Wisden opined that "in addition to his playing ability Hassett's cheerfulness and leadership, which extended to off-the-field relaxation as well as in the more exacting part of the programme, combined to make him an ideal vice-captain able to lift a considerable load off Bradman's busy shoulders".
|
2,266,087 |
Bramall Hall
| 1,163,264,527 |
Tudor manor house in Greater Manchester
|
[
"Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport",
"Country houses in Greater Manchester",
"Grade I listed buildings in Greater Manchester",
"Hall houses",
"Historic house museums in Greater Manchester",
"Tourist attractions in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport"
] |
Bramall Hall is a largely Tudor manor house in Bramhall, Greater Manchester, England. The building is timber-framed and its oldest parts date from the 14th century, with additions from the 16th and 19th centuries. The house functions as a museum and its 70 acres (28 ha) of landscaped parkland (Bramhall Park) are open to the public.
The manor of Bramall was first described in the Domesday Book in 1086, when it was held by the Massey family. From the late 14th century, it was owned by the Davenports, who built the present house and remained lords of the manor for about 500 years. In 1877, they sold the estate of nearly 2,000 acres to the Manchester Freeholders' Company, a property company formed to exploit the estate's potential for residential building development. The hall and a residual park of over 50 acres was sold on by the Freeholders to the Nevill family of successful industrialists.
In 1925, it was purchased by John Henry Davies and then, in 1935, acquired by Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council. Following a local government reorganisation in 1974, Bramall Hall is now owned by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, which describes it as "the most prestigious and historically significant building in the Bramhall Park Conservation Area."
## History
### Early history
The name "Bramall" means "nook of land where broom grows" and is derived from the Old English noun brōm meaning broom, a type of shrub common in the area, and the Old English noun halh, which has several meanings—including nook, secret place and valley—that could refer to Bramall. The manor of Bramall dates from the Anglo-Saxon period, when it was held as two separate estates owned by the Anglo-Saxon freemen Brun and Hacun. The manor was devastated during William the Conqueror's Harrying of the North. After William subdued the north-west of England, the land was divided among his followers and Bramall was given to Hamon de Massey in around 1070.
The earliest reference to Bramall was recorded in the Domesday Book as "Bramale" at which time the manor was part of the Hamestan Hundred in Cheshire. With Cheadle and Norbury, Bramall was one of three places described in the Domesday Book that today lie within the modern-day Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. While its value was 32 shillings before 1066, it was worth only 5 shillings by 1086.
In the first part of the 12th century, the manor passed from the second Baron of Dunham Massey to Matthew de Bromale. According to Dean, Matthew's father is said to have founded the de Bromale family, naming himself after the manor, and he may have been related to or a follower of the de Masseys. He may have also held the manor at some point. The de Bromales held the manor until 1370 when Alice de Bromale married John de Davenport, and so the estate came to be held by the Davenport family until the late 19th century.
### Early Davenports
The Davenports were a family of significant landowners in the north-west of England whose antecedents can be traced back to the time of the Norman conquest. Orm de Davenport lived close to what is now Marton, and his name derives from the Norman French Dauen-port meaning "the town on the trickling stream", referring to his home on the River Dane. In 1160, the family became responsible for Macclesfield Forest, and in the early 13th century Vivian Davenport became its Grand Sergeant. The family's achievement of arms has, as the crest, a felon's head with a rope around the neck, which is said to represent the family's power over life and death during this period. The Davenports acquired land throughout the area, notably at Wheltrough, Henbury, Woodford and lastly at Bramhall through marriage.
The Davenports held the manor for around 500 years, and it is likely that they built the current house after their accession. The first William Davenport was lord of the manor from 1478 to 1528, and one of the first recorded trustees of Macclesfield Grammar School. It is possible that he was heavily involved in the final battle of the Wars of the Roses at Bosworth and thereby instrumental in gaining the crown for Henry VII, who rewarded him with a pension of 20 marks per year payable for his lifetime. According to Dean, it was during this first William's tenure that Bramall may have been vandalised by a man named Randle Hassall, who destroyed all or part of nine houses and stole the timber. This gives credence to the theory that Bramall was rebuilt, replacing or partially replacing an older building.
The third William Davenport, who succeeded his father of the same name in 1541, took part in what later became known as The Rough Wooing, a series of attacks against Scotland ordered by Henry VIII. He was knighted in Scotland for his efforts at the burning of Edinburgh in May 1544. The fifth William Davenport inherited Bramall in 1585 from his father of the same name, and lived there with his wife Dorothy for over 50 years. The first marriage in Bramall's chapel was recorded in 1599, between William (aged 15), eldest son of the fifth William and Dorothy, and Frances Wilbraham (aged 11). On 22 April 1603 the fifth William Davenport was knighted by James I and VI at Newark (where the king was staying on his journey from Edinburgh to London) and later became the High Sheriff of Cheshire and a commissioner of the Hundred of Macclesfield. During the tenure of the fifth William, many alterations were made to the building, including the addition of a room above the Great Hall (which would later become the Withdrawing Room), and a long gallery. The internal decorations were also updated with additions such as wall paintings and portraits.
The sixth William succeeded his father in 1639 shortly before the English Civil War broke out. He was a Royalist, though said not to have been a particularly dedicated one. Many of his tenants became Parliamentarian soldiers, and over the next three years he had numerous visits from Parliamentarian soldiers, mostly seeking to acquire goods such as horses and weapons for the war, and using the house for quartering soldiers. Bramall was also host to Royalist soldiers, who confiscated some of the Davenport property for use in the war. William Davenport was at one point charged with delinquency, and ordered to pay a fine of £750 (equivalent to £ in 2023), and soldiers continued to use Bramall Hall because of its convenience.
### Later Davenports
The sixth William was briefly succeeded by his son Peter, who was followed by his son William. William the seventh's son was the eighth William Davenport, and an inventory of his property made shortly after his death in 1706 shows the gallery and gatehouse of Bramall were still intact. His two eldest sons each inherited the estate but both died young and heirless, so the estate passed to their younger brother Warren Davenport. Warren became part of the clergy, and during his tenure at Bramall set up a school close to the entrance of the estate. The tenth and final William Davenport succeeded his father, Warren at the age of four. Many changes were made to the house during his tenure, including the dismantling of the gatehouse side of the courtyard and the long gallery, the latter of which may have been done because of their being considered unsafe. William had no sons, so the estate passed to Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, the husband of his illegitimate daughter Maria.
Humphreys, a Naval captain, had married Maria Davenport in 1810, and lived at Bramall Hall long before he succeeded his father-in-law. He became widely respected in the Stockport area, but following his succession to the estate in 1829, there were disputes from other members of the Davenport family who claimed a right to the property. Edmund Davenport, who claimed ancestry from Thomas Davenport, the third son of Peter, unsuccessfully contested the succession in two different courts; Edmund was eventually imprisoned for failing to pay the legal fees. Humphreys was knighted in 1834 for his services, and in 1838 changed his name to Davenport, in an effort to continue the Davenport line. He moved with Maria to Cheltenham in 1841, most likely because living at Bramall had become expensive or because of health concerns. Salusbury died there four years later and was buried in Leckhampton.
Over the next decade the house was likely to have been let, as Maria Davenport preferred to live elsewhere. Her eldest son, William Davenport Davenport married firstly to Camilla Maria Gatt, then secondly to Diana Handley, whom he lived with at Bramall for four years before the estate was passed to him. Maria moved to London where she lived with her youngest son, Charles, and died in 1866. During William's tenure Bramall was regularly visited by members of the public, and the Chapel continued to be used for regular services of worship. However, following his death in 1869, the property was let to Wakefield Christy of Christys & Co Hatting, therefore ending direct involvement from the Davenport family. This occurred because William's son, John, was too young to inherit the estate. John's whereabouts during Christy's seven-year tenure is unknown, though he was shown as a visitor at Bramall in 1871, and in 1874 became the first chairman of the Bramhall School Board. In 1876, shortly before he returned to the house, he was listed as living on Ack Lane in Bramhall.
### Later history
John Davenport returned to Bramall in 1876 at the age of 25, but on 24 January 1877 it was announced that the estate was to be sold. The furniture was auctioned, while the house itself and rest of the Bramall estate (totalling 1,918 acres (7.8 km<sup>2</sup>)) was sold to the Freeholders Company Limited, a Manchester property development firm, on 3 August 1877 for £200,000 (about £ in 2023). According to speculation, the sale was motivated by financial issues and a personal distaste of the building. It remained empty until 1882 when it was purchased by Thomas Nevill, a local industrialist whose wealth came from calico printing, for his son, Charles. While living in the house, Charles Nevill commissioned substantial restoration and remodelling, making the interior more comfortable while retaining most of the building's external features, under the direction of architect George Faulkner Armitage. The landscape of the grounds was redesigned, and a new stable was built along with a west and east lodge, housing the coachman and head gardener respectively. Another building, known as Hall Cottage, was also built in the vicinity, and housed the Sidebottom family.
Thomas Nevill, Charles' nephew and adopted son, inherited the estate in 1916, but decided to sell it following financial difficulties after the First World War. In 1923, many items of furniture were auctioned off, but there was no interest in purchase of the house. During that decade rumours arose that Bramall would be dismantled and transported to the United States; this may have been popularised by the autobiography of Kate Douglas Wiggin which described the author's visit to Bramall in 1890. In 1925, the house was auctioned, with the condition that if no purchaser came forward it would be demolished and the materials sold off. At one point the neighbouring local authority, Stockport County Borough Council, offered to buy the estate, but Nevill rejected their offer as "unacceptable". The auction received no acceptable offers. However, one of those present, John Henry Davies, president of Manchester United, later offered £15,000 (about £ in 2023) for the house; this was accepted. He lived in the house until his death in 1927, and his widow Amy remained there until 1935, when she sold it to Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council for £14,360 (worth about £ in 2023) with the intention that the house and park be open to the public.
Under council ownership, the house was occupied by a caretaker, though most of the building was open to the public. The house and grounds were used for various functions, such as the proclamation of George VI succeeding his brother King Edward VIII to the throne. At that time, the house was sparsely furnished as the council was unable to afford much furniture. One of the council's earliest projects was the restoration of the chapel, which had fallen out of use towards the end of the 19th century. It was restored to resemble how it would have been when the Davenports were last at Bramall, and a service of consecration was held on 30 October 1938 once the work had been completed. In 1947, an association called the Friends of Bramall Hall was set up, primarily to find furnishings for the house, but also to advertise and assist in the upkeep of the house and grounds. Over the years, many furnishings which had once belonged to the house were returned, including portraits of the occupants. The estate is now the property of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC), which acquired it in 1974, following local government reorganisation.
### Present day
The house and grounds are open to the public and are run by SMBC. Visitors may take an official tour of the house or explore it at their own pace on a self-guided basis. The public is able to wander the grounds freely at all times. Events and club meetings are held in the house and grounds throughout the year, and local schools often visit to experience life in a particular era. The house is licensed for wedding and civil partnership ceremonies, and has been used as a background for television series and films, including Prank Patrol, Cash in the Attic, Coronation Street, The Making of a Lady and The Last Vampyre.
Currently the house is named "Bramall" while the park is named "Bramhall", though there remain some local inconsistencies. However, both have been spelt as "Bramhall", "Bramal" and other variations over the years. The Domesday Book used the spelling "Bramale", which led Charles Nevill to prefer "Bramall", a convention maintained by Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council when it acquired the property. Stockport Council consistently refer to the hall as "Bramall" and the park as "Bramhall" respectively.
## House
There has been a settlement at Bramhall since Saxon times. According to Alfred Burton, who wrote about Bramhall in the late 19th century, the house has not always been in the present location, and was originally at Crow Holt Wood. This theory was rejected by another historian, Frederick Moorhouse, who became convinced in 1909 that Crow Holt Wood was a place where animals would have been taken to be sorted. There is no conclusive evidence to support either theory. Today the house has stream valleys to its south and east sides. It is a grade I listed building, and the oldest parts date from the late 14th century, with later renovations dating from the 16th and 19th centuries. It was originally accessed from the east side – the drive followed the route of the Ladybrook stream, then uphill towards the chapel on the south side, reaching the courtyard on the other side. The main entrance is now on the side of the courtyard, in the west, because of the restructuring of the drive in 1888. The current layout of the house can clearly be seen from the west side of the building, in the courtyard: the service wing is on the left, the Great Hall is in the centre, and the Banqueting Hall is on the right. Before the 19th century, the courtyard was enclosed by a gatehouse which was taken down between 1774 and 1819, because of its being neither required nor in vogue.
The house is built with stone foundations, and the main structure is made of oak timbers, joined using mortice and tenon joints, and held in place with oak pegs. Wattle and daub or lath and plaster are used to fill the spaces between the timbers. The black and white appearance from the timber framing construction dates from the Tudor period, though some parts have been repaired in later years.
### Ground floor
The Great Hall is the central part of Bramall Hall. As with typical great halls in the Middle Ages, this would have been the room where the business of the house, estate and its villagers was conducted as well as a communal eating room for the household. It was originally an open-roofed, single-storey building, with a fireplace situated in the middle of the floor. It was probably first built around the end of the 14th century when the Davenports became lords of the manor. Towards the end of the 16th century, the Great Hall was substantially rebuilt, and the Withdrawing Room was created above it. A long gallery was also added as a third storey. The history of the gallery is uncertain; it was intact in 1790 but was taken down before 1819, because it was believed to be unsafe. A similar gallery was built at Little Moreton Hall, and it is still intact, causing the lower storeys to buckle under the weight. The Great Hall has a bay window with leaded windows, common throughout the building. William Harrison Ainsworth wrote about a right of way through the Great Hall, in his 1834 novel Rookwood. He described how a traveller could pass through the Great Hall, and be entertained and sometimes refreshed. He described Bramall as "[the] best specimen of its class ... its class, in our opinion, is the best ... to be met with in Cheshire". No evidence exists for any such right of way. According to another tale, food from the buttery hatch was given to the poor who congregated outside.
The Lesser Hall leads off the southern end of the Great Hall. Its walls are panelled with oak, and the timbers that the ceiling is constructed of are decorated with cross and rose shapes dating from the Victorian era. The Banqueting Hall, which leads off the Lesser Hall to the west, is believed by Dean to be the oldest part of the house. Its northern wall is possibly the oldest part of the house, not having been renovated like the rest of the courtyard walls. The Nevills used this room as a billiards room. The chapel, opposite the Banqueting Hall, was the only place of public worship in Bramhall until the 19th century. Its existence was first recorded in 1541, when it was referred to in the will of the second William Davenport. It fell into disrepair after its closure between 1869 and 1890, and was restored by Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council, following its purchase of the property in 1935, and religious services began to be held there again. On the north wall are unglazed windows which face the wall of the Library, showing that the south wing was once separate from the Great Hall. The Ten Commandments are written on the west wall. Underneath the Commandments, an older, pre-Reformation Passion painting, is visible. Such depictions were banned during the Reformation, and whitewashed over. It was not until the 20th century that efforts were made to restore Passion paintings, but very little of this particular painting survives.
### First floor
The Ballroom, also known as the Upper Banqueting Hall, has an arched roof and according to Dean likely dates from the 16th century. It contains rare 16th-century wall murals, including one which according to Dean may depict the nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse", and another along the east wall depicting a man playing a mandolin. Above the chapel is the Chapel Room, also known as the Queen Anne Room, the Priest's Room, and Nevill's Room. It had been two rooms, a state bedroom and ante-room, but was almost totally transformed in the late 19th century into one larger room. A blocked-up door next to the fireplace was thought to have been a priest hole, but is more likely to have been the entrance to the first floor of the house from an external staircase before the wing was restructured, probably in the late 16th century or the early 17th century.
North of the Chapel Room is the Paradise Room, whose name derives from the bed hangings which include embroidered images of Adam and Eve and their fall from paradise, as well as the use in Tudor times of the name "paradise" for a favourite room, often a bedchamber. This room has panelled walls, and a fireplace with a cupboard on the right hand side. On the other side there is a small recess, which was described in an 1882 newspaper as "a dark passage which is said to lead to some region unknown". It is possible that this was a priest's hide, adjacent to the Chapel and Chapel Room. Less romantically, it may, alternatively, have been a garderobe or privy. This room became associated with sightings of ghosts in the 19th century, and legends of a secret passage that led from the room outside or to the Chapel arose, though no such passages exist.
The largest room on the first floor is the Withdrawing Room, situated above the Great Hall. It has an elaborate plaster ceiling, and the overmantel above the fireplace bears the arms of Queen Elizabeth I. The frieze of the Withdrawing Room incorporates shields of arms representing marriages of the Davenports.
The northern wing of Bramall came to be the service wing with the kitchen, scullery, butler's pantry, dairy and store rooms on the ground floor and the servants' bedrooms in the attic.
## Grounds
The house is set in around 70 acres (28 ha) of parkland, only a part of the estate originally attached to the house, which was, at one time, about 2,000 acres (810 ha) in extent. The park was used for hunting, and the grounds were home to cattle, deer and horses, until the 17th century, when it was used as agricultural land. Two water courses run through the park: the Ladybrook, which, a little beyond the Park, becomes the Micker Brook, before flowing into the River Mersey, and a stream known as the Carr Brook. In the 1880s, Charles Nevill remodelled the grounds in the Romantic Victorian taste, altering the course of the Ladybrook, adding considerably to the trees in the park and creating artificial ponds The ponds were stocked with trout (though they are no longer fished),. In 1888, a new drive was made through the park, a few yards further to the south of the house than the previous drive, and below the East Front of the house Nevill set out terraces.
The park is open to the public and features woodland, open grass areas, gardens, a café, a bowling green, and children's play areas.
## See also
- Grade I listed buildings in Greater Manchester
- Listed buildings in Hazel Grove and Bramhall
|
9,553,850 |
Harris Theater (Chicago)
| 1,141,978,097 |
Theater in Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois, United States
|
[
"2003 establishments in Illinois",
"Dance venues in the United States",
"Millennium Park",
"Music venues in Chicago",
"Theatres completed in 2003",
"Theatres in Chicago"
] |
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance (also known as the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, the Harris & Harris Theater or, most commonly, the Harris Theater) is a 1,499-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US. The theater, which is largely underground due to Grant Park-related height restrictions, was named for its primary benefactors, Joan and Irving Harris. It serves as the park's indoor performing venue, a complement to Jay Pritzker Pavilion, which hosts the park's outdoor performances.
Constructed in 2002–2003, it provides a venue for small and medium-sized music and dance groups, which had previously been without a permanent home and were underserved by the city's performing venue options. Among the regularly featured local groups are Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Chicago Opera Theater. It provides subsidized rental, technical expertise, and marketing support for the companies using it, and turned a profit in its fourth fiscal year.
The Harris Theater has hosted notable national and international performers, such as the New York City Ballet's first visit to Chicago in over 25 years (in 2006). The theater began offering subscription series of traveling performers in its 2008–2009 fifth anniversary season. Performances through this series have included the San Francisco Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Stephen Sondheim.
The theater has been credited as contributing to the performing arts renaissance in Chicago and has been favorably reviewed for its acoustics, sightlines, proscenium and for providing a home base for numerous performing organizations. Although it is seen as a high caliber venue for its music audiences, the theater is regarded as less than ideal for jazz groups because it is more expensive and larger than most places where jazz is performed. The design has been criticized for traffic flow problems, with an elevator bottleneck. However, the theater's prominent location and its underground design to preserve Millennium Park have been praised. Although there were complaints about high priced events in its early years, discounted ticket programs were introduced in the 2009–10 season.
## Background and construction
The Harris Theater was built to fill the need for a modern performance venue in downtown Chicago, which would be a new home for previously itinerant performing arts companies. Such troupes were never sure from year to year where they would be able to perform; for example, the Chicago Tribune reported in 1993 that six dance companies lost their performance space during renovations at the Civic Opera House. The need for a new theater was identified by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in a 1990 study; the new venue had to be flexible, affordable, and technically and physically "state-of-the-art". Once the need was identified, the theater was the culmination of "years of planning by Chicago's philanthropic, arts, business and government leaders" including groups like Music of the Baroque, which now perform there regularly. The plan also extended Chicago's performing arts district, which had been predominantly west of Michigan Avenue, east towards Lake Michigan, and linked it more with the Museum Campus and Michigan Avenue cultural institutions.
The Harris Theater is in Grant Park, which lies between Lake Michigan to the east and the Loop to the west, and has been Chicago's front yard since the mid-19th century. Grant Park's 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. As of 2007, Millennium Park trails only Navy Pier as a Chicago tourist attraction.
In 1836, a year before Chicago was incorporated, the Board of Canal Commissioners held public auctions for the city's first lots. Foresighted citizens, who wanted the lakefront kept as public open space, convinced the commissioners to designate the land east of Michigan Avenue between Randolph Street and Park Row (11th Street) "Public Ground—A Common to Remain Forever Open, Clear and Free of Any Buildings, or Other Obstruction, whatever." Grant Park has been "forever open, clear and free" since, protected by legislation that has been affirmed by four previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings. 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. In 1890, arguing that Michigan Avenue property owners held easements on the park land, Ward commenced legal actions to keep the park free of new buildings. In 1900, the Illinois Supreme Court concluded that all landfill east of Michigan Avenue was subject to dedications and easements. In 1909, when he sought to prevent the construction of the Field Museum of Natural History in the center of the park, the courts affirmed his arguments. As a result, the city has what are termed the Montgomery Ward height restrictions on buildings and structures in Grant Park; structures over 40 feet (12 m) tall are not allowed in the park, with the exception of bandshells. Therefore, the theater is mostly underground, while the adjacent Jay Pritzker Pavilion was described as a work of art to dodge the height restriction.
The theater is named for its primary benefactors, Joan and Irving Harris, who gave a gift of \$15 million gift (\$ million in dollars) and a \$24 million (\$ million) construction loan to the Music and Dance Theater Chicago; this was believed to be largest single monetary commitment ever to a performing arts organization in Chicago. The Harrises had a long history of philanthropy benefitting the arts.
The Harris Theater was designed by Driehaus Prize winner Thomas Beeby of Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge Architects; his previous work in Chicago includes the Harold Washington Library Center and the Art Institute of Chicago Building's Rice Wing. Thornton Tomasetti was the structural engineer. The building is located on ground leased from the City of Chicago, and cost \$52.7 million (\$ million in dollars). Construction began on February 1, 2002, and the theater opened for use on November 8, 2003.
## Architecture
The above-ground entrance to the Harris Theater is a glass-walled lobby at 205 E. Randolph Street, which spans several metallic and neon floors in what the Chicago Tribune'''s Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Blair Kamin describes as "a multistory shaft of space that explodes downward from street level". The theater and adjacent Millennium Park Garage are located mostly underground, with a passage connecting them. Kamin also notes that the theater's underground design and the Millennium Park Garage entrance causes many theater goers to miss the spatial grandeur of the lobby, and has led to complaints about the time it takes to descend the many stairs to the theater. The theater has a rooftop terrace that is available for private events.
The Harris Theater is located beneath and directly north of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park's outdoor performance venue. The theater and pavilion were built adjacent to each other at about the same time, with the benefit that they share a loading dock, rehearsal rooms and other backstage facilities. The entire auditorium is in a cube 100 feet (30.5 m) on a side, so all the seats are relatively close to the stage. The seating capacity is 1,499, with approximately 600 main floor seats, 500 raised orchestra level seats and 400 balcony seats. The modern orchestra pit, which can be closed, accommodates 45 musicians. The seats are maplewood; carpeting and walls have a muted color scheme—blacks, charcoals and grays. Kamin felt the modest palette is appropriate for a modest structure that attempts to complement the exuberant neighboring pavilion.
The proscenium is 30 feet (9.1 m) high and is flanked by 75-foot (22.9 m) steel reflector towers to help focus sound. The stage is both 45 feet (13.7 m) wide and deep, with 75 feet (22.9 m) of flyspace above. The offstage right distance is 26 feet (7.9 m), while offstage left is 27 feet 10 inches (8.5 m). The theater's sightlines and acoustics provide "an unusually modern and stainless-steel bolstered environment" for experiencing performances according to the Centerstage City Guide.
The original design planned for most theater patrons to enter the theater from the underground parking garage, but the success of Millennium Park and neighboring businesses has caused most attendees to enter at street level. The design's limited elevator service has caused bottlenecks for street level patrons. Additional elevators and escalators, which would require special dedicated funding, have been considered. The initial construction leaked and did not protect some non-public spaces from water exposure; this cost Chicago taxpayers \$1 million for repairs in 2008.
## Performers and events
The Harris Theater is a privately owned institution serving mostly local mid-size non-profit arts companies and projects, including those, like Old Town School of Folk Music, which sponsor touring artists. The theater provides subsidized rental, technical expertise, and marketing support, and underwrites over two-thirds of the daily usage costs for its non-profit users while providing marketing, box office, front of house, and technical services at no extra charge. As of 2008, the theater was used on average 262 days a year for 112 different performances with audiences at about 65 percent of capacity.
### Local performers
When the Harris Theater opened, it served as the home venue for a dozen founding music and dance groups: Chicago Ballet, Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago Sinfonietta, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, Music of the Baroque, Old Town School of Folk Music, and Performing Arts Chicago. After the 2003 opening, small dance companies aspired to perform in the state-of-the-art theater; one such troupe, Luna Negra Dance Theater, achieved its goal and performed there in 2006 and 2007.
In 2010, Frommer's noted that the major local dance troupes performing regularly at the theater included Columbia College Chicago, Hubbard Street, Joffrey, Muntu, and River North Dance Company. The 2009 edition of Fodor's cited Music of the Baroque's seven performances at the Harris Theater each year. The theater also hosts Grant Park Music Festival events that include a few free seats. According to the 2005 Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Chicago, by providing a regular performing venue, the Harris Theater has also "raised the profile of local dance groups" in Chicago.
The attempt to facilitate modest-sized performance groups has been recognized by philanthropists; both the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the New York-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have provided grants to the theater. For example, in 2009 the MacArthur Foundation gave the theater \$150,000 over three years "in support of a subsidized usage program for smaller arts organizations".
As of 2021, the Harris Theater Resident Companies comprises 25 organizations from the Apollo Chorus of Chicago to Roosevelt University's CCPA Symphony Orchestra.
### Visiting performers
In the fall of the 2006–07 season, the Harris Theater hosted the New York City Ballet for five days of performances that marked the company's first visit to Chicago in over 25 years. This presentation grossed \$2.3 million and enticed 600 new donors to support the theater, which netted \$800,000 for operations and rental subsidies for its resident troupes. This contributed to the theater's first year of profitability in fiscal year 2007; it had net income of \$1.3 million on revenues of \$8.2 million. In July 2007, Mikhail Baryshnikov made his first visit to Chicago as a performer in seven years, with two shows at the theater.
The theater began to present its own music series of touring groups in its fifth season (2008–09), which put it in competition with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's "Symphony Center Presents" series and Chicago's Auditorium Theatre. The "Harris Theater Presents" series was in addition to programs by its numerous resident performing arts groups. The theater's music series for the 2008–09 season included a five-concert classical music series and a three-performance dance series by the San Francisco Ballet and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. The San Francisco Ballet is America's oldest professional ballet troupe, and was on a widely publicized four-city 75th anniversary celebration tour. Many of the performers for the Harris Theater's first subscription series were internationally acclaimed artists.
The lineup for the Harris Theater's 2009–10 second subscription season included Mikhail Baryshnikov, Lang Lang, Kathleen Battle and Stephen Sondheim. Harris theater has been involved in hosting the Chicago International Film Festival. Prior to 2008, the Chicago Theatre had hosted the annual opening-night film of the festival, but that year the festivities were moved to the Harris Theater.
The theater has hosted several successful jazz performances, including Nicholas Payton's comeback and the first indoor Chicago show by the Portuguese fado singer Mariza. In 2005, the theater hosted the 14th annual Jazz Dance World Congress, and the following year it hosted "Imagine Tap!", a show that featured an array of tap dance styles.
## Reception
The Harris Theater has been the subject of numerous reviews, which are probably best summed up by the Chicago Tribune's architecture critic Blair Kamin, who describes it as a "solid, though not unqualified, success", while giving it a two star rating (out of a possible four). Among the foibles that he notes were the off-putting industrial aesthetics, mundane concrete-framing, under-refined modest palette and blunt entrance. However, Kamin praises the spacious lobby and the theater's underground design as a concession to preserve the green lakefront.
Kamin also praises the design of the proscenium and the venue's sightlines and acoustics, which also drew praise from Tribune journalist Howard Reich and Chicago Sun-Times journalist Wynne Delacoma. Reich, who notes that the theater has a wonderful stage, describes the theater as a blessing for both audiences and arts organizations because its high-profile confers "instant prominence and credibility to musicians and presenters". Reich feels it is a less than perfect jazz music venue because of its "cavernous" size and high rental cost (\$4,750 in 2008, plus costs for stagehands). Nonetheless, Delacoma describes it as "an astonishingly beautiful place to listen to music. Its acoustics cradle sound like a velvet-lined jewel box."
Tribune journalist Chris Jones credits the theater's founding as part of Chicago's performing arts renaissance, and praises it as "the only major Chicago arts building with a long-term commitment to equal partnerships" with its performance groups. Another Tribune'' journalist, John von Rhein, describes the theater as a boon to the performing groups that it serves, and praises it for being state-of-the-art. He also notes that because of the theater's success it is able "to present an increasing number of risky, sometimes boundary-busting events the likes of which audiences will hear nowhere else in the area".
However, von Rhein notes that the theater's size poses a challenge to the performers attempting to fill its seats, and feels that it overemphasizes high-priced events. In 2009–2010, the theater introduced a pair of discounted ticket programs: a five dollar lunchtime series of 45-minute dance performances, and a discounted ten dollar ticket program was initiated for in-person, cash-only purchases in the last 90 minutes before performances.
The theater has been recognized with the 2002 American Architecture Award, and the 2005 American Institute of Architects Chicago Institutional Design Excellence Award. In 2008, Joan Harris was recognized with a National Arts Award from Americans for the Arts for her arts leadership and achievement, exemplified in part by funding the Harris Theater with her late husband.
## See also
- List of theaters for dance
|
57,358,746 |
2018 EFL League Two play-off final
| 1,170,272,647 |
UK football match that determined who moved up to "League One" of English football
|
[
"2018 English Football League play-offs",
"2018 sports events in London",
"Coventry City F.C. matches",
"EFL League Two play-off finals",
"Exeter City F.C. matches",
"May 2018 sports events in the United Kingdom"
] |
The 2018 EFL League Two play-off Final was an association football match played on 28 May 2018 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Coventry City and Exeter City. The match determined the fourth and final team to gain promotion from EFL League Two, English football's fourth tier, to EFL League One. The top three teams of the 2017–18 EFL League Two season gained automatic promotion to League One, while the teams placed from fourth to seventh in the table took part in play-off semi-finals; the winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2018–19 season in League One. Exeter finished in fourth place while Coventry ended the season in sixth position. Lincoln City and Notts County were the losing semi-finalists.
The game, which was refereed by David Webb, was played on a hot sunny day in front of a crowd of 50,196. After a goalless first half, Coventry took the lead four minutes into the second half through Jordan Willis. Five minutes later they doubled their lead with a goal from Jordan Shipley. Midway through the half, Jack Grimmer made it 3–0 to Coventry. Kyle Edwards scored a consolation goal in the closing minutes of the game, but Coventry won 3–1 to earn promotion to the 2018–19 EFL League One. It was their first promotion for 51 years since being guided by Jimmy Hill into the 1967–68 Football League First Division. Marc McNulty, the Coventry striker was named the man of the match.
Three days after the final, the Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale left the club after twelve years, having failed to agree a new contract. At the time of his departure, he was the longest serving manager in English football's top four divisions. Exeter's new manager and former player Matt Taylor led them to ninth place in the 2018–19 League Two table in their next season, two places and a single point below the play-off positions. In their following season, Coventry finished in eighth place in the 2018–19 League One table, two places and eight points outside the play-offs.
## Route to the final
Exeter City were playing their sixth consecutive season in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system, having been relegated from EFL League One in 2012. They had missed out on promotion the previous season, losing to Blackpool in the 2017 EFL League Two play-off final. For Coventry City it was their first season in the league's bottom tier since the 1958–59 season, following relegation from League One in 2017. They had, however, played in a Wembley final the previous season, winning the 2017 EFL Trophy Final. Exeter finished the regular 2017–18 season in fourth place in League Two, two places ahead of Coventry. Both therefore missed out on the three automatic places for promotion to League One and instead took part in the play-offs to determine the fourth promoted team. Exeter City finished four points behind Wycombe Wanderers (who were promoted in third place), eight behind Luton Town (who finished second) and thirteen behind league winners Accrington Stanley. Coventry City ended the season in sixth, two places and five points behind Exeter.
Coventry City's opponents in the play-off semi-finals were Notts County and the first leg was played on 12 May 2018 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. Described by the BBC's Ged Scott as an "exciting tussle, which produced an ultimately fair result", the match ended 1–1. After a goalless first half, Jonathan Forte put the visitors into the lead on 49 minutes. With three minutes of the match remaining, Matt Tootle was adjudged to have fouled Tom Bayliss and Marc McNulty scored the resulting penalty to level the tie. The second semi-final leg took place six days later at Meadow Lane in Nottingham. Coventry dominated the first half with Maxime Biamou opening the scoring with a bicycle kick on six minutes. McNulty then doubled the visitors' lead eight minutes before the break, before Jorge Grant pulled one back for Notts County a minute before half time. Biamou scored his second and Coventry's third mid-way through the second half, and a deflected shot from Bayliss made it 4–1 to Coventry. This meant they progressed to the play-off final, winning 5–2 on aggregate.
Exeter City faced Lincoln City in their play-off semi-final, with the first leg taking place on 12 May 2018 at Sincil Bank in Lincoln. The home team saw two claims for penalties denied and both sides spurned opportunities to score as the game finished goalless. The second leg of the semi-final was played five days later at St James Park in Exeter. Jayden Stockley put the home team ahead mid-way through the first half and Lincoln's Elliott Whitehouse had a goal disallowed five minutes before half time. Hiram Boateng made it 2–0 to Exeter after curling a shot in off the post following a run from inside his own half. Ryan Harley's 25-yard (23 m) strike extended Exeter's lead, and with a consolation goal from Matt Green, the match ended 3–1 and Exeter progressed to the final.
## Match
### Background
In the matches played between the two sides during the regular season, each team won their home game, with Coventry winning 2–1 at the Ricoh Arena in September 2017 and Exeter victorious at St James Park 1–0 the following January. McNulty was the highest scorer for Coventry with 23 league goals during the season while Stockley was Exeter's top marksman with 19 goals during the league campaign.
Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale was confident in his team's chances of victory, reflecting on their previous season's failure at Wembley, suggesting that his players had "experience of the build-up, the logistics, the preparations and what it felt like to lose". His counterpart Mark Robins was cautious, noting that Coventry were "one step away but you don't want to tempt fate". During the build-up to the final, Tisdale was linked to a move away from Exeter, in particular to Milton Keynes Dons. He was the longest-serving manager in England's top four divisions following the retirement of Arsène Wenger, having been at Exeter for twelve years. Tisdale's contract was due for renewal in November 2018 and Richard Foster of The Guardian reported that Tisdale was "keeping his options open" in order to make a decision after the play-offs. Steve Perryman, Exeter's director of football was to retire after the final having fulfilled the role at the club for fifteen years. Coventry City sold around 37,000 tickets for the match, substantially outnumbering the opposition fans.
The referee for the match was David Webb, who had officiated Coventry once during the regular season, a 2–1 home win over Cheltenham Town in December. He had also officiated Exeter City in the previous year's play-off semi-final at Carlisle United. The assistant referees were Adrian Waters and Dean Treleaven, with John Brooks named as the fourth official. Sam Lewis was the reserve assistant referee.
Robins named an unchanged side from the team that won the second leg of the play-off semi-final against Notts County. Tisdale made one change to the Exeter squad, with Craig Woodman starting and Robbie Simpson dropping into the substitutes. Coventry wore a one-off kit commissioned for the match as the club had run out of their regular season home strip. Prior to the match, Exeter fans commemorated their former player Adam Stansfield with a giant number nine shirt. Stansfield had died in 2010 at the age of 31 from cancer and the club retired his shirt for the following nine years. After the players were introduced to a group of dignitaries, the national anthem was sung by Faryl Smith.
### First half
Coventry City kicked the match off at around 3:00 p.m. on 28 May 2018 in hot and sunny conditions, with a pitchside temperature of 30 °C (86 °F), in front of a Wembley Stadium crowd of 50,196. McNulty won an early corner for Coventry but Exeter cleared the ball. In the sixth minute, McNulty attempted a volley from outside the Exeter penalty area, but his shot went over the crossbar. Nine minutes later, Coventry had another chance but Jordan Storey's tackle on McNulty neutralised the threat. On 18 minutes Christy Pym saved a low 25-yard (23 m) shot from McNulty before a Shipley strike was deflected out for a corner. In the 23rd minute, a cross from Jack Grimmer was mishit by Bayliss, going out for an Exeter goal kick. Two minutes later, Coventry were temporarily reduced to ten men when Chris Stokes was forced to leave the pitch for medical attention after he was accidentally struck in the face by Stockley. Exeter won a corner on 29 minutes but Stockley's header was gathered by the Coventry goalkeeper Lee Burge. On 31 minutes, Harley's strike was also caught by Burge, before Shipley's long-distance shot was saved by Pym. After three minutes of additional time, the half was brought to a goalless end.
### Second half
No changes were made to either team during half time and Exeter kicked off the second half. Two minutes in, a pass from Bayliss found McNulty whose shot from close range was saved by Pym. A minute later, the deadlock was broken as Coventry took a 1–0 lead through Jordan Willis who turned and shot from outside the box, his strike curling past Pym. Three minutes later, Coventry made their first substitution of the afternoon with Biamou being replaced by Jonson Clarke-Harris. On 53 minutes, they doubled their lead as a deflected shot from Shipley beat Pym in the Exeter goal. Two consecutive corners for Exeter came to nothing while a 40-yard (37 m) strike from Shipley went wide. In the 62nd minute, Exeter made a double substitution, with Woodman and Dean Moxey being replaced by Lloyd James and Matt Jay. On 68 minutes, Grimmer made it 3–0 to Coventry with a curling shot from the edge of the area. Six minutes later, both sides made further substitutions, Shipley replaced by Kyel Reid for Coventry and Kyle Edwards coming on for Boateng for Exeter. In the 75th minute, Exeter went close with Harley's dipping shot saved by Burge. With twelve minutes of regulation time remaining, Pym was forced to make a save from a curling Bayliss shot before Jay's long-range strike for Exeter was gathered by Burge. In the 83rd minute, Coventry made their final change, with Jordan Ponticelli coming on for McNulty. Five minutes later Clarke-Harris' shot from distance went astray before Edwards scored a consolation goal for Exeter with another curled strike. Four minutes into additional time, Stockley's header was saved by Burge before another shot from the Exeter striker went wide of the Coventry post. The match ended 3–1 to Coventry who were promoted to League One.
### Details
### Statistics
## Post-match
Robins was proud of his team's achievements: "We've played at a level no one expected us to and the pressure that comes with that is immense. The players have been magnificent." His counterpart, Tisdale, said in his post-match press conference that "it wasn't the best performance, two very good goals against us and really disappointed" but also expressed pride in the club and its players for the season as a whole. The Coventry defender Willis said "It means everything, especially with the season we had last year ... I've not scored many and they all came last season but this one is definitely up there."
It was Coventry City's first promotion for 51 years since they were guided into the 1967–68 Football League First Division by Jimmy Hill, and the team celebrated the achievement with their fans through an open-top bus tour of Coventry on 31 May, followed by a civic reception hosted by the Lord Mayor. Two seasons later Coventry were promoted again, to the EFL Championship, being named 2019–20 EFL League One champions after the season was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 1 June 2018, following a failure to agree a new contract, Tisdale left Exeter City after twelve years at the club. At the time of his departure, he was the longest serving manager in English football's top four divisions. He was replaced by the former Exeter City player Matt Taylor, who led them to ninth place in the 2018–19 League Two table in their next season, two places and a single point below the play-off positions. They reached the League Two play-off final again in the curtailed 2019–20 season but lost once again, 4–0 against Northampton Town, their third defeat in the event in four seasons. In their following campaign, Coventry finished in eighth place in the 2018–19 League One season, two places and eight points outside the play-offs.
|
1,021,764 |
Grasshopper
| 1,172,070,882 |
Common name for a group of insects
|
[
"Caelifera",
"Extant Triassic first appearances",
"Herbivorous insects",
"Insect common names",
"Insects in culture"
] |
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grasshoppers are typically ground-dwelling insects with powerful hind legs which allow them to escape from threats by leaping vigorously. Their front leg is shorter and used for grasping food. As hemimetabolous insects, they do not undergo complete metamorphosis; they hatch from an egg into a nymph or "hopper" which undergoes five moults, becoming more similar to the adult insect at each developmental stage. The grasshopper hears through the tympanal organ which can be found in the first segment of the abdomen attached to the thorax; while its sense of vision is in the compound eyes, the change in light intensity is perceived in the simple eyes (ocelli). At high population densities and under certain environmental conditions, some grasshopper species can change color and behavior and form swarms. Under these circumstances, they are known as locusts.
Grasshoppers are plant-eaters, with a few species at times becoming serious pests of cereals, vegetables and pasture, especially when they swarm in the millions as locusts and destroy crops over wide areas. They protect themselves from predators by camouflage; when detected, many species attempt to startle the predator with a brilliantly coloured wing flash while jumping and (if adult) launching themselves into the air, usually flying for only a short distance. Other species such as the rainbow grasshopper have warning coloration which deters predators. Grasshoppers are affected by parasites and various diseases, and many predatory creatures feed on both nymphs and adults. The eggs are subject to attack by parasitoids and predators. Grasshoppers are diurnal insects—meaning, they are most active during the day time.
Grasshoppers have had a long relationship with humans. Swarms of locusts can have devastating effects and cause famine, having done so since Biblical times. Even in smaller numbers, the insects can be serious pests. They are used as food in countries such as Mexico and Indonesia. They feature in art, symbolism and literature. The study of grasshopper species is called acridology.
## Phylogeny
Grasshoppers belong to the suborder Caelifera. Although "grasshopper" has been used as a common name for the suborder in general, modern sources restrict it to the more "evolved" families. They may be placed in the infraorder Acrididea and have been referred to as "short-horned grasshoppers" in older texts to distinguish them from the also-obsolete term "long-horned grasshoppers" (now bush-crickets or katydids) with their much longer antennae. The phylogeny of the Caelifera, based on mitochondrial ribosomal RNA of thirty-two taxa in six out of seven superfamilies, is shown as a cladogram. The Ensifera (crickets, etc.), Caelifera and all the superfamilies of grasshoppers except Pamphagoidea appear to be monophyletic.
In evolutionary terms, the split between the Caelifera and the Ensifera is no more recent than the Permo-Triassic boundary; the earliest insects that are certainly Caeliferans are in the extinct families Locustopseidae and Locustavidae from the early Triassic, roughly 250 million years ago. The group diversified during the Triassic and have remained important plant-eaters from that time to now. The first modern families such as the Eumastacidae, Tetrigidae and Tridactylidae appeared in the Cretaceous, though some insects that might belong to the last two of these groups are found in the early Jurassic. Morphological classification is difficult because many taxa have converged towards a common habitat type; recent taxonomists have concentrated on the internal genitalia, especially those of the male. This information is not available from fossil specimens, and the palaeontological taxonomy is founded principally on the venation of the hindwings.
The Caelifera includes some 2,400 valid genera and about 11,000 known species. Many undescribed species probably exist, especially in tropical wet forests. The Caelifera have a predominantly tropical distribution with fewer species known from temperate zones, but most of the superfamilies have representatives worldwide. They are almost exclusively herbivorous and are probably the oldest living group of chewing herbivorous insects.
The most diverse superfamily is the Acridoidea, with around 8,000 species. The two main families in this are the Acrididae (grasshoppers and locusts) with a worldwide distribution, and the Romaleidae (lubber grasshoppers), found chiefly in the New World. The Ommexechidae and Tristiridae are South American, and the Lentulidae, Lithidiidae and Pamphagidae are mainly African. The Pauliniids are nocturnal and can swim or skate on water, and the Lentulids are wingless. Pneumoridae are native to Africa, particularly southern Africa, and are distinguished by the inflated abdomens of the males.
## Characteristics
Grasshoppers have the typical insect body plan of head, thorax, and abdomen. The head is held vertically at an angle to the body, with the mouth at the bottom. The head bears a large pair of compound eyes which give all-round vision, three simple eyes which can detect light and dark, and a pair of thread-like antennae that are sensitive to touch and smell. The downward-directed mouthparts are modified for chewing and there are two sensory palps in front of the jaws.
The thorax and abdomen are segmented and have a rigid cuticle made up of overlapping plates composed of chitin. The three fused thoracic segments bear three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings. The forewings, known as tegmina, are narrow and leathery while the hindwings are large and membranous, the veins providing strength. The legs are terminated by claws for gripping. The hind leg is particularly powerful; the femur is robust and has several ridges where different surfaces join and the inner ridges bear stridulatory pegs in some species. The posterior edge of the tibia bears a double row of spines and there are a pair of articulated spurs near its lower end. The interior of the thorax houses the muscles that control the wings and legs.
The abdomen has eleven segments, the first of which is fused to the thorax and contains the tympanal organ and hearing system. Segments two to eight are ring-shaped and joined by flexible membranes. Segments nine to eleven are reduced in size; segment nine bears a pair of cerci and segments ten and eleven have the reproductive organs. Female grasshoppers are normally larger than males, with short ovipositors. The name of the suborder "Caelifera" comes from the Latin and means chisel-bearing, referring to the shape of the ovipositor.
Those species that make easily heard noises usually do so by rubbing a row of pegs on the hind legs against the edges of the forewings (stridulation). These sounds are produced mainly by males to attract females, though in some species the females also stridulate.
Grasshoppers may be confused with crickets, but they differ in many aspects; these include the number of segments in their antennae and the structure of the ovipositor, as well as the location of the tympanal organ and the methods by which sound is produced. Ensiferans have antennae that can be much longer than the body and have at least 20–24 segments, while caeliferans have fewer segments in their shorter, stouter antennae.
## Biology
### Diet and digestion
Most grasshoppers are polyphagous, eating vegetation from multiple plant sources, but some are omnivorous and also eat animal tissue and animal faeces. In general their preference is for grasses, including many cereals grown as crops. The digestive system is typical of insects, with Malpighian tubules discharging into the midgut. Carbohydrates are digested mainly in the crop, while proteins are digested in the ceca of the midgut. Saliva is abundant but largely free of enzymes, helping to move food and Malpighian secretions along the gut. Some grasshoppers possess cellulase, which by softening plant cell walls makes plant cell contents accessible to other digestive enzymes. Grasshoppers can also be cannibalistic when swarming.
### Sensory organs
Grasshoppers have a typical insect nervous system, and have an extensive set of external sense organs. On the side of the head are a pair of large compound eyes which give a broad field of vision and can detect movement, shape, colour and distance. There are also three simple eyes (ocelli) on the forehead which can detect light intensity, a pair of antennae containing olfactory (smell) and touch receptors, and mouthparts containing gustatory (taste) receptors. At the front end of the abdomen there is a pair of tympanal organs for sound reception. There are numerous fine hairs (setae) covering the whole body that act as mechanoreceptors (touch and wind sensors), and these are most dense on the antennae, the palps (part of the mouth), and on the cerci at the tip of the abdomen. There are special receptors (campaniform sensillae) embedded in the cuticle of the legs that sense pressure and cuticle distortion. There are internal "chordotonal" sense organs specialized to detect position and movement about the joints of the exoskeleton. The receptors convey information to the central nervous system through sensory neurons, and most of these have their cell bodies located in the periphery near the receptor site itself.
### Circulation and respiration
Like other insects, grasshoppers have an open circulatory system and their body cavities are filled with haemolymph. A heart-like structure in the upper part of the abdomen pumps the fluid to the head from where it percolates past the tissues and organs on its way back to the abdomen. This system circulates nutrients throughout the body and carries metabolic wastes to be excreted into the gut. Other functions of the haemolymph include wound healing, heat transfer and the provision of hydrostatic pressure, but the circulatory system is not involved in gaseous exchange. Respiration is performed using tracheae, air-filled tubes, which open at the surfaces of the thorax and abdomen through pairs of valved spiracles. Larger insects may need to actively ventilate their bodies by opening some spiracles while others remain closed, using abdominal muscles to expand and contract the body and pump air through the system.
### Jumping
Grasshoppers jump by extending their large back legs and pushing against the substrate (the ground, a twig, a blade of grass or whatever else they are standing on); the reaction force propels them into the air. A large grasshopper, such as a locust, can jump about a metre (20 body lengths) without using its wings; the acceleration peaks at about 20 g.
They jump for several reasons; to escape from a predator, to launch themselves into flight, or simply to move from place to place. For the escape jump in particular there is strong selective pressure to maximize take-off velocity, since this determines the range. This means that the legs must thrust against the ground with both high force and a high velocity of movement. A fundamental property of muscle is that it cannot contract with high force and high velocity at the same time. Grasshoppers overcome this by using a catapult mechanism to amplify the mechanical power produced by their muscles.
The jump is a three-stage process. First, the grasshopper fully flexes the lower part of the leg (tibia) against the upper part (femur) by activating the flexor tibiae muscle (the back legs of the grasshopper in the top photograph are in this preparatory position). Second, there is a period of co-contraction in which force builds up in the large, pennate extensor tibiae muscle, but the tibia is kept flexed by the simultaneous contraction of the flexor tibiae muscle. The extensor muscle is much stronger than the flexor muscle, but the latter is aided by specialisations in the joint that give it a large effective mechanical advantage over the former when the tibia is fully flexed. Co-contraction can last for up to half a second, and during this period the extensor muscle shortens and stores elastic strain energy by distorting stiff cuticular structures in the leg. The extensor muscle contraction is quite slow (almost isometric), which allows it to develop high force (up to 14 N in the desert locust), but because it is slow only low power is needed. The third stage of the jump is the trigger relaxation of the flexor muscle, which releases the tibia from the flexed position. The subsequent rapid tibial extension is driven mainly by the relaxation of the elastic structures, rather than by further shortening of the extensor muscle. In this way the stiff cuticle acts like the elastic of a catapult, or the bow of a bow-and-arrow. Energy is put into the store at low power by slow but strong muscle contraction, and retrieved from the store at high power by rapid relaxation of the mechanical elastic structures.
### Stridulation
Male grasshoppers spend much of the day stridulating, singing more actively under optimal conditions and being more subdued when conditions are adverse; females also stridulate, but their efforts are insignificant when compared to the males. Late-stage male nymphs can sometimes be seen making stridulatory movements, although they lack the equipment to make sounds, demonstrating the importance of this behavioural trait. The songs are a means of communication; the male stridulation seems to express reproductive maturity, the desire for social cohesion and individual well-being. Social cohesion becomes necessary among grasshoppers because of their ability to jump or fly large distances, and the song can serve to limit dispersal and guide others to favourable habitat. The generalised song can vary in phraseology and intensity, and is modified in the presence of a rival male, and changes again to a courtship song when a female is nearby. In male grasshoppers of the family Pneumoridae, the enlarged abdomen amplifies stridulation.
### Life cycle
In most grasshopper species, conflicts between males over females rarely escalate beyond ritualistic displays. Some exceptions include the chameleon grasshopper (Kosciuscola tristis), where males may fight on top of ovipositing females; engaging in leg grappling, biting, kicking and mounting.
The newly emerged female grasshopper has a preoviposition period of a week or two while she increases in weight and her eggs mature. After mating, the female of most species digs a hole with her ovipositor and lays a batch of eggs in a pod in the ground near food plants, generally in the summer. After laying the eggs, she covers the hole with soil and litter. Some, like the semi-aquatic Cornops aquaticum, deposit the pod directly into plant tissue. The eggs in the pod are glued together with a froth in some species. After a few weeks of development, the eggs of most species in temperate climates go into diapause, and pass the winter in this state. Diapause is broken by a sufficiently low ground temperature, with development resuming as soon as the ground warms above a certain threshold temperature. The embryos in a pod generally all hatch out within a few minutes of each other. They soon shed their membranes and their exoskeletons harden. These first instar nymphs can then jump away from predators.
Grasshoppers undergo incomplete metamorphosis: they repeatedly moult, each instar becoming larger and more like an adult, with the wing-buds increasing in size at each stage. The number of instars varies between species but is often six. After the final moult, the wings are inflated and become fully functional. The migratory grasshopper, Melanoplus sanguinipes, spends about 25 to 30 days as a nymph, depending on sex and temperature, and lives for about 51 days as an adult.
### Swarming
Locusts are the swarming phase of certain species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae. Swarming behaviour is a response to overcrowding. Increased tactile stimulation of the hind legs causes an increase in levels of serotonin. This causes the grasshopper to change colour, feed more and breed faster. The transformation of a solitary individual into a swarming one is induced by several contacts per minute over a short period.
Following this transformation, under suitable conditions dense nomadic bands of flightless nymphs known as "hoppers" can occur, producing pheromones which attract the insects to each other. With several generations in a year, the locust population can build up from localised groups into vast accumulations of flying insects known as plagues, devouring all the vegetation they encounter. The largest recorded locust swarm was one formed by the now-extinct Rocky Mountain locust in 1875; the swarm was 1,800 miles (2,900 km) long and 110 miles (180 km) wide, and one estimate puts the number of locusts involved at 3.5 trillion. An adult desert locust can eat about 2 g (0.1 oz) of plant material each day, so the billions of insects in a large swarm can be very destructive, stripping all the foliage from plants in an affected area and consuming stems, flowers, fruits, seeds and bark.
## Predators, parasites, and pathogens
Grasshoppers have a wide range of predators at different stages of their lives; eggs are eaten by bee-flies, ground beetles and blister beetles; hoppers and adults are taken by other insects such as ants, robber flies and sphecid wasps, by spiders, and by many birds and small mammals including dogs and cats.
The eggs and nymphs are under attack by parasitoids including blow flies, flesh flies, and tachinid flies. External parasites of adults and nymphs include mites. Female grasshoppers parasitised by mites produce fewer eggs and thus have fewer offspring than unaffected individuals.
The grasshopper nematode (Mermis nigrescens) is a long slender worm that infects grasshoppers, living in the insect's hemocoel. Adult worms lay eggs on plants and the host becomes infected when the foliage is eaten. Spinochordodes tellinii and Paragordius tricuspidatus are parasitic worms that infect grasshoppers and alter the behaviour of their hosts. When the worms are sufficiently developed, the grasshopper is persuaded to leap into a nearby body of water where it drowns, thus enabling the parasite to continue with the next stage of its life cycle, which takes place in water.
Grasshoppers are affected by diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. The bacteria Serratia marcescens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa have both been implicated in causing disease in grasshoppers, as has the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana. This widespread fungus has been used to control various pest insects around the world, but although it infects grasshoppers, the infection is not usually lethal because basking in the sun has the result of raising the insect's temperature above a threshold tolerated by the fungus. The fungal pathogen Entomophaga grylli is able to influence the behaviour of its grasshopper host, causing it to climb to the top of a plant and cling to the stem as it dies. This ensures wide dispersal of the fungal spores liberated from the corpse.
The fungal pathogen Metarhizium acridum is found in Africa, Australia and Brazil where it has caused epizootics in grasshoppers. It is being investigated for possible use as a microbial insecticide for locust control. The microsporidian fungus Nosema locustae, once considered to be a protozoan, can be lethal to grasshoppers. It has to be consumed by mouth and is the basis for a bait-based commercial microbial pesticide. Various other microsporidians and protozoans are found in the gut.
### Anti-predator defences
Grasshoppers exemplify a range of anti-predator adaptations, enabling them to avoid detection, to escape if detected, and in some cases to avoid being eaten if captured. Grasshoppers are often camouflaged to avoid detection by predators that hunt by sight; some species can change their coloration to suit their surroundings.
Several species such as the hooded leaf grasshopper Phyllochoreia ramakrishnai (Eumastacoidea) are detailed mimics of leaves. Stick grasshoppers (Proscopiidae) mimic wooden sticks in form and coloration. Grasshoppers often have deimatic patterns on their wings, giving a sudden flash of bright colours that may startle predators long enough to give time to escape in a combination of jump and flight.
Some species are genuinely aposematic, having both bright warning coloration and sufficient toxicity to dissuade predators. Dictyophorus productus (Pyrgomorphidae) is a "heavy, bloated, sluggish insect" that makes no attempt to hide; it has a bright red abdomen. A Cercopithecus monkey that ate other grasshoppers refused to eat the species. Another species, the rainbow or painted grasshopper of Arizona, Dactylotum bicolor (Acridoidea), has been shown by experiment with a natural predator, the little striped whiptail lizard, to be aposematic.
## Relationship with humans
### In art and media
Grasshoppers are occasionally depicted in artworks, such as the Dutch Golden Age painter Balthasar van der Ast's still life oil painting, Flowers in a Vase with Shells and Insects, c. 1630, now in the National Gallery, London, though the insect may be a bush-cricket.
Another orthopteran is found in Rachel Ruysch's still life Flowers in a Vase, c. 1685. The seemingly static scene is animated by a "grasshopper on the table that looks about ready to spring", according to the gallery curator Betsy Wieseman, with other invertebrates including a spider, an ant, and two caterpillars.
Grasshoppers are also featured in cinema. The 1957 film Beginning of the End portrayed giant grasshoppers attacking Chicago. In the 1998 Disney/Pixar animated film A Bug's Life, the antagonists are a gang of grasshoppers, with their leader Hopper serving as the main villain.
The protagonists of the 1971 tokusatsu series Kamen Rider primarily carry a grasshopper motif (for example Kamen Rider Black's Batta Man form), which continues to serve as the baseline visual template for most entries in the media franchise it has given birth to since.
### Symbolism
Grasshoppers are sometimes used as symbols. During the Greek Archaic Era, the grasshopper was the symbol of the polis of Athens, possibly because they were among the most common insects on the dry plains of Attica. Native Athenians for a while wore golden grasshopper brooches to symbolise that they were of pure Athenian lineage with no foreign ancestors. In addition, Peisistratus hung the figure of a kind of grasshopper before the Acropolis of Athens as apotropaic magic.
Another symbolic use of the grasshopper is Sir Thomas Gresham's gilded grasshopper in Lombard Street, London, dating from 1563; the building was for a while the headquarters of the Guardian Royal Exchange, but the company declined to use the symbol for fear of confusion with the locust.
When grasshoppers appear in dreams, these have been interpreted as symbols of "Freedom, independence, spiritual enlightenment, inability to settle down or commit to decision". Locusts are taken literally to mean devastation of crops in the case of farmers; figuratively as "wicked men and women" for non-farmers; and "Extravagance, misfortune, & ephemeral happiness" by "gypsies".
### As food
In some countries, grasshoppers are used as food. In southern Mexico, grasshoppers, known as chapulines, are eaten in a variety of dishes, such as in tortillas with chilli sauce. Grasshoppers are served on skewers in some Chinese food markets, like the Donghuamen Night Market. Fried grasshoppers (walang goreng) are eaten in the Gunung Kidul Regency, Yogyakarta, Java in Indonesia. Grasshoppers are a beloved delicacy in Uganda; they are usually eaten fried (most commonly in November and May after the rains). In America, the Ohlone burned grassland to herd grasshoppers into pits where they could be collected as food.
It is recorded in the Bible that John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey (Greek: ἀκρίδες καὶ μέλι ἄγριον, akrídes kaì méli ágrion) while living in the wilderness. However, because of a tradition of depicting him as an ascetic, attempts have been made to explain that the locusts were in fact a suitably ascetic vegetarian food such as carob beans, notwithstanding the fact that the word ἀκρίδες means plainly grasshoppers.
In recent years, with the search for alternative healthy and sustainable protein sources, grasshoppers are being cultivated by commercial companies operating grasshopper farms and are being used as food and protein supplements.
### As pests
Grasshoppers eat large quantities of foliage both as adults and during their development, and can be serious pests of arid land and prairies. Pasture, grain, forage, vegetable and other crops can be affected. Grasshoppers often bask in the sun, and thrive in warm sunny conditions, so drought stimulates an increase in grasshopper populations. A single season of drought is not normally sufficient to stimulate a major population increase, but several successive dry seasons can do so, especially if the intervening winters are mild so that large numbers of nymphs survive. Although sunny weather stimulates growth, there needs to be an adequate food supply for the increasing grasshopper population. This means that although precipitation is needed to stimulate plant growth, prolonged periods of cloudy weather will slow nymphal development.
Grasshoppers can best be prevented from becoming pests by manipulating their environment. Shade provided by trees will discourage them and they may be prevented from moving onto developing crops by removing coarse vegetation from fallow land and field margins and discouraging thick growth beside ditches and on roadside verges. With increasing numbers of grasshoppers, predator numbers may increase, but this seldom happens rapidly enough to have much effect on populations. Biological control is being investigated, and spores of the protozoan parasite Nosema locustae can be used mixed with bait to control grasshoppers, being more effective with immature insects. On a small scale, neem products can be effective as a feeding deterrent and as a disruptor of nymphal development. Insecticides can be used, but adult grasshoppers are difficult to kill, and as they move into fields from surrounding rank growth, crops may soon become reinfested.
Some grasshopper species, like the Chinese rice grasshopper, are a pest in rice paddies. Ploughing exposes the eggs on the surface of the field, to be destroyed by sunshine or eaten by natural enemies. Some eggs may be buried too deeply in the soil for hatching to take place.
Locust plagues can have devastating effects on human populations, causing famines and population upheavals. They are mentioned in both the Qur’an and the Bible and have also been held responsible for cholera epidemics, resulting from the corpses of locusts drowned in the Mediterranean Sea and decomposing on beaches. The FAO and other organisations monitor locust activity around the world. Timely application of pesticides can prevent nomadic bands of hoppers from forming before dense swarms of adults can build up. Besides conventional control using contact insecticides, biological pest control using the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum, which specifically infects grasshoppers, has been used with some success.
### Detection of explosives
In February 2020, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis announced they had engineered "cyborg grasshoppers" capable of accurately detecting explosives. In the project, funded by the US Office of Naval Research, researchers fitted grasshoppers with lightweight sensor backpacks that recorded and transmitted the electrical activity of their antennal lobes to a computer. According to the researchers, the grasshoppers were able to detect the location of the highest concentration of explosives. The researchers also tested the effect of combining sensorial information from several grasshoppers on detection accuracy. The neural activity from seven grasshoppers yielded an average detection accuracy rate of 80%, whereas a single grasshopper yielded a 60% rate.
### In literature
The Egyptian word for locust or grasshopper was written snḥm in the consonantal hieroglyphic writing system. The pharaoh Ramesses II compared the armies of the Hittites to locusts: "They covered the mountains and valleys and were like locusts in their multitude."
One of Aesop's Fables, later retold by La Fontaine, is the tale of The Ant and the Grasshopper. The ant works hard all summer, while the grasshopper plays. In winter, the ant is ready but the grasshopper starves. Somerset Maugham's short story "The Ant and the Grasshopper" explores the fable's symbolism via complex framing. Other human weaknesses besides improvidence have become identified with the grasshopper's behaviour. So an unfaithful woman (hopping from man to man) is "a grasshopper" in "Poprygunya", an 1892 short story by Anton Chekhov, and in Jerry Paris's 1969 film The Grasshopper.
### In mechanical engineering
The name "Grasshopper" was given to the Aeronca L-3 and Piper L-4 light aircraft, both used for reconnaissance and other support duties in World War II. The name is said to have originated when Major General Innis P. Swift saw a Piper making a rough landing and remarked that it looked like a grasshopper for its bouncing progress.
Grasshopper beam engines were beam engines pivoted at one end, the long horizontal arm resembling the hind leg of a grasshopper. The type was patented by William Freemantle in 1803.
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274,258 |
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
| 1,173,344,327 |
1995 film by Aditya Chopra
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[
"1990s Hindi-language films",
"1990s romantic comedy-drama films",
"1990s romantic musical films",
"1995 directorial debut films",
"1995 drama films",
"1995 films",
"Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment National Film Award winners",
"Films about Indian weddings",
"Films directed by Aditya Chopra",
"Films scored by Jatin–Lalit",
"Films set in India",
"Films set in London",
"Films shot in London",
"Films shot in Switzerland",
"Hindi films remade in other languages",
"Indian romantic comedy-drama films",
"Indian romantic musical films",
"Yash Raj Films films"
] |
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (), also known by the initialism DDLJ, is a 1995 Indian Hindi-language musical romance film written and directed by Aditya Chopra in his directorial debut and produced by his father Yash Chopra. Released on 20 October 1995, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. The plot revolves around Raj and Simran, two young non-resident Indians, who fall in love during a vacation through Europe with their friends. Raj tries to win over Simran's family so the couple can marry, but Simran's father has long since promised her hand to his friend's son. The film was shot in India, London, and Switzerland, from September 1994 to August 1995.
With an estimated total gross of ₹2 billion (\$60 million) worldwide, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was the highest-grossing Indian film of 1995 and one of the most successful Indian films in history. When adjusted for inflation, it is the second highest-grossing Indian film of the 1990s, only behind Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! It won 10 Filmfare Awards—the most for a single film at that time—and the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Its soundtrack album became one of the most popular of the 1990s.
Many critics praised the film, which connected with different segments of society by simultaneously promoting strong family values and the following of one's own heart. Its success led other filmmakers to target the non-resident Indian audience, which was deemed more lucrative for them. It spawned many imitations of its story and style and homages to specific scenes. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was one of only three Hindi films in the reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and was placed twelfth on the British Film Institute's list of top Indian films of all time. In 2012, the film was included by critics Rachel Dwyer and Sanam Hasan in the 2012 British Film Institute Sight & Sound 1000 greatest films of all time. It is considered as the longest-running film in the history of Indian cinema due to the fact that it is still being shown in a cinema called Maratha Mandir theatre in Mumbai as of 2023.
## Plot
Raj Malhotra and Simran Singh are both non-resident Indians (NRI) living in London. Simran is brought up in a strict and conservative household by her parents Baldev Singh and Lajwanti while Raj is raised by his liberal father Dharamvir Malhotra. Simran always dreams of meeting her ideal man; her mother Lajjo warns her against this, saying dreams are good, but one should not blindly believe they come true. One day, Baldev receives a letter from his friend Ajit, who lives in Punjab, India. Ajit wants to keep the promise he and Baldev made to each other 20 years ago — to have Simran marry his son Kuljeet. Simran is disappointed, as she does not want to marry someone whom she has never met.
One evening, Raj enters Baldev's shop after closing time to buy beer. Baldev refuses, but Raj grabs a case of beer, throws money on the counter, and runs away. An infuriated Baldev calls Raj a disgrace to India. Meanwhile, Dharamvir agrees to his request to go on a train trip across Europe with his friends, and Simran's friends have invited her to go on the same trip. Simran asks Baldev to let her see the world before her marriage, and he reluctantly agrees.
On the trip, Raj and Simran meet. Raj constantly flirts with Simran, much to her irritation. The two miss their train to Zürich and are separated from their friends, but start to travel together and become friends. Raj falls in love with Simran on the journey, and when they part ways in London, Simran realises she is in love with him as well. At home, Simran tells her mother about the boy she met on her trip; Baldev overhears the conversation and becomes enraged with his daughter. He says the family will move to India the next day. Meanwhile, Raj tells Dharamvir about Simran and that she will soon get married. When Raj says he believes Simran loves him too, Dharamvir encourages him to go after her. Raj goes to her house to woo her and Baldev, but is informed by their neighbour that they have sold their house and moved to India.
Back in India, Baldev is reunited with his relatives and his friend, Ajit. A miserable Simran and her younger sister Chutki take an instant dislike to Simran's fiancé Kuljeet because of his arrogance. Simran pines for Raj, but her mother tells her to forget him because she knows Baldev will never accept their relationship. The next morning, Raj arrives outside of the house where Simran is staying and the two reunite. She begs him to elope with her, but Raj refuses and says he will only marry her with Baldev's consent. Without disclosing his acquaintance with Simran, Raj befriends Kuljeet, and is quickly accepted by both families. Later, Dharamvir also arrives in India and becomes friends with Simran's and Kuljeet's families. Eventually, Lajjo and Chutki discover that Raj is the boy Simran fell in love with in Europe. Lajjo also tells Raj and Simran to run away, but he still refuses. Baldev recognises Raj from the beer incident but eventually accepts him. However, after he discovers a photograph of Raj and Simran together in Europe, he slaps and humiliates Raj and tells him to leave.
As Raj and Dharamvir wait at the railway station, Kuljeet, who is angry to learn of Raj's love for Simran, arrives with his friends and attack them. Raj refuses to fight back until his father is struck by Kuljeet when trying to save his son at which an enraged Raj gains the upper hand in his struggle against Kuljeet and his friends and brutally beats him. Baldev and Ajit soon arrive and stop the fight, and Raj boards the departing train with Dharamvir. Simran then arrives with Lajjo and Chutki; she tries to join Raj on the train, but Baldev stops her. Simran begs him to let her go, saying she cannot live without Raj. Baldev, realising nobody loves his daughter more than Raj does, lets her go, and she runs and catches the train as it departs.
## Cast
Credits adapted from the British Film Institute.
## Production
### Origin and scripting
Aditya Chopra assisted his father, director and producer Yash Chopra, during the making of Chandni (1989), Lamhe (1991) and Darr (1993). During this time, Aditya wrote several of his own scripts, including one he assumed would be his first film, but eventually became his second, Mohabbatein (2000). For three years, he worked on the story that would become Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge before approaching his father to direct it. Yash did not want to and tried to persuade Aditya to do it himself. As they were discussing ideas for the script, Aditya conceived the notion that Raj would seek permission for marriage from Simran's stern father, rather than eloping with her. He then became excited about the possibility of directing the film himself. After his mother, the playback singer Pamela Chopra, agreed that the idea was sound, he decided to make this his directorial debut. Aditya wanted to make a wholesome film that people could watch repeatedly. He wanted to diverge from the typical plot line of the time, in which lovers run away when their parents object, and show that if their love was strong enough, the parents would eventually understand.
In May 1994, Aditya read the first draft of the script to several members of the Yash Raj Films production team assigned to work with him, including a cinematographer, an art director, and a dialogue writer. They were not impressed, but Aditya held fast to his ideas. He was given total editorial control by his father, the producer, and made the film according to his own tastes and sensibilities. Aditya struggled with both the dialogue writer Javed Siddiqui and the song lyricist Anand Bakshi to develop words that were "young-sounding". There were personal clashes over writing credits on the final script. Pamela's friend Honey Irani believed she deserved a writing credit that she did not receive, and Siddiqui believed Aditya did not deserve partial credit for the dialogue. After Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, neither of them ever worked with Yash Raj Films again. After approving the script, Yash was consulted about the songs, but mostly left the creative process to his son, and has firmly denied that he was a ghost director on the project. He did not shoot a single frame, and did not even view some portions of the film until it was nearly completed.
### Casting
Aditya originally wanted the film to be about a relationship between an Indian and an American. He wanted Tom Cruise for the male lead but was dissuaded by Yash, who did not want to use a foreign star. They decided their characters would be non-resident Indians (NRIs). Aditya approached Shah Rukh Khan to play the role of Raj. Shah Rukh was initially not interested because of the romantic nature of the role, having had success playing villainous roles. Aditya then asked Saif Ali Khan to play the lead role because he was having problems persuading Shah Rukh to do it. Saif declined for unknown reasons, as did Aamir Khan, causing Aditya to continue pursuing Shah Rukh. Aditya and Shah Rukh had four meetings over several weeks; he finally persuaded Shah Rukh by telling him he could never be a superstar unless he became "every woman's dream man, and every mother's dream son". Since then, Shah Rukh has expressed his gratitude to Aditya for helping to make him a star with this film. Shah Rukh said that fellow actor Salman Khan also encouraged him to do the role, saying that he thought the film would be very successful. Shah Rukh has also noted the similarities in the film's script to his own relationship with Gauri Khan before their marriage.
Kajol was the first choice to play Simran, to which she quickly agreed. She and Shah Rukh had previously worked together in the successful films Baazigar (1993) and Karan Arjun (1995). Kajol said her character was very difficult for her to relate to, whereas Shah Rukh said Raj's personality was very similar to his own. Aditya chose the name Raj for the character, and the mandolin that he played, based on his admiration for the actor Raj Kapoor. After a successful screen test, Parmeet Sethi was chosen over Armaan Kohli for the role of Kuljeet Singh. In addition to his assistant director Sameer Sharma, Aditya asked for two additional assistants, his brother Uday Chopra along with Karan Johar. Johar also played a small role in the film as Raj's friend. Sharmishta Roy was the film's art director and Manish Malhotra was its costume designer. While Malhotra had many new ideas, Aditya wanted to keep the clothing style simple; he did not want it to distract from the story. Despite this, Malhotra was responsible for the idea of Simran wearing a green dress in the song "Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna", an unusual colour for a Punjabi bride.
### Filming
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was filmed in several 5-, 10- and 20-day schedules between September 1994 and August 1995. The first sequence filmed was for the song "Ho Gaya Hai Tujhko" with Kajol and Shah Rukh in Switzerland. The European journey scenes and songs were mainly filmed in Saanen, Montbovon and Gstaad, Switzerland. Other scenes were shot in England, at locations including Trafalgar Square, King's Cross railway station and Angel Underground station. Film's cinematographer Manmohan Singh, a regular collaborator with Chopra, shot the song "Tujhe Dekha To", including the iconic mustard fields scenes with Shah Rukh and Kajol in the mustard fields in Gurgaon on the outskirts of the National Capital Region Delhi. The cast faced difficulties while filming the final scene, which shows Simran running to catch the train on which Raj is travelling. The smouldering heat made it difficult to shoot and each time there was a retake, the train took 20 minutes to return.
Saroj Khan was the choreographer throughout most of the production, but after several disputes between her and Aditya, she was replaced by Farah Khan near the end of the shoot. After the film's eventual success, Saroj apologised to Aditya for underestimating him, but she never worked with him again. Farah choreographed the song "Ruk Ja O Dil Deewane", during which Aditya did not tell Kajol that Shah Rukh was going to drop her, as he wanted to capture her genuine reaction. The film's title was suggested by actress Kirron Kher; it came from the song "Le Jayenge Le Jayenge", in the film Chor Machaye Shor (1974). The Raj character sings parts of this song during the story, and it recurs at the end. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is believed to be the first Bollywood film with a "Title suggested by" credit. The film has since become universally known by the acronym DDLJ.
Towards the end of the principal photography, Shah Rukh had to split his time between this film and Trimurti (1995), spending half of his day on each film. In early August 1995, when filming on Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was not yet finished, a release date in October around the time of the Diwali festival was decided upon. Composers Jatin and Lalit Pandit were given only 10 days to complete the background score, and the first copies were printed on 30 September. After filming was complete, Aditya decided to make a Hollywood-style documentary of the film-making process, which had not been done before in India. Karan Johar and Uday were put in charge because they had already been recording some of the processes. On 18 October, two days before the film's release, the 30-minute special Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, The Making was broadcast on television by Doordarshan.
## Themes
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge repeats the usual conservative agenda of family, courtship and marriage, but it proposes that Indian family values are portable assets that can be upheld regardless of country of residence. To prove this, Raj, an NRI who was brought up in London, is portrayed as the story's "good guy", whereas Kuljeet, raised in India, is portrayed as the villain. This is a reversal of the roles in typical Indian films, which usually portray Indians as being morally superior to Westerners. Here, NRIs are validated as potential model Indian citizens.
The story aims to capture the struggle between traditional family values and the modern value of individualism. Although Raj and Simran want to be together regardless of her father's plans for her, Raj tries to win over his girlfriend's father rather than simply eloping with her. In this and other Indian stories, family values are ultimately considered more important than the romantic plot. Moral values and rules of conduct take precedence over individual desires. The film implies that "Indianness" can be defined by the importance of family life; whether at home or abroad, it is the Indian family system that is recognised as the social institution that most defines Indian identity.
In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the purity/sanctity of women is being related to that of the nation. In the scene after Raj and Simran spend the night together, and Simran is concerned that something happened, Raj tells her: "You think I am beyond values, but I am a Hindustani, and I know what a Hindustani girl's izzat (honour) is worth. Trust me, nothing happened last night." This speaks to the Indian diaspora and their need to try and sustain their value system, and the man's responsibility to protect the Indian woman's sexual purity. In The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films, Ranjani Mazumdar says the film has a running theme of unfulfilled desires, which is exemplified by Raj's father telling him to enjoy life because his own was a struggle, and Simran's mother telling her to run away with Raj because she was unable to live her own dreams.
Scott Jordan Harris, writing for Roger Ebert's website, says the film's popularity lies in its ability to effectively convey two opposing themes appealing to different portions of society. He said, "It argues that we should follow our hearts and chase happiness wherever it leads, regardless of the obstacles in our paths, while simultaneously suggesting we should respect the ways of our elders, particularly our parents, and do nothing that challenges their will". Rachel Dwyer said the film was important for presenting marriage as an understanding between parents and children. While fighting the old tradition of the arranged marriage, it still encouraged the importance of seeking parental consent, even for a love marriage. According to Patricia Uberoi, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge reiterates the theme of Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994) in a self-conscious manner while also linking it explicitly to the fact that the protagonists tend to remind themselves and each other of what it means to be an Indian.
## Music
The Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge soundtrack features seven songs composed by Jatin–Lalit, a duo consisting of the brothers Jatin and Lalit Pandit. Anand Bakshi wrote the lyrics and Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Udit Narayan performed the vocals. Jatin–Lalit was considered for the job when singer Asha Bhosle contacted Yash Chopra after meeting the duo. It was their first collaboration with Yash Raj Films. They secured the job after singing "Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna" for Yash. In return, they ensured she sang one song, "Zara Sa Jhoom Loon Main". Pamela Chopra helped them select tunes and instruments to give some of the songs a Punjabi flavour. Bhasker Gupta, writing for AllMusic, said the soundtrack was the best of Jatin–Lalit's career, and that it "marked the beginning of the fifth wave in Indian cinema ...".
The soundtrack became the best-selling Bollywood soundtrack of the year, with 12 million official units sold by HMV, although it is estimated the same number or more copies were pirated. More than 1 million of those sales occurred prior to the film's release, with Chopra earning an advance of ₹10 million for the music rights. Gulshan Kumar sold an unofficial version of the soundtrack under his T-Series label. Combined sales of both the official HMV version and the unofficial T-Series version amounted to 20 million copies. The total number of estimated sales including pirated copies range from 25 million to over 100 million.
In 2005, the album was judged the top Hindi soundtrack of all time by voters on the BBC Asian Network website. Anand Bakshi won his third Filmfare Best Lyricist award after 14 years, having two nominations for this film. The wedding song "Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna" from the film became an all-time hit; it is played at weddings across the South Asian diaspora. The soundtrack was \#6 on the list of "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by Planet Bollywood.
## Release
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge opened on 20 October 1995 to sold-out shows worldwide. Every show in every theatre in Mumbai—save one—was completely full for the first week. The film was popular among both resident Indians and NRIs. At San Francisco's 720-seat Naz theatre, 1,000 people arrived for the first showing, and the theatre staff were forced to run another show late that night. In the UK, the film ran for over a year. As of March 16, 2020 the Maratha Mandir cinema hall in Mumbai had been showing for 1251 weeks (24 years).
## Reception
### Box office
The film opened with over ₹800 million (US\$24.67 million) grossed in its first month of release. The film's initial Hindi run earned ₹1.13 billion (valued at about US\$35,000,000 in 1995) in India and about ₹200 million (valued at about US\$6,200,000 in 1995) overseas; it became the highest-grossing Indian film of the year, and the second-highest-grossing film of the 1990s, behind Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! It was the second Indian film to gross over ₹1 billion worldwide, and one of the biggest Bollywood earners of all time. The film went on to gross a total of ₹2 billion (\$60 million) worldwide as of 1996.
Adjusted for inflation, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is among the highest-grossing Hindi films ever; its domestic net income (₹533 million at the time) is approximately ₹4.613 billion (\$million) when adjusted for inflation in 2017. As of 2009, the film had generated over ₹60 million in revenues for the Maratha Mandir since its release. In later years, that theatre ran one matinee show per day at reduced ticket prices, which averaged about 50% occupancy.
### Critical reception
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge received many favourable reviews. An initial review by weekly magazine Screen said of Aditya Chopra, "A young master arrives". Tom Vick, reviewing the film for Allmovie, said, "An immensely likeable movie, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge performs the rarely achieved feat of stretching a predictable plot over three hours and making every minute enjoyable." When the film toured the US in 2004 as part of the Cinema India showcase, "The Changing Face of Indian Cinema", Charles Taylor reviewed the film for Salon and said, "It's a flawed, contradictory movie—aggressive and tender, stiff and graceful, clichéd and fresh, sophisticated and naive, traditional and modern. It's also, I think, a classic."
Writing for NDTV, Anupama Chopra said, "Perhaps the innocence of Raj and Simran's romance in which they can spend the night together without sex because Raj, the bratish [sic] NRI understands the importance of an Indian woman's honor. Perhaps it's the way in which the film artfully reaffirms the patriarchal status quo and works for all constituencies—the NRI and the local viewer. Or perhaps it's the magic of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol who created a template for modern love, which was hip and cool but resolutely Indian." She also called the film a milestone that shaped Hindi cinema through the 1990s, and one of her personal favourites. In 2004, Meor Shariman of The Malay Mail called the film a "must watch" for Bollywood fans, and also for those seeking an introduction to Bollywood.
Raja Sen gave a reflective review for Rediff.com in 2005, calling the film one of the best Hindi films made in the previous 20 years. He said "Shah Rukh Khan gives a fabulous performance, redefining the Lover for the 1990s with great panache", and called Kajol a "real-as-life actress bringing warmth and credulity" to her role. Sen called the film well balanced and said only the fight scene and some mother-daughter dialogue can wear after multiple viewings. Omer M. Mozaffar, writing for RogerEbert.com in 2012, likened the film to a Disney Princess story, saying, "the young princess feeling trapped by the traditional patriarchy, seeking freedom through discovering the world, but finally finding it through silent, but inappropriate love. The Little Mermaid. Beauty (of the Beast). Jasmine (friends with Aladdin). Pocahontas. Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). And here, Simran." Scott Jordan Harris, also writing for RogerEbert.com in 2014, called it "one of the world's favorite films", and said it plays as a masterful soap opera, with one of the best screen couples ever seen.
## Accolades
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was ranked among The Times of India's list of the "10 Bollywood movies you must see before you die". It was one of three Hindi films in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the others being Mother India (1957) and Deewaar (1975). It was placed twelfth on the British Film Institute's list of top Indian films of all time. It is one of the films on Box Office India's list of "Biggest Blockbusters Ever in Hindi Cinema". The film won a National Film Award and 10 Filmfare Awards, setting the record at the time for the most Filmfare trophies.
## Legacy
### Historic box office run
In 2001, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge overtook Sholay (1975), which had run for over five years at the Minerva theatre, as the longest-running film in Indian cinema history. It has been showing at the Maratha Mandir theatre (which was famous for having shown Mughal-e-Azam (1960) for three years) since its original release in 1995. There are often people in the audience who have seen the film 50 or more times, but still clap, cheer, mouth the dialogues and sing along with the songs, raising comparisons with The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), the longest running film in America.
When a theatre strike in early 2011 threatened the film's uninterrupted run, the producer Yash Chopra contacted theatre owners to try and ensure the film would continue. He hoped the film would continue to run for at least 1,000 weeks, which it achieved in December 2014. To commemorate the event, cast members including Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Anupam Kher, Farida Jalal, Mandira Bedi and Pooja Ruparel appeared on the television show Comedy Nights with Kapil. Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and director Aditya Chopra also attended a live chat with fans and a black tie event at the theatre on 12 December. The same day, they launched a coffee table book written by Aditya Chopra about the making of the film. Also in December, Yash Raj Films announced the availability of a collection of commemorative, licensed merchandise from various suppliers to mark the event.
The Maratha Mandir's management ended the film's run after 1,009 weeks on 19 February 2015 because of low attendance (the last show was viewed by 210 people). However, after an outpouring of support from fans, and talks with the production company, they decided to reinstate the film. As of March 16, 2020, it had been showing for 1251 weeks (24 years). The projectionist, who has been working at the Mandir for 46 years, has watched the film more than 9,000 times. The COVID-19 lockdown in India caused the theater to close for eight months; upon its re-opening in November 2020, screening of the film resumed.
### Influence
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge spawned many imitators of its story and style, especially throughout the 1990s. According to the Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema, it and a handful of other films and young directors started a trend for "designer" films. The authors said that these were "a carefully packaged and branded product in which every little visual and physical detail ... is of utmost importance". In Bollywood's Top 20: Superstars of Indian Cinema, Namrata Joshi said Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge "reinvented Bollywood romances so decisively that we can neatly divide them into two eras—before DDLJ and after DDLJ".
Yash Raj Films was previously known for using locations outside India for item numbers in its films. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge started the trend for films designed to appeal to the Indian diaspora, which have foreign locations as integral parts of the story. The characters are themselves diaspora and tend to be able to move with ease between India and the West. Some later films that followed this trend include Pardes (1997), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Salaam Namaste (2005), Neal 'n' Nikki (2005) and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006). Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge became the first Hindi film blockbuster to feature NRIs as main characters. It helped to establish the diaspora market as a vital source of revenue for the industry; that market was seen as a safer financial investment than the desi market.
Several later films have paid homage to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. The Karan Johar-produced Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) was directly inspired by it. The films Jab We Met (2007), Bodyguard (2011), Chalo Dilli (2011), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) and Chennai Express (2013) include scenes similar to the climactic train sequence, wherein a woman is running to catch a moving train and is helped aboard by a man with his outstretched arm. The British film Slumdog Millionaire (2008) contained a similar train scene, and its final dance sequence was partially shot at the same railway station as the Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge finale.
In October 2021, Aditya announced that he would be directing a Broadway musical entitled Come Fall In Love – The DDLJ Musical, based on the film. It will debut in the Broadway season of 2022–2023.
### Impact
Audiences appreciated the screen chemistry between Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, who later worked together in several successful films including Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), My Name Is Khan (2010), and Dilwale (2015), and are often referred to as one of Indian cinema's most loved on-screen couple. Sogosurvey conducted an online survey in 2016 in which approximately 47% of the people who participated voted Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge as Bollywood's most evergreen love story. Shah Rukh Khan credits this film with making him a star, and says it "changed the entire scene for romantic movies of the 90s". During an interview in 2002, he said "Whatever I'll stand for as an actor, in the whole of my career, whenever it ends, it will start with and end at Dilwale". The actress Farida Jalal said the film gave her career a boost, saying she got many offers and "could quote any price". It also helped the young careers of Pooja Ruparel, who received advertising offers, and of Sharmistha Roy.
The British Film Institute (BFI) commissioned a book about Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. It was the first Hindi film chosen for a series of studies on international films, called "BFI Modern Classics". The author was Anupama Chopra and the book was released in 2002. It was reissued in paperback by Harper-Collins as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge: The Making of a Blockbuster in 2004. After an unexpectedly long delay, the film was released on DVD by Yash Raj Films in 2002. The release included The Making and 300 Weeks Celebration documentaries, Success Story (highlights from the film's premiere), clips from the 41st Filmfare Awards ceremony and other interviews.
In 2006, members of the film crew were honoured at a dinner event to celebrate the film's 500th week since release. It was hosted by the Consulate General of Switzerland in Mumbai and by Switzerland Tourism. In 2010, Yash Raj Films signed an agreement with Indian and Swiss tour companies to provide a tour package called "YRF Enchanted Journey", to allow visitors to Switzerland to view filming locations used for famous Yash Raj films including Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. In 2014, Yash Raj Films released Aditya Chopra Relives ... Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (As Told to Nasreen Munni Kabir), an attractive but expensive book about the making of the film. In response to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi quoting the line "May the force be with you" from the American film franchise Star Wars during a visit to the United States, the then US President Barack Obama decided to quote a line from a Hindi film during his visit to India in January 2015. He chose a line from this film, "Senorita, bade bade deshon mein ..." (Miss, in large countries ...), and added "you know what I mean". In February 2020, the then US President Donald Trump mentioned Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge as a classic Indian film during his visit to India. In the same month, the Australian actor Chris Hemsworth recited the complete dialogue "Bade bade deshon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hai" (Small things like this happen in big countries), and said that he is a fan of the film.
|
44,747,859 |
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
| 1,153,277,366 |
Themed restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios
|
[
"1991 establishments in Florida",
"Cinemas and movie theaters in Florida",
"Disney's Hollywood Studios",
"Nostalgia in the United States",
"Restaurants established in 1991",
"Restaurants in Florida",
"Retro style",
"Science fiction-themed restaurants",
"Theatres completed in 1991",
"Walt Disney Parks and Resorts entertainment",
"Walt Disney World restaurants"
] |
The Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant is a theme restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios, one of the four main theme parks at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, United States. Established in May 1991, the restaurant is modeled after a 1950s drive-in theater. Walt Disney Imagineering designed the booths to resemble convertibles of the period, and some servers act as carhops while wearing roller skates. While eating, guests watch a large projection screen displaying clips of 1950s and 1960s films as Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, Plan 9 from Outer Space, and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
The restaurant serves traditional cuisine of the United States. Popcorn functions as a complimentary hors d'oeuvre. Initially, the menu listed items with themed names, such as "Tossed in Space" (garden salad), "The Cheesecake that Ate New York", and "Attack of the Killer Club Sandwich", but these playful names were later altered so that they now describe the dishes in a more standard and straightforward manner.
In 1991, the Sci-Fi Dine-In opened along with nineteen other new Walt Disney World attractions marking the complex's twentieth anniversary. By the following year, the Sci-Fi Dine-In was serving upwards of 2,200 people daily during peak periods, making it the park's most popular restaurant. Thai movie theater operator EGV Entertainment opened the EGV Drive-in Cafe in Bangkok in 2003, in a very similar style to the Sci-Fi Dine-In.
The Sci-Fi Dine-In has received mixed reviews. USA Today's list of the best restaurants in American amusement parks ranks the Sci-Fi Dine-In fifteenth, but many reviewers rate it more highly for its atmosphere than for its cuisine. Ed Bumgardner of the Winston-Salem Journal wrote that the food is more expensive than it is worth, specifically calling the restaurant's roast beef sandwich both delicious and a ripoff. In their book Vegetarian Walt Disney World and Greater Orlando, Susan Shumaker and Than Saffel call the Sci-Fi Dine-In "the wackiest dining experience in any Disney park".
## History
The Sci-Fi Dine-In, located on Commissary Lane across from Star Tours and adjacent to ABC Commissary, opened on April 20, 1991 as one of the twenty new attractions opened at Walt Disney World to mark the complex's twentieth anniversary. The restaurant was created with a strong emphasis on theme, in emulation of the 50's Prime Time Café, which had opened two years prior. Disney hoped that the focus on theme would bring the Sci-Fi Dine-In the level of success that had been garnered by the 50's Prime Time Café. Within five weeks of opening, it was serving between 1,500 and 2,000 meals on a daily basis, just as the 50's Prime Time Café was doing. A year after opening, the Sci-Fi Dine-In had become the most popular restaurant in the park, serving more than 2,200 people per day at peak periods. Starting from its earliest days, the restaurant equipped its servers with point of sale mobile devices that relayed orders to a printer in the kitchen, which was considered at the time to be in keeping with the science fiction theme because the technology had been developed shortly prior.
In 2003, there were twenty character meals offered at Walt Disney World, during which actors portraying various Disney characters would interact with guests while they ate at the parks' restaurants, and Disney was in the process of increasing the presence of costumed characters in the parks at the time. Nonetheless, Minnie Mouse character meals held at Hollywood & Vine were discontinued that year, and Robert Johnson of the Orlando Sentinel partially attributed this cancellation to competition from the Sci-Fi Dine-In, which he said "almost always has a line of customers waiting".
## Theme
The Sci-Fi Dine-In is modeled after a 1950s drive-in theater. The entrance is made to look like a box office, and guests can walk from there along a tall fence to the dining room, where they sit at formica countertops in booths made to look like convertibles from the 1940s and 1950s. These booths were designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and are made of fiberglass with much chrome plating. The cars have whitewall tires, and speakers are mounted on poles next to each car. The license plates are dated from 1955, and each convertible seats four people, although these mock vehicles were initially six-seaters when the restaurant first opened. There are six picnic tables near the back of the room that are only used when the rest of the restaurant is full and there are guests who are willing to forego the experience of sitting in the cars. All guests who make reservations are seated in the cars, although this was not the case the year the restaurant first opened. The restaurant has a total seating capacity of 260.
Some of the servers at the Sci-Fi Dine-In wear roller skates, acting as carhops, while others improvise characters such as a police officer ostensibly in search of people who have sneaked into the theater without paying. The dining room is dark and air-conditioned, and measures 8,400 square feet (780 m<sup>2</sup>). The ceiling simulates a night sky replete with twinkling stars made from optical fibers. There is the facade of a snack counter at the back of the room, behind which is the kitchen. The upper walls of the dining room display a cyclorama of Southern California as seen over a fence.
While eating at the Sci-Fi Dine-In, guests watch film clips from 1950s and 1960s science fiction films, B horror films, monster movies, pseudo-documentaries, bizarre newsreels, and animated cartoons, all on a loop that lasts 47 minutes. The film clips are taken from such films as The Blob, Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, Teenagers from Outer Space, The Amazing Colossal Man, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Invasion of the Saucer Men, and Cat-Women of the Moon.<ref>For the inclusion of The Blob, see Sehlinger & Testa (2014), p. 491.
- For the inclusion of Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, see Miller (2011), p. 122.
- For the inclusion of Teenagers from Outer Space, see Gindin & Greenhill-Taylor (2012), p. 149.
- For the inclusion of The Amazing Colossal Man, see
- For the inclusion of Plan 9 from Outer Space, see
- For the inclusion of Invasion of the Saucer Men, see
- For the inclusion of Cat-Women of the Moon, see Sandler (2007), p. 257.
</ref>
The original Attack of the 50 Foot Woman trailer is also included. The clips are shown on a large projection screen. During Star Wars Weekends, a special breakfast is offered called the Star Wars Dine-In Galactic Breakfast, during which guests can interact with Star Wars characters and watch clips from the Star Wars films.
Film props and vintage horror and science fiction movie posters can be found on the outside perimeter of the themed restaurant, including many props used in Disney's The Rocketeer, which premiered about three months after the restaurant opened.
## Food
At the Sci-Fi Dine-In, lunch guests stay for an average of fifty minutes and dinner guests for an average of just longer than an hour, with lunch and dinner guests being served their food on average five and ten minutes after ordering respectively. The restaurant participates in the Disney Dining Plan. Meals are served starting at 10:30 a.m. on Sundays and Wednesdays, and starting at 11:00 a.m. every other day of the week. The restaurant closes each day at the same time that the park does, which is in the late evening. The menu is the same all day, without a distinction between lunch and dinner. A full bar service is available, and there is also a limited wine selection.
Food selection at the restaurant comes from the traditional cuisine of the United States. Popcorn used to be served as a free hors d'oeuvre. Other food items include milkshakes, hot fudge sundaes, seafood salad, turkey sloppy joes, fried pickles, St. Louis-style barbecue ribs, beef-and-blue-cheese salads, sautéed shrimp with farfalle, French fries, cucumber salads, Buffalo wings, Boca Burgers, Tofutti, and steaks. Drinks include souvenir phosphorescent ice cubes. The desserts are served in larger portions than are customary elsewhere. There are vegetarian options. The chefs at the Sci-Fi Dine-In sometimes cater for special requests in advance. The cookbook Delicious Disney Just for Kids contains a recipe for the BLT soup served at the Sci-Fi Dine-In.
Items in the restaurant's menu used to have themed names, such as "The Galactic Grill" (triple-decker grilled cheese sandwich), "Beast from 1,000 Islands" (Reuben sandwich), "Tossed in Space" (garden salad), "The Cheesecake that Ate New York", "Attack of the Killer Club Sandwich", "Beach Party Panic" (fish fillet), "Saucer Sightings" (rib eye steak), "Terror of the Tides" (broiled fish), and "Journey to the Center of the Pasta" (vegetable lasagne), but these have since been replaced with more descriptive names. A popcorn bisque was once on the menu, but it was removed due to poor reception.
## Imitation
In 2003, EGV Entertainment, a movie theater operator in Thailand, opened the EGV Drive-in Cafe in Bangkok, explicitly modeling the restaurant after the Sci-Fi Dine-In. Wichai Poolwaraluk, the company's executive president and chief executive officer, visited the Sci-Fi Dine-In in 2000, and was inspired to open a similar restaurant. He said that, while he was eating at the Sci-Fi Dine-In, the other guests seemed more interested in their food than in the film clips on the screen, and he therefore considered the Sci-Fi Dine-In more of a restaurant than a theater, with the film reel simply being a gimmick. Appealing to EGV's identity as a movie theater operator, Poolwaraluk said that the EGV Drive-in Cafe "can probably do a better job blending the cinema and the food together and also concentrate on both of them". Like the Sci-Fi Dine-In, the EGV Drive-in Cafe features classic cars for seating, but, instead of showing film clips on a loop, the EGV Drive-in Cafe shows entire short films.
In 2014, NBCUniversal opened Universal Orlando's first prime-value hotel, Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort, which houses the Bayliner Diner, a restaurant that borrows its premise from the Sci-Fi Dine-In. Both restaurants play old film footage on a loop.
## Reception
The Sci-Fi Dine-In has received mixed reviews. Jack Hayes of Nation's Restaurant News calls the Sci-Fi Dine-In "wacky" and "on the cutting edge of sheer dining fun". In USA Today's list of the sixteen best restaurants in American amusement parks, the Sci-Fi Dine-In ranks fifteenth. Samuel Muston of The Independent writes that the Sci-Fi Dine-In is "memorable in the best way". In the Evansville Courier & Press, Pete DiPrimio writes that the Sci-Fi Dine-In ranks among the most unusual of the restaurants at Disney's Hollywood Studios. In The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2015, Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa call the Sci-Fi Dine-In the most entertaining restaurant in Walt Disney World, writing that "everyone gets a kick out of this unusual dining room".
Multiple reviewers have called the Sci-Fi Dine-In more notable for being an attraction than a food destination. One reviewer from The Guardian compares the Sci-Fi Dine-In to Epcot's Coral Reef Restaurant, writing that both restaurants "are great settings" where "eating is awful". Sehlinger and Testa consider the prices too high, and the food too simple, although they praise the Reuben sandwich and the ribs. Schultz writes that the food is simple and that some of the beers are decent. The book DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Walt Disney World Resort & Orlando also states that the food is more expensive than it is worth. Ed Bumgardner of the Winston-Salem Journal shared this opinion as well, specifically singling out the restaurant's roast beef sandwich as a ripoff, despite calling it delicious. Peggy Katalinich of the Tampa Bay Times writes that, although the food is mediocre, "Who cares? Food is besides the point". She goes on to argue that the prices are low, particularly for sandwiches. In Frommer's Walt Disney World and Orlando 2012, Laura Lea Miller expresses disappointment that the menu no longer contains the playful item names it once did. She writes positively of the atmosphere, but considers the food mediocre. In the book Walt Disney World Resort: Also Includes Seaworld and Central Florida, Corey Sandler writes that the Sci-Fi Dine-In is "a must-see eatery... for adults and adventurous kids" and that "the food is appropriate for a drive-in theater—very ordinary, but that's not really the reason you came".
Some food items at the Sci-Fi Dine-In have been received favorably by reviewers. Rona Gindin and Jennifer Greenhill-Taylor write highly of the restaurant's hot-fudge sundaes in Fodor's 2012 Walt Disney World. In Plan Your Walt Disney World Vacation in No Time, Douglas Ingersoll writes very positively of the milkshakes, and argues that the sandwiches and burgers are better than at the fast food restaurants in the park. A reviewer for the United Kingdom's The Sentinel also writes positively of the Sci-Fi Dine-In's milkshakes, and argues that, "if you chose to treat yourself to a good lunch in one of the Disney parks, then this is the one".
Positive reviews of the Sci-Fi Dine-In have indicated diverse reasons for appreciating the restaurant. In Vegetarian Walt Disney World and Greater Orlando, Susan Shumaker and Than Saffel write that the restaurant has "the wackiest dining experience in any Disney park". Shumaker and Saffel contend that the Sci-Fi Dine-In provides a reasonable compromise when vegetarians and non-vegetarians are looking to eat together, and that it is also suitable for both large and small families with young children. The restaurant tends to be popular with children, and it is common for people who lived through the 1950s to enjoy the restaurant for its nostalgia value. Paul Schultz of the Daily News writes, "Anyone who is a fan of trashy sci-fi movies of the 1950s should check [the Sci-Fi Dine-In] out". In his book Sci-Fi Movie Freak, Robert Ring calls the Sci-Fi Dine-In film clips "hokey", while David Steele of The Rotarian calls them "classically awful", and Rick Ramseyer of Restaurant Business Magazine'' calls them "campy".
|
51,375,500 |
Rhode Island Tercentenary half dollar
| 1,138,523,593 |
1936 commemorative U.S. coin
|
[
"1936 establishments in the United States",
"Currencies introduced in 1936",
"Early United States commemorative coins",
"Fifty-cent coins",
"History of Rhode Island",
"Native Americans on coins",
"Ships on coins",
"Sun on coins",
"Tricentennial anniversaries"
] |
The Rhode Island Tercentenary half dollar (sometimes called the Providence, Rhode Island, Tercentenary half dollar) is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936. The coin was designed by John Howard Benson and Arthur Graham Carey. Its obverse depicts Roger Williams, founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It was intended to honor the 300th anniversary of Providence, Rhode Island, although it bears no mention of the city.
Members of Rhode Island's congressional delegation sought a coin for the 300th anniversary of Providence, and Senator Jesse Metcalf added authorization for one to a bill for another commemorative coin that had already passed the United States House of Representatives. The amended bill was approved by both houses of Congress, and it was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A total of 50,000 coins were struck at the three mints then in operation.
The coins went on sale on March 5, 1936, and the quantity made available to the public sold out in a matter of hours. Rhode Island insiders were holding back quantities for later sale once prices rose. That conduct incensed coin collectors, and the abuses led Congress to move toward banning commemorative coins. The coins are listed for hundreds of dollars today, depending on condition.
## Background and legislation
Roger Williams was born in Britain around 1603. He was ordained as a minister, became a Puritan, and moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony where he became the minister of the church in Salem, Massachusetts. Colonial authorities began to take issue with some of the teachings that he imparted to his congregation, such as the separation of church and state and fair dealings when purchasing land from American Indians. He was banished from the colony in 1635, and attempts were made to send him back to Europe. Instead, he escaped on foot and found refuge with Massasoit, sachem of the Narragansett people. He bought a parcel of land from Massasoit in 1636 and established Providence Plantations. Providence Plantations eventually merged with settlements on Rhode Island to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which became the State of Rhode Island.
A committee was established in 1931 to mark the tercentenary of Williams' founding of Providence. Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen claim in their volume on commemoratives that the moving forces behind the Rhode Island Tercentenary half dollar were Senators Jesse H. Metcalf and Peter Gerry and Representative John Matthew O'Connell, all of whom applied political pressure to authorize the coin. In 1936, commemorative coins were not sold by the government. Congress usually designated an organization which had the exclusive right to purchase them at face value from the United States Mint and sell them to the public at a premium, and the Providence Tercentenary Commission was chartered for the Tercentenary coin.
A bill had passed the House of Representatives on April 3, 1935 for a Hudson Sesquicentennial half dollar, and it had been recommended for passage in the Senate by the Committee on Banking and Currency. When the bill was considered in the Senate on April 15, Senator Metcalf moved to amend it to provide for a Providence Tercentenary half dollar to be issued, as well. There was no objection or debate, and the bill passed the Senate. It was then returned to the House of Representatives which agreed to the Senate amendments, and it was enacted on May 2 by the signature of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
## Preparation
John Howard Benson was one of the artists who designed the coin, and he wrote a letter to Lee Lawrie of the Commission of Fine Arts on December 12, 1935 which provides information on the design process. Benson related that Royal B. Farnum of the Rhode Island School of Design had assigned the coin design to him and Arthur Graham Carey because they had cut dies for small medals.
The Tercentenary Commission's coin committee originally proposed seven stars from an early version of Providence's seal for one side of the new coin, with the anchor from Rhode Island's seal and the state motto "Hope" on the other. Benson told Lawrie that the committee had then changed its mind, wanting to picture Roger Williams on the obverse side being greeted by Narragansetts, and they decided to open the design to a public competition. Benson and Carey persevered, made the changes, and entered the competition—and they were selected.
The Providence artist wrote that he was anxious to receive the opinion of the Fine Arts Commission. Lawrie forwarded the letter to Commission chairman Charles Moore the same day, noting: "I don't know just what his troubles are. ... It won't make a great coin but the models are I think equal to some others we approved." The full Commission approved the designs on December 20, and reductions were made from plaster models to coin-sized hubs were by the Medallic Art Company of New York.
## Design
The obverse is based on the seal of Providence showing Roger Williams kneeling in a canoe, his hand raised in signal of friendship. The Narragansett Indian who greets him has his hand extended, palm down, meant as a native sign for "good". Behind the Narragansett is a stalk of corn as a reference to the help and friendship which the Indians had shown to the Mayflower Pilgrims in establishing Plymouth Colony. The Bible in Williams' other hand symbolizes the colonists' contribution to America. The Sun is rising in the background, symbolic of Rhode Island being the first colony where religious liberty was guaranteed. LIBERTY is the theme of the design and appears over their heads. IN GOD WE TRUST, RHODE ISLAND, and the tercentenary dates surround the scene.
The reverse depicts the Anchor of Hope, taken from Rhode Island's state seal. The motto HOPE symbolizes the authority of the state government, while E PLURIBUS UNUM evokes that of the federal government, as it is a national motto. The name of the country and the coin's denomination surround the reverse design.
Nowhere on the coin is the name of Providence, which was left off in the final alterations required by the Coin Committee. According to Swiatek, "this issue's obverse does not rate very high among collectors. The image of Roger Williams has the look of a robot from the old Flash Gordon serial." The two designers later became partners in a stonecutting firm in Newport, Rhode Island, which accounts for the sculptural look of the coin, according to Swiatek. According to Q. David Bowers, "no significant criticisms were ever mounted of the design". Art historian Cornelius Vermeule writes that the bands of lettering overwhelm the designs. "Roger Williams in his canoe looks like Elpenor amid the bulrushes on a Greek vase of about 440 B.C. with a scene of the dialogue of Orpheus in the Underworld." He notes that "the Indian and Williams are blocked out with a childlike charm of conceptualism", but "the coat-of-arms is so simple as to defy analysis, or even comment."
## Production, distribution, and collecting
A total of 20,000 half dollars arrived in Providence from the Philadelphia Mint by February 20, 1936; an additional 15,000 each were expected from the Denver and San Francisco Mints, but they had not been received. Those coins had been struck in January (Philadelphia and Denver) and February (San Francisco) 1936. In addition to the quantities sent to Providence, 13 pieces from Philadelphia, 10 from Denver, and 11 from San Francisco were held at Philadelphia for inspection and testing at the 1937 meeting of the United States Assay Commission.
Swiatek and Breen noted, "March 5 proved to be a day of immense noise and confusion". The new coins went on sale through various Rhode Island banks amid considerable publicity at \$1 per coin, with the Rhode Island Hospital National Bank taking the lead as depository. Out-of-staters could write to Grant's Hobby Shop in Providence, owned by Horace M. Grant, a well-known numismatist. Within hours of the coins going on sale, banks were allegedly out of them, and the issue was supposedly sold out within six hours. Yet ample supplies proved to be available at higher prices from insiders, including Horace Grant.
Low-mintage commemoratives were sometimes held back from sale by the distributor in anticipation of skyrocketing prices in those days, and Grant ran an advertisement in the April 1936 issue of The Numismatist offering the coins for \$7.50 per set of three by mint mark, or \$2.75 individually. By June, he was offering to exchange the Rhode Island half dollars for other coins or sell them for \$9 per set of three. On June 24, the Tercentenary Commission announced that it would sell the first 100 from each mint in sets of three by matched numbers, by sealed-bid auction, but none of these sets has been identified.
There was widespread anger among coin collectors, and lawsuits were filed against the commission. Among those who litigated was Texas coin dealer L.W. Hoffecker, but he dropped the suit in exchange for 90 sets of three coins. In the years that followed, he complained to other dealers about the ethics of Grant and the Rhode Island officials. Hoffecker was influential in Congress and complained to Senator Metcalf about the situation. Metcalf suggested another act for another 50,000 coins, but Hoffecker advised against it unless some neutral party handled the distribution, lest they be hoarded. He complained that "every bank in Rhode Island is making a lot of money, instead of distributing the coins".
Congress ended the authorization for outstanding commemorative coin issues in 1939; the Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar, for example, had been issued for over a decade. Hoffecker was elected president of the American Numismatic Association that same year, and he wrote to numismatist Walter P. Nichols in November expressing concerns about Grant's ethics. By then, the Rhode Island Tercentenary Committee had been dissolved, having shown a profit of \$24,000 on the 50,000 coins issued. About two-thirds of that went towards a memorial to Roger Williams. The deluxe 2015 edition of R. S. Yeoman's A Guide Book of United States Coins (the Red Book) notes that the distribution of the coin "was wrapped in controversy—phony news releases reported that the coin was sold out when it was indeed not, and certain dealers procured large amounts at low prices only to resell for tidy profits."
By 1940, the price on the secondary market had dropped back to \$4.50 per set of three, but it then rose steadily and reached \$975 during the commemorative coin boom of 1980. The 2017 Red Book lists the coin between \$325 and \$675 per set of three, depending on condition, with single coins about a third of that. A near-pristine specimen from the San Francisco Mint sold at auction in 2014 for \$6,463.
|
53,301,912 |
1998 NFC Championship Game
| 1,172,224,847 |
NFL conference title game decided by a last-minute missed field goal
|
[
"1990s in Minneapolis",
"1998 National Football League season",
"1999 in sports in Minnesota",
"American football competitions in Minneapolis",
"American football incidents",
"Atlanta Falcons postseason",
"January 1999 sports events in the United States",
"Minnesota Vikings postseason",
"NFC Championship Games",
"National Football League playoff games"
] |
The 1998 NFC Championship Game was the 29th title game of the National Football Conference (NFC). This National Football League (NFL) playoff game was played on January 17, 1999, to determine the NFC champion for the 1998 NFL season. The visiting Atlanta Falcons defeated the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings 30–27 in sudden death overtime to win their first conference championship and advance to the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance. As a result of their loss, the Vikings were eliminated from the playoffs and became the first team in the history of the NFL to compile a regular season record of 15–1 and not win the Super Bowl.
The game is considered one of the most memorable conference championship games in NFL history. Entering the playoffs, the Vikings were the favorite to win the Super Bowl, as they had set the NFL record for most points scored by a team in a single season. They had gone undefeated in their home stadium, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, during the regular season, and their placekicker, Gary Anderson, had become the first kicker in NFL history to convert every field goal and extra point attempt in a season. At a critical moment late in the game, Anderson missed a field goal for the first time that year, which, if converted, would have given the Vikings a nearly insurmountable 10-point lead. Instead, the Falcons scored a touchdown to tie the game on their ensuing drive and subsequently won by a field goal in overtime. Due to its impact on the game's outcome, Anderson's missed field goal has since become the focal point of the loss.
The Falcons lost 34–19 to the Denver Broncos two weeks later in Super Bowl XXXIII. The Falcons would not return to the Super Bowl until the 2016 NFL season, when the Falcons lost in overtime to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI. Although the game long stood as the proudest moment in the history of the Falcons franchise, the 1998 NFC Championship Game has been remembered for the effect it had on the Vikings players and their fan base, as it is seen by some sportswriters as one of the most devastating losses in NFL history.
## Background
### Minnesota Vikings
Entering the 1998 season, the Minnesota Vikings had accumulated a history of disappointing losses despite their elite level of play. Although they were the first NFL franchise to play in four Super Bowls, they also became the first to lose four Super Bowls after their final appearance in Super Bowl XI. In other seasons, they had come within seconds of winning playoff games only to lose in dramatic fashion. During a 1975 Divisional round playoff game, the Vikings lost to the Dallas Cowboys on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson that Vikings fans, media personalities, and former players claim should have been nullified by offensive pass interference. Twelve years later, the Vikings lost to the Washington Redskins in the 1987 NFC Championship Game after running back Darrin Nelson dropped a game-tying touchdown pass on fourth down in the game's final minute. This history of misfortune led the NFL Network to rank the Vikings as the second most "snake-bitten" franchise of all-time, behind only the Cleveland Browns for their playoff losses in the late 1980s.
Under head coach Dennis Green, the Vikings were perennial playoff contenders throughout the 1990s, but they experienced little success once they reached the postseason. In the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft, the Vikings selected wide receiver Randy Moss, who, despite his talent, was passed by several teams, even those in need of a wide receiver, due to concerns surrounding Moss's misbehavior and multiple arrests during high school and college. Moss used this as motivation to make teams who passed on him regret their decision. That year, Moss set the NFL record for most touchdown receptions by a rookie with 17, and combined with future Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter and quarterback Randall Cunningham, he formed the centerpiece of the Vikings' offensive attack, which also set an NFL record by scoring 556 points during the season. The Vikings' defense was led by future Hall of Fame defensive tackle John Randle and was ranked sixth overall in points allowed during the season.
The Vikings finished the regular season with a record of 15–1 and held the first overall seed in the NFC playoffs; the two previous NFL teams to finish the regular season with 15 wins, the 1984 San Francisco 49ers and the 1985 Chicago Bears, had each won the Super Bowl. Former player turned analyst Brian Baldinger claimed that "They were easily the best team in football," and Pro Football Hall of Fame writer Ray Didinger observed, "It seems like this is the unstoppable team." Dan Barreiro, a sports radio host in the Minneapolis area, noted that for the Vikings franchise, 98 was the season. All the stars had aligned."
Vikings placekicker Gary Anderson had joined the team that off-season after playing for three different teams in his 16-year NFL career. In 1998, he became the first placekicker in NFL history to convert every field goal and extra point attempted, scoring a regular season record of 164 points in the process. He finished the regular season 35/35 on field goals, with a long of 53 yards, and 59/59 on extra points. As a result, he was voted to the 1998 NFC Pro Bowl team, the fourth Pro Bowl invitation of his career, and was voted to the AP All-Pro team for the first time. He also converted every field goal and extra point attempt in a Divisional playoff round victory against the Arizona Cardinals the week before the NFC Championship. Entering the NFC Championship Game, his last miss was on December 15, 1997, against the Denver Broncos, when he was a member of the San Francisco 49ers.
### Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons had a "frustrating" team history, as described by Atlanta sports journalist Terence Moore. Moore singled out the 1980 divisional playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys, in which the Falcons gave up a 14-point lead en route to a defeat, as well as a 6-turnover performance during their 1991 divisional playoff defeat against the Washington Redskins as notable examples of frustration. Prior to the 1998 season, the Falcons had never advanced to the NFC Championship game, let alone to a Super Bowl.
The 1998 season was not expected to be any different, as the Falcons had failed to reach the playoffs the previous two seasons and only made the playoffs twice in the previous fifteen seasons. However, head coach Dan Reeves, who was hired before the previous season, had overhauled the roster in an attempt to reverse the team's fortunes. Thirty-eight of the fifty-three players on the 1998 Falcons team had been brought in by Reeves over the previous year, including journeyman quarterback Chris Chandler, who had a career-best season in 1998. Running back Jamal Anderson also posted a career-high 1846 rushing yards, which led the NFC that year, and the defense finished fourth overall in points allowed. As a result, the Falcons won the NFC West with a record of 14–2 and clinched the second overall seed in the NFC playoffs, behind only the Vikings. The team was nicknamed the "Dirty Birds" after a touchdown dance created by tight end O.J. Santiago but popularized by Anderson.
After experiencing chest pains following the team's 27–17 victory over the New Orleans Saints on December 13, Reeves underwent quadruple bypass surgery. The team was coached by defensive coordinator Rich Brooks for the final two regular season games. Reeves was able to return to the team in time for their first playoff game, in which the Falcons beat their division rival, the San Francisco 49ers, to clinch a spot in the Conference Championship. Despite an impressive season, they were not expected to match up well against the Vikings, who had beaten teams by an average of 23.22 points at home that year and were installed as 11-point favorites for the Championship Game.
## Game summary
The Falcons won the coin toss before the game and elected to receive the opening kickoff. They drove down the field and scored first on a five-yard touchdown pass to Jamal Anderson. On the next drive, the Vikings answered the score with a 31-yard touchdown pass from Cunningham to Randy Moss, tying the game at 7. Neither team scored in the remainder of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Gary Anderson kicked a field goal after the Vikings recovered a Falcons fumble to make the score 10–7. After forcing the Falcons to punt on the next drive, the Vikings scored another touchdown on a one-yard run by Cunningham, increasing the lead to 17–7 with five minutes remaining in the first half. The Falcons then lost another fumble, which gave possession back to the Vikings. On the ensuing drive, Moss dropped what would have been a touchdown pass in the end zone, leaving Gary Anderson to kick another field goal to make the score 20–7. After forcing another Falcons punt, the Vikings attempted to increase their lead before halftime, but Falcons lineman Chuck Smith forced a fumble on Cunningham, and the Falcons recovered the ball deep in Vikings territory. The Falcons subsequently scored on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Chris Chandler to Terance Mathis to cut their deficit to 20–14 by the end of the half.
The Falcons forced the Vikings to punt on the opening drive of the second half, and two long plays by wide receiver Tim Dwight set up a 27-yard field goal by Morten Andersen, which cut the Falcons' deficit to three points. The Vikings answered the score on their ensuing possession, driving 82 yards in 15 plays to score a touchdown on a five-yard Matthew Hatchette reception, which made the score 27–17 with just over 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Falcons responded with a 70-yard completion to Tony Martin, which set up a 24-yard field goal by Morten Andersen to make the score 27–20. On the ensuing Vikings drive, Cunningham fumbled a snap and the Falcons recovered the ball on the Vikings' 30-yard line; the Falcons failed to score after an incomplete pass turned the ball over on downs with six minutes left in the game. The Vikings then drove down to the Falcons' 22-yard line, where an incomplete pass on 3rd down set up a field goal attempt by Gary Anderson.
### Anderson's kick
The incompletion on 3rd down stopped the clock with 2:11 left in the game. The field goal attempt was placed from 39 yards away, which is not considered a particularly difficult field goal distance by NFL standards. Because the game was played indoors at the Metrodome, there were no adverse weather conditions that might have affected the kick. The ball was snapped on 4th down with punter Mitch Berger holding from the left hash mark. The Vikings faced a heavy rush from cornerback Michael Booker on the left side of the line of scrimmage and cornerbacks Ronnie Bradford and Ray Buchanan on the right, who ran into Anderson and knocked him to the ground after the kick. The ball sailed about a foot wide left of the upright with 2:07 left on the game clock. Afterward, Anderson stood on the field momentarily with arms akimbo before heading to the sideline, as Falcons players celebrated around him.
A converted field goal would have given the Vikings a 10-point lead, which would have almost certainly clinched victory, according to Pro Football Prospectus and the NFL Network documentary The Missing Rings. Citing a mathematical algorithm by sports analytics company numberFire, The New York Post reported that the Vikings had a 95.23% chance of winning the game had Anderson converted the field goal.
### End of regulation and overtime
The Falcons took possession of the football at their own 29-yard line and quickly drove down the field. With just over a minute left in the game, Vikings safety Robert Griffith dropped an interception off a deflected pass, which would have also almost certainly clinched victory. Instead, Chandler threw a touchdown pass to Mathis on the next play, tying the game 27–27 with 49 seconds remaining in regulation. On the ensuing possession, the Vikings managed only seven yards and then kneeled on third down, which ran out the clock and forced overtime. Under the NFL overtime rules then in force, the first team to score in the overtime period would win.
The Vikings won the coin toss and started overtime with possession of the football on their own 29-yard line, but managed to convert only one first down and punted to Atlanta. The Falcons drove to their own 41-yard line before being stopped on 3rd down, and they punted the ball back to Vikings. On the ensuing drive, Cunningham attempted a deep pass to Moss that was narrowly broken up by Eugene Robinson; had the pass been completed, it most likely would have resulted in a touchdown and victory for the Vikings. Instead, the Vikings had to punt on 4th down again. The Falcons then drove to the Vikings' 21-yard line, where Morten Andersen converted a 38-yard field goal for the win.
## Aftermath
### Player reactions
After the game, Gary Anderson was described as "inconsolable". Although the Vikings still led by seven points at the time, his missed kick had a demoralizing effect on the team. ESPN contributor Ben Goessling noted "how swiftly it pulled the bottom out from under a team that had an air of inevitability about it to that point." Writing for the website Sporting News, Jeff Diamond, the Vikings' general manager at the time, observed that, "Our team played the rest of the game as if it was in shock that our automatic kicker had missed at the most critical time." Randle concurred, describing his reaction to the kick as, "I was standing there like someone just punched me in my stomach, and was like, 'Oh my God, oh my God.'" Brian Billick, the offensive coordinator of the 1998 Vikings, went as far as stating, "I'm not sure the city had ever rebounded from it." Cunningham concurred by claiming, "With that kick, it just seemed like the whole franchise went wide left."
Carter openly wept in the locker room after the game and was affected so badly by the loss that he considered retirement. "Walking off that field and losing like that," Carter reflected, "I didn't even know if I wanted to play football anymore. Because I just, I felt like that I would never win after that." He went on to call the game, "The most devastating loss that I've ever been a part of." Both Carter and fellow Hall of Fame member Randle believed that the 1998 Vikings team was their best chance at winning a Super Bowl; neither player ever reached the Super Bowl in their careers.
Randle described the feeling after the game as, "It's like driving down a street and getting every green light for the next ten miles, and you're just cruising along, and it's just smooth. And all of a sudden, you're getting there, you're almost there, and all of a sudden, the fucking light turns red, and you get sideswiped." Randle further laments the loss due to the background of many of his teammates, whom he described as "misfits, guys who just got their second chance." Beyond Moss's legal troubles, Carter had been released by the Philadelphia Eagles early in his career for substance abuse issues, and Cunningham was released by the Eagles and remained unsigned to a team two seasons prior. Randle himself was considered undersized coming out of college and was not heavily pursued by NFL teams.
Cunningham drew on his religious faith to persevere through the loss, believing that God had a reason for everything to happen. Years later, he reflected, "It just wasn’t our destiny to be in the Super Bowl. That’s my conclusion. Because if it was, we would have gone." Immediately after the game, he expressed this belief in an attempt to console Carter. The following season, Cunningham was benched for poor play after six games and was released by the Vikings at the end of the year. He also would never play in a Super Bowl.
Overjoyed with victory, Falcons players also wept after the game, and the team ripped open pillows and threw feathers in celebration on their charter flight back to Atlanta. Buchanan stated that the win "feels like a miracle" due to the negative perception of the Falcons in years past. "This team was dirt. People stepped on us and wiped their feet on the doormat. Now we feel like a bunch of Michael Jordans." Chandler joked that due to his game-winning field goal, Morten Andersen "gets to keep his green card", referring to Andersen's Danish nationality, while running back Jamal Anderson felt vindicated for the media's continuous focus on the Vikings in the days leading up to the game, which made him feel disrespected.
Falcons defensive end Chuck Smith questioned the Vikings' toughness because of the ease with which they had won during the season. "It's one thing to beat up on people," said Smith, "but how do you react when someone's finally hitting you back? We've been slugging it out all year." Years later, Smith went on to criticize Gary Anderson in particular for his missed field goal and its contribution to the Vikings' loss.
### Media analysis
By virtue of their loss, the 1998 Vikings became the first team in NFL history to compile a regular season record of 15–1 and not win the Super Bowl. Fox Sports, NBC Sports, and the NFL Network each named the team as one of the five greatest not to win the Super Bowl, and coach Dennis Green believed that the 1998 Vikings would have been considered the best NFL team of their generation had they gone on to win. As part of a series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the league, the NFL ranked the 1998 Vikings as the 38th greatest team in league history, the third highest ranking for a team that didn't win a championship and the highest for a team that failed to play in either the Super Bowl or the NFL Championship Game. In a 2018 retrospective, Sports Illustrated called the 1998 Vikings "The Greatest Team Never to Make It."
The loss had a dramatic effect on Minnesota sports culture, as the 1998 Vikings were considered the team most likely to deliver a Super Bowl championship to a franchise that had already suffered multiple heartbreaking defeats. Numerous publications have noted the influence that the loss had on the Vikings fan base; Damon Amendolara of CBS Radio and Don Banks of Sports Illustrated both consider the Vikings' loss in the championship game as one of the most devastating in NFL history, with Banks noting that, "The Vikings have never completely recovered from that game." This perception has also extended into popular culture, as the game became a plot point in the episode "Little Minnesota" of the television show How I Met Your Mother when Robin, a Canadian character, asks the significance of a banner in a Minnesota-themed bar that reads, "I'm drinking till I forget the 1999 [sic] NFC Championship."
Gary Anderson's missed kick has been singled out as the main contributing factor to the Vikings' loss, as the Falcons were able to capitalize on the late shift in momentum produced by an unexpected opportunity to tie and eventually win the game. Considering this impact on the game's outcome and the historic performances of Anderson and the 1998 Vikings team, the miss has since been noted as a memorable moment in the greater history of the NFL. Paul Allen, the play-by-play radio announcer for the Vikings, and Dan Barreiro both consider the miss as one of the most devastating moments in the history of Minnesota sports. According to Chad Hartman, another sports radio host based in Minneapolis, "[Anderson] will always be known as the guy who was a part of screwing up the Vikings' trip to the Super Bowl, even though he had this magnificent season." ESPN voted the miss as the most memorable play in Vikings history, and ESPN contributor Ben Goessling believes that the miss influenced misfortunes that the franchise faced in subsequent years, including three additional conference championship losses in 2000 (when they were shut out 41–0 by the New York Giants), 2009 (when they were nearly in range of a game-clinching field goal before Brett Favre threw an interception), and 2017 (when they followed up the "Minneapolis Miracle" with the "Minneapolis Massacre").
Anderson has claimed that in greater context, the miss was not particularly notable, and it is only remembered because the Falcons won the game. Buchanan, who was attempting to block Anderson's kick, believes that Anderson would not have been able to convert the field goal regardless, since if the kick was on target, it would have "hit [Buchanan] in the face mask." Vikings backup quarterback Brad Johnson echoed this sentiment, stating, "I think someone got loose on the left end and they almost blocked it, and [Anderson] tried to slice it in there." Several sportswriters, as well as Randle, have defended Anderson, pointing out that the Vikings' defense deserved the real blame for the loss for allowing Atlanta to tie the game after Anderson's miss. Barreiro also criticized the performance of Vikings starting quarterback Cunningham, who he felt did not handle the pressure of the game well and called "dreadful down the stretch".
Vikings head coach Dennis Green was criticized for his decision to kneel on 3rd down and play for overtime instead of attempting to score before the end of regulation. Radio host Bob Sansevere, author of The Best Minnesota Sports Arguments, called it "one of the all-time boneheaded decisions a coach has ever made in any sport". Of Green's play call, Peter King of Sports Illustrated wrote, "Minnesota coach Dennis Green did a great job this year, but if he doesn't wake up and stare at the ceiling in the next few days and say out loud: 'Boy, I screwed that one up,' then he's not being honest with himself." Nonetheless, local Minneapolis newspaper Star Tribune has contended that taking a knee was the correct decision due to the performance of the Vikings' offense, whose struggles that day were also noted by Carter.
Falcons head coach Dan Reeves was praised for his ability to lead the team after having heart surgery only weeks prior, as Reeves' comeback proved to be an emotional rallying point for the team. Austin Murphy of Sports Illustrated noted that Reeves' return "[galvanized] the already close-knit Falcons", and Falcons linebacker Jessie Tuggle agreed: "Dan has really inspired us all. ... He walked in the meeting room four days after having had surgery, and you could have heard a pin drop. We wanted to hear every last word he had to say." Reeves described his time during the season as "more rewarding than any other teams I've been involved in", and to Falcons special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, Reeves' leadership that season was "his best coaching job ever". CBS called Reeves' return "an amazing comeback that people will be talking about for years".
Chandler was considered to be the offensive hero of the game, despite the attention that the Vikings' offense received during the season. Media analysis before the game noted that the Vikings' defense needed to focus on shutting down Falcons running back Jamal Anderson; feeling overlooked, Chandler used the coverage as extra motivation. In a retrospective for the website SportsGrid, Geoff Magliocchetti detailed the end of the game, in which he claims that Chandler "embarked on the drive of his life, an 8-play, 71-yard masterpiece, finding Mathis from 16 yards out for the tying score."
The Falcons missed the playoffs the following season (while their home stadium hosted the Super Bowl) and would not return to the postseason until 2002. Following the 2001 season, Chandler was released by the team, and Jamal Anderson retired due to a knee injury. As a result, their win in the 1998 NFC Championship game stood as the franchise's proudest moment for years, particularly due to the atmosphere of pessimism that surrounded the franchise at the time. An NFL Films retrospective on the Falcons' season noted that "years of pain were wiped away in one unforgettable afternoon," and Dan Weiner stated that, "The 1998 season was a dream come true ... For once, the Atlanta Falcons made believers of us all." In 2010, ESPN named the 1998 team as the greatest Falcons team of all-time, and the network also voted Morton Andersen's game-winning field goal as the top play in Falcons' history. After two defeats in the NFC Championship Game, 2004 and 2012, it was during the 2016 season that the franchise won their second NFC Championship and went on to lose Super Bowl LI in overtime to the New England Patriots, 34–28.
### Super Bowl XXXIII
In the hours before the AFC Championship Game, the Denver Broncos were watching the NFC Championship Game on the JumboTron at Mile High Stadium to see who they would play in Super Bowl XXXIII should they defeat the New York Jets. Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan expressed surprise at Anderson's missed kick, and running back Terrell Davis said that the Falcons' subsequent victory put the Broncos in the mindset that they had "won the Super Bowl already," as their greatest potential challenge had been eliminated. This distraction nearly cost the Broncos the game against the Jets, as the Broncos played a very poor game. Tim Connolly, the Vikings team president at the time, recalled that Shanahan insinuated relief that the Broncos were not playing the Vikings when the two met at a reception after the conference championship games.
Two weeks later in the Super Bowl, the Falcons played the Broncos, the game pitting coach Dan Reeves against his former team and their star quarterback, John Elway. Reeves had led the Broncos to three Super Bowl appearances, all losses, and he was fired as the Broncos' head coach after the 1992 NFL season. Afterward, Elway was quoted as saying, "These last three years have been hell. I know I would not have been back here if Dan Reeves had been here. It wasn't worth it to me. I didn't enjoy it. It wasn't any fun, and I got tired of working with him." Reeves responded by saying, "Just tell him it wasn't exactly heaven for me either. One of these days I hope he grows up. Maybe he'll mature sometime." During his tenure, Reeves had also fired Shanahan, who was an assistant coach on the team, and these points of contention became a media storyline entering the game. Nonetheless, all parties involved stated that any lingering animosity had long since passed.
The Falcons lost Super Bowl XXXIII by a score of 34–19, which earned the Broncos their second consecutive Super Bowl victory. The game was anticipated as a match up between the Vikings and the Broncos, and the Falcons' presence in the game was noted as an anticlimax. The night before the game, safety Eugene Robinson was arrested for soliciting a prostitute. Although Robinson played in the game, the distraction contributed to a poor performance by the Falcons team, who managed only six points in six drives deep into Denver territory and surrendered a season-high point total.
## Statistics
### Box score
### Statistical comparison
Per Pro Football Reference:
### Individual leaders
Per Pro Football Reference:
<sup>1</sup>Completions/attempts <sup>2</sup>Carries <sup>3</sup>Long gain <sup>4</sup>Receptions <sup>5</sup>Times targeted
## Personnel
### Starting lineups
As credited during the Fox Sports broadcast of the 1998 NFC Championship game:
### Officials
As credited during the Fox Sports broadcast of the 1998 NFC Championship game:
- Referee: Walt Coleman (#65)
- Umpire: Ron Botchan (#110)
- Head Linesman: Mark Baltz (#26)
- Line Judge: Byron Boston (#18)
- Field Judge: Bill Lovett (#98)
- Side Judge: Neely Dunn (#89)
- Back Judge: Billy Smith (#2)
## See also
- 2015 Minnesota Vikings season
- Double Doink
- Wide Right (Buffalo Bills)
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Last voyage of the Karluk
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1913 loss of flagship of the Canadian Arctic Expedition
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[
"20th century in the Arctic",
"Alaska-related ships",
"Arctic exploration vessels",
"Chukchi Sea",
"Maritime incidents in January 1914",
"Pre-statehood history of Alaska",
"Shipwrecks in the Arctic Ocean",
"Voyages"
] |
The last voyage of the Karluk, flagship of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913–16, ended with the loss of the ship in the Arctic seas, and the subsequent deaths of nearly half her complement of 25. In August 1913, Karluk, a brigantine formerly used as a whaler, became trapped in the ice while sailing to a rendezvous point at Herschel Island. After a long drift across the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, in January 1914 the ship was crushed and sunk. In the ensuing months, the crew and expedition staff struggled to survive, first on the ice and later on the shores of Wrangel Island. In all, eleven men died before rescue. The Canadian Arctic Expedition was organised under the leadership of Canadian anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson, and had both scientific and geographic purposes. Shortly after Karluk was trapped, Stefansson and a small party left the ship, stating that they intended to hunt for caribou. However, the ice carried Karluk westwards, far from the hunting party who found it impossible to return to the ship. Stefansson reached land and then devoted himself to the expedition's scientific objectives, leaving the crew and staff on board the ship under the charge of its captain, Robert Bartlett. After the sinking, Bartlett organised a march across the ice to Wrangel Island, 80 miles (130 km) away. Conditions were difficult and dangerous; two four-man parties were lost before the island was reached.
From the island, Bartlett and an Inuk companion, Kataktovik, set out across the frozen sea for the Siberian coast, in search of help. Assisted by local populations, the pair eventually reached Alaska, but sea ice conditions prevented any immediate rescue mission. On Wrangel Island, the stranded party survived by hunting game, but were short of food and troubled by internal dissent. Before their eventual rescue in September 1914, three more of the party had died, two of illness and one in violent circumstances; 14 were rescued.
Historians have divided views on Stefansson's decision to leave the ship. Some of the voyage's survivors were critical of his seeming indifference to their ordeal and the loss of their comrades. He escaped official censure, and was publicly honoured for his later work on the expedition despite the Canadian government's reservations about its overall management. Although Bartlett was criticised by an admiralty commission for taking Karluk into the ice, he was hailed as a hero by the public and by his former Karluk shipmates.
## Canadian Arctic Expedition
### Background
The Canadian Arctic Expedition was the brainchild of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a US-based, Canadian-born anthropologist of Icelandic extraction who had spent most of the years between 1906 and 1912 studying Inuit life in the remote Arctic Canada. His fieldwork had resulted in the first detailed information on the life and culture of the Copper Inuit, the so-called "blond Eskimos". Stefansson had returned home with plans for another expedition to continue his Arctic studies, and obtained promises of financial backing totalling US\$45,000 (around US\$750,000 in 2010) from the National Geographic Society (NGS) in Washington and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. However, he wanted to extend his plans to include geographical exploration in the Beaufort Sea, then a blank space on the world's maps. For these expanded aims he needed more money, and approached the Canadian government for assistance.
The area known as the "High Arctic" was subject to claims of sovereignty not only from Canada, but also from Norway and the United States. The Canadian government was concerned that an American-financed expedition would give the United States a legal claim to any new land discovered in the Beaufort Sea, so when the Canadian prime minister Robert Borden met Stefansson in Ottawa in February 1913 he offered to assume financial responsibility for the entire expedition. Borden's government was hopeful that the expedition would strengthen Canada's claim to sovereignty over the Arctic islands. The American sponsors agreed to withdraw, subject to an NGS condition that the Society could reclaim its rights to the expedition if Stefansson failed to depart by June 1913. This created a narrow deadline and hurried preparations for the journey north, although Stefansson maintained in his 1921 account that "forethought appeared to have anticipated every eventuality".
### Objectives and strategy
The Canadian government's financial involvement represented a shift in the expedition's emphasis, towards geographical exploration rather than the original purpose of ethnological and scientific studies. In a letter to the Canadian Victoria Daily Times, Stefansson set out these separate aims. The main object was to explore the "area of a million or so square miles that is represented by white patches on our map, lying between Alaska and the North Pole". The expedition also aimed to be the most comprehensive scientific study of the Arctic ever attempted. While a Northern Party searched for new lands, a mainly land-based Southern Party under zoologist Rudolph Anderson would carry out surveys and anthropological studies in the islands off the northern Canadian coast.
The Northern Party's ship, Karluk, would proceed north from the Canadian coast until it either found land or was stopped by ice. It would explore any land it encountered; otherwise it would follow the ice edge eastward and attempt to winter at either Banks Island or Prince Patrick Island. If the ship was trapped in the ice and forced to drift, the party would study the direction of Arctic currents and carry out oceanographic research. Meanwhile, Rudolph Anderson's party was expected to continue with the anthropological studies of the "blond Eskimo", to collect varieties of Arctic flora and fauna, to carry out geological research, and to seek open-water channels in the hope of establishing new trade routes.
### Organisation and personnel
Stefansson's plan was to take the expedition to the old whaling station at Herschel Island off the Canadian Arctic coast, where the final composition of the Northern and Southern Parties would be decided and where equipment and supplies would be divided among the different strands of the venture. The haste to meet the NGS deadline led to concerns among the expedition's members about the adequacy of the provision of food, clothing and equipment. Stefansson, who was largely absent in the hectic weeks immediately before sailing and who revealed few of his plans to his team, dismissed such concerns as "impertinent and disloyal". There were disputes between Stefansson and the scientists over the chain of command; the Canadian Geological Survey, which had provided four scientists to the expedition, wanted these men to report to them rather than to Stefansson. Southern Party leader Rudolph Anderson threatened to resign over Stefansson's claim to the publication rights of all private expedition journals.
The scientific team, made up of some of the most distinguished men in their fields, included representatives from the United States, Denmark, Norway and France, as well as from Britain and its Empire. Only two, however, had previous polar experience: Alistair Forbes Mackay, the expedition's medical officer, had visited Antarctica with Sir Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition in 1907–09, and had been one of the party of three to discover the location of the South Magnetic Pole. Another Nimrod veteran, the 46-year-old James Murray, was Stefansson's oceanographer. Among the younger scientists were William Laird McKinlay (1889–1983), a 24-year-old science teacher from Glasgow who was recommended by the British explorer William Speirs Bruce, and Bjarne Mamen (1893–1914), a 20-year-old skiing champion from Christiania, Norway, who was taken on as a forester, despite lacking scientific experience.
Stefansson had wanted American whaling skipper Christian Theodore Pedersen to captain Karluk, the ship designated for the Northern Party. When Pedersen withdrew, the captaincy was offered to 36-year-old Newfoundland-born Robert Bartlett, an experienced polar navigator who had commanded Robert Peary's ship, SS Roosevelt, on Peary's 1906 and 1909 polar expeditions. Bartlett did not have time, however, to select Karluk's crew, which was hurriedly assembled from around the Royal Navy Dockyard at Esquimalt in British Columbia. McKinlay later wrote of the crew that "one was a confirmed drug addict ... another suffered from venereal disease; and in spite of orders that no liquor was to be carried, at least two smuggled supplies on board". McKinlay worried that this crew might lack the qualities and character necessary in the arduous months ahead, concerns shared by Bartlett, whose first act on arrival in Esquimalt was to fire the first officer for incompetence. In his place he appointed the 22-year-old Alexander "Sandy" Anderson.
### Ships
Karluk had been chosen by Pedersen and bought by Stefansson for the bargain price of US\$10,000. Stefansson was advised by Pedersen that, of four ships that were available, Karluk was "the soundest and best adapted for our purpose", but Bartlett had deep reservations about her fitness for prolonged Arctic service. The ship, a 29-year-old brigantine, was 129 feet (39 m) in length with a beam of 23 feet (7.0 m). She had been built for the Aleutian fishing industry (karluk is the Aleut word for "fish") and later converted for whaling, when her bows and sides had been sheathed with 2-inch (51 mm) Australian ironwood. Despite 14 arctic whaling voyages, including six overwinterings, she had not been built to withstand sustained ice pressure, and lacked the engine power to force a passage through the ice. She did not match the expectations of Bartlett, or of many of the more experienced crew.
The ship spent most of April and May 1913 undergoing repairs and refitting at the dockyard in Esquimalt. When Bartlett arrived in early June he immediately ordered further repair work. In addition to Karluk, Stefansson had purchased sight unseen a small gasoline-driven schooner, Alaska, to act as a supply ship for the Southern Party. He later added a second schooner, Mary Sachs, when the hold space in Alaska proved inadequate. In the confusion surrounding the expedition's departure, McKinlay notes, no attempt was made to align men or equipment to their appropriate ships. Thus anthropologists Henri Beuchat and Diamond Jenness, both designated for the Southern Party, found themselves sailing with Karluk, while their equipment was on board Alaska. McKinlay himself, aboard Karluk as magnetic observer, discovered that most of his equipment was with Alaska. Stefansson insisted that all would be sorted out when the ships reached their Herschel Island rendezvous. "Heaven help us all if we failed to reach Herschel Island", McKinlay wrote.
### Towards Herschel Island
Karluk left Esquimalt on 17 June 1913, sailing north towards Alaska. The immediate destination was Nome, on the coast of the Bering Sea. There was trouble from the beginning with the steering gear and with the engines, both of which needed frequent attention. On 2 July Karluk reached the Bering Sea in mist, fog and rapidly falling temperatures; six days later she arrived at Nome where she joined Alaska and Mary Sachs. While the ships were being loaded in Nome, some of the scientists pressed for a meeting with the leader to clarify plans, particularly with regard to the Northern Party whose schedule was vague. The meeting was unsatisfactory. Stefansson's attitude offended several of the men, some of whom threatened to leave the expedition. They had read press reports in which Stefansson had apparently said that he expected Karluk to be crushed, and that the lives of the staff were secondary to the scientific work. Stefansson would not explain these matters, nor give further details of his plans for the Northern Party. Despite the scientists' alarm and dissatisfaction, none resigned.
At Port Clarence, just north of Nome, 28 dogs were taken on board before Karluk sailed north on 27 July. The next day she crossed the Arctic Circle, and almost immediately encountered rough weather which resulted in flooded cabins and seasickness. However, McKinlay noted that "whatever defects she had, Karluk was proving herself a fine sea-boat." On 31 July they reached Point Hope, where two Inuit hunters, known as "Jerry" and "Jimmy", joined the ship. On 1 August the permanent Arctic ice pack was seen; Bartlett made several attempts to breach the ice, but each time was forced back. On 2 August, about 25 miles (40 km) from Point Barrow, Karluk thrust her way into the ice but was soon trapped, and drifted slowly eastward for three days before reaching open water off Cape Smythe. Meanwhile, Stefansson had left to travel over the ice to Point Barrow. He rejoined the ship at Cape Smythe on 6 August, bringing with him Jack Hadley, a veteran trapper who required passage east. Hadley, a long-time acquaintance of Stefansson's, was entered in the ship's books as carpenter.
At Cape Smythe two more Inuit hunters, Keraluk and Kataktovik, joined the expedition, together with Keraluk's family—wife Keruk and their two young daughters Helen and Mugpi. As the voyage proceeded, Bartlett became increasingly anxious about the extent of ice in the area, and noted that the brass stemplates on the ship's bow had already been damaged. Over the next few days Karluk struggled to make headway, as Bartlett took the ship northwards away from the coast, following channels of open water. The only scientific tasks of substance that could be carried out during this period were Murray's dredging operations, through which he collected many species of Arctic sea life, and the regular depth soundings. On 13 August Bartlett calculated their position as 235 miles (378 km) east of Point Barrow, with a similar distance to travel to Herschel Island. This proved to be the ship's farthest point east, as at that position she became firmly trapped in the ice and began to move slowly westward; by 10 September Karluk had retreated nearly 100 miles (160 km) back towards Point Barrow. Shortly afterwards, Stefansson informed Bartlett that all hopes for further progress that year had ended, and that Karluk would have to winter in the ice.
## In the ice
### Drifting west
On 19 September, with Karluk ice-bound and largely stationary, Stefansson announced that in view of the shortage of fresh meat and the likelihood of a long sojourn in the ice, he would lead a small hunting party that would search for caribou and other game in the area of the Colville River. He would take with him the two Inuit "Jimmy" and "Jerry", the expedition secretary Burt McConnell, the photographer George Wilkins, and the anthropologist Diamond Jenness. Stefansson expected to be gone for about ten days; Bartlett was instructed by letter that, if the ship should move from its present position, he should "send a party ashore, to erect one or more beacons giving information of the ship's whereabouts." The next day the six men departed. On 23 September, following a blizzard, the ice floe in which Karluk was trapped began to move, and soon the ship was travelling at between 30 and 60 miles (48 and 97 km) a day—but to the west, steadily further from Herschel Island and from Stefansson's party who, it soon became clear, would not be able to find their way back to the ship.
In an unpublished journal and later correspondence, McKinlay suggested that Stefansson's departure amounted to abandoning the ship to its fate. The expedition's historian S.E. Jenness (son of Diamond Jenness) rejects this view, pointing out that Stefansson and the hunting party members had left valuable property aboard Karluk; a possible motive for the trip, Jenness surmises, was to train the younger staff. The anthropologist Gísli Pálsson, writing of the expedition, asserts that while the anger of Bartlett and the crew is understandable, there is no evidence that Stefansson deliberately abandoned the men. It is arguable, Pálsson says, that Stefansson acted responsibly in attempting to secure a supply of fresh meat which would counter the possibility of scurvy, should Karluk be trapped in the ice for a long time. The historian Richard Diubaldo writes "The evidence suggests that this was a normal hunting trip" and "... there is strong evidence to suggest he [Stefansson] wished he had never left [the ship]".
The constant snow and thick mists made it difficult for Bartlett to calculate the Karluk's position accurately, although during a brief break in the weather on 30 September they glimpsed land which they took to be Cooper Island, in the vicinity of Point Barrow where they had been at the start of August. On 3 October the anxiety of crew and staff increased when, with Point Barrow just 5 miles (8 km) distant, the drift turned northwards, away from the land. There were fears among some that Karluk would repeat the experience of the Jeannette, an American vessel that 30 years previously had drifted in the Arctic ice for months before sinking, with the subsequent loss of most of her crew. Bartlett became aware that Murray and McKay, the two veterans of Shackleton's Nimrod expedition, were openly contemptuous of their captain's leadership. They were making plans to leave the ship at an appropriate time, and head for land on their own.
As the weather grew worse Bartlett ordered supplies and equipment to be transferred onto the ice, both to lighten the ship and as a precaution should it be necessary to abandon the vessel in a hurry. Food supplies were augmented by seal hunts—two or three seals a day was the average bag, according to McKinlay—and by a single polar bear that had wandered near the ship in mid-November. On 15 November Karluk reached 73°N, the most northerly point of its drift, and then began moving south-west, in the general direction of the Siberian coast. By mid-December the estimated position was 140 miles (230 km) from Wrangel Island. Despite the bleak outlook—Bartlett was privately convinced that Karluk would not survive the winter— a determined effort was made to celebrate Christmas, with decorations, presents, a programme of sports on the ice, and a banquet. By then they were just 50 miles (80 km) north of Herald Island, a rocky outpost east of Wrangel Island; on 29 December land was visible in the distance, though whether this was Herald Island or Wrangel Island was not clear. The sighting of land briefly raised morale, but in the New Year the ice began breaking up and forming pressure ridges. Over the next few days, wrote McKinlay, "the twanging, drumming, ominous ice sounds got louder and nearer."
### Sinking
Early in the morning of 10 January 1914, McKinlay records, "a severe shudder shook the whole ship" as the ice attacked the hull. Bartlett, still hoping to save his ship, gave orders to lighten her by removing all accumulated snow from the decks. He also ordered all hands to have warm clothing ready. At 6.45 in the evening a loud bang indicated that the hull had been punctured; Bartlett went immediately to the engine room and observed water pouring in through a gash 10 feet (3.0 m) long. There was no possibility that the pumps could deal with the inflow, and the captain gave the order to abandon ship. Weather conditions, says McKinlay, could hardly have been worse, but the crew and staff worked throughout the night, in pitch darkness and driving snow, to add to the quantities of rations and equipment already stored on the ice. Bartlett remained on board until the last moments, playing loud music on the ship's Victrola and burning each record upon finishing it. At 3:15 p.m. on 11 January, Bartlett put on Chopin's Funeral March as a final salute to the ship, and stepped off. Karluk sank within minutes, her yardarms snapping off as she disappeared through the narrow hole in the ice. McKinlay took stock of the stranded party: 22 men, one woman, two children, 16 dogs and a cat.
### Shipwreck Camp
Bartlett's decision to deposit stores on the ice ensured that an ice camp, known as "Shipwreck Camp", was more or less established by the time Karluk sank. Two shelters had been built, one a snow igloo with a canvas roof, the other constructed from packing cases. To the latter was added a kitchen with a large stove rescued from Karluk's engine room. A small, separate shelter was built for the five Inuit, and a rough perimeter created from coal bags and assorted containers. In McKinlay's words, the camp provided "substantial and comfortable houses on which we could rely for shelter for a long time." Stores were plentiful, and the party was able to eat well. Much of the time in the first days of the camp was spent preparing and adjusting clothing and sleeping gear, in readiness for the forthcoming march to Wrangel Island. The ice drift was slowly moving the camp in the direction of the island, but as yet there was insufficient daylight to attempt the march.
Amid this activity Mackay and Murray, now joined by the anthropologist Henri Beuchat, played little part in the general life of the camp and expressed their determination to leave it, independently, as soon as possible. Bartlett wanted to wait for the longer daylight hours of February before attempting the march, but was persuaded by McKinlay and Mamen to send a trailbreaking group to set up an advance camp on Wrangel Island. A party of four, led by Karluk's first officer Alexander Anderson and including crew members Charles Barker, John Brady and Edmund Golightly, left Shipwreck Camp on 21 January with instructions from Bartlett to establish their camp at or near Berry Point on the north shore of Wrangel Island. On 4 February Bjarne Mamen, who accompanied the party as a scout, returned to Shipwreck Camp and reported that he had left the group a few miles short of land that was evidently not Wrangel Island, and was probably Herald Island, 38 miles (61 km) from their intended destination. This was the last sighting of Anderson's party; their ultimate fate was not established until ten years later, when their remains were found on Herald Island.
### March to Wrangel Island
Bartlett decided to send a team back to establish the exact location of the island that the Anderson party had approached, and to determine if Anderson had actually landed there. An injury to his knee ruled Mamen out from this mission, which was undertaken by ship's steward Ernest Chafe, with the Inuit pair, Kataktovik and Kuraluk. Chafe's group came within 2 miles (3 km) of Herald Island before being stopped by open water. A careful examination through binoculars revealed no signs of the missing party, and Chafe concluded that Anderson and company had not reached the island. Chafe and his party then returned to Shipwreck Camp.
Meanwhile, on 4 February, Mackay and his group (Murray and Beuchat, joined by seaman Stanley Morris) announced they were leaving the next day, to seek land. Mackay presented Bartlett with a letter dated 1 February that began: "We, the undersigned, in consideration of the present critical situation, desire to make an attempt to reach the land." The letter requested appropriate supplies, and concluded by emphasising that the journey was on their own initiative and absolving Bartlett from all responsibilities. Bartlett allocated them a sledge, a tent, six gallons of oil, a rifle and ammunition and food for 50 days. They left on 5 February; the last sighting of them was a few days later, by Chafe and the Inuit, returning from their abortive trip to Herald Island. They found Mackay's party struggling to make headway, with some of their provisions lost and clothing and other equipment discarded to lighten their load. Beuchat in particular was in a distressed state, nearly delirious and in the throes of hypothermia. However, the party refused assistance and rejected Chafe's pleas that they return with him to Shipwreck Camp. Thereafter the only hint of their fate was a sailor's scarf belonging to Morris, later found buried in an ice floe. It was assumed that the four had either been crushed by the ice, or had fallen through it.
Bartlett's party now consisted of eight Karluk crew members (himself, engineers John Munro and Robert Williamson, seamen Hugh Williams and Fred Maurer, fireman George Breddy, cook Robert Templeman, and Chafe), three scientists (McKinlay, Mamen and geologist George Malloch), John Hadley, and five Inuit (the family of four and Kataktovik). Hadley, nearing 60 years of age, was one of the few, along with Bartlett and the Inuit, with experience of travelling for distances over ice. Bartlett sent his forces out, in groups, to blaze a trail and lay down supply depots on the route to Wrangel Island, thus preparing his inexperienced party for the hazards of ice travel. When he felt they were ready for the main journey he divided them into four teams and sent the first two away on 19 February. Bartlett himself led the last two groups from the camp on 24 February, leaving a note of the party's location in a copper drum in case the camp should drift into an inhabited area. The distance to Wrangel Island was estimated at 40 miles (64 km), but the journey proved to be twice that in length.
The ice surface was very broken up, making travel slow and difficult. At first the parties were able to travel along a track that had been marked out by the advance parties. However, recent storms had destroyed much of the trail, and in places progress was held up by breaking ice which at one point almost wrecked Bartlett's camp as his team slept. On 28 February all the parties came together in front of the first of a series of high ridges, from 25 to 100 feet (7.6 to 30.5 m) in height, that halted their progress. These stretched east and west, blocking any route to the island. McKinlay, Hadley and Chafe were sent on a risky journey back to Shipwreck Camp to pick up supplies that had been left there, while the rest slowly chopped and cut a pathway through the towering ridges. When McKinlay's group returned to the main party a week later, the path forward had been advanced by only three miles (5 km), but the worst of the ridges had been overcome. Hadley claimed that the ridges were worse than anything he had seen in his long years of Arctic experience. The later stages of the journey were easier, as the group travelled over steadily smoother ice, and on 12 March they reached land, a long spit of sand stretching out from the northern shores of Wrangel Island.
## Bartlett's journey
Bartlett's initial plan had been for the group to rest briefly on Wrangel Island and then to move on together to the Siberian coast. However, because three men—Mamen, Malloch and Maurer—were injured, and others were weak and frostbitten, Bartlett decided that the main party should remain on the island while he went for help taking only Kataktovik. The pair started off on 18 March, with seven dogs and provisions for 48 days (30 days for the dogs), and took an extended route round the island's southern shores to look for signs of Anderson's or Mackay's parties. After finding nothing, they headed across the ice towards Siberia, but progress was slow over a surface that was frequently shifting and breaking up to form leads of open water. More time was lost digging out their provisions from the steadily drifting snow. As they drew nearer to the mainland, Kataktovik became nervous; he had heard that the Alaskan Inuit were disliked in Siberia by the native Chukchi people, and feared for his life. Bartlett did his best to reassure him as they moved slowly forward.
On 4 April the pair reached land near Cape Jakan, west of Cape North on the northern Siberian coast. The presence of sledge marks in the snow showed they had landed in an inhabited area. They followed these tracks for a day, before arriving at a small Chukchi village. Here, contrary to Kataktovik's fears, they were received hospitably, and given shelter and food. On 7 April they set out for East Cape. Bartlett had not previously experienced such relentlessly cold weather, with blizzards, hurricane-force winds, and temperatures often below −50 °C (−58 °F). On the way they passed through several Chukchi villages, where Bartlett traded goods for necessary supplies—he exchanged his Colt revolver for a young, strong dog. Bartlett was touched by the kindness and generosity shown by many of those they encountered on the way, "typical of the true humanity of these kindly people". On 24 April they arrived at Emma Town, a settlement a few miles west of East Cape. Bartlett calculated that in the 37 days since leaving Wrangel Island, he and Kataktovik had travelled about 700 miles (1,100 km), all but the last stage on foot.
At Emma Town Bartlett met Baron Kleist, a distinguished Russian official who offered to take him to Emma Harbour on the coast, a week's journey away, where he could look for a ship to Alaska. Bartlett accepted, and on 10 May, though still weak from his journey and an attack of tonsillitis, said goodbye to Kataktovik (who was remaining for the time being in Emma Town), and set off with the baron. On the way they learned that Captain Pedersen was in the area. On 16 May they reached Emma Harbour; five days later Pedersen arrived in the whaler Herman and, without delay, took Bartlett on board and set out for Alaska. They arrived off Nome on 24 May, but ice prevented them reaching the shore. After three days' waiting they turned south, and landed at St Michael, where Bartlett was at last able to send a radio message to Ottawa informing the government of Karluk's fate. He also made enquiries about the whereabouts of the United States revenue cutter Bear, which he saw as a possible rescue vessel for the stranded party.
## On Wrangel Island
The landfall from Shipwreck Camp had been on the north side of Wrangel Island, at a spot which they named "Icy Spit". Before his departure, Bartlett asked the party to set up several camps around the island, which would increase the hunting areas. The captain also felt that separation into smaller groups would assist general harmony by keeping incompatible characters apart. He wanted all groups to reassemble at Rodgers Harbor, on the south side of the island, about the middle of July.
However, dissension broke out almost immediately after Bartlett's departure over the sharing of food. It had not been possible to drag all the supplies from Shipwreck Camp, and the trek had taken longer than expected; consequently there were shortages of biscuit, pemmican (a compound of dried meat, fat and sugar) and dog food. There was little prospect of augmenting supplies by hunting birds and game until the weather improved in May or June. When Hadley and the Inuit, Kuraluk, returned from a seal hunt on the ice, Hadley was widely suspected of concealing the proceeds of the hunt for his own consumption; the same pair were also accused of wasting scarce cooking oil. McKinlay records that the circumstances depressed morale and destroyed comradeship: "The misery and desperation of our situation multiplied every weakness, every quirk of personality, every flaw in character, a thousandfold."
Two attempts were made to travel back to Shipwreck Camp to pick up extra food, but both failed, the second resulting in further losses of dogs and equipment. Chafe, whose feet had become gangrenous after severe frostbite, had his toes removed by second engineer Williamson, with improvised tools. McKinlay and Munro risked their lives by travelling over the sea ice towards Herald Island, in a final effort to locate either of the missing parties. They could get no nearer than 15 miles (24 km), and from an examination of the distant island through binoculars could see no indications of life.
Other health problems persisted; Malloch's frostbitten feet failed to heal, and Mamen's knee, which he had dislocated during the days at Shipwreck Camp, troubled him continuously. A worrying illness began to affect many of the party: the general symptoms were swelling of the legs, ankles and other body parts, accompanied by acute lethargy. Malloch was the worst affected; he died on 17 May, but his tent-mate Mamen was too ill to see to his burial, so the body lay in the tent for several days, creating a "frightful smell", until McKinlay arrived to help. Mamen himself died ten days later of the same debilitating disease.
From early June the diet was augmented with the appearance of birds. These birds and their eggs became a vital source of food; as the supply of seal meat dwindled to nothing, the party was reduced to eating rotten flippers, hide, or any part of a seal that was remotely edible. The sharing of birds became another bone of contention; according to Williamson "Wednesday last, [Breddy and Chafe] really obtained 6 eggs and 5 birds instead of 2 eggs and 4 birds as they reported." Breddy was suspected of other thefts. On 25 June, after a gunshot was heard, Breddy was found dead in his tent. The circumstances of his death, whether accident, suicide or in Hadley's view, murder (with Williamson as the chief suspect) could not be determined. Williamson later called Hadley's suspicions "hallucinations and absolutely untrue." Various items stolen from McKinlay were found among Breddy's personal effects.
Despite the sombre outlook, the Canadian flag was raised at Rodgers Harbor on 1 July in honour of Dominion Day. Later in the month the party's spirits improved when Kuraluk caught a 600-pound (270 kg) walrus, which provided fresh meat for several days. As August came without sign of a ship and the weather began to turn wintry again, hopes of rescue fell; the party began to prepare for another winter.
## Rescue
The revenue cutter Bear arrived in St Michael, Alaska, midway through June. Her master, Captain Cochran, agreed to go to Wrangel Island as soon as he got permission from the United States government. It would be impossible, in any event, to attempt the rescue before mid-July; ice conditions in the Arctic that year were reported as severe. After receiving permission, Bear, with Bartlett aboard, left St Michael on 13 July; the ship had many calls to make along the Alaskan coast before she could proceed with the rescue. On 5 August, at Port Hope, Bartlett met with Kataktovik and gave him his expedition wages and a new suit of clothing. At Point Barrow on 21 August Bartlett encountered Burt McConnell, Stefansson's erstwhile secretary, who gave details of Stefansson's movements after leaving Karluk the previous September. In April 1914, McConnell reported, Stefansson had headed north with two companions, searching for new lands.
McConnell left Point Barrow for Nome aboard King and Winge, an American-registered walrus hunter, while Bear finally sailed for Wrangel Island. On 25 August Bear was stopped by ice 20 miles (32 km) from the island, and after failing to force a way through, Cochran had to return to Nome for more coal—a decision which, says Bartlett, gave him "days to try a man's soul". Back in Nome Bartlett met Olaf Swenson, who had chartered King and Winge for the season and was about to sail for Siberia. Bartlett requested that, if possible, King and Winge stop by Wrangel Island and look for the stranded Karluk party. Bear left Nome on 4 September, a few days after Swenson's ship. King and Winge, with McConnell still aboard, reached Wrangel Island on 7 September. That morning the group at Rodgers Harbor were awakened early in the morning by the sound of a ship's whistle, and found King and Winge lying a quarter of a mile offshore. They were rapidly transferred to the ship, which then picked up the remainder of the stranded party who were camped along the coast at Waring Point. By the afternoon all 14 survivors were aboard.
After a futile attempt to approach Herald Island, the ship began the journey back to Alaska; next day she encountered Bear, with Bartlett aboard. McConnell records that the party were unanimous in their desire to remain with the ship that had effected their rescue, but Bartlett ordered them aboard Bear. Before returning to Alaska, Bear made a final attempt to reach Herald Island; ice limited their approach to 12 miles (19 km), and they saw no signs of life. The reunited party arrived at Nome on 13 September, to a great welcome from the local population.
## Aftermath
Bartlett, celebrated as a hero by press and public, was honoured for "outstanding bravery" by the Royal Geographical Society. However, he was later censured by an admiralty commission for taking Karluk into the ice, and for allowing Mackay's party to leave the main group—despite the letter that Mackay and the others had signed, absolving the captain from responsibility. Stefansson, too, was privately critical of Bartlett's conduct. Bartlett resumed his career at sea, and over the next 30 years led many more excursions to the Arctic. During the Second World War he carried out surveying and supply work for the Allies; he died, aged 70, in April 1946. His account of the Karluk disaster, published in 1916, makes no direct criticism of Stefansson or anyone else; Niven records, however, that to his friends Bartlett was highly uncomplimentary about his former leader.
In 1918 Stefansson returned after four years' absence, reporting the discovery of three new islands. He was honoured by the National Geographical Society, received tributes from polar veterans such as Peary and Adolphus Greely, and was given the presidency of the Explorers Club of New York. In Canada his reception was more muted; there were questions relating to the overall costs of the expedition, its poor initial organisation, and his handling of the Southern Party which, under Rudolph Anderson, completed its work independently of Stefansson. Anderson and other members of the Southern Party later petitioned the Canadian government to investigate statements made by Stefansson in his 1921 book The Friendly Arctic, which they felt reflected poorly on their honour. The request was declined on the ground that "no good could come of the enquiry." In his book Stefansson takes responsibility for the "bold" decision to take Karluk into the ice rather than hugging the coast on the way to Herschel Island, and accepts that he "chose the wrong alternative". However, McKinlay felt that the book gave an inaccurate account of the Karluk voyage and its consequences, "putting the blame ... on everyone but Vilhjalmur Stefansson." The historian Tom Henighan believes that McKinlay's biggest complaint against his leader was that "Stefansson never at any time seemed able to express an appropriate sorrow over his lost men." Stefansson, who never returned to the Arctic, died in 1962 at the age of 82.
The fate of First Officer Alexander Anderson's party remained unknown until 1924, when an American vessel landed at Herald Island and found human remains, with supplies of food, clothing, ammunition and equipment. From these artefacts it was established that this was Anderson's party. No cause of death was established, though the plentiful unconsumed supplies ruled out starvation. One theory was that the tent had blown away in a storm and that the party had frozen to death. Another was carbon monoxide poisoning within the tent.
The mystery illness which affected most of the Wrangel Island party and accelerated the deaths of Malloch and Mamen was later diagnosed as a form of nephritis brought about by eating faulty pemmican. Stefansson explained this by saying that "our pemmican makers has failed us through supplying us with a product deficient in fat." Peary had emphasised that a polar explorer should "give his personal, constant and insistent attention" to the making of his pemmican; McKinlay believed that Stefansson had devoted too much time selling the idea of the expedition, and too little ensuring the quality of the food that its members would depend upon.
Of the survivors, Hadley continued working for the Canadian Arctic Expedition, becoming second officer and later master of the supply ship Polar Bear. He died of influenza, in San Francisco in 1918. Hadley and McConnell wrote accounts of their experiences for Stefansson, who incorporated them in The Friendly Arctic. Chafe also wrote and published a short account. Most of the others quickly returned to relative obscurity, but in 1922, Fred Maurer was persuaded by Stefansson to join an attempt to colonise Wrangel Island. To the embarrassment of the Canadian government, Stefansson insisted on going ahead, even though Wrangel Island was indisputably part of what had then become the Soviet Union. A party of five, including Maurer, was sent to the island; only one, an Inuit woman Ada Blackjack, survived. Despite their ordeal, many of the Karluk survivors lived long lives; Williamson, who declined to speak or write of his experiences in the Arctic, lived to be 97, dying in Victoria, Canada, in 1975. McKinlay died in 1983, aged 95, having published his account of the expedition in 1976. Kuraluk, Kuruk and their daughters, Helen and Mugpi, returned to their former life at Point Barrow. The two girls, says Pálsson, had provided "important sources of cheer at the darkest moments." Mugpi, who later was known as Ruth Makpii Ipalook, became the very last survivor of the Karluk voyage, dying in 2008 after a full life, aged 97.
## Published voyage accounts
Six first-hand accounts of Karluk's last voyage have been published. These include Stefansson's account which only covers the June to September 1913 period. Expedition secretary Burt McConnell wrote an account of the Wrangel Island rescue which was published in The New York Times, 15 September 1914. A version of McConnell's account appears in Stefansson's book.
- 1914: Bartlett's story of the Karluk – Robert Bartlett
- 1916: The Last Voyage of the Karluk – Robert Bartlett and Ralph Hale
- 1918: The Voyage of the Karluk, and its Tragic Ending – Ernest Chafe
- 1921: The Friendly Arctic – Vilhjalmur Stefansson
- 1921: The Story of the Karluk – John Hadley
- 1976: Karluk: The great untold story of Arctic exploration – William Laird McKinlay
- 2001: The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk - Jennifer Niven
- 2022: Empire of Ice and Stone – Buddy Levy
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11,987,789 |
Carlson's patrol
| 1,148,231,072 |
WWII anti-Japanese operation in 1942
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[
"1942 in the Solomon Islands",
"Battles and operations of World War II involving the Solomon Islands",
"Battles of World War II involving Japan",
"Battles of World War II involving the United States",
"Conflicts in 1942",
"December 1942 events",
"Guadalcanal Campaign",
"Marine Raiders",
"Military history of Japan during World War II",
"November 1942 events",
"Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II",
"United States Marine Corps in World War II"
] |
Carlson's patrol, also known as The Long Patrol or Carlson's long patrol, was an operation by the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion under the command of Evans Carlson during the Guadalcanal campaign against the Imperial Japanese Army from 6 November to 4 December 1942. In the operation, the 2nd Raiders attacked forces under the command of Toshinari Shōji, which were escaping from an attempted encirclement in the Koli Point area on Guadalcanal and attempting to rejoin other Japanese army units on the opposite side of the U.S. Lunga perimeter.
In a series of small unit engagements over 29 days, the 2nd Raiders killed almost 500 Japanese soldiers while suffering 16 killed, although many were afflicted by disease. The Raiders also captured a Japanese field gun that was harassing Henderson Field, the Allied airfield at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal.
## Background
### Guadalcanal campaign
On 7 August 1942, Allied forces (primarily U.S. Marines) landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida Islands in the Solomon Islands. Their mission was to deny the Japanese use of the islands as bases for threatening the supply routes between the U.S. and Australia, and to secure the islands as starting points for a campaign to isolate the major Japanese base at Rabaul while also supporting the Allied New Guinea campaign. The landings initiated the six-month-long Guadalcanal campaign.
The Japanese were taken by surprise, and by nightfall on 8 August the 11,000 Allied troops—under the command of Lieutenant General Alexander Vandegrift—secured Tulagi and nearby small islands as well as an airfield under construction at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. The Allies later renamed the airfield Henderson Field. To protect the airfield, the U.S. Marines established a perimeter defense around Lunga Point. Additional reinforcements over the next two months increased the number of U.S. troops at Lunga Point to more than 20,000.
In response to the Allied landings on Guadalcanal, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters assigned the Imperial Japanese Army's 17th Army—a corps-sized command based at Rabaul and under the command of Lieutenant-General Harukichi Hyakutake—with the task of retaking Guadalcanal. Units of the 17th Army began to arrive on Guadalcanal on 19 August to drive Allied forces from the island.
The first Japanese attempt to recapture Henderson Field failed when a 917-man force was defeated on 21 August in the Battle of the Tenaru. The next attempt took place from 12–14 September, ending in the defeat of the 6,000 soldiers under the command of Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi at the Battle of Edson's Ridge. Kawaguchi and the surviving Japanese troops then regrouped west of the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal.
### Battle for Henderson Field
Between 1 and 17 October, the Japanese delivered 15,000 troops to Guadalcanal, giving Hyakutake 20,000 total troops to employ for his planned offensive. After his staff officers observed the American defenses around Lunga Point, Hyakutake decided that the main thrust of his planned attack would be from south of Henderson Field. His 2nd Division (augmented by troops from the 38th Division), under Lieutenant General Masao Maruyama was ordered to march through the jungle and attack the American defenses from the south near the east bank of the Lunga River. The 7,000-member 2nd Division was split into three units; the Left Wing Unit under Major General Yumio Nasu containing the 29th Infantry Regiment, the right wing unit under Kawaguchi consisting of troops from the 230th Infantry Regiment (from the 38th Infantry Division), and the division reserve led by Maruyama comprising the 16th Infantry Regiment.
On 23 October, Maruyama's forces struggled through the jungle to reach the American lines. Kawaguchi—on his own initiative—began to shift his right wing unit to the east, believing that the American defenses were weaker in that area. Maruyama, through one of his staff officers, ordered Kawaguchi to keep to the original attack plan. When he refused, Kawaguchi was relieved of command and replaced by Colonel Toshinari Shōji, commander of the 230th Infantry Regiment. That evening, after learning that the left and right wing forces were still struggling to reach the American lines, Hyakutake postponed the attack to 19:00 on 24 October. The Americans remained unaware of the approach of Maruyama's forces.
Finally, late on 24 October, Maruyama's forces reached the U.S. Lunga perimeter. Over two consecutive nights Maruyama's forces conducted numerous unsuccessful frontal assaults on positions defended by troops of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines (1/7) under Lieutenant Colonel Chesty Puller and the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 164th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hall. U.S. Marine and Army rifle, machine gun, mortar, artillery and direct canister fire from 37 mm (1.46 in) anti-tank guns "wrought terrible carnage" on the Japanese. More than 1,500 of Maruyama's troops were killed in the attacks while the Americans lost about 60 killed. Shōji's right wing units did not participate in the attacks, choosing to remain in place to cover Nasu's right flank against a possible attack in that area by U.S. forces that never materialized.
At 08:00 on 26 October, Hyakutake called off further attacks and ordered his forces to retreat. Maruyama's left wing and division reserve survivors were ordered to retreat back to the Matanikau River area while the right wing unit under Shōji was told to head for Koli Point, 13 mi (21 km) east of the Lunga River. Shōji and his troops began arriving at Koli Point on 3 November.
### Aola Bay and the Koli Point action
At 05:30 on 4 November, two companies from the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson, landed by boat at Aola Bay, 40 mi (64 km) east of Lunga Point. Carlson's Raiders—along with troops from the U.S. Army's 147th Infantry Regiment—were to provide security for 500 Seabees as they attempted to construct an airfield. The Aola Bay airfield construction effort had been approved by William Halsey, Jr.—commander of Allied forces in the South Pacific Area—acting on a recommendation by Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner, U.S. naval commander of amphibious forces for the South Pacific.
The 2nd Marine Raider Battalion was a unique unit in the Marine Corps. The battalion's original organization and tactics were based around Communist Chinese precepts Carlson had witnessed while serving as an observer with the Communists during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937-1938. These precepts included promoting equality between officers and enlisted men and making decisions through collective consensus. Unlike the 1st Marine Raider Battalion which focused on commando tactics, the 2nd Battalion trained to operate as a guerrilla force. The training included an emphasis on infiltration tactics and often involved tactical exercises conducted at night. The battalion was organized into six self-contained rifle companies and a headquarters company. Before landing at Guadalcanal, elements of the battalion had seen action as part of the garrison of Midway Atoll during the Battle of Midway in May 1942 and the near disastrous Makin Island raid in August.
In early November, Vandegrift, fearing that the Japanese were planning an assault on the Lunga perimeter from the east using Shōji's forces plus additional reinforcements, launched an operation against the Japanese units at Koli Point. Beginning on 4 November, two battalions of U.S. Marines and two battalions of U.S. Army troops attacked and attempted to encircle Shōji's men at Gavaga Creek near the village of Tetere in the Koli Point area.
As the American troops were attempting to destroy Shōji's force, Vandegrift ordered Carlson's Raiders to march overland from Aola Bay toward Koli Point to cut off any of Shōji's forces that escaped the encirclement attempt. On 5 November, two transport ships headed for Espiritu Santo to pick up three companies from Carlson's battalion while Carlson prepared his two companies already on Guadalcanal to march overland towards Koli Point. Carlson arranged for rear echelon personnel at Aola to resupply his patrol with rations every four days at a prearranged point on the coast. A patrol with native carriers would meet the boat and carry supplies inland to Carlson's patrol base.
## Patrol
### Initial actions
At first light on 6 November, Carlson and his command group, two of his companies, and a group of native scouts and carriers commanded by Major John Mather of the Australian Army and Sergeant Major Jacob C. Vouza of the Solomon Islands Police Force set out from Aola on the patrol. The group marched along a jungle trail northwest to the Reko River, arriving on 7 November. At the Reko, Carlson learned that the local Christian mission had recently been raided by Japanese troops who had killed two of the missionaries before moving west. Pushing across the river with one platoon of troops, Carlson encountered a small group of Japanese who shot and severely wounded the native scout leading the Marine column. Returning fire, the Marines killed two Japanese soldiers and drove off another three or four. Carlson's main body then arrived, and the column bivouacked for the night.
On 8 November, the column continued through the jungle to the northwest, striking the coast at the Kena River, and made camp at the village of Tasimboko, 15 mi (24 km) from Aola Bay. The next day they crossed the Berande and Balasuna rivers and reached the village of Binu—10 mi (16 km) southwest of Tasimboko—in the afternoon. At Binu, about 3 mi (4.8 km) southeast of Koli Point, Carlson established his base camp and prepared to block the movement of any Japanese forces from Koli to the east and south.
The other three Raider companies arrived at Aola on 8 November. On 9 November, they moved by landing craft to Tasimboko and on 10 November marched overland—guided by native scouts—toward Binu. On the way, the Raiders encountered a small group of Japanese soldiers and killed three of them before arriving at Binu in the afternoon of the same day.
In the meantime, Hyakutake ordered Shōji to abandon his positions at Koli and rejoin Japanese forces at Kokumbona in the Matanikau area. Although American forces had almost completely encircled Shōji's troops along Gavaga Creek at Koli, a gap existed by way of a swampy creek in the southern side of the American lines. Taking advantage of this route, Shōji's men began to escape. The Americans closed the gap in their lines on 11 November, but by then Shōji and between 2,000 and 3,000 of his men had escaped into the jungle to the south.
On 11 November, Carlson sent four of his battalion's companies—"C", "D", "E", and "F"—to fan out and patrol the area to the north and west of Binu. The remaining company, "B", stayed behind to provide security for the Binu base camp. At 10:00, Company C, which had marched directly west toward the village of Asamana, encountered a large body of Shōji's troops camped near the Metapona River. Company C was quickly pinned down by rifle, machinegun, and mortar fire. Carlson responded by directing Companies D and E to come to C's aid, attacking the Japanese forces from two different directions.
As Companies D and E moved in C's direction, both encountered large concentrations of Shōji's soldiers and by 12:30 were involved in intense firefights. At 15:00, Company D commander Captain Charles McAuliffe—with nine of his men—unexpectedly marched into the Binu base camp. McAuliffe reported to Carlson that soon after he had made contact with the Japanese forces, he and one of his squads had become cut off from the rest of his company. After extricating themselves with difficulty, McAuliffe and the men with him had decided to retreat back to the base camp. McAuliffe reported that as far as he knew the rest of his company had been annihilated. A short time later, however, the rest of D Company arrived at the base camp, led by Gunnery Sergeant George Schrier, after successfully disengaging from the firefight. Carlson summarily relieved McAuliffe for what he later described as "total ineptitude for leadership in battle" and placed Captain Joe Griffith in command of Company D.
Along with Company F, which had returned to the base camp, Carlson proceeded to the area where Company C was engaged, arriving at 16:30. Carlson ordered Company F to attack the Japanese positions facing Company C at 17:15. In the meantime, the Japanese troops departed the area, which Company F soon confirmed. Leaving Company F at the scene, Carlson returned to Binu with Company C, arriving at 22:00. Company E arrived at Binu about the same time and reported that they had caught a Japanese company crossing a river in the open and killed many of them before withdrawing. Carlson then took Company B and returned to the area that Company F was guarding, arriving at daybreak on 12 November. The Marines had suffered 10 killed in the day's actions and estimated that they had killed 120 Japanese soldiers.
Carlson and the two companies, with Company B leading, marched west towards the village of Asamana on the Metapona River. While crossing the river, the Marines captured two Japanese soldiers and killed a third who happened by in a native boat, then attacked and occupied Asamana, surprising and killing several Japanese soldiers in the village. Signs in Japanese in the village indicated that it was being used as a rallying location for Shōji's forces. Occupying defensive positions around the village and river crossing, the Raiders killed 25 Japanese soldiers that approached the village during the remainder of the day.
The next day, when a company-sized column of Japanese soldiers approached Asamana, the Raiders called in 75 mm (2.95 in) artillery fire from the 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, killing many of the Japanese and causing the rest to scatter and retreat away from the village. Carlson and the Marines with him returned to Binu on 14 November to rest and reprovision. In the same day, a patrol from Company F wiped out a 15-man Japanese encampment discovered by the native scouts.
On 15 November, Carlson moved the base camp from Binu to Asamana. By this time, however, Shōji's units were no longer in the area, having continued their march deep into the interior of Guadalcanal en route to the Matanikau. Raider patrols around Asamana over the next two days found and killed a few scattered Japanese stragglers.
### New mission
Carlson's battalion was ordered to move to the upper Tenaru River and patrol around the Lunga River—south of the Lunga perimeter—to locate the trail the Japanese had used to position their men and materiel for their assaults during the Battle for Henderson Field. Carlson's Raiders were also to seek out and destroy several Japanese artillery pieces that had been delivering harassing fire against Henderson Field for several weeks. The Raiders set up a base camp about 2 mi (3.2 km) southeast of the Lunga perimeter on 20 November and rested and replenished until 24 November.
On 25 November, Carlson's Company A arrived from Espiritu Santo and joined the Raiders. On 27 November, the battalion relocated 4 mi (6.4 km) further up the Tenaru River and established two auxiliary patrol bases 2 mi (3.2 km) upstream and downstream, respectively.
On 28 November, Companies B and D patrolled across the Lunga River and bivouacked in the Mount Austen area, southwest of the Lunga perimeter. The same day, Companies A and F patrolled further south between the Lunga and the Tenaru. On 30 November, the Raiders found a Japanese 75 mm mountain gun and 37 mm (1.46 in) anti-tank gun emplaced on a ridge about 4 mi (6.4 km) south of the Lunga perimeter. As one squad of six Marines from Company F patrolled near where the guns were discovered, they entered a hidden Japanese camp and found themselves among about 100 Japanese soldiers resting under shelters with their weapons stacked around trees in the center of the camp. In the resulting melee, the Raider squad killed about 75 of the Japanese. The rest escaped.
The Raiders rested on 1 December and received some provisions by airdrop. On 2 December, Carlson fanned out his patrols around the Lunga River. Company B discovered 10 Japanese camped by the river and killed all of them. None of the other companies encountered any Japanese, but one discovered another 75 mm mountain gun. Late in the day, Carlson received orders to terminate the patrol and take his troops into the Lunga perimeter the next day.
On 3 December, Carlson sent Companies C, D, and E east towards the Tenaru river while Companies A, B, and F headed west towards Mount Austen. Companies C, D, and E reached the lower Tenaru and entered friendly lines at Lunga Point without incident. Companies A, B, and F, however, encountered a Japanese patrol near the summit of Mount Austen. In a close-quarters fight in the jungle, 25 Japanese were killed and four Marines were seriously wounded, one of whom died later.
The next day, Companies A, B, and F set out with the intention of entering the Lunga perimeter near the Matanikau River. Along the way, the Marine column was ambushed by a Japanese machinegun team that killed four Raiders. Seven Japanese were killed in this skirmish. The patrol encountered no further opposition and entered friendly lines at Lunga Point by mid-afternoon.
## Aftermath
As Carlson's battalion was ending its patrol, Shōji and his surviving troops were reaching friendly positions west of the Matanikau. In addition to the losses sustained from attacks by Carlson's Raiders, a lack of food and tropical diseases felled many more of Shōji's men. By the time Shōji's forces reached the Lunga River in mid-November, about halfway to the Matanikau, only 1,300 men remained with the main body. When Shōji reached the 17th Army positions west of the Matanikau, only 700-800 survivors were still with him. Survivors from Shōji's force later participated in the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse in December 1942 and January 1943.
During the 29 days of the patrol, Carlson's Raiders hiked approximately 150 mi (240 km) to cover a straight-line distance of about 40 mi (64 km) from Aola Bay to the Matanikau River. Carlson claimed that his troops killed 488 Japanese soldiers and captured or destroyed large amounts of equipment, including two howitzers and various small arms and ammunition.
The 2nd Raiders suffered 16 killed and 17 wounded (plus 2 wounded native guides). Non-battle casualties totaled 225, of which 125 suffered from malaria, 29 from dysentery, and 71 from ringworm or jungle rot. Most of the remaining Raiders were also suffering some type of physical ailment. On 17 December, the Raiders departed Guadalcanal by ship and arrived back at their home camp on Espiritu Santo on 20 December. At Espiritu Santo, the unit continued to be affected by the lingering tropical diseases many had contracted during the Guadalcanal patrol. In the second week of March 1943, the 2nd Raiders were declared unfit for combat duty, although this finding was never announced in an official document. The 2nd Marine Raiders did not participate again as a unit in a combat operation until the Bougainville campaign beginning on 1 November 1943. In spite of the high fallout from disease, Carlson's troops generally felt that they had performed well as a unit during the patrol and had accomplished their mission. Lieutenant Cleland E. Early of Company E described the long Guadalcanal patrol and the effect on his unit: "Enduring the living conditions was worse than the combat. My platoon went in with 30 men, one corpsman and one officer. When we came out we had one officer, one corpsman, and 18 enlisted, all of whom had malaria, worms, diarrhea, jungle rot and high morale.
|
45,083,774 |
Bill Denny
| 1,143,349,403 |
Australian politician (1872–1946)
|
[
"1872 births",
"1946 deaths",
"Adelaide Law School alumni",
"Attorneys-General of South Australia",
"Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia",
"Australian Roman Catholics",
"Australian military personnel of World War I",
"Australian recipients of the Military Cross",
"Burials at West Terrace Cemetery",
"Members of the South Australian House of Assembly",
"South Australian local councillors"
] |
William Joseph Denny MC (6 December 1872 – 2 May 1946) was an Australian journalist, lawyer, politician and decorated soldier who held the South Australian House of Assembly seats of West Adelaide from 1900 to 1902 and then Adelaide from 1902 to 1905 and again from 1906 to 1933. After an unsuccessful candidacy as a United Labor Party (ULP) member in 1899, he was elected as an "independent liberal" in a by-election in 1900. He was re-elected in 1902, but defeated in 1905. The following year, he was elected as a ULP candidate, and retained his seat for that party (the Australian Labor Party from 1917) until 1931. Along with the rest of the cabinet, he was ejected from the Australian Labor Party in 1931, and was a member of the Parliamentary Labor Party until his electoral defeat at the hands of a Lang Labor Party candidate in 1933.
Denny served as Attorney-General of South Australia and Minister for the Northern Territory in the government led by John Verran (1910–12), during which he drafted and led several important legislative reforms, including housing reforms assisting workers to purchase homes, and a law enabling women to practise law in South Australia for the first time. In August 1915, Denny enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force to serve in World War I, initially as a trooper in the 9th Light Horse Regiment. After being commissioned in 1916, he served in the 5th Division Artillery and 1st Divisional Artillery on the Western Front. He was awarded the Military Cross in September 1917 after he was wounded while leading a convoy into forward areas near Ypres, and ended the war as a captain.
He was again Attorney-General in the Labor governments led by John Gunn (1924–26), Lionel Hill (1930–33) and Robert Richards (1933), and held other portfolios in those governments, including housing, irrigation and repatriation. He continued his reform of the housing sector, being a key proponent of the Thousand Homes Scheme which aimed to provide affordable housing, particularly for returned soldiers and their families, and members of lower income groups. Denny published two memoirs of his military service, and when he died in 1946 aged 73, he was accorded a state funeral.
## Early life
William Joseph Denny was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 6 December 1872, one of three children of Thomas Joseph Denny, a publican, and his wife Annie (née Dwyer). He attended Christian Brothers College, Adelaide, then worked as a weather clerk at the General Post Office, Adelaide, under the Postmaster General, Sir Charles Todd. According to a contemporary source, in 1893 he became the editor of the Catholic The Southern Cross newspaper, which published news about and for the Catholic community of South Australia. A more recent source states he commenced as editor of The Southern Cross in 1896. He replaced James O'Loghlin, who later became a United Labor Party (ULP) senator for South Australia. Denny was a councillor of the Adelaide City Council from 1898, representing Grey Ward. During his early twenties he was active in the literary and debating societies of Adelaide, was Chairman of the Christian Brothers Old Collegians Association, and captain of two city rowing clubs. He unsuccessfully contested the two-member seat of West Adelaide in the 1899 South Australian colonial election as a ULP candidate, gaining 27.7 per cent of the vote.
When a by-election was held for West Adelaide on 17 March 1900, Denny was elected to the single vacancy created by the resignation of the former Premier of South Australia, Charles Kingston. He ran as an "independent liberal" candidate, gaining 66.8 per cent of the vote. Prior to the 1902 state election the electoral district of West Adelaide was abolished. Denny contested the new four-member electoral district of Adelaide, and was elected second in the count with 14.3 per cent of the votes cast. He was defeated at the 1905 state election, gaining only 9.9 per cent of the votes. The following year, having abandoned his former liberalism, he contested the seat of Adelaide at the state election as a ULP candidate, and was elected first, receiving 19.3 per cent of the votes cast. He was again returned first at the 1910 state election, after which the ULP led by John Verran formed the first Labor government of South Australia on 3 June. Having begun studying law at the University of Adelaide in 1903, Denny was articled to J.R. Anderson, KC, and was admitted as a solicitor in the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1908.
## Attorney-General
Denny was appointed Attorney-General of South Australia and Minister controlling the Northern Territory on 3 June 1910. After conducting negotiations with the Commonwealth Government, he relinquished his ministerial responsibility for the Northern Territory on 31 December 1910, when its administration was transferred to the Commonwealth. During his time as Attorney-General, Denny drafted and led several important legislative reforms. These included the Advances for Homes Act 1910, which allowed for 80 per cent of the value of a property to be advanced to a worker at 4.5 per cent interest over 36.5 years. In his speeches Denny highlighted that many workers were faced with high rents and poor conditions. He also sponsored the Female Law Practitioners Act 1911, which enabled women to practise law in South Australia for the first time. Tall, with "long, spindly legs", Denny was a favourite of cartoonists.
Verran called an election in February 1912, and the ULP were defeated by the Liberal Union, although Denny was again returned first in the seat of Adelaide with 15.8 per cent of votes cast. He became a member of the University of Adelaide Council in April 1912, as a representative of the Parliament. In 1913, a referendum to fix the closing time of licensed premises was proposed by the ULP. Even after the governing Liberal Union agreed to the conduct of the referendum at the next state election, Denny attacked them, claiming that they had no intention of implementing the outcome of the referendum if they were re-elected. Denny was returned unopposed at the March 1915 state election.
## World War I
Denny enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 17 August 1915 at the age of 43, initially as a trooper. Before departing overseas, Denny had always been an advocate of conscription. He was later commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 9th Light Horse Regiment. While in Egypt, he transferred to the divisional artillery of the 5th Division, which then shipped to France, and he was promoted to lieutenant in June 1916. In January 1917, despite his previous stance on conscription, Denny refused requests to endorse it, instead stating that he did not think that intervention would be compatible with his duties as a soldier. He also considered that the majority of soldiers voted against it, and deplored the split in the Labor Party that conscription had created. In mid-1917 he was attached to the divisional artillery of the 1st Division. On the night of 15 September 1917, he was leading a convoy carrying water to forward areas when it was hit by a heavy artillery barrage, and he was wounded. His recommendation for the Military Cross read:
> For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst engaged in pack transport work near HOGGE on the night of 15 September 1917. Lieutenant DENNY showed great coolness and initiative throughout, especially when his convoy came under very heavy barrage in the vicinity of CLAPHAM JUNCTION. Although wounded himself, Lieut. DENNY personally obtained assistance for two of his men who were wounded. He then reorganised his command and succeeded in reaching his destination. Lieut. DENNY after delivering this water then went to the dressing station where he dictated a report to D.H.Q. before being evacuated.
He was invested with the Military Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace in November 1917. After recovering from his wounds, he was attached to the repatriation section of AIF Administrative Headquarters in London from January 1918. He was promoted to captain in September that year. He resigned his commission in the AIF in 1919 and published a memoir titled The Diggers, the foreword of which was written by General Sir William Birdwood, who had commanded the AIF from 1915 until the end of the war.
## Return to Parliament
Still serving overseas at the time of the 1918 state election, Denny was returned first of three in Adelaide with 30.2 per cent of the ballots cast. He was repatriated to Australia via the United States on 2 August 1919, returning to his seat. While in the United States, he had been regularly published in the New York Herald. He married Winefride Mary Leahy, a pianist and singer, on 15 January 1920 at St. Ignatius Church, Norwood. His brother, the Reverend Richard Denny, officiated at their wedding. He was elected second of two in 1921 and second of three in 1924 with similar proportions of the vote to that he achieved in 1918. He was appointed Attorney-General in the newly-elected Labor government of John Gunn in April 1924, and was also Minister for Housing, and initially, Assistant Minister for Repatriation. In January 1925 he was appointed as Minister for Irrigation and Minister for Repatriation, while retaining his Attorney-General and housing portfolios.
During this period he carried out several significant legislative changes. In 1924, as Minister for Housing, Denny was closely associated with the Thousand Homes Scheme, which aimed to provide affordable housing, particularly for returned soldiers and their families, and lower income groups. The land used for this development was the site of the Mitcham military camp at which Denny had trained before embarking for service overseas. Denny's work on the Scheme resulted in a clash with former Premier Sir Henry Barwell, whom he sued for libel after Barwell made statements suggesting that Denny had made false statements to induce merchants to provide goods and services. Barwell later apologised for his comments.
Another change was the transition to the use of judges as the electoral returning officer for South Australia. This was done to impose state control on a system which had effectively combined the administration of the national and state electoral rolls. On 27 May 1925, Denny arranged the appointment of Judge Herbert Kingsley Paine of the Insolvency Court to be appointed as Electoral Officer for the state, replacing Charles Mathews, a state public servant who had held the position since 1907. Denny had previously worked for Paine as a legal associate.
As a returned soldier, Denny was an exception among Labor politicians at both state and federal level in the 1920s. Willing and able to speak about his personal war experiences, he was one of the few Labor politicians invited to unveil memorials. He performed this role for the Soldiers' Memorial Hall at Lameroo in 1926, where his "address was punctuated with applause". When his political enemies persistently queried the circumstances under which he was awarded the Military Cross, he published the citation in response. Despite Labor's loss in the 1927 state election, Denny was returned first of three in the seat of Adelaide, with over 25 per cent of the vote. At the April 1930 state election, he was returned first of three with nearly 82 per cent of the ballots cast. Appointed Attorney-General in the new Labor government of Lionel Hill, Denny was also Minister of Railways, and for the first six months he was also Minister of Local Government. On Anzac Day 1931, acting as Premier in Hill's absence, he officiated at the unveiling of the National War Memorial at the corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, Adelaide, before a crowd of about 75,000. As of 1996, Denny was one of only a few South Australian ministers to have ever had military experience.
In 1931, Denny was expelled from the Labor Party, along with Hill and the rest of the cabinet, for supporting the "Premiers' Plan", which sought to impose austerity measures due to the poor economic conditions. The cabinet formed the Parliamentary Labor Party which continued to govern the state, led by Hill and then by Robert Richards, with the support of the opposition until the 1933 state election. At the 1933 election, Denny lost his seat to a Lang Labor Party candidate.
## Later life
In September 1936, Bill's brother, who was a Catholic priest, and his sister, Mary Catherine Denny, were involved in a vehicle accident in which Mary received fatal injuries. His brother suffered from an illness that resulted from the accident which contributed to his death in June 1941. Denny wrote a further autobiographical book, A Digger at Home and Abroad, which was published in 1941. He continued to practice law until his death, despite difficulties associated with rheumatoid arthritis. He died on 2 May 1946 of a heart attack which developed at his home on Osmond Terrace, Norwood, after he returned from his office in Adelaide. He was survived by his wife, one son and three daughters. He was accorded a state funeral, and was buried at West Terrace Cemetery.
He was "keenly interested" in sporting matters, a steward of the Adelaide Racing Club, and was an ex-captain of the Mercantile Rowing Club. Denny was also the patron of the West Adelaide Football Club for twenty years ending in 1930. He enjoyed diving for crayfish under the rocks at the back of Rosetta Head near Victor Harbor on Encounter Bay, and was often accompanied by Ephriam "Brownie" Tripp, an Aboriginal man from the Point McLeay Aboriginal Mission. According to his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, "his preferred reading was Shakespeare and the Bible and he quoted liberally from both. His integrity, versatility and wide knowledge were unquestioned, and he was proud of the democratic legislation he had sponsored."
|
485,341 |
HMS Indefatigable (R10)
| 1,153,874,751 |
1944 Implacable-class aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy
|
[
"1942 ships",
"Cold War aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom",
"Implacable-class aircraft carriers",
"Ships built on the River Clyde",
"World War II aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom"
] |
HMS Indefatigable was one of two Implacable-class aircraft carriers built for the Royal Navy (RN) during World War II. Completed in 1944, her aircraft made several attacks that year against the German battleship Tirpitz, inflicting only light damage; they also raided targets in Norway. The ship was transferred to the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) at the end of the year and attacked Japanese-controlled oil refineries in Sumatra in January 1945 before joining the American forces in March as they prepared to invade the island of Okinawa in Operation Iceberg. Indefatigable and the BPF joined the Americans in attacking the Japanese Home Islands in July and August. Following the end of hostilities she visited ports in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
After returning to the UK in early 1946, Indefatigable was modified for transport duties, and ferried troops and civilians for the rest of the year before she was reduced to reserve. She was recommissioned in 1950 as a training ship for service with the Home Fleet Training Squadron, participating in exercises and making several port visits overseas. The Board of Admiralty decided that she was redundant in early 1954 and decommissioned her later that year. Indefatigable was sold for scrap the following year.
## Design and description
The Implacable class were ordered under the 1938 Naval Programme by the Chamberlain government as part of the general rearmament begun in response to the rise of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The design originated as an improved version of the Illustrious-class aircraft carriers and was intended to be 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) faster and carry an additional dozen aircraft over the 30-knot (56 km/h; 35 mph) speed and 36 aircraft of the earlier ships. To remain within the 23,000 long tons (23,000 t) limit allowed by the Second London Naval Treaty, these improvements could only be made by reducing armour protection. Indefatigable was 766 feet 6 inches (233.6 m) long overall and 730 feet (222.5 m) at the waterline. Her beam was 95 feet 9 inches (29.2 m) at the waterline, and she had a draught of 29 feet 4 inches (8.9 m) at deep load. The Implacable-class ships were significantly overweight and displaced 32,110 long tons (32,630 t) at deep load. The ships had metacentric heights of 4.06 feet (1.2 m) at light load and 6.91 feet (2.1 m) at deep load as completed. Indefatigable's complement was approximately 2,300 officers and ratings in 1945.
The ships had four Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam supplied by eight Admiralty 3-drum boilers. The turbines were designed to produce a total of 148,000 shaft horsepower (110,000 kW), enough to give the Indefatigable-class ships a maximum speed of 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph). On sea trials, Indefatigable reached a speed of 32.06 knots (59.38 km/h; 36.89 mph) with 150,935 shp (112,552 kW). She carried enough fuel oil to give her a range of 6,900 nautical miles (12,800 km; 7,900 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).
The 760-foot (231.6 m) armoured flight deck had a maximum width of 102 feet (31.1 m). A single hydraulic aircraft catapult was fitted on the forward part of the flight deck. The Implacable-class carriers were equipped with two lifts on the centreline, the forward of which measured 45 by 33 feet (13.7 by 10.1 m) and served only the upper hangar, and the aft lift (45 by 22 feet (13.7 by 6.7 m)), which served both hangars. The upper hangar was 458 feet (139.6 m) long and the lower hangar was 208 feet (63.4 m) long; both had a maximum width of 62 feet (18.9 m). Each hangar had a height of only 14 feet which precluded storage of Lend-Lease Vought F4U Corsair fighters as well as many post-war aircraft and helicopters. Designed to stow 48 aircraft in their hangars, the use of a permanent deck park allowed the Implacable class to accommodate up to 81 aircraft. The additional crewmen, maintenance personnel and facilities needed to support these aircraft were housed in the lower hangar. The ships were provided with 94,650 imperial gallons (430,300 L; 113,670 US gal) of aviation gasoline.
### Armament, electronics and protection
The ship's main armament consisted of sixteen quick-firing (QF) 4.5-inch (114 mm) dual-purpose guns in eight twin-gun turrets, four in sponsons on each side of the hull. Unlike the Illustrious-class ships, the roofs of the gun turrets were flat and flush with the flight deck. The gun had a maximum range of 20,760 yards (18,980 m). Indefatigable's light anti-aircraft defences included five octuple mounts for QF 2-pounder ("pom-pom") anti-aircraft (AA) guns, two on the flight deck forward of the island, one on the aft part of the island, and two in sponsons on the port side of the hull. A single quadruple 2-pounder mount was also fitted on the port side of the hull. The 2-pounder gun had a maximum range of 6,800 yards (6,200 m).
The ship was also fitted with 55 Oerlikon 20 mm autocannon in 17 single and 19 twin-gun mounts. These guns had a maximum range of 4,800 yards (4,400 m), but some were replaced by 40 mm Bofors AA guns when the ships were transferred to the Pacific Theatre as the 20 mm (0.79 in) shell was unlikely to destroy a kamikaze before it hit the ship. The Bofors gun had a maximum range of 10,750 yards (9,830 m). By August 1945, Indefatigable had 10 single Bofors guns, plus 14 twin and 12 single Oerlikon mounts. By April 1946 these had been reduced to 11 Bofors guns, 6 twin and 7 single Oerlikon guns.
Details of the Implacable-class ships' radar suite are not readily available. They were fitted with the Type 277 surface-search/height-finding radar on top of the bridge and a Type 293 target indicator radar on the foremast. Victorious, one of the Illustrious-class ships upon which Indefatigable's design was based, also carried Type 279 and Type 281B early-warning radars. Type 282 and Type 285 gunnery radars were mounted on the fire-control directors.
The Implacable-class ships had a flight deck protected by 3 inches (76 mm) of armour. The sides of the hangars were either 1.5 inches (38 mm) or 2 inches (51 mm). The ends of the hangars were protected by 2-inch bulkheads and the armour of the hangar deck ranged from 1.5 to 2.5 inches (38 to 64 mm) in thickness. The waterline armour belt was 4.5 inches (114 mm) thick, but only covered the central portion of the ship. The belt was closed by 1.5 to 2-inch transverse bulkheads fore and aft. The underwater defence system was a layered system of liquid- and air-filled compartments as used in the Illustrious class. The magazines for the 4.5-inch guns lay outside the armoured citadel and were protected by 2 to 3-inch roofs, 4.5-inch sides and 1.5 to 2-inch ends.
## Construction and career
Indefatigable was laid down by John Brown & Co. at their shipyard in Clydebank on 3 November 1939 as Yard Number 565. She was launched on 8 December 1942 by Victoria of Hesse, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven. Captain Quintin Graham was appointed to command the ship in August 1943. While fitting out, in order to confound the enemy, a ruse known as Operation Bijou, initiated by London Controlling Section, was launched whereby it was made known that Indefatigable had already entered service.
Ultra decrypts revealed that the Japanese believed the deception, with operatives including Malcolm Muggeridge and Peter Fleming supplying disinformation for more than a year, sufficient to make the enemy believe the vessel had gone to the Far East and returned to the Clyde for a refit, by which time she was actually finished.
The ship was commissioned on 8 December 1943 and began sea trials, which revealed many problems that required rectification and delayed her formal completion until 3 May 1944. While Indefatigable was still conducting builder's trials, a de Havilland Mosquito landed aboard on 25 March, piloted by Lieutenant Eric Brown (this is often cited as the first landing by a twin-engined aeroplane on an aircraft carrier, but in fact a Potez 565 had landed on and taken off from the French carrier Béarn in 1936). The ship was assigned to the Home Fleet and was working up over the next several months while the Fairey Fireflies of 1770 Squadron flew aboard on 18 May. The squadron was followed by the Fairey Barracuda torpedo bombers of 826 Squadron in June.
### Norwegian operations
Indefatigable's first mission was a brief sortie on 1 July 1944 to provide air cover for the ocean liner that was ferrying American troops to Britain. Upon her return, Indefatigable embarked the Supermarine Seafire fighters of 887 Squadron and the Barracudas of 820 Squadron, completing No. 9 Naval Torpedo-Bomber Reconnaissance Wing, over the next week. Her first combat mission was an attack on the battleship Tirpitz in Kaafjord on 17 July with two other Home Fleet carriers (Operation Mascot). She contributed 23 Barracudas and 12 Fireflies to the mission; the former attacked the battleship while the Fireflies strafed the flak positions defending her. A smoke screen prevented most of the Barracudas from seeing their target and they failed to hit Tirpitz. One Barracuda was forced to ditch near the carrier and its crew was rescued by the destroyer Verulam.
894 Squadron, equipped with Seafires, landed aboard after the attack on 24 July to complete No. 24 Naval Fighter Wing. Indefatigable and several escort carriers attacked targets in Norway on 10 August, destroying 6 Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighters and sinking a minesweeper. For Operation Goodwood, a series of attacks on Tirpitz, the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters of 1840 Squadron replaced the Barracudas of 826 Squadron. The first mission took place on the morning of 22 August when Indefatigable launched 12 Barracudas, 11 Fireflies, 8 Hellcats, and 8 Seafires against the German battleship and nearby targets. A smoke screen again protected Tirpitz and no damage was inflicted; two Seafires failed to return.
Another attack was made later in the day without effect. A further attack could not be mounted until 24 August because of bad weather; for this mission the carrier contributed 12 Barracudas, 11 Fireflies and 4 Seafires, all of which returned. Tirpitz was lightly damaged by two hits during this attack, one a 500-pound (230 kg) bomb and the other a 1,600-pound (730 kg) armour-piercing bomb. The latter penetrated the armoured deck but failed to explode and would probably have inflicted serious damage, possibly even sinking the ship, had it done so. A final attack was made five days later, again without effect. 887 Squadron sank seven seaplanes at their moorings at Banak during the operation.
### Indian Ocean and Pacific operations
On 19 September 1944, Indefatigable sortied from Scapa Flow to attack targets near Tromsø, but the operation was cancelled because of bad weather. The ship underwent a brief refit at her builder's yard between 28 September and 8 November. She became the flagship of the 1st Aircraft Carrier Squadron (1st ACS) when Rear Admiral Sir Philip Vian hoisted his flag on 15 November. The following day, King George VI inspected the ship; the ground crews later embarked for 820, 887, 894 and 1770 Squadrons. Their aircraft, 40 Seafires, 12 Fireflies, and 21 Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, followed on 19 November, and she sailed for the Far East to join the British Pacific Fleet. Indefatigable arrived at Colombo, Ceylon, on 10 December and Vian transferred his flag to Indomitable.
Together with Victorious and Indomitable, Indefatigable attacked an oil refinery at Pangkalan Brandan, Sumatra on 4 January 1945 (Operation Lentil). She embarked six photoreconnaissance Hellcats of 888 Squadron for the attack; her only contribution to the attack itself was the Fireflies of 1770 Squadron, which used RP-3 rocket projectiles on their targets. The squadron claimed to have shot down a Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar", for the loss of a Firefly that ran out of fuel and had to ditch next to the ship. After Indefatigable's return, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command, addressed the crew on 11 January. En route to Sydney to prepare for operations in the Pacific, the BPF's carriers attacked oil refineries near Palembang, Sumatra, on 24 and 29 January (Operation Meridian).
The ship's Seafires lacked the range to reach the targets so they were retained on combat air patrols (CAP) over the fleet for both attacks. She contributed 10 of her Avengers and all of her Fireflies to the first attack, which destroyed most of the oil storage tanks and cut the refinery's output by half for three months. Five days later, the BPF attacked a different refinery and 820 Squadron again contributed 10 Avengers to the attack while 1770 Squadron added nine Fireflies. The latter squadron also flew two Fireflies on an armed reconnaissance mission over an airfield that lay between the carriers and their target. The attack was very successful at heavy cost, but the losses of Indefatigable's squadrons are not available. Her Seafires shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-46 "Dinah" reconnaissance aircraft searching for the fleet and 5 Kawasaki Ki-48 "Lily" bombers that attacked at low level.
The BPF arrived in Sydney on 10 February; the crews received leave and the ships got some maintenance before they sailed for the BPF's advance base at Manus Island, in the Admiralty Islands, on 27 February. They arrived on 7 March and exercised together before sailing for Ulithi on 18 March. The BPF joined the American Fifth Fleet there two days later to participate in the preliminary operations for the invasion of Okinawa. The British role during the operation was to neutralise airfields on the Sakishima Islands, between Okinawa and Formosa, beginning on 26 March. Her Seafires were again retained to defend the fleet and only her Avengers and Fireflies attacked the airfields. Her Seafire squadrons lacked 13 of their authorised strength of 50 pilots and could not sustain the pace of the first day of operations, when they flew 72 sorties. After a break at the end of the month to refuel, Indefatigable became the first British carrier to be hit by a kamikaze the day after flying operations resumed, when one of the Japanese planes evaded the CAP and struck the base of the carrier's island on 1 April. The bomb it carried did not detonate and this limited casualties to 21 men killed and 27 wounded. Damage to the ship was minimal and the flight deck was back in operation thirty minutes later.
On 12 and 13 April, the BPF switched targets to airfields in northern Formosa. On the first day, a pair of Fireflies encountered five Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" dive bombers and shot down four of them. A flight of four Seafires on CAP spotted four Japanese fighters, three Mitsubishi A6M Zeroes and a Kawasaki Ki-61 "Tony" later that morning, and shot down one Zero. The BPF returned to the Sakishima Islands on 17 April before retiring to Leyte Gulf to rest and resupply. Wastage of Seafires to all causes was very heavy during the operation with 25 out of 40 lost or damaged beyond repair and only 5 replacements received. Their short range and lack of endurance was considered by Vian to be a severe handicap for the BPF, which returned to action on 4 May and again attacked targets in the Sakishima Islands. Its aircraft continued to do so until they flew their last missions of Operation Iceberg on 25 May. Statistics compiled by the BPF staff showed that 61 Seafires were lost or damaged beyond repair during both phases of the operation due to deck-landing accidents.
The BPF arrived back at Sydney on 5 June and sailed for Manus three weeks later. Indefatigable was forced to remain behind as she required repairs to her machinery. Her air group flew aboard on 7 July (1772 Squadron and its Fireflies replacing 1770 Squadron) when she sailed for Manus. She reached the coast of Japan on 20 July and her aircraft began attacking targets near Osaka and in the Inland Sea four days later. Her Seafire squadrons had adapted larger external fuel tanks for their aircraft and they were no longer limited to CAP duty. The BPF's aircraft crippled the escort carrier Kaiyo and sank numerous smaller ships on 24 July. After replenishing, airstrikes resumed on 28 and 30 July, the British sinking the escort Okinawa near Maizuru. A combination of bad weather, refuelling requirements and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima delayed the resumption of air operations until 9 August. During the day, Indefatigable's aircraft attacked targets in northern Honshu and southern Hokkaido. The attacks were repeated the next day, sinking two warships and numerous small merchantmen and destroying numerous railroad locomotives and parked aircraft.
The BPF had been scheduled to withdraw after 10 August to prepare for Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu scheduled for November, and the bulk of the force departed for Manus on 12 August. Indefatigable, however, had been chosen to remain as part of the Allied occupation force. The next day her aircraft attacked targets in the vicinity of Tokyo. Flight operations resumed on the morning of the 15th after an operational pause to refuel. The first airstrike was tasked to attack Kisarazu Air Field with four Fireflies and six Avengers, escorted by eight Seafires, but was forced to divert to its secondary target because of bad weather.
En route they were attacked by a dozen Zeros in the last British air combat of the war. The Japanese fighters shot down one Seafire on their first pass and crippled an Avenger. The Seafires claimed four Zeros shot down, four others probably shot down, and another four damaged. An Avenger also claimed one Zero as damaged. A Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bomber attacked the carrier after the ceasefire went into effect, but its two bombs missed. After the ceasefire, Indefatigable's aircraft continued to fly CAP and flew reconnaissance missions looking for Allied prisoners of war, dropping supplies to them as they were located.
### Post-war service
On 17 August 1945, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, commander of the BPF, came aboard and addressed the crew. Indefatigable continued flying operations until she entered Sagami Bay on 5 September. She departed three days later for Manus en route to Sydney. The ship arrived at Sydney on 18 September and began a leisurely refit that lasted until 15 November. On 1 November, Captain Ian MacIntyre relieved Graham as captain of the ship. She became Vian's flagship on 22 November and sailed to New Zealand to show the flag. She arrived in Wellington on 27 November and was opened for public tours, during which time the Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, also visited. Indefatigable then sailed to Auckland, arriving on 12 December, and was again opened for tours. She returned to Sydney for the holidays and visited Melbourne on 22 January 1946 before departing for home nine days later. Vian transferred his flag to her sister ship Implacable that day and the ship stopped off at Fremantle and Cape Town en route. While Indefatigable was visiting the latter city, she was opened to the public, and the Governor-General of South Africa toured the ship.
The carrier arrived at Portsmouth Dockyard on 16 March 1946. Her hangars were modified to accommodate over 1,900 passengers, including women, and she departed for Australia on 25 April carrying 782 RN personnel and 130 Australian war brides. Most of the RN personnel disembarked at Colombo and most of the war brides did the same at Fremantle. Indefatigable continued on to Sydney, where she embarked a complete naval hospital, with patients, and over 1,000 RN officers and ratings. She departed on 9 June and arrived at Plymouth on 7 July. Her next voyage involved transporting a much smaller number of men to Malta and Colombo; only 47 officers and 67 ratings, most of whom left the ship at Malta. When she arrived at Colombo on 15 August, she loaded a full complement of passengers from all three services to return to the UK. The ship arrived at Portsmouth on 9 September and her next voyage involved over 1,200 RN personnel and civilians ferried to Malta, Colombo, and Singapore where almost 1,300 personnel embarked. She returned to Portsmouth on 29 November and began a brief refit in preparation for her final trooping voyage. Indefatigable sailed empty for Norfolk, Virginia, where she loaded RN personnel before returning to Portsmouth on 21 November. The next month, she was placed in reserve and Captain MacIntyre retired on 7 January 1947.
The Admiralty decided to recommission Indefatigable for use as a training ship in mid-1949. Captain Henry Fancourt assumed command on 22 August to prepare for sea. The ship arrived at Devonport to begin the necessary modifications on 30 August and the following day Fancourt turned over command to the dockyard. Captain John Grindle was appointed to command on 24 March 1950 and the ship was recommissioned on 28 May. Two days later Captain Robert Sherbrooke, VC, relieved Grindle and Indefatigable began her sea trials on 28 June. She was inspected by Rear Admiral St John Micklethwaithe, Flag Officer Training Squadron, on 3 July and received her first trainees shortly afterwards. She participated in exercises with the Home Fleet and joined it in Gibraltar in September and October. On 12 March 1951 she sortied from Portland, flying Micklethwaite's flag, to exercise with the Home Fleet before beginning a brief refit at Devonport in May. Captain John Grant relieved Sherbrooke on 6 June and the ship was opened to visitors as part of the Festival of Britain on 17 July. Five days later the visitors were stranded aboard ship overnight when a storm came up and forced Indefatigable to put to sea. The seas moderated the next day and the visitors departed in safety. Rear Admiral Royer Dick hoisted his flag aboard the carrier in September until she began a short refit at Devonport in January 1952.
Indefatigable joined Implacable for her annual winter visit to Gibraltar after completing her refit in February 1952. Over the summer she exercised with the Home Fleet and visited the Danish port of Aarhus, where she was visited by Queen Alexandrine of Denmark in July. Captain Ralph Fisher assumed command on 30 January 1953 and took her to sea three weeks later for exercises with the Home Fleet and her annual visit to Gibraltar. She returned to Portland in late March and visited Bournemouth at the end of May. She joined her sister and several other carriers on 9 June to sail for Spithead for the Coronation Fleet Review of Queen Elizabeth II on 15 June as one of a fleet of nine carriers. Indefatigable joined her sister for fleet exercises off the Scilly Isles and in the Bristol Channel in September and October before beginning her annual refit on 6 October. The Admiralty announced on 26 January 1954 that both ships would be replaced as training ships and reduced to reserve. This had no short-term impact on their activities as they sailed for the Western Mediterranean on their annual winter cruise. The ship exercised with the Home Fleet and made a port visit to Casablanca, Morocco, before visiting Gibraltar.
Captain Hugh Browne assumed command on 10 May after Fisher had been promoted. The ship welcomed home Queen Elizabeth II and her husband four days later as they returned from their tour of the Commonwealth. The following month, Indefatigable exercised with the Home Fleet in Scottish waters and visited Aarhus again. In August she began transferring her training duties to the carrier Ocean and arrived at Rosyth on 2 September to be paid off, a process that took until the following month to complete. She was towed to Gareloch in June 1955 where she was listed for disposal. Indefatigable was sold for scrap in September 1956 and subsequently broken up at Faslane.
## Squadrons embarked
|
1,387,025 |
Myst V: End of Ages
| 1,166,959,249 |
2005 video game
|
[
"2005 video games",
"Beenox games",
"Cyan Worlds games",
"First-person adventure games",
"MacOS games",
"Myst games",
"Single-player video games",
"Ubisoft games",
"Video game sequels",
"Video games developed in the United States",
"Video games scored by Tim Larkin",
"Windows games"
] |
Myst V: End of Ages is a 2005 adventure video game, the fifth installment in the Myst series. The game was developed by Cyan Worlds, published by Ubisoft, and released for Macintosh and Windows PC platforms in September 2005. As in previous games in the series, End of Ages's gameplay consists of navigating worlds known as "Ages" via the use of special books and items which act as portals.
In a departure from previous titles in the Myst series, End of Ages replaces pre-rendered environments with worlds rendered in real-time 3D graphics, allowing players to freely navigate the Ages. The faces of actors were digitally mapped onto three-dimensional character models to preserve realism. The game also includes multiple methods of navigation and an in-game camera.
End of Ages was positively received, despite complaints such as lessened interactivity compared to previous games and poorer graphics. After End of Ages's release, Cyan abruptly announced the end of software development and the layoff of most of its staff, but was able to rehire much of the development team a few weeks later.
## Gameplay
Myst V: End of Ages is an adventure game taking place in the first person. Players travel across several worlds known as "Ages", solving puzzles and gathering story clues by reading books or observing the environment. End of Ages offers players three navigation modes to explore. The first, "Classic mode", uses the same controls used in Myst and Riven; Ages are divided into locations of interest, or nodes, and the player's view is fixed at every node. Players advance to other nodes by clicking on portions of the screen. The "Classic Plus" mode uses the control scheme of Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation; movement is still node-based but players can rotate their view 360 degrees in any direction. The final navigation mode, known as "Free Look" or "Advanced" mode, allows players to navigate and observe the Ages freely like Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. The WASD keyboard keys are used for walking forward, backward, and sideways, while the mouse changes the player's point of view.
A new game mechanic to the series is the use of a slate found on all the Ages. These slates can be carved using the mouse to create shapes and symbols. The use of the slate is necessary to communicate with a shadowy race of creatures known as the Bahro. The Bahro understand certain symbols drawn on the slate and will respond to them; the creatures also retrieve the slate and return it to its original space if the player drops it. Slate symbols can cause environmental changes such as rain or increased wind, which may be necessary for solving puzzles. The slate cannot be carried everywhere due to its size. For example, the player will have to leave the slate behind if they want to climb a ladder.
End of Ages has several features designed to help players complete puzzles. To recall clues or important items, players can use a camera feature to take screenshots, which are then placed in a journal the player can access at any time. Player interactions with other characters are similarly recalled via another journal; everything a character tells the player is stored and can be viewed at any time. Journal pages are narrated by the voice of the character, and missing pages of the journal appear translucent in menus.
## Plot
End of Ages takes place in the present day, sometime after the events of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, and begins as the player responds to a letter from Atrus. Atrus is a writer of special volumes called linking books, which serve as portals or links to worlds known as Ages. A linking book to the Age of Myst, the setting of the original game, lies sealed in the ruins of the ancient D'ni civilization. The D'ni had the ability to craft linking books, but their society crumbled from within; Atrus and his family have been trying to restore the D'ni people and created an Age for the survivors to live on, known as Releeshahn (introduced in Exile). Atrus by this period is an old man, mourning the deaths of his sons Sirrus and Achenar in Revelation, and the death of his wife Catherine in the period after. In his letter, Atrus expresses concern that his daughter, Yeesha, may be lost as well.
The player starts in Atrus' old study on K'veer, an island near the ruins of the main D'ni city; in the antechamber outside the study, there is a strange tablet locked in place on an altar. Yeesha links in and explains that legends state that in order to fully restore D'ni, someone known as the Grower must utilize the tablet. The artifact has the ability to fully control a mysterious enslaved race known as the Bahro. As Yeesha made the wrong decision upon unlocking the tablet, she can no longer use it; Yeesha instead charges the player with uncovering the tablet's power. After leaving Yeesha, the player meets a man named Esher near "the Great Shaft", connecting D'ni to the surface (as detailed in Myst: The Book of Ti'ana). Esher is a survivor of the fall of D'ni and tells the player that Yeesha cannot be trusted, warning the player not to give her the Tablet. Throughout the Great Shaft, the player collects twelve fragments of Yeesha's journal. The writings appear to confirm Esher's warnings, as the narration seemingly indicates that Yeesha has descended into madness, believing herself to be the Grower.
At the urging of both Yeesha and Esher, the player travels across four Ages, collecting four slates that unlock the tablet's power. Esher occasionally appears in the Ages to offer his counsel, or reveal the histories of his people and the worlds the player explores. Once all four slates are collected, Esher requests that the player bring the tablet to him in the now-unlocked Age of Myst. The player is then returned to K'veer, where they have four possible choices. Travelling to Myst without the tablet will cause Esher to angrily abandon the player with no way out. If Esher is given the tablet, he will explain he wishes to use the tablet for domination, and will also leave the player trapped. If the player gives the tablet to Yeesha, the tablet simply slips through her hands and disappears into the ground; she walks away, disappointed, leaving the player trapped in D'ni. The only good ending involves giving the Bahro the tablet, ending their enslavement. Arriving at Releeshahn, the new home Age of the D'ni, Yeesha and Atrus thank the player and speak of a new chapter for the D'ni people; Esher is handed over to the Bahro to be punished for his crimes. The game ends on a visit to Releeshahn.
## Development
Robyn and Rand Miller, Myst's creators, had initially decided against creating sequels to 1997's Riven. However, the publishing rights to the series later transferred to Ubisoft, who commissioned two sequels: Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation. Myst V: End of Ages was officially announced at the 2005 MacWorld Expo by Myst and Riven's developer, Cyan Worlds. In the announcement, Cyan stated that the game would be the final installment in the series.
Whereas most previous Myst titles had forgone 3D graphics rendered in real-time in favor of interactive prerendered environments, Rand Miller decided that technology had advanced to the point that End of Ages could use real-time graphics without sacrificing player immersion. "Over the years the Myst games have become increasingly sophisticated, culminating in Myst V, where we offer striking graphics that players can walk smoothly through," Miller stated in an interview. Miller emphasized that the goal of the game remained for players to become immersed in Myst's alternate worlds.
A focus in development was to make End of Ages more accessible than previous Myst games, which had often stymied uninitiated players with their puzzles. Learning from the control scheme used in another real-time Myst game (a remake of the original entitled realMyst), Cyan decided to develop multiple control methods to allow new players to quickly learn the controls, as well as provide a familiar interface for franchise veterans. Esher's experiences with the player's quest allowed a hint system to be built into the story. Miller wanted to make a significant change from previous games in the series, in that the player's actions decide the fate of the characters. When asked about the ending, Miller explained, "The future of civilization is down to this point, and the choices you make determine where it goes."
Myst games had typically used chroma key to insert footage of actors into digital backgrounds. The models of End of Ages's characters were instead computer-generated, but Cyan did not want to lose the warmth and feeling provided by using a live actor. Instead Cyan developed a device mounted to the actors' faces that captured video of the actors while they spoke their lines. The video was then manipulated and used as a facial texture that was mapped onto the 3D characters, and the facial movement was also tracked and used to animate the faces of the characters in-game. Motion capture of the body was also used to ensure lifelike movement. Cyan staff were worried that the audio synching for animation would not be finished in time for the E3 unveiling of the game, but were happy with the end results. Critical reaction to game previews and impressions at E3 was highly positive. Miller was relieved, stating that when the mostly shooter game-dominated showcase declared that End of Ages might be the best game in the series, "That feels good".
### Audio
Composer Tim Larkin, a sound designer and audio director at Cyan who had previously worked on realMyst and Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, was given the task of developing Myst V's musical score. Larkin stated that whereas earlier Myst games had been constrained by technological limitations, the available technology allowed End of Ages to have a more dynamic environment, with the music changing with various timings of different sound effects. Surround sound provided a more realistic and immersive gameplay experience. A major challenge in writing the music was that the score had to be flexible enough to match the non-linear gameplay events. "Games are totally interactive experiences," Larkin explained. "You don't guide a player through, since you can't count on being at a certain place at a certain time. I can't write cue music to get the player to do this, this and then this. One player might hear the cue and run the other way!" Larkin had to step away from what he had learned as a jazz composer and musician writing pieces with a definite beginning and end, instead creating music with "less arc" and structure. Larkin admitted that some Myst fans would have preferred a musical style similar to Robyn Miller's scores for Myst and Riven, but replied by saying that change happens and players would find something to like in the new music if they kept an open mind.
Due to a tight budget, Larkin was unable to hire an orchestra to perform the music; all the instruments in the soundtrack aside from Larkin's own trumpet playing are sampled instruments. Larkin used a variety of synthesizers, samplers, and computers to create the score, working at his home studio and Cyan's offices. Larkin found that the biggest challenge with the score was finishing it on time for the game to ship. The soundtrack was released in CD format on October 25, 2005.
### Release
End of Ages was packaged in two different retail versions for release in September 2005, to coincide with the 12th anniversary of the franchise's debut. A standard edition, containing only the game, was released for Windows-based PCs in a CD-ROM format. The limited edition contained the original soundtrack, a collector's lithograph, strategy guide, and a bonus DVD with a "making of" retrospective on the Myst franchise. The video was made by GameTap, a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System; the behind-the-scenes feature was the first game-related documentary developed by Turner. The limited edition was shipped on hybrid Mac OS X/Windows DVDs, with Macintosh conversion provided by Quebec-based developer Beenox; this was the only commercial option for Macintosh players.
Shortly before End of Ages was released, Cyan announced the layoff of most of the staff and that the company would be ceasing software development. The reason for the sudden closure was a failure to gain financial backing for a new project after End of Ages's development. Part of the blame for the company's financial troubles were placed on the commercial disappointment of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. The company was, according to Rand Miller, "able to pull a rabbit out of a hat" and rehire "almost all" the employees a few weeks later after backing for a new project was secured. With the release of End of Ages, Cyan stated that their next game would have nothing to do with the Myst series. While pitching an unnamed online game to publishers, Cyan produced Cosmic Osmo's: Hex Isle with online content site Fanista.
## Reception
Overall, End of Ages was well received by critics. The game was judged a fitting end to the series, and in combination with the other games in the series sold more than 12 million copies by November 2007. It placed sixth for the week of October 9 on NPD Techworld's sales rankings.
As with previous games, the visuals of End of Ages were widely praised. The switch to real-time rendering was generally seen as a positive step. The game's music was lauded; GameSpot's review noted the use of music in End of Ages was sparse, but the little audio present set the proper tone for different Ages. A few reviewers, such as Charles Herold of the New York Times, felt that the graphics fell short of what was possible, especially compared to the prerendered visuals of Myst IV: Revelation. While Greg Kasavin of GameSpot felt that though the visuals were on par with previous games, End of Ages was missing several elements which made Myst IV more immersive; only important, story-driving items could be interacted with, for example, and the player makes no sounds or footsteps in the game.
The characters of Myst, occasionally ridiculed in previous games, were well received in End of Ages. Publications such as GameSpot and IGN praised the voice acting and the switch to character models; Jaun Castro of IGN stated that though the player could not interact directly with the characters, the rendered characters wound up "feeling more genuine and real" than in previous games, speaking with genuine conviction and animation. Special praise was given to David Ogden Stiers for bringing Esher to life. A dissenting opinion was presented by reviewer Mark Saltzman, who thought that players might become bored by the "overly dramatic" character dialogue.
Critics warmly received the addition of the slate and its related puzzles. Oliver Clare of Eurogamer called the slate system a welcome addition to the Myst formula, although he felt that the recognition of symbols was occasionally too precise. Paul Presley of Computer and Video Games felt that the slate concept could have been explored further, while GameSpot enjoyed the environmental effects created by the slates. End of Ages won several awards upon release, including IGN's "editor's choice". Larkin's music was nominated under the "Best Interactive Score" category at the 2006 Game Audio Network Guild Awards, and won the 2006 Game Industry News award for best soundtrack. It was a nominee for GameSpot's 2005 "Best Adventure Game" award and IGN's prize for the year's top computer adventure game, but lost both categories to Fahrenheit.
|
46,634 |
Xenu
| 1,169,439,950 |
Figure in Scientology space opera
|
[
"Creation myths",
"Extraterrestrial life in popular culture",
"Mythological peoples",
"Scientology beliefs and practices",
"Scientology-related controversies",
"Trade secrets",
"Xenu"
] |
Xenu (/ˈziːnuː/), also called Xemu, is a figure in the Church of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology", a sacred and esoteric teaching. According to the "Technology", Xenu was the extraterrestrial ruler of a "Galactic Confederacy" who brought billions of his people to Earth (then known as "Teegeeack") in DC-8-like spacecraft 75 million years ago, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the thetans (immortal spirits) of these aliens adhere to humans, causing spiritual harm.
These events are known within Scientology as "Incident II", and the traumatic memories associated with them as "The Wall of Fire" or "R6 implant". The narrative of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings about extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in earthly events, collectively described as "space opera" by L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, warning that the "R6 implant" (past trauma) was "calculated to kill (by pneumonia, etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it".
The Church of Scientology normally only reveals the Xenu story to members who have completed a lengthy sequence of courses costing large amounts of money. The church avoids mention of Xenu in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain the story's confidentiality, including legal action on the grounds of copyright and trade secrecy. Officials of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story. Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public via court documents and copies of Hubbard's notes that have been distributed through the Internet.
In commentary on the impact of the Xenu text, academic scholars have discussed and analyzed Hubbard's writings, their place within Scientology, and relationship to science fiction, UFO religions, Gnosticism, and creation myths.
## Summary
The story of Xenu is covered in OT III, part of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology" doctrines taught only to advanced members who have undergone many hours of auditing and reached the state of Clear followed by Operating Thetan levels 1 and 2. It is described in more detail in the accompanying confidential "Assists" lecture of October 3, 1968, and is dramatized in Revolt in the Stars (a screen-story – in the form of a novel – written by L. Ron Hubbard in 1977).
Hubbard wrote that Xenu was the ruler of a Galactic Confederacy 75 million years ago, which consisted of 26 stars and 76 planets including Earth, which was then known as "Teegeeack". The planets were overpopulated, containing an average population of 178 billion. The Galactic Confederacy's civilization was comparable to our own, with aliens "walking around in clothes which looked very remarkably like the clothes they wear this very minute" and using cars, trains and boats looking exactly the same as those "circa 1950, 1960" on Earth.
Xenu was about to be deposed from power, so he devised a plot to eliminate the excess population from his dominions. With the assistance of psychiatrists, he gathered billions of his citizens under the pretense of income tax inspections, then paralyzed them and froze them in a mixture of alcohol and glycol to capture their souls. The kidnapped populace was loaded into spacecraft for transport to the site of extermination, the planet of Teegeeack (Earth). The appearance of these spacecraft would later be subconsciously expressed in the design of the Douglas DC-8, the only difference being; "the DC8 had fans, propellers on it and the space plane didn't". When they had reached Teegeeack, the paralyzed citizens were off-loaded, and placed around the bases of volcanoes across the planet. Hydrogen bombs were then lowered into the volcanoes and detonated simultaneously, killing all but a few aliens. Hubbard described the scene in his film script, Revolt in the Stars:
> 'Simultaneously, the planted charges erupted. Atomic blasts ballooned from the craters of Loa, Vesuvius, Shasta, Washington, Fujiyama, Etna, and many, many others. Arching higher and higher, up and outwards, towering clouds mushroomed, shot through with flashes of flame, waste and fission. Great winds raced tumultuously across the face of Earth, spreading tales of destruction ... '
The now-disembodied victims' souls, which Hubbard called thetans, were blown into the air by the blast. They were captured by Xenu's forces using an "electronic ribbon" ("which also was a type of standing wave") and sucked into "vacuum zones" around the world. The hundreds of billions of captured thetans were taken to a type of cinema, where they were forced to watch a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for thirty-six days. This implanted what Hubbard termed "various misleading data" (collectively termed the R6 implant) into the memories of the hapless thetans, "which has to do with God, the Devil, space opera, etcetera". This included all world religions; Hubbard specifically attributed Roman Catholicism and the image of the Crucifixion to the influence of Xenu. The two "implant stations" cited by Hubbard were said to have been located on Hawaii and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
In addition to implanting new beliefs in the thetans, the images deprived them of their sense of personal identity. When the thetans left the projection areas, they started to cluster together in groups of a few thousand, having lost the ability to differentiate between each other. Each cluster of thetans gathered into one of the few remaining bodies that survived the explosion. These became what are known as body thetans, which are said to be still clinging to and adversely affecting everyone except Scientologists who have performed the necessary steps to remove them.
A government faction known as the Loyal Officers finally overthrew Xenu and his renegades, and locked him away in "an electronic mountain trap" from which he has not escaped. Although the location of Xenu is sometimes said to be the Pyrenees on Earth, this is actually the location Hubbard gave elsewhere for an ancient "Martian report station". Teegeeack was subsequently abandoned by the Galactic Confederacy and remains a pariah "prison planet" to this day, although it has suffered repeatedly from incursions by alien "Invader Forces" since that time.
In 1988, the cost of learning these secrets from the Church of Scientology was £3,830, or US\$6,500. This is in addition to the cost of the prior courses which are necessary to be eligible for OT III, which is often well over US\$100,000 (roughly £77,000). Belief in Xenu and body thetans is a requirement for a Scientologist to progress further along the Bridge to Total Freedom. Those who do not experience the benefits of the OT III course are expected to take it and pay for it again.
## Scientology doctrine
Within Scientology, the Xenu story is referred to as "The Wall of Fire" or "Incident II". Hubbard attached tremendous importance to it, saying that it constituted "the secrets of a disaster which resulted in the decay of life as we know it in this sector of the galaxy". The broad outlines of the story—that 75 million years ago a great catastrophe happened in this sector of the galaxy which caused profoundly negative effects for everyone since then—are told to lower-level Scientologists; but the details are kept strictly confidential.
The OT III document asserts that Hubbard entered the Wall of Fire but emerged alive ("probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years"). He first publicly announced his "breakthrough" in Ron's Journal 67 (RJ67), a taped lecture recorded on September 20, 1967, to be sent to all Scientologists. According to Hubbard, his research was achieved at the cost of a broken back, knee, and arm. OT III contains a warning that the R6 implant is "calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it". Hubbard claimed that his "tech development"—i.e. his OT materials—had neutralized this threat, creating a safe path to redemption.
The Church of Scientology forbids individuals from reading the OT III Xenu cosmogony without first having taken prerequisite courses. Scientologists warn that reading the Xenu story without proper authorization could cause pneumonia.
In RJ67, Hubbard alludes to the devastating effect of Xenu's purported genocide:
> And it is very true that a great catastrophe occurred on this planet and in the other 75 planets which formed this [Galactic] Confederacy 75 million years ago. It has since that time been a desert, and it has been the lot of just a handful to try to push its technology up to a level where someone might adventure forward, penetrate the catastrophe, and undo it. We're well on our way to making this occur.
OT III also deals with Incident I, set four quadrillion years ago. (Scientific consensus places the age of the universe at approximately 13.8 billion years old.) In Incident I, the unsuspecting thetan was subjected to a loud snapping noise followed by a flood of luminescence, then saw a chariot followed by a trumpeting cherub. After a loud set of snaps, the thetan was overwhelmed by darkness. It is described that these traumatic memories alone separate thetans from their static (natural, godlike) state.
Hubbard uses the existence of body thetans to explain many of the physical and mental ailments of humanity which, he says, prevent people from achieving their highest spiritual levels. OT III tells the Scientologist to locate body thetans and release them from the effects of Incidents I and II. This is accomplished in solo auditing, where the Scientologist holds both cans of an E-meter in one hand and asks questions as an auditor. The Scientologist is directed to find a cluster of body thetans, address it telepathically as a cluster, and take first the cluster, then each individual member, through Incident II, then Incident I if needed. Hubbard warns that this is a painstaking procedure, and that OT levels IV to VII are necessary to continue dealing with one's body thetans.
The Church of Scientology has objected to the Xenu story being used to paint Scientology as science fiction fantasy. Hubbard's statements concerning the R6 implant have been a source of contention. Critics and some Christians state that Hubbard's statements regarding R6 prove that Scientology doctrine is incompatible with Christianity, despite the Church's statements to the contrary. In "Assists", Hubbard says:
> Everyman is then shown to have been crucified so don't think that it's an accident that this crucifixion, they found out that this applied. Somebody somewhere on this planet, back about 600 BC, found some pieces of R6, and I don't know how they found it, either by watching madmen or something, but since that time they have used it and it became what is known as Christianity. The man on the Cross. There was no Christ. But the man on the cross is shown as Everyman.
## Origins of the story
Hubbard wrote OT III in late 1966 and early 1967 in North Africa while on his way to Las Palmas to join the Enchanter, the first vessel of his private Scientology fleet (the "Sea Org"). (OT III says "In December 1967 I knew someone had to take the plunge", but the material was publicized well before this.) He emphasized later that OT III was his own personal discovery.
Critics of Scientology have suggested that other factors may have been at work. In a letter of the time to his wife Mary Sue, Hubbard said that, in order to assist his research, he was drinking alcohol and taking stimulants and depressants ("I'm drinking lots of rum and popping pinks and greys"). His assistant at the time, Virginia Downsborough, said that she had to wean him off the diet of drugs to which he had become accustomed. Russell Miller posits in Bare-faced Messiah that it was important for Hubbard to be found in a debilitated condition, so as to present OT III as "a research accomplishment of immense magnitude".
Elements of the Xenu story appeared in Scientology before OT III. Hubbard's descriptions of extraterrestrial conflicts were put forward as early as 1950 in his book Have You Lived Before This Life?, and were enthusiastically endorsed by Scientologists who documented their past lives on other planets.
## Influence of OT III on Scientology
The 1968 and subsequent reprints of Dianetics have had covers depicting an exploding volcano, which is reportedly a reference to OT III. In a 1968 lecture, and in instructions to his marketing staff, Hubbard explained that these images would "key in" the submerged memories of Incident II and impel people to buy the books.
> A special 'Book Mission' was sent out to promote these books, now empowered and made irresistible by the addition of these overwhelming symbols or images. Organization staff were assured that if they simply held up one of the books, revealing its cover, that any bookstore owner would immediately order crateloads of them. A customs officer, seeing any of the book covers in one's luggage, would immediately pass one on through.
Since the 1980s, the volcano has also been depicted in television commercials advertising Dianetics. Scientology's "Sea Org", an elite group within the church that originated with Hubbard's personal staff aboard his fleet of ships, takes many of its symbols from the story of Xenu and OT III. It is explicitly intended to be a revival of the "Loyal Officers" who overthrew Xenu. Its logo, a wreath with 26 leaves, represents the 26 stars of Xenu's Galactic Confederacy. According to an official Scientology dictionary, "the Sea Org symbol, adopted and used as the symbol of a Galactic Confederacy far back in the history of this sector, derives much of its power and authority from that association".
In the Advanced Orgs in Edinburgh and Los Angeles, Scientology staff were at one time ordered to wear all-white uniforms with silver boots, to mimic Xenu's Galactic Patrol as depicted on the cover of Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science. This was reportedly done on the basis of Hubbard's declaration in his Flag Order 652 that mankind would accept regulation from that group which had last betrayed it—hence the imitation of Xenu's henchmen. In Los Angeles, a nightwatch was ordered to watch for returning spaceships.
## Name
The name has been spelled both as Xenu and Xemu. The Class VIII course material includes a three-page text, handwritten by Hubbard, headed "Data", in which the Xenu story is given in detail. Hubbard's indistinct handwriting makes either spelling possible, particularly as the use of the name on the first page of OT III is the only known example of the name in his handwriting. In the "Assists" lecture, Hubbard speaks of "Xenu, ahhh, could be spelled X-E-M-U" and clearly says "Xemu" several times on the recording. The treatment of Revolt in the Stars—which is typewritten—uses Xenu exclusively.
It has been speculated that the name derives from Xemnu, an extraterrestrial comic book villain who first appeared in the story "I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk!" in Journey into Mystery \#62 (November 1960). He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Xemnu is a giant, hairy intergalactic criminal who escaped a prison planet, traveled to Earth, and hypnotized the entire human population. Upon Xemnu's defeat by electrician Joe Harper, Xemnu is imprisoned in a state of continual electric shock in orbit around the Sun, and humanity is left with no memory of Xemnu's existence.
## Church of Scientology's position
In its public statements, the Church of Scientology has been reluctant to allow any mention of Xenu. A passing mention by a trial judge in 1997 prompted the Church's lawyers to have the ruling sealed, although this was reversed. In the relatively few instances in which it has acknowledged Xenu, Scientology has stated the story's true meaning can only be understood after years of study. They complain of critics using it to paint the religion as a science-fiction fantasy.
Senior members of the Church of Scientology have several times publicly denied or minimized the importance of the Xenu story, but others have affirmed its existence. In 1995, Scientology lawyer Earl Cooley hinted at the importance of Xenu in Scientology doctrine by stating that "thousands of articles are written about Coca-Cola, and they don't print the formula for Coca-Cola". Scientology has many graduated levels through which one can progress. Many who remain at lower levels in the church are unaware of much of the Xenu story which is first revealed on Operating Thetan level three, or "OT III". Because the information imparted to members is to be kept secret from others who have not attained that level, the member must publicly deny its existence when asked. OT III recipients must sign an agreement promising never to reveal its contents before they are given the manila envelope containing the Xenu knowledge. Its knowledge is so dangerous, members are told, that anyone learning this material before they are ready could become afflicted with pneumonia.
Religious Technology Center director Warren McShane testified in a 1995 court case that the Church of Scientology receives a significant amount of its revenue from fixed donations paid by Scientologists to study the OT materials. McShane said that Hubbard's work "may seem weird" to those that have not yet completed the prior levels of coursework in Scientology. McShane said the story had never been secret, although maintaining there were nevertheless trade secrets contained in OT III. McShane discussed the details of the story at some length and specifically attributed the authorship of the story to Hubbard.
When John Carmichael, the president of the Church of Scientology of New York, was asked about the Xenu story, he said, as reported in the September 9, 2007, edition of The Daily Telegraph: "That's not what we believe". When asked directly about the Xenu story by Ted Koppel on ABC's Nightline, Scientology leader David Miscavige said that he was taking things Hubbard said out of context. However, in a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone, Mike Rinder, the then-director of the church's Office of Special Affairs, said that "It is not a story, it is an auditing level", when asked about the validity of the Xenu story.
In a BBC Panorama programme that aired on May 14, 2007, senior Scientologist Tommy Davis interrupted when celebrity members were asked about Xenu, saying: "None of us know what you're talking about. It's loony. It's weird." In March 2009, Davis was interviewed by investigative journalist Nathan Baca for KESQ-TV and was again asked about the OT III texts. Davis told Baca "I'm familiar with the material", and called it "the confidential scriptures of the Church". In an interview on ABC News Nightline, October 23, 2009, Davis walked off the set when Martin Bashir asked him about Xenu. He told Bashir, "Martin, I am not going to discuss the disgusting perversions of Scientology beliefs that can be found now commonly on the internet and be put in the position of talking about things, talking about things that are so fundamentally offensive to Scientologists to discuss. ... It is in violation of my religious beliefs to talk about them." When Bashir repeated a question about Xenu, Davis pulled off his microphone and left the set.
In November 2009 the Church of Scientology's representative in New Zealand, Mike Ferris, was asked in a radio interview about Xenu. The radio host asked, "So what you're saying is, Xenu is a part of the religion, but something that you don't want to talk about". Ferris responded, "Sure". Ferris acknowledged that Xenu "is part of the esoterica of Scientology".
## Leaking of the story
Despite the Church of Scientology's efforts to keep the story secret, details have been leaked over the years. OT III was first revealed in Robert Kaufman's 1972 book Inside Scientology, in which Kaufman detailed his own experiences of OT III. It was later described in a 1981 Clearwater Sun article, and came to greater public fame in a 1985 court case brought against Scientology by Lawrence Wollersheim. The church failed to have the documents sealed and attempted to keep the case file checked out by a reader at all times, but the story was summarized in the Los Angeles Times and detailed in William Poundstone's Bigger Secrets (1986) from information presented in the Wollersheim case. In 1987, a book by L. Ron Hubbard Jr., L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman? quoted the first page of OT III and summarized the rest of its content.
Since then, news media have mentioned Xenu in coverage of Scientology or its celebrity proponents such as Tom Cruise. In 1987, the BBC's investigative news series Panorama aired a report titled "The Road to Total Freedom?" which featured an outline of the OT III story in cartoon form.
On December 24, 1994, the Xenu story was published on the Internet for the first time in a posting to the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, through an anonymous remailer. This led to an online battle between Church of Scientology lawyers and detractors. Older versions of OT levels I to VII were brought as exhibits attached to a declaration by Steven Fishman on April 9, 1993, as part of Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz. The text of this declaration and its exhibits, collectively known as the Fishman Affidavit, were posted to the Internet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology in August 1995 by Arnie Lerma and on the World Wide Web by David S. Touretzky. This was a subject of great controversy and legal battles for several years. There was a copyright raid on Lerma's house (leading to massive mirroring of the documents) and a suit against Dutch writer Karin Spaink—the Church bringing suit on copyright violation grounds for reproducing the source material, and also claiming rewordings would reveal a trade secret.
The Church of Scientology's attempts to keep Xenu secret have been cited in court findings against it. In September 2003, a Dutch court, in a ruling in the case against Karin Spaink, stated that one objective in keeping OT II and OT III secret was to wield power over members of the Church of Scientology and prevent discussion about its teachings and practices:
Despite his claims that premature revelation of the OT III story was lethal, L. Ron Hubbard wrote a screenplay version under the title Revolt in the Stars in the 1970s. This revealed that Xenu had been assisted by beings named Chi ("the Galactic Minister of Police") and Chu ("the Executive President of the Galactic Interplanetary Bank"). It has not been officially published, although the treatment was circulated around Hollywood in the early 1980s. Unofficial copies of the screenplay circulate on the Internet.
On March 10, 2001, a user posted the text of OT3 to the online community Slashdot. The site owners took down the comment after the Church of Scientology issued a legal notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Critics of the Church of Scientology have used public protests to spread the Xenu secret. This has included creating web sites with "xenu" in the domain name, and displaying the name Xenu on banners and protest signs.
## In popular culture
Versions of the Xenu story have appeared in both television shows and stage productions. The Off-Broadway satirical musical A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, first staged in 2003 and winner of an Obie Award in 2004, featured children in alien costumes telling the story of Xenu.
The Xenu story was also satirized in a November 2005 episode of animated television series South Park titled "Trapped in the Closet". The Emmy-nominated episode, which also lampooned Scientologists Tom Cruise and John Travolta as closeted homosexuals, depicted Xenu as a vaguely humanoid alien with tentacles for arms, in a sequence that had the words "This Is What Scientologists Actually Believe" superimposed on screen. The episode became the subject of controversy when musician Isaac Hayes, the voice of the character "Chef" and a Scientologist, quit the show in March 2006, just prior to the episode's first scheduled re-screening, citing South Park's "inappropriate ridicule" of his religion. Hayes' statement did not mention the episode in particular, but expressed his view that the show's habit of parodying religion was part of a "growing insensitivity toward personal spiritual beliefs" in the media that was also reflected in the Muhammad cartoons controversy: "There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins." Responding to Hayes' statement, South Park co-creator Matt Stone said his resignation had "nothing to do with intolerance and bigotry and everything to do with the fact that Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist and that we recently featured Scientology in an episode of South Park ... In 10 years and over 150 episodes of South Park, Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show. Of course we will release Isaac from his contract and we wish him well." Comedy Central cancelled the repeat at short notice, choosing instead to screen two episodes featuring Hayes. A spokesman said that "in light of the events of earlier this week, we wanted to give Chef an appropriate tribute by airing two episodes he is most known for." It did eventually rebroadcast the episode on July 19, 2006. Stone and South Park co-creator Trey Parker felt that Comedy Central's owners Viacom had cancelled the repeat because of the upcoming release of the Tom Cruise film Mission: Impossible III by Paramount, another Viacom company: "I only know what we were told, that people involved with MI3 wanted the episode off the air and that is why Comedy Central had to do it. I don't know why else it would have been pulled."
## Commentary
Writing in the book Scientology published by Oxford University Press, contributor Mikael Rothstein observes that, "To my knowledge no real analysis of Scientology's Xenu myth has appeared in scholarly publications. The most sober and enlightening text about the Xenu myth is probably the article on Wikipedia (English version) and, even if brief, Andreas Grünschloss's piece on Scientology in Lewis (2000: 266–268)." Rothstein places the Xenu text by L. Ron Hubbard within the context of a creation myth within the Scientology methodology, and characterizes it as "one of Scientology's more important religious narratives, the text that apparently constitutes the basic (sometimes implicit) mythology of the movement, the Xenu myth, which is basically a story of the origin of man on Earth and the human condition." Rothstein describes the phenomenon within a belief system inspired by science fiction, and notes that the "myth about Xenu, ... in the shape of a science fiction-inspired anthropogony, explains the basic Scientological claims about the human condition."
Andreas Grünschloß analyzes the Xenu text in The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, within the context of a discussion on UFO religions. He characterizes the text as "Scientology's secret mythology (contained especially in the OT III teachings)". Grünschloß points out that L. Ron Hubbard, "also wrote a science fiction story called Revolt in the Stars, where he displays this otherwise arcane story about the ancient ruler Xenu in the form of an ordinary science fiction novel". Grünschloß posits, "because of the connections between several motifs in Hubbard's novels and specific Scientology teachings, one might perceive Scientology as one of the rare instances where science fiction (or fantasy literature generally) is related to the successful formation of a new spiritual movement." Comparing the fusion between the two genres of Hubbard's science fiction writing and Scientology creation myth, Grünschloß writes, "Although the science fiction novels are of a different genre than other 'techno-logical' disclosures of Hubbard, they are highly appreciated by participants, and Hubbard's literary output in this realm (including the latest movie, Battlefield Earth) is also well promoted by the organization." Writing in the book UFO Religions edited by Christopher Partridge, Grünschloß observes, "the enthusiasm for ufology and science fiction was cultivated in the formative phase of Scientology. Indeed, even the highly arcane story of the intergalactic ruler Xenu ... is related by Hubbard in the style of a simple science fiction novel".
Several authors have pointed out structural similarities between the Xenu story and the mythology of gnosticism. James A. Herrick, writing about the Xenu text in The Making of the New Spirituality: The Eclipse of the Western Religious Tradition, notes that "Hubbard's gnostic leanings are evident in his account of human origins ... In Hubbard, ideas first expressed in science fiction are seamlessly transformed into a worldwide religion with affinities to gnosticism." Mary Farrell Bednarowski, writing in America's Alternative Religions, similarly states that the outline of the Xenu mythology is "not totally unfamiliar to the historian acquainted with ancient gnosticism", noting that many other religious traditions have the practice of reserving certain texts to high-level initiates. Nevertheless, she writes, the Xenu story arouses suspicion in the public about Scientology and adds fuel to "the claims that Hubbard's system is the product of his creativity as a science fiction writer rather than a theologian."
Authors Michael McDowell and Nathan Robert Brown discuss misconceptions about the Xenu text in their book World Religions at Your Fingertips, and observe, "Probably the most controversial, misunderstood, and frequently misrepresented part of the Scientology religion has to do with a Scientology myth commonly referred to as the Legend of Xenu. While this story has now been undoubtedly proven a part of the religion (despite the fact that church representatives often deny its existence), the story's true role in Scientology is often misrepresented by its critics as proof that they 'believe in alien parasites.' While the story may indeed seem odd, this is simply not the case." The authors write that "The story is actually meant to be a working myth, illustrating the Scientology belief that humans were at one time spiritual beings, existing on infinite levels of intergalactic and interdimensional realities. At some point, the beings that we once were became trapped in physical reality (where we remain to this day). This is supposed to be the underlying message of the Xenu story, not that humans are "possessed by aliens". McDowell and Brown conclude that these inappropriate misconceptions about the Xenu text have had a negative impact, "Such harsh statements are the reason many Scientologists now become passionately offended at even the mention of Xenu by nonmembers."
Free speech lawyer Mike Godwin analyzes actions by the Scientology organization to protect and keep secret the Xenu text, within a discussion in his book Cyber Rights about the application of trade secret law on the Internet. Godwin explains, "trade secret law protects the information itself, not merely its particular expression. Trade secret law, unlike copyright, can protect ideas and facts directly." He puts forth the question, "But did the material really qualify as 'trade secrets'? Among the material the church has been trying to suppress is what might be called a 'genesis myth of Scientology': a story about a galactic despot named Xenu who decided 75 million years ago to kill a bunch of people by chaining them to volcanoes and dropping nuclear bombs on them." Godwin asks, "Does a 'church' normally have 'competitors' in the trade secret sense? If the Catholics got hold of the full facts about Xenu, does this mean they'll get more market share?" He comments on the ability of the Scientology organization to utilize such laws in order to contain its secret texts, "It seems likely, given what we know about the case now, that even a combination of copyright and trade secret law wouldn't accomplish what the church would like to accomplish: the total suppression of any dissemination of church documents or doctrines." The author concludes, "But the fact that the church was unlikely to gain any complete legal victories in its cases didn't mean that they wouldn't litigate. It's indisputable that the mere threat of litigation, or the costs of actual litigation, may accomplish what the legal theories alone do not: the effective silencing of many critics of the church."
## See also
- Incident (Scientology)
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5,243,711 |
James II of England
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King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1685 to 1688
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"Peers of Scotland created by Charles II",
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James II (14 October 1633 O.S. – 16 September 1701) was King of England and of Ireland, as well as King of Scotland as James VII, from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland. His reign is now remembered primarily for conflicts over religious tolerance, but it also involved struggles over the principles of absolutism and the divine right of kings. His deposition ended a century of political and civil strife in England by confirming the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown.
James succeeded to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland following the death of his brother, with widespread support in all three countries, largely because the principles of eligibility based on divine right and birth were widely accepted. Tolerance of his personal Catholicism did not extend to tolerance of Catholicism in general, and the English and Scottish parliaments refused to pass his measures. When James attempted to impose them by decree, this was met with opposition; some academics have, however, argued that it was a political principle, rather than a religious one, that ultimately led to his removal.
In June 1688, two events turned dissent into a crisis. Firstly, the birth of James's son and heir James Francis Edward Stuart on 10 June raised the prospect of establishing a Catholic dynasty and excluding his Anglican daughter Mary and her Protestant husband William III, Prince of Orange, who was also his nephew, from the line of succession. Secondly, the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for seditious libel was viewed as further evidence of an assault on the Church of England, and their acquittal on 30 June destroyed his political authority in England. The ensuing anti-Catholic riots in England and Scotland led to a general feeling that only James's removal from the throne could prevent a civil war.
Leading members of the English political class invited William of Orange to assume the English throne. When William landed in Brixham on 5 November 1688, James's army deserted and he went into exile in France on 23 December. In February 1689, a special Convention Parliament held that James had "vacated" the English throne and installed William and Mary as joint monarchs, thereby establishing the principle that sovereignty derived from Parliament, not birth. James landed in Ireland on 14 March 1689 in an attempt to recover his kingdoms, but, despite a simultaneous rising in Scotland, in April a Scottish Convention followed that of England, both finding that James had "forfeited" the throne and offered it to William and Mary. After his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, James returned to France, where he spent the rest of his life in exile at Saint-Germain, protected by Louis XIV. While his contemporary opponents often portrayed him as an absolutist tyrant, some historians—beginning in the 20th century—have praised James for advocating religious tolerance. More recent scholarship has tended to take a middle ground between these views.
## Early life
### Birth
James, the second surviving son of King Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France, was born at St James's Palace in London on 14 October 1633. Later that same year, he was baptized by William Laud, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. He was educated by private tutors, along with his older brother, the future King Charles II, and the two sons of the Duke of Buckingham, George and Francis Villiers. At the age of three, James was appointed Lord High Admiral; the position was initially honorary, but became a substantive office after the Restoration, when James was an adult. He was designated Duke of York at birth, invested with the Order of the Garter in 1642, and formally created Duke of York in January 1644.
### Wars of the Three Kingdoms
In August 1642, long-running political disputes between Charles I and his opponents in Parliament led to the First English Civil War. James and his brother Charles were present at the Battle of Edgehill in October, and narrowly escaped capture by Parliamentarian cavalry. He spent most of the next four years in the Royalist wartime capital of Oxford, where he was made a Master of Arts by the University on 1 November 1642 and served as colonel of a volunteer regiment of foot. Following the surrender of Oxford in June 1646, James was taken to London and held with his younger siblings Henry, Elizabeth and Henrietta in St James's Palace.
Frustrated by their inability to agree terms with Charles I, and with his brother Charles out of reach in France, Parliament considered making James king. James was ordered by his father to escape, and, with the help of Joseph Bampfield, in April 1648 successfully evaded his guards and crossed the North Sea to The Hague. Following their victory in the 1648 Second English Civil War, Parliament ordered the execution of Charles I in January 1649. The Covenanter regime proclaimed Charles II King of Scotland, and after lengthy negotiations agreed to provide troops to restore him to the English throne. The invasion ended in defeat at Worcester in September 1651. Although Charles managed to escape capture and to return to the exiled court in Paris, the Royalist cause appeared hopeless.
### Exile in France
James, like his brother, sought refuge in France, serving in the French army under Turenne against the Fronde, and later against their Spanish allies. In the French army James had his first true experience of battle, in which, according to one observer, he "ventures himself and chargeth gallantly where anything is to be done". Turenne's favour led to James being given command of a captured Irish regiment in December 1652, and being appointed Lieutenant-General in 1654.
In the meantime, Charles was attempting to reclaim his throne, but France, although hosting the exiles, had allied itself with Oliver Cromwell. In 1656, Charles turned instead to Spain—an enemy of France—for support, and an alliance was made. In consequence, James was expelled from France and forced to leave Turenne's army. James quarrelled with his brother over the diplomatic choice of Spain over France. Exiled and poor, there was little that either Charles or James could do about the wider political situation, and James ultimately travelled to Bruges and (along with his younger brother, Henry) joined the Spanish army under the Prince of Condé in Flanders, where he was given command as Captain-General of six regiments of British volunteers and fought against his former French comrades at the Battle of the Dunes.
During his service in the Spanish army, James became friendly with two Irish Catholic brothers in the Royalist entourage, Peter and Richard Talbot, and became somewhat estranged from his brother's Anglican advisers. In 1659, the French and Spanish made peace by the Treaty of the Pyrenees. James, doubtful of his brother's chances of regaining the throne, considered taking a Spanish offer to be an admiral in their navy. Ultimately, he declined the position; by the next year the situation in England had changed, and Charles II was proclaimed King.
## Restoration
### First marriage
After the collapse of the Commonwealth in 1660, Charles II was restored to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland. Although James was the heir presumptive, it seemed unlikely that he would inherit the Crown, as Charles was still a young man capable of fathering children. On 31 December 1660, following his brother's restoration, James was created Duke of Albany in Scotland, to go along with his English title, Duke of York. Upon his return to England, James prompted an immediate controversy by announcing his engagement to Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles's chief minister, Edward Hyde.
In 1659, while trying to seduce her, James promised he would marry Anne. Anne became pregnant in 1660, but following the Restoration and James's return to power, no one at the royal court expected a prince to marry a commoner, no matter what he had pledged beforehand. Although nearly everyone, including Anne's father, urged the two not to marry, the couple married secretly, then went through an official marriage ceremony on 3 September 1660 in London.
The couple's first child, Charles, was born less than two months later, but died in infancy, as did five further children. Only two daughters survived: Mary (born 30 April 1662) and Anne (born 6 February 1665). Samuel Pepys wrote that James was fond of his children and his role as a father, and played with them "like an ordinary private father of a child", a contrast to the distant parenting common with royalty at the time.
James's wife was devoted to him and influenced many of his decisions. Even so, he kept mistresses, including Arabella Churchill and Catherine Sedley, and was reputed to be "the most unguarded ogler of his time". Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that James "did eye my wife mightily". James's taste in women was often maligned, with Gilbert Burnet famously remarking that James's mistresses must have been "given [to] him by his priests as a penance". Anne Hyde died in 1671.
### Military and political offices and royal slavery
After the Restoration, James was confirmed as Lord High Admiral, an office that carried with it the subsidiary appointments of Governor of Portsmouth and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Charles II also made his brother the Governor of the Royal Adventurers into Africa (later shortened to the Royal African Company) in October 1660, an office James retained until after the Glorious Revolution when he was forced to resign. When James commanded the Royal Navy during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667) he immediately directed the fleet towards the capture of forts off the African coast that would facilitate English involvement in the slave trade (indeed English attacks on such forts occupied by the Dutch precipitated the war itself). James remained Admiral of the Fleet during the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–1674), during which significant fighting also occurred off the African coast. Following the raid on the Medway in 1667, James oversaw the survey and re-fortification of the southern coast. The office of Lord High Admiral, combined with his revenue from post office and wine tariffs (positions granted him by Charles II upon his restoration), gave James enough money to keep a sizable court household.
In 1664, Charles II granted American territory between the Delaware and Connecticut rivers to James. Following its capture by the British, the former Dutch territory of New Netherland and its principal port, New Amsterdam, were renamed the Province and City of New York in James's honour. James gave part of the colony to proprietors George Carteret and John Berkeley. Fort Orange, 150 miles (240 km) north on the Hudson River, was renamed Albany after James's Scottish title. In 1683, James became the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, but did not take an active role in its governance.
In September 1666, Charles II put James in charge of firefighting operations during the Great Fire of London, in the absence of action by Lord Mayor Thomas Bloodworth. This was not a political office, but his actions and leadership were noteworthy. "The Duke of York hath won the hearts of the people with his continual and indefatigable pains day and night in helping to quench the Fire", wrote a witness in a letter on 8 September.
In 1672, the Royal African Company received a new charter from Charles II. It set up forts and factories, maintained troops, and exercised martial law in West Africa in pursuit of trade in gold, silver and African slaves. In the 1680s, the RAC transported about 5,000 slaves a year to markets primarily in the English Caribbean across the Atlantic. Many were branded on the chest with the letters "DY" for "Duke of York", the RAC's Governor. As historian William Pettigrew writes, the RAC "shipped more enslaved African women, men, and children to the Americas than any other single institution during the entire period of the transatlantic slave trade".
### Conversion to Roman Catholicism and second marriage
James's time in France had exposed him to the beliefs and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church, and both he and his wife Anne became drawn to that faith. James took Catholic Eucharist in 1668 or 1669, although his conversion was kept secret for almost a decade as he continued to attend Anglican services until 1676. In spite of his conversion, James continued to associate primarily with Anglicans, including John Churchill and George Legge, as well as French Protestants such as Louis de Duras, 2nd Earl of Feversham.
Growing fears of Roman Catholic influence at court led the English Parliament to introduce a new Test Act in 1673. Under this Act, all civil and military officials were required to take an oath (in which they were required to disavow the doctrine of transubstantiation and denounce certain practices of the Roman Church as superstitious and idolatrous) and to receive the Eucharist under the auspices of the Church of England. James refused to perform either action, instead choosing to relinquish the post of Lord High Admiral. His conversion to Roman Catholicism was thereby made public.
King Charles II opposed James's conversion, ordering that James's daughters, Mary and Anne, be raised in the Church of England. Nevertheless, he allowed the widowed James to marry Mary of Modena, a fifteen-year-old Italian princess. James and Mary were married by proxy in a Roman Catholic ceremony on 20 September 1673. On 21 November, Mary arrived in England and Nathaniel Crew, Bishop of Oxford, performed a brief Anglican service that did little more than recognise the marriage by proxy. Many British people, distrustful of Catholicism, regarded the new Duchess of York as an agent of the Papacy. James was noted for his deep devotion, once remarking, "If occasion were, I hope God would give me his grace to suffer death for the true Catholic religion as well as banishment."
### Exclusion Crisis
In 1677, King Charles II arranged for James's daughter Mary to marry the Protestant Prince William III of Orange, son of Charles's and James's sister Mary. James reluctantly acquiesced after his brother and nephew had agreed to the marriage. Despite the Protestant marriage, fears of a potential Catholic monarch persisted, intensified by the failure of Charles II and his wife, Catherine of Braganza, to produce any children. A defrocked Anglican clergyman, Titus Oates, spoke of a "Popish Plot" to kill Charles and to put the Duke of York on the throne. The fabricated plot caused a wave of anti-Catholic hysteria to sweep across the nation.
In England, the Earl of Shaftesbury, a former government minister and now a leading opponent of Catholicism, proposed an Exclusion Bill that would have excluded James from the line of succession. Some members of Parliament even proposed to pass the crown to Charles's illegitimate son, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. In 1679, with the Exclusion Bill in danger of passing, Charles II dissolved Parliament. Two further Parliaments were elected in 1680 and 1681, but were dissolved for the same reason. The Exclusion Crisis contributed to the development of the English two-party system: the Whigs were those who supported the Bill, while the Tories were those who opposed it. Ultimately, the succession was not altered, but James was convinced to withdraw from all policy-making bodies and to accept a lesser role in his brother's government.
On the orders of the King, James left England for Brussels. In 1680, he was appointed Lord High Commissioner of Scotland and took up residence at the Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh to suppress an uprising and oversee the royal government. James returned to England for a time when Charles was stricken ill and appeared to be near death. The hysteria of the accusations eventually faded, but James's relations with many in the English Parliament, including the Earl of Danby, a former ally, were forever strained and a solid segment turned against him.
On 6 May 1682, James narrowly escaped the sinking of HMS Gloucester, in which between 130 and 250 people perished. James argued with the pilot about the navigation of the ship before it ran aground on a sandbank, and then delayed abandoning ship, which may have contributed to the death toll.
### Return to favour
In 1683, a plot was uncovered to assassinate Charles II and his brother and spark a republican revolution to re-establish a government of the Cromwellian style. The conspiracy, known as the Rye House Plot, backfired upon its conspirators and provoked a wave of sympathy for the King and James. Several notable Whigs, including the Earl of Essex and the Duke of Monmouth, were implicated. Monmouth initially confessed to complicity in the plot and implicated fellow conspirators, but later recanted. Essex committed suicide, and Monmouth, along with several others, was obliged to flee into exile in continental Europe. Charles II reacted to the plot by increasing the repression of Whigs and dissenters. Taking advantage of James's rebounding popularity, Charles invited him back onto the Privy Council in 1684. While some in the English Parliament remained wary of the possibility of a Roman Catholic king, the threat of excluding James from the throne had passed.
## Reign
### Accession to the throne
Charles II died on 6 February 1685 from apoplexy, after supposedly converting to Catholicism on his deathbed. Having no legitimate children, he was succeeded by his brother James, who reigned in England and Ireland as James II and in Scotland as James VII. There was little initial opposition to James's accession, and there were widespread reports of public rejoicing at the orderly succession. He wished to proceed quickly to the coronation, and he and Mary were crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1685.
The new Parliament that assembled in May 1685, which gained the name of "Loyal Parliament", was initially favourable to James, who had stated that most former exclusionists would be forgiven if they acquiesced to his rule. Most of Charles's officers continued in office, the exceptions being the promotion of James's brothers-in-law, the earls of Clarendon and Rochester, and the demotion of Halifax. Parliament granted James a generous life income, including all of the proceeds of tonnage and poundage and the customs duties. James worked harder as king than his brother had, but was less willing to compromise when his advisers disagreed with his policies.
### Two rebellions
Soon after becoming king, James faced a rebellion in southern England led by his nephew, the Duke of Monmouth, and another rebellion in Scotland led by Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll. Monmouth and Argyll both began their expeditions from Holland, where James's nephew and son-in-law, the Prince of Orange, had neglected to detain them or put a stop to their recruitment efforts.
Argyll sailed to Scotland where he raised recruits, mainly from his own clan, the Campbells. The rebellion was quickly crushed, and Argyll was captured at Inchinnan on 18 June 1685. Having arrived with fewer than 300 men and unable to convince many more to flock to his standard, he never posed a credible threat to James. Argyll was taken as a prisoner to Edinburgh. A new trial was not commenced because Argyll had previously been tried and sentenced to death. The King confirmed the earlier death sentence and ordered that it be carried out within three days of receiving the confirmation.
Monmouth's rebellion was coordinated with Argyll's, but was more dangerous to James. Monmouth had proclaimed himself King at Lyme Regis on 11 June. He attempted to raise recruits but was unable to gather enough rebels to defeat even James's small standing army. Monmouth's soldiers attacked the King's army at night, in an attempt at surprise, but were defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor. The King's forces, led by Feversham and Churchill, quickly dispersed the ill-prepared rebels. Monmouth was captured and later executed at the Tower of London on 15 July. The King's judges—most notably, George Jeffreys—condemned many of the rebels to transportation and indentured servitude in the West Indies in a series of trials that came to be known as the Bloody Assizes. Around 250 of the rebels were executed. While both rebellions were defeated easily, they hardened James's resolve against his enemies and increased his suspicion of the Dutch.
### Religious liberty and dispensing power
To protect himself from further rebellions, James sought safety by enlarging his standing army. This alarmed his subjects, not only because of the trouble soldiers caused in the towns, but because it was against the English tradition to keep a professional army in peacetime. Even more alarming to Parliament was James's use of his dispensing power to allow Roman Catholics to command several regiments without having to take the oath mandated by the Test Act. When even the previously supportive Parliament objected to these measures, James ordered Parliament prorogued in November 1685, never to meet again in his reign. At the beginning of 1686, two papers were found in Charles II's strong box and his closet, in his own hand, stating the arguments for Catholicism over Protestantism. James published these papers with a declaration signed by his sign manual and challenged the Archbishop of Canterbury and the whole Anglican episcopal bench to refute Charles's arguments: "Let me have a solid answer, and in a gentlemanlike style; and it may have the effect which you so much desire of bringing me over to your church." The Archbishop refused on the grounds of respect for the late king.
James advocated repeal of the penal laws in all three of his kingdoms, but in the early years of his reign he refused to allow those dissenters who did not petition for relief to receive it. James sent a letter to the Scottish Parliament at its opening in 1685, declaring his wish for new penal laws against refractory Presbyterians and lamented that he was not there in person to promote such a law. In response, the Parliament passed an Act that stated, "whoever should preach in a conventicle under a roof, or should attend, either as preacher or as a hearer, a conventicle in the open air, should be punished with death and confiscation of property". In March 1686, James sent a letter to the Scottish Privy Council advocating toleration for Roman Catholics but not for rebellious Presbyterian Covenanters. Presbyterians would later call this period "The Killing Time".
James allowed Roman Catholics to occupy the highest offices of his kingdoms, and received at his court the papal nuncio, Ferdinando d'Adda, the first representative from Rome to London since the reign of Mary I. Edward Petre, James's Jesuit confessor, was a particular object of Anglican ire. When the King's Secretary of State, the Earl of Sunderland, began replacing office-holders at court with "Papist" favourites, James began to lose the confidence of many of his Anglican supporters. Sunderland's purge of office-holders even extended to the King's brothers-in-law (the Hydes) and their supporters. Roman Catholics made up no more than one-fiftieth of the English population. In May 1686, James sought to obtain a ruling from the English common-law courts that showed he had the power to dispense with Acts of Parliament. He dismissed judges who disagreed with him on this matter, as well as the Solicitor General, Heneage Finch. The case of Godden v. Hales affirmed his dispensing power, with eleven out of the twelve judges ruling in the king's favour.
In 1687, James issued the Declaration of Indulgence, also known as the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, in which he used his dispensing power to negate the effect of laws punishing both Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters. In the summer of 1687 he attempted to increase support for his tolerationist policy by a speaking tour of the western counties of England. As part of this tour, he gave a speech at Chester in which he said, "suppose... there should be a law made that all black men should be imprisoned, it would be unreasonable and we had as little reason to quarrel with other men for being of different [religious] opinions as for being of different complexions." At the same time, James provided partial toleration in Scotland, using his dispensing power to grant relief to Roman Catholics and partial relief to Presbyterians.
In 1688, James ordered the Declaration read from the pulpits of every Anglican church, further alienating the Anglican bishops against the Supreme Governor of their church. While the Declaration elicited some thanks from its beneficiaries, it left the Established Church, the traditional ally of the monarchy, in the difficult position of being forced to erode its own privileges. James provoked further opposition by attempting to reduce the Anglican monopoly on education. At the University of Oxford, he offended Anglicans by allowing Roman Catholics to hold important positions in Christ Church and University College, two of Oxford's largest colleges. He also attempted to force the Fellows of Magdalen College to elect as their President Anthony Farmer, a man of generally ill repute who was believed to be a Roman Catholic, which was seen as a violation of the Fellows' right to elect someone of their own choosing.
In 1687, James prepared to pack Parliament with his supporters, so that it would repeal the Test Act and the Penal Laws. James was convinced by addresses from Dissenters that he had their support and so could dispense with relying on Tories and Anglicans. He instituted a wholesale purge of those in offices under the Crown opposed to his plan, appointing new lord-lieutenants of counties and remodelling the corporations governing towns and livery companies. In October, James gave orders for the lord-lieutenants to provide three standard questions to all Justices of the Peace: 1. Would they consent to the repeal of the Test Act and the Penal Laws? 2. Would they assist candidates who would do so? 3. Would they accept the Declaration of Indulgence? During the first three months of 1688, hundreds of those who gave negative replies to those questions were dismissed. Corporations were purged by agents, known as the Regulators, who were given wide discretionary powers, in an attempt to create a permanent royal electoral machine. Most of the regulators were Baptists, and the new town officials that they recommended included Quakers, Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics, as well as Anglicans. Finally, on 24 August 1688, James ordered the issue of writs for a general election. However, upon realising in September that William of Orange was going to land in England, James withdrew the writs and subsequently wrote to the lord-lieutenants to inquire over allegations of abuses committed during the regulations and election preparations, as part of the concessions he made to win support.
### Deposition and the Glorious Revolution
In April 1688, James re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence, subsequently ordering Anglican clergy to read it in their churches. When seven bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, submitted a petition requesting the reconsideration of the King's religious policies, they were arrested and tried for seditious libel. Public alarm increased when Queen Mary gave birth to a Roman Catholic son and heir, James Francis Edward, on 10 June that year. When James's only possible successors were his two Protestant daughters, Anglicans could see his pro-Catholic policies as a temporary phenomenon, but when the prince's birth opened the possibility of a permanent Roman Catholic dynasty, such men had to reconsider their position. Threatened by a Roman Catholic dynasty, several influential Protestants claimed the child was supposititious and had been smuggled into the Queen's bedchamber in a warming pan. They had already entered into negotiations with the Prince of Orange when it became known the Queen was pregnant, and the birth of a son reinforced their convictions.
On 30 June 1688, a group of seven Protestant nobles invited William, Prince of Orange, to come to England with an army. By September, it had become clear that William sought to invade. Believing that his own army would be adequate, James refused the assistance of King Louis XIV of France, fearing that the English would oppose French intervention. When William arrived on 5 November 1688, many Protestant officers, including Churchill, defected and joined William, as did James's own daughter Anne. James lost his nerve and declined to attack the invading army, despite his army's numerical superiority. On 11 December, James tried to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames. He was captured in Kent; later, he was released and placed under Dutch protective guard. Having no desire to make James a martyr, William let him escape on 23 December. James was received by his cousin and ally, Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a pension.
William summoned a Convention Parliament to decide how to handle James's flight. It convened on 22 January 1689. While the Parliament refused to depose him, they declared that James, having fled to France and dropped the Great Seal into the Thames, had effectively abdicated, and that the throne had thereby become vacant. To fill this vacancy, James's daughter Mary was declared Queen; she was to rule jointly with her husband William, who would be King. On 11 April 1689, the Parliament of Scotland declared James to have forfeited the throne of Scotland as well. The Convention Parliament issued a Declaration of Right on 12 February that denounced James for abusing his power, and proclaimed many limitations on royal authority. The abuses charged to James included the suspension of the Test Acts, the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for merely petitioning the Crown, the establishment of a standing army, and the imposition of cruel punishments. The Declaration was the basis for the Bill of Rights enacted later in 1689. The Bill also declared that henceforth, no Roman Catholic was permitted to ascend the English throne, nor could any English monarch marry a Roman Catholic.
## Attempt to regain the throne
### War in Ireland
With the assistance of French troops, James landed in Ireland in March 1689. The Irish Parliament did not follow the example of the English Parliament; it declared that James remained King and passed a massive bill of attainder against those who had rebelled against him. At James's urging, the Irish Parliament passed an Act for Liberty of Conscience that granted religious freedom to all Roman Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. James worked to build an army in Ireland, but was ultimately defeated at the Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690 O.S. when William arrived, personally leading an army to defeat James and reassert English control. James fled to France once more, departing from Kinsale, never to return to any of his former kingdoms. Because he deserted his Irish supporters, James became known in Ireland as Séamus an Chaca or "James the shit". Despite this popular perception, later historian Breandán Ó Buachalla argues that "Irish political poetry for most of the eighteenth century is essentially Jacobite poetry", and both Ó Buachalla and fellow-historian Éamonn Ó Ciardha argue that James and his successors played a central role as messianic figures throughout the 18th century for all classes in Ireland.
### Return to exile, death and legacy
In France, James was allowed to live in the royal château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. James's wife and some of his supporters fled with him, including the Earl of Melfort; most, but not all, were Roman Catholic. In 1692, James's last child, Louisa Maria Teresa, was born. Some supporters in England attempted to assassinate William III to restore James to the throne in 1696, but the plot failed and the backlash made James's cause less popular. In the same year, Louis XIV offered to have James elected King of Poland. James rejected the offer, fearing that accepting the Polish crown might (in the minds of the English people) disqualify him from being King of England. After Louis concluded peace with William in 1697, he ceased to offer much assistance to James.
During his last years, James lived as an austere penitent. He wrote a memorandum for his son advising him on how to govern England, specifying that Catholics should possess one Secretary of State, one Commissioner of the Treasury, the Secretary at War, with the majority of the officers in the army.
James died aged 67 of a brain haemorrhage on 16 September 1701 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. James's heart was placed in a silver-gilt locket and given to the convent at Chaillot, and his brain was placed in a lead casket and given to the Scots College in Paris. His entrails were placed in two gilt urns and sent to the parish church of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the English Jesuit college at Saint-Omer, while the flesh from his right arm was given to the English Augustinian nuns of Paris.
The rest of James's body was laid to rest in a triple sarcophagus (consisting of two wooden coffins and one of lead) at the St Edmund's Chapel in the Church of the English Benedictines in the Rue Saint-Jacques, Paris, with a funeral oration by Henri-Emmanuel de Roquette. James was not buried, but put in one of the side chapels. Lights were kept burning round his coffin until the French Revolution. In 1734, the Archbishop of Paris heard evidence to support James's canonisation, but nothing came of it. During the French Revolution, James's tomb was raided.
## Later Hanover succession
James's younger daughter Anne succeeded when William died in 1702. The Act of Settlement provided that, if the line of succession established in the Bill of Rights were extinguished, the crown would go to a German cousin, Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and to her Protestant heirs. Sophia was a granddaughter of James VI and I through his eldest daughter, Elizabeth Stuart, the sister of Charles I. Thus, when Anne died in 1714 (less than two months after the death of Sophia), she was succeeded by George I, Sophia's son, the Elector of Hanover and Anne's second cousin.
## Subsequent uprisings and pretenders
James's son James Francis Edward was recognised as king at his father's death by Louis XIV of France and James II's remaining supporters (later known as Jacobites) as "James III and VIII". He led a rising in Scotland in 1715 shortly after George I's accession, but was defeated. His son Charles Edward Stuart led a Jacobite rising in 1745, but was again defeated. The risings were the last serious attempts to restore the Stuart dynasty.
Charles's claims passed to his younger brother Henry Benedict Stuart, the Dean of the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. Henry was the last of James II's legitimate descendants, and no relative has publicly acknowledged the Jacobite claim since his death in 1807.
## Historiography
Historical analysis of James II has been somewhat revised since Whig historians, led by Lord Macaulay, cast James as a cruel absolutist and his reign as "tyranny which approached to insanity". Subsequent scholars, such as G. M. Trevelyan (Macaulay's great-nephew) and David Ogg, while more balanced than Macaulay, still characterised James as a tyrant, his attempts at religious tolerance as a fraud, and his reign as an aberration in the course of British history. In 1892, A. W. Ward wrote for the Dictionary of National Biography that James was "obviously a political and religious bigot", although never devoid of "a vein of patriotic sentiment"; "his conversion to the church of Rome made the emancipation of his fellow-catholics in the first instance, and the recovery of England for catholicism in the second, the governing objects of his policy."
Hilaire Belloc, a writer and Catholic apologist, broke with this tradition in 1928, casting James as an honourable man and a true advocate for freedom of conscience, and his enemies "men in the small clique of great fortunes ... which destroyed the ancient monarchy of the English". However, he observed that James "concluded the Catholic church to be the sole authoritative voice on earth, and thenceforward ... he not only stood firm against surrender but on no single occasion contemplated the least compromise or by a word would modify the impression made."
By the 1960s and 1970s, Maurice Ashley and Stuart Prall began to reconsider James's motives in granting religious toleration, while still taking note of James's autocratic rule. Modern historians have moved away from the school of thought that preached the continuous march of progress and democracy, Ashley contending that "history is, after all, the story of human beings and individuals, as well as of the classes and the masses." He cast James II and William III as "men of ideals as well as human weaknesses". John Miller, writing in 2000, accepted the claims of James's absolutism, but argued that "his main concern was to secure religious liberty and civil equality for Catholics. Any 'absolutist' methods ... were essentially means to that end."
In 2004, W. A. Speck wrote in the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography that "James was genuinely committed to religious toleration, but also sought to increase the power of the crown." He added that, unlike the government of the Netherlands, "James was too autocratic to combine freedom of conscience with popular government. He resisted any check on the monarch's power. That is why his heart was not in the concessions he had to make in 1688. He would rather live in exile with his principles intact than continue to reign as a limited monarch."
Tim Harris's conclusions from his 2006 book summarised the ambivalence of modern scholarship towards James II:
> The jury will doubtless remain out on James for a long time ... Was he an egotistical bigot ... a tyrant who rode roughshod over the will of the vast majority of his subjects (at least in England and Scotland) ... simply naïve, or even perhaps plain stupid, unable to appreciate the realities of political power ... Or was he a well-intentioned and even enlightened ruler—an enlightened despot well ahead of his time, perhaps—who was merely trying to do what he thought was best for his subjects?
In 2009, Steven Pincus confronted that scholarly ambivalence in 1688: The First Modern Revolution. Pincus claims that James's reign must be understood within a context of economic change and European politics, and makes two major assertions about James II. The first of these is that James purposefully "followed the French Sun King, Louis XIV, in trying to create a modern Catholic polity. This involved not only trying to Catholicize England ... but also creating a modern, centralizing, and extremely bureaucratic state apparatus." The second is that James was undone in 1688 far less by Protestant reaction against Catholicization than by nationwide hostile reaction against his intrusive bureaucratic state and taxation apparatus, expressed in massive popular support for William of Orange's armed invasion of England. Pincus presents James as neither naïve nor stupid nor egotistical. Instead, readers are shown an intelligent, clear-thinking strategically motivated monarch whose vision for a French authoritarian political model and alliance clashed with, and lost out to, alternative views that favoured an entrepreneurial Dutch economic model, feared French power, and were outraged by James's authoritarianism.
Scott Sowerby countered Pincus's thesis in 2013 in Making Toleration: The Repealers and the Glorious Revolution. He noted that English taxes remained low during James II's reign, at about 4% of the English national income, and thus it was unlikely that James could have built a bureaucratic state on the model of Louis XIV's France, where taxes were at least twice as high as a proportion of GDP. Sowerby also contends that James's policies of religious toleration attracted substantial support from religious nonconformists, including Quakers, Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians, who were attracted by the king's push for a new "Magna Carta for liberty of conscience". The king was overthrown, in Sowerby's view, largely because of fears among the Dutch and English elites that James might be aligning himself with Louis XIV in a supposed "holy league" to destroy Protestantism across northern Europe. Sowerby presents James's reign as a struggle between those who believed that the king was sincerely devoted to liberty of conscience and those who were sceptical of the king's espousals of toleration and believed that he had a hidden agenda to overthrow English Protestantism.
## Titles, styles, honours, and arms
### Titles and styles
- 14 October 1633 – 6 February 1685: The Duke of York
- 10 May 1659 – 6 February 1685: The Earl of Ulster
- 31 December 1660 – 6 February 1685: The Duke of Albany
- 6 February 1685 – 23 December 1688 (by Jacobites until 16 September 1701): His Majesty The King
The official style of James in England was "James the Second, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc." The claim to France was only nominal, and was asserted by every English king from Edward III to George III, regardless of the amount of French territory actually controlled. In Scotland, he was "James the Seventh, by the Grace of God, King of Scotland, England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc."
James was created Duke of Normandy by King Louis XIV of France on 31 December 1660.
In 1734 the Archbishop of Paris opened the cause for the canonisation of James as a saint, making him a Servant of God among Catholics.
### Honours
- KG: Knight of the Garter, 20 April 1642
### Arms
Prior to his accession, James's coat of arms was the royal arms (which he later inherited), differenced by a label of three points Ermine. His arms as king were: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland).
## Family tree
In four generations of Stuarts, there were seven reigning monarchs (not including Hanover's George I). James II was the fourth Stuart monarch, the second of his generation and the father of two more.
## Issue
### Legitimate issue
### Illegitimate issue
|
8,221,341 |
Suillus bovinus
| 1,170,982,668 |
Species of edible fungus in the family Suillaceae native to Europe and Asia
|
[
"Edible fungi",
"Fungi described in 1753",
"Fungi of Africa",
"Fungi of Asia",
"Fungi of Europe",
"Suillus",
"Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus"
] |
Suillus bovinus, also known as the Jersey cow mushroom or bovine bolete, is a pored mushroom of the genus Suillus in the family Suillaceae. A common fungus native to Europe and Asia, it has been introduced to North America and Australia. It was initially described as Boletus bovinus by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, and given its current binomial name by Henri François Anne de Roussel in 1806. It is an edible mushroom, though not highly regarded.
The fungus grows in coniferous forests in its native range, and pine plantations in countries where it has become naturalised. It forms symbiotic ectomycorrhizal associations with living trees by enveloping the tree's underground roots with sheaths of fungal tissue, and is sometimes parasitised by the related mushroom Gomphidius roseus. Suillus bovinus produces spore-bearing fruit bodies, often in large numbers, above ground. The mushroom has a convex grey-yellow or ochre cap reaching up to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter, which flattens with age. Like other boletes, it has tubes extending downward from the underside of the cap, rather than gills; spores escape at maturity through the tube openings, or pores. The pore surface is yellow. The stipe, more slender than those of other Suillus boletes, lacks a ring.
## Taxonomy and naming
Suillus bovinus was one of the many species first described in 1753 by the "father of taxonomy" Carl Linnaeus, who, in the second volume of his Species Plantarum, gave it the name Boletus bovinus. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin word bos, meaning "cattle". The fungus was reclassified in (and became the type species of) the genus Suillus by French naturalist Henri François Anne de Roussel in 1796. Suillus is an ancient term for fungi, and is derived from the word "swine". Lucien Quélet classified it as Viscipellis bovina in 1886.
In works published before 1987, the species was written fully as Suillus bovinus (L.:Fr.) Kuntze, as the description by Linnaeus had been name sanctioned in 1821 by the "father of mycology", Swedish naturalist Elias Magnus Fries. The description starting date for all the mycota had been set by general agreement as 1 January 1821, the date of Fries's work. Furthermore, as Roussel's description of Suillus predated this as well, the authority for the genus was assigned to Otto Kuntze. The 1987 edition of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature changed the rules on the starting date and primary work for names of fungi, and names can now be considered valid as far back as 1 May 1753, the date of publication of Linnaeus's work.
Common names include Jersey cow mushroom, bovine bolete, and euro cow bolete. One proposed origin for the scientific name is that medieval knights—who revered Tricholoma equestre—considered this mushroom fit only for cattle-drovers as it was not highly valued. The mushroom's colour is similar to that of a Jersey cow.
A limited genetic sampling of species in a 1996 study by Annette Kretzer and colleagues showed Suillus bovinus was related to a lineage that diverged to S. punctipes, S. variegatus and S. tomentosus. A 2001 study found it was not closely related to other European species, and that all populations tested were closer to each other than any other and hence it was a cohesive species.
Czech mycologist Josef Šutara circumscribed the genus Mariaella in 1987, assigning Mariaella bovina as the type species. Mariaella contained Suillus species in section Fungosi. Molecular studies do not support the existence of Mariaella, and so it is considered synonymous with Suillus. Older synonyms for S. bovinus include those resulting from generic transfers to Agaricus by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1783, and the now-obsolete Ixocomus by Lucien Quélet in 1888.
In 1951, Arthur Anselm Pearson described the variety Boletus bovinus var. viridocaerulescens, which was later transferred to Suillus by Rolf Singer in 1961. This variant, collected in Western Cape Province, South Africa, differs from the main form by the staining reaction of the cap flesh, which turns dark or light greenish-blue upon injury. Index Fungorum does not, however, recognize the variety as having independent taxonomic significance.
Chemical analysis of pigments and chromogens showed that Suillus was more closely related to Gomphidius and Rhizopogon than to other boletes, and hence Suillus bovinus and its allies were transferred from the Boletaceae to the newly circumscribed family Suillaceae in 1997. Molecular studies have reinforced how distantly related these fungi are from Boletus edulis and its allies.
## Description
The fruit body—colloquially called a mushroom—of Suillus bovinus is a basidiocarp which is smaller and daintier than most other boletes. The cap is initially convex, then flat with a wavy margin and a grey-yellow or ochre with pink tinge in some specimens. It ranges from 3–10 cm (1+1⁄4–4 in) in diameter and has a sticky skin. The flesh is whitish, yellowish or clay-coloured and has a fruity smell. Sometimes turning a pink tinge when bruised, the flesh is spongy and rubbery. Like other boletes, it has pores instead of gills that make up the hymenophore on the underside of the cap. Suillus bovinus has a characteristic compound pore layer, consisting of an outer layer of coarse, angular pores overlaying an inner layer of finer pores. The pores are grey- to olive-yellow and generally decurrent, comprising yellow to olive-yellow tubes that measure 0.3–1 cm (1⁄8–3⁄8 in) long. The stipe is 4–6 cm (1+1⁄2–2+1⁄4 in) tall, similar in colour to the cap, and tends to be narrower towards the base. With a diameter of 0.5–0.8 cm (1⁄4–3⁄8 in), it is more slender than those of other boletes.
The spore print is an olive-brown colour. The oval to spindle-shaped spores have dimensions of 8–10 by 3.5–4.5 μm. Basidia (spore-bearing cells) are cylindrical to narrowly club-shaped, measuring 22.4–33.4 by 5.8–8.0 μm. They bear four sterigmata (each holding a single spore), which are up to 6.8 μm long. Cystidia are present on both the tube ends (cheilocystidia) and tube faces (pleurocystidia). There are no clamp connections in the hyphae of Suillus bovinus. The cap cuticle comprises filamentous, gelatinized hyphae with a diameter of 2.6–5.0 μm. The mycelium has a pink tinge.
The distinctive colour of the cap and pores make it hard to confuse with other species. Often found in similar habitats is S. variegatus, though this species has a granular cap and dark olive pores, which are smaller and not decurrent. It can also bruise blue.
## Distribution and habitat
Suillus bovinus is found in conifer woods and plantations across Europe, including subalpine regions in the Alps, up to altitudes of 800 m (2500 ft). It is common in Lithuania, where it associates with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), the only naturally occurring pine in that country. Preferred soils of S. bovinus are often acidic, sand-based, or sometimes calcareous (chalky) and moraine. In Asia, it has been recorded in Taiwan, and in Japan, where it associates with Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora). In China, it has been recorded from provinces Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang.
Suillus bovinus has been introduced into other areas. In North America, where it is thought to have been introduced with Scots pine, it is found in the eastern United States, including North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and the Adirondack Mountains of New York. It has been recorded infrequently under Scots pine in Australia, where it has been found as far north as southern Queensland, and in more southerly locations including New South Wales and Kuitpo Forest. It has been recorded in New Zealand. In South Africa, it grows with Pinus radiata.
## Ecology
Suillus bovinus is mycorrhizal, forming symbiotic associations with living trees by enveloping the tree's underground roots with sheaths of fungal tissue. Field work in pine forests in Sweden analysing the population structure of Suillus bovinus found that mushrooms were more abundant in younger forests and forests with disturbed areas, which contained a higher number of genets (colonies)—700 to 5700 per hectare—compared with 30 to 120 genets per hectare in mature stands. Older colonies in mature forests could be 17.5 m (57+1⁄2 ft) in diameter against 1.7–5.3 m (5+1⁄2–17+1⁄2 ft) diameter in young forests. Spore-bearing mushrooms (sporocarps) produce a huge number of spores (estimated in a Finnish study at 240 million to 1.2 billion per mushroom), of which only a small number grow successfully; this large number is thought to explain the larger numbers of colonies in disturbed and young forests, while the fungus' vegetative spread becomes more important in established forests. Colonies of S. bovinus do not overlap, which indicates they suppress each other's growth. The median lifespan of a colony was estimated to be 36 years. Field work conducted in Swedish pine forests suggested that S. variegatus suppressed the growth of S. bovinus, as there was a negative correlation in occurrence.
A Finnish study published in 1997 found that bacterial communities under P. sylvestris without mycorrhizae metabolised organic and amino acids, while communities among S. bovinus metabolised mannitol, a sugar alcohol. The mycelia also extended the environment in the soil that the bacteria were able to grow in. An experimental study in Portugal showed that Pinus pinaster trees grew better after being inoculated with mycelium from S. bovinus, Laccaria laccata and Lactarius deterrimus and spores of Pisolithus tinctorius and Scleroderma citrinum. These fungi were proposed as an alternative for chemical fertiliser in arboriculture of pine trees. Suillus bovinus has been shown to improve the tolerance of its host Pinus sylvestris to metal pollutants such as cadmium and zinc, though not to hazardous organic compounds such as m-toluate.
Experimental work in 1986 showed that Suillus bovinus could metabolise proteins and peptides directly, causing a drop in nitrogen in growth media, which suggested the species has some saprophytic activity.
The related rosy spike-cap (Gomphidius roseus) is found exclusively with this species, and is now thought to be parasitic upon the mycelium of Suillus bovinus. This is evidenced by microscopic examination, which shows that G. roseus inserts haustoria in plant root cells and does not produce significant mycelium itself. Furthermore, G. roseus is never found growing in isolation, only with S. bovinus though the latter species is found without the former. Dicranophora fulva is a yellow mould that has been found growing on decaying S. bovinus fruit bodies in Europe and the United States.
## Edibility
Suillus bovinus tastes mild and is edible, although it is not highly regarded. When cooked, it releases a lot of fluid, which can be collected and reduced or strained to make a sauce. Its flavour is made more intense by drying. The soft and rubbery consistency of older specimens—as well as their proneness to maggot infestation—renders them almost inedible. Fruit bodies are part of the later summer diet of the red squirrel in Eurasia, which collects the mushrooms and stores them in tree forks for a ready food supply after the onset of frost. There are several fly species that often use S. bovinus fruit bodies to rear their young, including Bolitophila rossica, Exechia separata, Exechiopsis indecisa, Pegomya deprimata, and Pegohylemyia silvatica.
|
5,571,803 |
Nicky Barr
| 1,167,291,786 |
Royal Australian Air Force officer
|
[
"1915 births",
"2006 deaths",
"Australian World War II flying aces",
"Australian escapees",
"Australian prisoners of war",
"Australian rugby union players",
"Military personnel from Wellington",
"New Zealand emigrants to Australia",
"Officers of the Order of the British Empire",
"Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)",
"Recipients of the Military Cross",
"Royal Australian Air Force officers",
"Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II",
"Rugby union hookers",
"Shot-down aviators",
"World War II prisoners of war held by Italy"
] |
Andrew William "Nicky" Barr, (10 December 1915 – 12 June 2006) was a member of the Australian national rugby union team, who became a fighter ace in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. He was credited with 12 aerial victories, all scored flying the Curtiss P-40 fighter. Born in New Zealand, Barr was raised in Victoria and first represented the state in rugby in 1936. Selected to play for Australia in the United Kingdom in 1939, he had just arrived in England when the tour was cancelled following the outbreak of war. He joined the RAAF in 1940 and was posted to North Africa with No. 3 Squadron in September 1941. The squadron's highest-scoring ace, he attained his first three victories in the P-40 Tomahawk and the remainder in the P-40 Kittyhawk.
Barr's achievements as a combat pilot earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar. Shortly after taking command of No. 3 Squadron in May 1942, he was shot down and captured by Axis forces, and incarcerated in Italy. He escaped and assisted other Allied fugitives to safety, receiving for his efforts the Military Cross, a rare honour for an RAAF pilot. Repatriated to England, he saw action during the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 before returning to Australia as chief instructor with No. 2 Operational Training Unit. After the war he became a company director, and rejoined the RAAF as an active reserve officer from 1951 to 1953. From the early 1960s he was heavily involved in the oilseed industry, for which he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1983. He died in 2006, aged 90.
## Early career
Andrew Barr was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 10 December 1915; he had a twin brother, Jack. The family moved to Australia when the boys were six. Growing up in Melbourne, Andrew attended Kew Public School and played Australian rules football. He was also the Victorian Schoolboys' 100 yards athletics champion three years in succession, from 1926 to 1928. In 1931, aged fifteen, he began his association with the Lord Somers Camp and Power House social and sporting organisations located at Western Port. After leaving school, Barr studied construction at Swinburne Technical College, but later took a diploma course in accountancy and made it his profession. He started playing rugby union in 1935 through a friend in the Power House club. Weighing 80 kilograms (180 lb) and just under 6 feet (180 cm) tall, Barr gained selection for Victoria as a hooker the following year. In 1939, he was chosen to play in the United Kingdom with the Australian national team, the Wallabies. The tour was cancelled less than a day after the team arrived in the UK on 2 September, due to the outbreak of World War II. Keen to serve as a fighter pilot, Barr initially tried to enlist in the Royal Air Force, but withdrew his application when told that it was unlikely he would fly anytime in the near future, and that he could expect only administrative duties in the interim.
Returning to Australia on the RMS Strathaird, Barr joined the Royal Australian Air Force as an air cadet on 4 March 1940. After undergoing instruction on Tiger Moths at No. 3 Elementary Flying Training School, Essendon, and on Hawker Demons and Avro Ansons at No. 1 Service Flying Training School, Point Cook, he was commissioned as a pilot officer on 24 September. He gained a reputation as something of a rebel during training, and became forever known as "Nicky", for "Old Nick", or the Devil. In his quest to gain assignment as a fighter pilot, he had deliberately aimed poorly during bombing practice, a stratagem also adopted by at least two of his fellow students. By November 1940, he had been posted to No. 23 (City of Brisbane) Squadron, flying CAC Wirraways on patrol off the Queensland coast. The aircraft was, according to Barr, "our front line fighter in those days, but it didn't take too long to realise that the capacity of the Wirraway, compared with the types of planes that we were going to encounter, left much to be desired". Though his duties frustrated him somewhat, Barr was grateful to have this extensive flight experience under his belt when he eventually saw combat. While based in Queensland, he served as honorary aide-de-camp to the Governor, Sir Leslie Wilson, and also captained the RAAF rugby union team. He was promoted to flying officer on 24 March 1941.
## Combat service
Barr was posted to North Africa on 28 September 1941, to fly with No. 3 Squadron under the command of Squadron Leader Peter Jeffrey. He converted to P-40 Tomahawk fighters at an RAF operational training unit in Khartoum. There he also received his "goolie chit", a piece of paper to be shown to local tribesmen in the event he was shot down, reading in Arabic: "don't kill the bearer, feed him and protect him, take him to the English and you will be rewarded. Peace be upon you." Returning to North Africa, Barr achieved his first aerial victory, over a Messerschmitt Bf 110, on 12 December. He followed this up with a Junkers Ju 88 and a Messerschmitt Bf 109 the next day. The squadron then re-equipped with P-40 Kittyhawks; Barr was flying the new model when he became an ace on New Year's Day 1942, shooting down two Junkers Ju 87 Stukas. On 8 March, he led a flight of six Kittyhawks to intercept a raid on Tobruk by twelve Ju 87s escorted by ten Macchi C. 202s and two Bf 109s. The Australians destroyed six Macchis and three Ju 87s without loss, Barr personally accounting for one of the Macchis.
Eventually credited with victories over twelve enemy aircraft, plus two probables and eight damaged, Barr became No. 3 Squadron's highest-scoring member. He flew a total of eighty-four combat sorties, twenty of them in one fortnight, and six on 16 June 1942 alone. His philosophy was that the P-40 was not a top-class fighter, but that its shortcomings "could be offset by unbridled aggression", so he resolved to treat aerial combat as he would a boxing match and "overcome much better opponents by simply going for them". Bobby Gibbes became No. 3 Squadron's commanding officer in February 1942, and made Barr his senior flight commander. Promoted to flight lieutenant on 1 April, Barr was raised to acting squadron leader and appointed to command the unit in May, barely six months after he commenced operations, following Gibbes's hospitalisation with a broken ankle. Barr had never sought leadership of the squadron, and felt that others were just as well qualified for the role. As a commander he delegated most administrative tasks to his adjutant but, contrary to normal practice, wrote letters to the next-of-kin of casualties himself.
Barr was shot down three times while serving with No. 3 Squadron. The first occasion was on 11 January 1942 when, having destroyed a Bf 109 and a Fiat G.50, he was preparing to touch down in the desert to pick up a fellow pilot who had crash landed. Barr was halfway through lowering his undercarriage when he was "jumped" by two other Bf 109s. He immediately engaged both and shot one down before more German fighters arrived and he was hit and forced to land behind enemy lines. As one of the German pilots came in low to strafe the downed Kittyhawk, Barr ran straight at it in an attempt to throw the pilot off his aim, and was injured by fragments of rock sent airborne by the impact of cannon shells. A tribe of friendly Senussi Arabs found him, dressed his wounds, and helped him return to Allied lines. For his exploit, and his earlier successes, Barr was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the complete citation being published in the London Gazette on 20 February 1942:
> This officer, who commenced operational flying in November, 1941, has displayed the greatest keenness and skill as a fighter pilot. In December, 1941, during a patrol over the Derna area, he shot down a Messerschmitt 110; the next day, in the same area, he destroyed a Messerschmitt 110 and a Junkers 88. One day in January, 1942, his squadron formed part of an escort to bomber aircraft operating over El Agheila. Enemy aircraft were encountered and, in the ensuing engagement, Flying Officer Barr attacked 2 Italian fighters, one of which he shot down. He then observed one of his fellow pilots, who had been shot down, waving to him from the ground but, when preparing to make a landing in an attempt to rescue him, Flying Officer Barr was attacked by 2 Messerschmitt 109s. Although the undercarriage of his aircraft was not fully retracted, he immediately manoeuvred to engage the attackers, only to find that his guns had jammed. Quickly rectifying the fault he delivered an accurate burst of fire which caused one of the Messerschmitts to disintegrate in the air. A further 2 enemy aircraft joined in the combat and Flying Officer Barr was wounded and forced down. While on the ground he was further wounded by the enemy's fire but, despite this, he made his way through the enemy's lines and rejoined our own forces some 3 days later. He brought back much valuable information regarding the disposition of enemy tanks and defences. Flying Officer Barr displayed the greatest courage and tenacity throughout. He has destroyed 8 enemy aircraft.
On 25 May 1942, Barr had to land in the desert when his engine overheated. Having just taken off the engine cowling, he spotted enemy tanks approaching and immediately took off with the engine exposed to the elements, safely landing back at base. He was shot down for the second time on 30 May, when he engaged eight Bf 109s and destroyed one before being hit and forced to crash land at high speed in no-man's land. He came down in a minefield during a fierce tank battle, and was forced to remain where he was as troops of both sides slowly converged on him; British forces managed to reach him first and, after treatment for wounds, he again returned to his squadron. On 26 June, after being attacked by two Bf 109s and bailing out of his burning Kittyhawk, he was captured by Italian soldiers and taken as a prisoner-of-war, first to Tobruk, and then to Italy, where he received hospital treatment for serious wounds. He later learned that the pilot who shot him down was Oberleutnant Werner Schroer, a Luftwaffe ace credited with sixty-one victories in North Africa. Bobby Gibbes, having recovered from his own injuries, again took command of No. 3 Squadron. During his incarceration, on 5 February 1943, Barr was awarded a Bar to his DFC for "destroying further enemy aircraft".
Barr tried to escape from his confinement four times. By November 1942 he had recovered sufficiently from the injuries he received in June to break out of the hospital where he was being held in Bergamo, northern Italy. He made his way to the Swiss border, but was challenged by an Italian customs official, whom he struck with a rock before being recaptured. Court-martialled on a charge of murder, he only avoided a death sentence when the Swiss Red Cross colonel representing him located the official and proved that he had not died. Barr was instead sentenced to ninety days solitary confinement in Gavi Prison Camp, Genoa. In August 1943, with Italy on the verge of surrender, prisoners of war were rounded up for transport to Germany. Barr jumped from a moving train bound for the Brenner Pass and joined a group of Italian partisans in Pontremoli, remaining at large for two months before again being captured. Taken to a transit camp just over the Austrian border, Barr and fourteen other prisoners escaped by tunnelling under the barbed wire. Eventually he managed to link up with an Allied special operations unit, which was gathering intelligence behind enemy lines, sabotaging Axis infrastructure, and helping Allied prisoners and Italian refugees escape over the Apennine Mountains along the so-called "Alpine Route". He was recaptured and escaped once more before finally making it through the Alpine crossing himself, leading a group of more than twenty. After reaching friendly lines in March 1944, he was sent to a military hospital in Vasto, weighing only 55 kilograms (121 lb) and in poor health, suffering malaria, malnutrition, and blood poisoning. The assistance he rendered to fellow Allied fugitives earned him the Military Cross (MC) for "Exceptional courage in organising escapes"; the award was gazetted on 1 December 1944. He is thought to be one of only five or six RAAF pilots to receive the MC during World War II.
Posted to Britain in April 1944, Barr went ashore at Omaha Beach two days after D-Day as part of an air support control unit. During the campaign in Normandy, he flew rocket-armed Hawker Typhoons on operations against V-1 flying bomb launch sites. After his return to Australia on 11 September, Barr was promoted to acting wing commander and appointed chief instructor at No. 2 Operational Training Unit in Mildura, Victoria, taking over from Bobby Gibbes. He also went to New Guinea and flew some ground-attack missions in the Kittyhawk to gain experience in the South West Pacific theatre. Following the end of hostilities in August 1945, Barr was treated for recurring fever and underwent two operations on his limbs in No. 6 RAAF Hospital, Heidelberg. He was discharged from the Air Force on 8 October.
## Later career
After leaving the Air Force, Barr remained in Mildura with his wife, Dorothy (Dot). They had met on a blind date in 1938 and been married only a few weeks when Nicky joined the RAAF. During the war she was told on three occasions that her husband was dead. The couple had two sons, born in 1945 and 1947. Barr's injuries prevented him from returning to a rugby career, and he took up yachting as a sport. He also briefly assisted fellow No. 3 Squadron veteran Bobby Gibbes in an airline venture in New Guinea, before going into business as a company manager and director with civil engineering and pharmaceutical firms. Barr rejoined the RAAF on 20 March 1951 as a pilot in the active Citizen Air Force (CAF), with the acting rank of wing commander. On 15 April 1953, he transferred to the CAF reserve. A member of the Royal Air Forces Escaping Society, Barr began travelling to Italy with his wife on a regular basis in the late 1950s to seek out and offer assistance to those who had helped him during his wartime escape attempts.
In 1961, Barr became General Manager of Meggitt Ltd, an oilseed-crushing firm; he eventually rose to become Executive Chairman. The firm's board was joined in 1971 by the recently retired Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sir Alister Murdoch. Barr's work in the industry led to his appointment in the 1983 New Year Honours as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). The same year, he became Australian representative and Chairman of the International Oil Seed Group. In June 1987, Barr accepted an invitation to join John Glenn, Chuck Yeager, and fifteen other famed flyers in a so-called "Gathering of Eagles" for a seminar at the USAF Air Command and Staff College in Montgomery, Alabama. Generally reluctant to talk publicly about the war, he agreed to discuss his experiences during an episode of the television series Australian Story in 2002, appearing with his biographer Peter Dornan, and Bobby Gibbes. By this time Barr was said to be receiving daily treatment for the injuries he had suffered in combat. He died at the age of ninety on 12 June 2006, a few months after his wife. Four F/A-18 Hornet jet fighters from No. 3 Squadron overflew his funeral service on the Gold Coast, Queensland. He was further honoured at a rugby test match between Australia and England at Telstra Dome in Melbourne on 17 June, the day after his funeral. On 14 September 2006, No. 3 Squadron dedicated a stone memorial in Barr's honour; the unveiling was attended by his sons Bob and Brian.
|
5,221,718 |
Russian battleship Slava
| 1,144,392,393 |
Borodino-class pre-dreadnought
|
[
"1903 ships",
"Borodino-class battleships",
"Maritime incidents in 1917",
"Scuttled vessels",
"Ships built at the Baltic Shipyard",
"Shipwrecks of Estonia",
"World War I battleships of Russia",
"World War I shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea"
] |
Slava (Russian: Слава "Glory") was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, the last of the five Borodino-class battleships. Completed too late to participate in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, she survived while all of her sister ships were either sunk during the battle or surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Serving in the Baltic Sea during World War I, Slava was the largest ship of the Russian Gulf of Riga Squadron that fought the German High Seas Fleet in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. She repeatedly bombarded German positions and troops for the rest of 1915 and during 1916. During the Battle of Moon Sound in 1917, Slava was badly damaged by the German dreadnought SMS König, significantly increasing her draft. The shallow channel made it impossible to escape and she was scuttled in the Moon Sound Strait between the island of Muhu (Moon) and the mainland. The Estonians scrapped her during the 1930s.
## Description
Slava was 389 feet 5 inches (118.69 m) long at the waterline and 397 feet 3 inches (121.1 m) long overall, with a beam of 76 feet 1 inch (23.2 m) and a draft of 29 feet 2 inches (8.9 m), 38 inches (965 mm) more than designed. Her normal displacement was 14,415 long tons (14,646 t), almost 900 long tons (914 t) more than her designed displacement of 13,516 long tons (13,733 t).
The ship was powered by two 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines, each driving one 4-bladed propeller, with twenty Belleville water-tube boilers providing steam to the engines at a pressure of 21 standard atmospheres (2,128 kPa; 309 psi). The engines and boilers were both built by the Baltic Works. The engines had a total designed output of 15,800 indicated horsepower (11,782 kW), but they produced 16,378 ihp (12,213 kW) on trials and gave a top speed of 17.64 knots (32.67 km/h; 20.30 mph). At full load she carried 1,350 long tons (1,372 t) of coal that provided her a range of 2,590 nautical miles (4,800 km; 2,980 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had four steam-driven dynamos, each with a capacity of 150 kW, and two auxiliary generators with a capacity of 64 kW each.
Slava's 40-caliber 12-inch guns were mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft. They had a rate of fire of about one round per minute. Sixty rounds per gun were carried. The twelve 45-caliber 6-inch (152 mm) guns were mounted in six electrically powered twin-gun turrets carried on the sides of the ship. They had a practical rate of fire of about three rounds per minute and were provided with 180 rounds per gun. Four of the twenty 75-millimeter (3.0 in) guns used against torpedo boats were mounted in casemates just below the forward main gun turret, two on each side. These guns were placed well above the waterline for use in any weather, unlike the remaining sixteen guns, which were mounted in casemates one deck lower and distributed over the length of the ship, close to the water. This was graphically demonstrated when Slava's sister ship Imperator Aleksandr III made a high-speed turn during her trials, heeling 15°, and began taking water through the lower casemates. Each gun had 300 rounds available. All but four of her 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns were removed before she was completed and the remaining guns were used as saluting guns. She carried four 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes, one above water in the bow and one in the stern with two torpedoes each, and a submerged tube on each side forward with three torpedoes each. Two of these were removed before 1914, although it is not known which ones were retained.
### Wartime modifications
She was reportedly fitted with two 47 mm anti-aircraft (AA) guns during the war, but carried only four 3-inch (76 mm) AA guns in early 1917. Her light armament had been reduced to twelve 75 mm guns by that same date. While she was laid up over the winter of 1916 at Helsinki, the elevation of her main guns was increased to a maximum of 25° which increased their range to 23,000 yards (21,000 m).
## Service
Slava was built by the Baltic Works at Saint Petersburg. She was laid down on 1 November 1902, launched on 29 August 1903, and completed in October 1905, too late to participate in the Russo-Japanese War. Together with the battleship Tsesarevich, she helped to suppress the Sveaborg Rebellion in 1906. Slava was assigned to a training squadron for new officers fresh from the Naval College that was formed after the Rebellion as part of the post-Tsushima naval reforms. On one of her training cruises to the Mediterranean, her crewmen rescued survivors during the 1908 Messina earthquake and the ship took casualties to Naples for medical care. She had a serious boiler accident in August 1910 and was towed by Tsesarevich to Gibraltar for temporary repairs before sailing to Toulon for repairs that required nearly a year to complete. Upon her return to Kronstadt she was relieved of her training assignment and transferred to the Baltic Fleet.
The Baltic Fleet only had four pre-dreadnoughts in service, as the Second Brigade of Battleships, when World War I began, although the four dreadnoughts of the Gangut class were almost finished. After they were completed and could defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland, Slava sailed through the Irbe Strait on 31 July 1915 to assist Russian forces defending the Gulf of Riga. More specifically she was to support the Imperial Russian Army with her guns and to defend the gulf against German naval forces.
### Battle of the Gulf of Riga
Barely a week later, on 8 August, the Germans began to sweep the mines defending the Irbe Strait, and Slava, accompanied by the gunboats Khrabry and Groziashchii, sortied to fire on the minesweepers. The German pre-dreadnoughts Elsass and Braunschweig attempted to drive the Russians off, but Slava remained in position despite sustaining splinter damage from near misses. She did not open fire, as her captain did not want to reveal the fact that she was out-ranged by the German battleships. The Germans were not prepared for the number of mines laid by the Russians and withdrew to reconsider their plans.
They tried again on 16 August, this time with the dreadnoughts Nassau and Posen defending the minesweepers. Slava flooded her side compartments to give herself a 3° list which increased her maximum range to about 18,000 yards (16,459 m). She did not engage the German battleships, but only fired on the minesweepers and any German ships such as the armored cruiser Prinz Adalbert when they approached the other Russian ships. When the Germans returned the next day Slava was hit three times by 283-millimeter (11.1 in) shells in quick succession. The first hit penetrated her upper belt armor and exploded in a coal bunker; the second hit penetrated her upper deck, hit the supporting tube of the aft port side six-inch turret and started a fire in the ammunition hoist which caused the magazine to be flooded. The third shell passed through a pair of the ship's boats, but exploded in the water off to one side. These hits did not seriously damage Slava and she remained in place until ordered to retreat. The Germans entered the Gulf the next day, but they were forced to withdraw shortly afterward when the British submarine HMS E1 torpedoed the battlecruiser Moltke on 19 August and the Russian coastal artillery that still commanded the Irbe Strait made it very risky to enter the Gulf of Riga.
The German withdrawal allowed Slava, after repairs, to switch to her other task and support the army with gunfire. During one of these missions, as she was bombarding German positions near Tukums on 25 September 1915, she was hit in the conning tower while at anchor, killing her captain and five others. McLaughlin attributes the hit to German field artillery, but Nekrasov quotes German accounts that attribute it to a 10-kilogram (22 lb) bomb dropped by one of a pair of German seaplanes. Slava remained in position and resumed her bombardment. She continued to support the Army until the water in the Gulf of Riga threatened to freeze over at which time she retired to the port of Kuivastu to winter over. While still in port she was hit by three light bombs dropped by a seaplane on 12 April 1916; these did little material damage, but killed seven sailors. On 2 July she resumed her support of the army with a bombardment of advancing German troops despite sustaining one hit by an 8-inch (203 mm) shell on her waterline armor that caused no damage. She repeated these missions a number of times in July and August. These annoyed the Germans enough that they attempted to sink Slava with a coordinated ambush by the submarine UB-31 and low-flying torpedo bombers as she responded to a feint by German cruisers on 12 September, but all their torpedoes missed. This was the first attack by torpedo bombers against a moving battleship.
### Battle of Moon Sound
Slava was held back during the initial stages of the German landings (Operation Albion) on Saaremaa (Oesel) Island guarding the mouth of the Gulf of Riga in October 1917 to defend Kassar Wiek (Inlet), which separates the outer islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa (Dagö). She intermittently fired at German torpedo boats as they fought Russian light forces in Kassar Wiek on 15 and 16 October, but scored no hits from her position near Kesselaid (Schildau) Island in Moon Sound Strait. On the morning of 17 October the Germans attempted to sweep the Russian mines placed at the southern entrance to Moon Sound Strait. Slava, the pre-dreadnought Grazhdanin and the armored cruiser Bayan were ordered south to meet them by Vice Admiral Mikhail Bakhirev, opening fire on the minesweepers at 8:05 a.m. The dreadnoughts König and Kronprinz were to provide cover for the minesweepers, but Slava, sailing further south, opened fire on them at 8:12 at nearly her maximum range. Grazhdanin, whose turrets had not been modified for extra elevation, remained behind with Bayan and continued to engage the minesweepers. The German ships returned fire, but their shells fell short at a range of 20,400 meters (22,300 yd). Slava continued to fire on the Germans, but scored no hits, although some shells impacted only 50 meters (160 ft) from König. The German ships were at a severe disadvantage as they were sailing in a narrow swept channel and could not maneuver, so they reversed course to get out of range.
The German minesweepers made good progress, despite minor damage from shell splinters and numerous near misses by Slava, Grazhdanin, Bayan, and the Russian shore batteries. During this period Slava's front turret became inoperable when a bronze rack and pinion gear bent so that the gear wheel could not be moved. Only eleven shots had been fired between the two guns in the turret before the breakdown. Slava and her consorts were ordered north to allow the crews to eat lunch, but returned to the fray and opened fire on the minesweepers again at 10:04 with her rear turret at an approximate range of 12,000 yards (10,973 m). The minesweepers had cleared a channel to the north while the Russians were eating and the dreadnoughts took advantage of it to engage the Russian pre-dreadnoughts. König opened fire on Slava at 10:14 and hit her with three shells from her third salvo. The first hit Slava's bow, 10–12 feet (3.0–3.7 m) below the waterline, and exploded in the bow dynamo room, flooding that room, the forward 12-inch magazine and other bow compartments, while the second penetrated the capstan flat. The ship took on 1,130 metric tons (1,112 long tons) of water which gave her a list of 8°, later reduced to 4° by counter-flooding. This also increased her forward draft to about 32 feet (9.8 m). The third shell hit the port side armor abreast the engine room, but failed to penetrate. Two more shells struck her at 10:24 in the superstructure near the forward funnel. They damaged a six-inch magazine and the forward stokehold (boiler room) and started a fire which was put out after about fifteen minutes. However, the forward left six-inch magazine was flooded as a precaution. At 10:39 two more shells hit her, killing three men in the boiler room and flooding a coal bunker. Around this time Slava and her compatriots were ordered to retire to the north while Bayan trailed behind to divert fire from the battleships.
Slava's draft had increased too much to allow her to use the dredged channel between Hiiumaa Island and Vormsi (Worms) Island so she was ordered to wait until all the other deep-draft ships had entered the channel and then scuttle herself at the channel entrance. However, the Sailors' Committee organized on the ship after the February Revolution had ordered the engine room abandoned for fear of sinking, and she grounded on a shoal southeast of the channel because there was no one to obey the captain's order to stop. A number of destroyers evacuated the crew before the rear 12-inch magazine exploded at 11:58. However this was not deemed sufficient and three destroyers were ordered to torpedo her. Only one of their six torpedoes worked and Slava settled on the shallow bottom with a hole on the starboard side near the funnel. She was officially struck off the navy list on 29 May 1918 by the Soviets and scrapped in 1935 by the Estonians.
|
15,504,133 |
Roxy Ann Peak
| 1,147,904,448 |
Mountain near Medford, Oregon, United States
|
[
"Civilian Conservation Corps in Oregon",
"Medford, Oregon",
"Mountains of Jackson County, Oregon",
"Volcanoes of Oregon",
"Volcanoes of the United States"
] |
Roxy Ann Peak, also known as Roxy Ann Butte, is a 3,576-foot-tall (1,090 m) mountain in the Western Cascade Range at the eastern edge of Medford, Oregon. Composed of several geologic layers, the majority of the peak is of volcanic origin and dates to the early Oligocene epoch. It is primarily covered by oak savanna and open grassland on its lower slopes, and mixed coniferous forest on its upper slopes and summit, stopping short of the summit. Despite the peak's relatively small topographic prominence of 753 feet (230 m), it rises 2,200 feet (670 m) above Medford and is visible from most of the Rogue Valley. The mountain is Medford's most important viewshed, open space reserve, and recreational resource.
The area was originally inhabited beginning 8,000 to 10,000 years ago by ancestral Native Americans. The Latgawa Native American tribe was present in the early 1850s when the sudden influx of non-indigenous settlers resulted in the Rogue River Wars. After the wars, the Latgawa were forced away from the region onto reservations. The peak was named in August 1853 by emigrants arriving from Missouri via the Oregon Trail. Roxy Ann Hutchinson Hughes Bowen was the (step)grandmother of the McKee-Bowen family. Her step-daughter Maryum Bowen and Maryum's husband John McKee settled on, and filed a Donation Land Claim for, 320 acres on the SW flank of the butte (today's Hillcrest Orchards and Roxy Ann Vineyards).
In 1883, the city of Medford was established to the southwest of the mountain, and became incorporated two years later. After acquiring a large amount of land from the Lions Club and the federal government between 1930 and 1933, the city created the 1,740-acre (700 ha) Prescott Park in 1937. The park protects much of the upper slopes and summit of the peak and remains largely undeveloped. The peak's southern foothills have some quickly expanding single-family residential subdivisions.
## Geology and soils
Roxy Ann Peak is part of the old and deeply eroded Western Cascades, along with nearby Pilot Rock, Grizzly Peak, and Baldy. It is composed of several distinct geologic layers. The oldest layer, the 35 to 50-million-year-old Payne Cliffs Formation, forms the base of the peak and consists of sedimentary sandstone, shale, and conglomerates. Most of the rest of the mountain is made up of 30 to 35-million-year-old volcanic basalt, breccias, and agglomerates, known as the Roxy Formation. These rocks are some of the oldest in the Cascades. At the summit, younger basalt dikes and intrusions K–Ar dated to 30.82 ± 2 million years ago form a relatively erosion-resistant cap, likely contributing to the peak's isolation and familiar conical shape. Much of the lower slopes of Roxy Ann are covered by a 4-to-5-foot-thick (1.2 to 1.5 m) layer of dense, sticky clay. Due to the clay's low shear strength, the soil is prone to creep, earthflows, and landslides. Several large subdivisions lie on top of these deposits, some of which are up to 20 feet (6.1 m) thick. The upper slopes and peak have shallow dark brown gravelly loam of the McMullin soil series, while deeper gravelly loam soils on lower slopes are assigned to the Tablerock series. The surrounding clays are mapped as Heppsie or Carney series.
The peak stands 3,576 feet (1,090 m) above sea level with a topographic prominence of 753 feet (230 m), and rises 2,200 feet (670 m) above the surrounding Rogue Valley. The unique rounded top, location, and height of the peak create a landmark distinguishable from as far away as Shady Cove, 15.5 miles (24.9 km) to the north, and the Siskiyou Summit, 23.5 miles (37.8 km) to the south.
## History
### Early history
Humans have lived in the vicinity of Roxy Ann Peak for the past 8,000 to 10,000 years. The first inhabitants were semi-nomadic, most likely living off edible bulbs and large mammals such as mastodons and giant bison. Within the last millennium, the region became home to the Latgawa Native American tribe, who called the peak Al-wiya. They probably used the mountain for gathering acorns and hunting black-tailed deer and small birds, animals which are still abundant there.
The first European Americans to visit the area were a group of fur trappers led by Peter Skene Ogden who traveled north through the Rogue Valley on February 14, 1827. The first non-indigenous settlers arrived a few decades later. The sudden increase in population created conflicts with the Latgawa, which ultimately led to the Rogue River Wars of 1855 and 1856. After the wars, the remaining Latgawa were forced hundreds of miles north to the Siletz Reservation on the central Oregon Coast.
Early settlers named the peak Skinner Butte, after Alonzo A. Skinner, the Rogue Valley Indian agent between 1851 and 1853. The current name of the mountain originates from one of its first residents, Roxy Ann Bowen. Two couples—Roxy Ann and her husband John McKee and Stephen and Mary Taylor—claimed almost the entire peak in 1853, and by the late 1850s, it came to be known as Roxy Ann Peak.
In October 1883, construction of the Oregon and California Railroad was begun through the center of the Rogue Valley, bypassing Jacksonville, the county seat. The railroad company also constructed a train depot halfway between Central Point and Phoenix, and platted 82 city blocks around it. The townsite was named Medford in December. In 1884, residents celebrated the town's first Independence Day by firing 38 cannon blasts—one for each U.S. state—from Roxy Ann Peak's summit. Medford grew quickly, and was incorporated on February 24, 1885.
Beginning in the early 1900s, the mountain's foothills were predominantly used for pear orchards and lignite mining. Mining ceased at the onset of World War I, and many of the orchards were abandoned during the Great Depression, but some still remain.
### Prescott Park
In 1929, the Lions Club purchased two sizable portions of land on the peak, and deeded 200 acres (81 ha) to Medford for recreational use the following year. In 1931, the city acquired another 1,500 acres (610 ha) via the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, and 40 acres (16 ha) more in 1933. The park was dedicated in 1937 to George J. Prescott, a Lions Club leader and Medford police officer who was killed on duty on March 16, 1933.
Starting in 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made the first improvements to Prescott Park, including constructing 18 miles (29 km) of trails and a 16-foot-wide (4.9 m) access road (Roxy Ann Road), creating several picnic areas and overlooks, and digging drainage ditches. The CCC stopped work in 1942, soon after the beginning of World War II. Park maintenance ceased due to municipal budget problems, and gasoline rationing caused the number of visitors to drop markedly. By 1956, the CCC's improvements had suffered \$110,000 in damage. The trend of disrepair continued for several decades.
During the late 1990s, the park experienced a surge in vandalism, littering, and wildfires caused by off-roading, and Roxy Ann Road became nearly impassable because of lack of maintenance. Medford police officers had to devote much of their time to patrolling the mountain, made difficult by the park's remote location. To alleviate these problems, the city regraded Roxy Ann Road in 1998, and installed two gates near the park entrance two years later. By 2006, vandalism had decreased by 70 percent.
At 1,740 acres (700 ha), Prescott Park is Medford's largest park, covering much of the upper slopes and summit of Roxy Ann. It is two and a half times larger than the city's other parks combined.
### 21st century
Prescott Park and Roxy Ann Peak's upper slopes remain relatively undeveloped, being outside of Medford's city limits and urban growth boundary. The summit of the peak is home to a 180-foot-tall (54.9 m) radio tower built in 2007; the new tower replaced three of four existing 80-foot (24 m) towers. Roxy Ann Peak and nearby Baldy are the only two primary transmitter station sites in the Rogue Valley.
Residential development of the mountain's southern foothills has been on the rise for several years, primarily in the form of single-family residences. Construction costs have continued to rise as well, in part because of a bill passed in 2003. Oregon House Bill 3375 required that new construction on slopes of 20 percent or greater with unstable soil undergo increased regulation and an extended approval process. The bill doubled the cost of new foundations to around \$20,000 to \$30,000, and the cost of retrofitting an existing structure approached \$100,000.
Roxy Ann Peak's southern foothills are also home to the RoxyAnn Winery, a Rogue Valley AVA winery founded in 2002. On the opposite side of the mountain is the first bioreactor landfill in Southern Oregon, the Dry Creek Landfill, which began a program in 2006 to generate power from collected methane.
On September 21, 2009, a wildfire broke out on Roxy Ann Peak's western slopes and consumed approximately 633 acres (256 ha). It left 25,000 residents without electricity, forced the evacuation of over 100 homes, and cost over \$1.3 million to fight, but no structures were damaged.
## Flora and fauna
Roxy Ann Peak's high biodiversity is due to its wide range of elevations and its location between the Cascade, Klamath, and Eastern Cascade ecoregions. The lower slopes of the peak support chaparral, oak savanna, and open grassland. Scattered California black oak, Oregon white oak, and Pacific madrone trees grow in these areas, as do sclerophyllous shrubs such as birchleaf mountain mahogany, sticky whiteleaf manzanita, buckbrush, antelope bitterbrush, and Pacific poison oak. Common grasses include blue wildrye and prairie Junegrass. Wildflowers including Southern Oregon buttercup, common yarrow, and Tolmie star-tulip also grow in these regions. At higher elevations, the vegetation transitions to mixed coniferous forest, dominated by Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, incense cedar, western juniper, and Pacific madrone trees. Shrubs such as common snowberry, bearbrush, greenleaf manzanita, sticky whiteleaf manzanita, deerbrush, and Pacific poison oak make up the understory of the forest, along with herbaceous plants such as creeping snowberry and Idaho fescue.
The peak is home to many species of birds, including blue-gray gnatcatchers, lazuli buntings, oak titmice, acorn woodpeckers, and California quail on the lower slopes, and mountain quail, mountain chickadees, and red-breasted nuthatches on the upper slopes. Wild turkeys and raptors such as Cooper's hawks, golden eagles, bald eagles, and prairie falcons are also common. A few species migrate to the peak in the winter, including ruby-crowned kinglets, yellow-rumped warblers, and golden-crowned sparrows. Mammals that inhabit the mountain include black-tailed deer, cougars, bobcats, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, bears, weasels, and squirrels. A large herd of Roosevelt elk frequent the peak's western foothills. The herd swelled to over 100 individuals in the mid-2000s, causing traffic problems and severe damage to local pear orchards, but shrank to about 40 members by 2009 after an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife relocation effort. Other common animals on the peak include western rattlesnakes and western blacklegged ticks.
## Recreation
Roxy Ann Peak and Prescott Park serve as Medford's most important viewshed, open space reserve, and recreational resource. Popular recreational activities on the peak include picnicking and hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding on the 4 miles (6 km) of designated trails in Prescott Park, which range in difficulty from moderate to steep. In August 2013, the city of Medford and the International Mountain Bicycling Association released a conceptual plan detailing future improvements to the park's trail system. The plan would add 30 miles (48 km) of new multi-use trails throughout the park, improve existing trails and trail signage, and add a new trailhead on the mountain's western slope, at an estimated cost of between \$360,000 and \$720,000. If approved, construction on the first phase could begin by 2015.
A challenge course opened in Prescott Park in April 2012, operated by the Tigard-based company Synergo. The course has 15 elements—eight low and seven high—each formed by various combinations of ropes, wires, platforms, ladders, and swings. They range from 2 to 40 feet (0.61 to 12 m) above the ground.
The peak and park can be accessed via Roxy Ann Road on the southern side of the mountain. There are two gates on the road; the first is near the base of the peak and is opened and closed on a set schedule, and the second is about one mile beyond it at the park boundary, and is closed to all unauthorized motor vehicles. One mile past the second gate, the road splits into a 2.7-mile-long (4.3 km) loop around the summit. Tower Road begins on the north side of the loop and ascends to the summit of the peak. The peak offers expansive views of the surrounding landscape, including the Rogue Valley, Mount Ashland, Mount McLoughlin, Pilot Rock, the Crater Lake rim, and even Mount Thielsen, 66 miles (106 km) to the north, and Mount Shasta, 72 miles (116 km) to the south.
## See also
- Upper and Lower Table Rock
|
35,000,778 |
Gravity Bone
| 1,134,420,170 |
2008 adventure video game
|
[
"2008 video games",
"Adventure games",
"Art games",
"Blendo Games games",
"Freeware games",
"Open-source video games",
"Single-player video games",
"Video games developed in the United States",
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"Windows-only games"
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Gravity Bone is a 2008 freeware adventure game developed and published by Blendo Games. The game employs a modified version of id Software's id Tech 2 engine—originally used for Quake 2—and incorporates music from films by director Wong Kar-wai, which were originally performed by Xavier Cugat. Four incarnations of the game were produced during its one-year development; the first featured more common first-person shooter elements than the released version. Subsequent versions shifted in a new direction, with the inclusion of more spy-oriented gameplay. The game was released for Microsoft Windows in August 2008.
Gravity Bone received critical acclaim from video game journalists. It was called "a pleasure to experience" by Charles Onyett from IGN, and received comparisons to games such as Team Fortress 2 and Portal. The game was praised for its cohesive story, atmosphere and its ability to catch the player's interest over a very short time span without feeling rushed or incomplete. It received the "Best Arthouse Game" award in Game Tunnel's Special Awards of 2008. A sequel, Thirty Flights of Loving, was released in 2012.
## Gameplay
Gravity Bone is a first-person adventure video game that lasts around 20 minutes, and is set in the fictional city of Nuevos Aires. The player controls an unnamed spy, and is tasked with accomplishing several missions across the game's two stages. At the end of the game, the player-controlled spy is killed by an unknown woman after chasing her through the last half of the second level. The game was designed to leave the player without a clear idea of how the game's story evolves.
During these missions, objectives and guidance are provided through the player's interactions with objects and environments in the game. The tutorial system used to demonstrate routine gameplay elements such as object interaction and movement is disguised as the first level of Gravity Bone. Here, the player is tasked with the delivery of a contaminated drink to an unspecified non-player character. After the first level is completed, the player is sent to the second level of the game, which follows the pattern of the first; the player is assigned a set of actions and goals involving platforming sequences.
## Development
Gravity Bone was developed by Brendon Chung under his video game studio Blendo Games. Chung, who worked as a level designer for Pandemic Studios, has contributed to the development of titles such as Full Spectrum Warrior and Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Four incarnations of Gravity Bone were produced during its one-year development. Chung commented during an interview with FidGit that "Gravity Bone started out very different from what it was and ended up getting scrapped ... so on and so forth until this version came out." The first version of Gravity Bone featured more typical first-person shooter elements than the released version, and was based on a series of Quake 2 maps entitled Citizen Abel. He elaborated that the first version of the game had the player running around with a gun, "shoot[ing] things and stuff explodes." Development shifted in a new direction, and Gravity Bone was transformed; the player would act as a computer hacker, "hacking stuff all the time."
Most of the original first-person shooter elements were removed by the third revision of the game, which incorporated a more spy-oriented style of gameplay, with the player "trying to quietly take out enemies and not be seen." Chung commented that he reworked the game several more times to fit his vision: "It kept on just changing and changing and changing until it got into a more story-oriented direction." He stated that he did not feel comfortable developing Gravity Bone as a first-person shooter game, and kept adding "bits and bits of more and more unconventional" elements as a result. He explained that he "got stuck on this idea of the hero never fires a gun, but he just has a bunch of tools on his belt, like a power drill or a can of pressurized Freon, a screwdriver. I thought that was kind of funny and interesting."
Gravity Bone was developed using a modified version of id Software's id Tech 2, the graphics engine for Quake 2. Chung acknowledged that although he has worked with newer, "powerful and flexible" engines, he preferred the older engine because it was released as an open source platform, "so you can redistribute it for free." The voice work featured in the briefings in Gravity Bone was produced using text-to-speech programs, and the game incorporates three songs by Xavier Cugat and His Orchesetra: "Maria Elena", "Brazil", and "Perfidia". These versions of "Maria Elena" and "Perfidia" were both previously used by film director Wong Kar-wai in the 1990 film Days of Being Wild. Chung declared that his passion for Wong's films were an important factor in the selection of Wong's music: "He makes these really beautiful films and I've always wanted to use the same music in a videogame." He said that Wong's films had a strong influence on the development of the game.
## Reception
Charles Onyett from IGN applauded Gravity Bone, saying that it is "a game that appears to toy with the notions of heroism and villainy, and the ways the player identifies with, and is directed toward, both roles." He praised all aspects of the game, commenting, "the cohesiveness of its striking visual presentation, soundtrack and effects, and almost entirely incomprehensible story combine to create an atmosphere of peculiar strength." Onyett concluded his preview of the game by stating, "it's a pleasure to experience, and never ceases to delight and surprise over its short run." Anthony Burch from Destructoid gave a positive review, stating that it "is so stylistically unified, so consistently cool and weird and imaginative, that it's damn near impossible not to fall in love with—even as the game ends and you're wondering what the hell happened, and why." He also applauded several technical and design aspects of the game, expressing appreciation for the game's "stylistic choices", as well as the "nigh unbelievable" bloom effects featured in the game. Burch concluded that Gravity Bone is "a great ride", and that the "atmosphere and style alone will barrel you through to the journey's end, which comes all too soon."
Derek Yu from The Indie Games Source compared the game with Portal and stated that Chung was able to develop "an impeccable flair for graphic design" while manufacturing Gravity Bone. He concluded that the game is "bursting with delicious color, and features blocky-headed characters that are infinitely more interesting to look at and interact with than the frightening Realdolls game players are often forced to contend with in modern FPS's." Yu elaborated that it had "enough panache in its two levels to make it somewhat of an indie sleeper hit of the end of 2008." An editor from The Refined Geek was pleased with Gravity Bone and its sequel, Thirty Flights of Loving, awarding them each a score of 8 out of 10 and stating, "the enjoyment from these games comes from noticing all the subtle environmental clues and then using your imagination to draw the connecting dots." The editor commented that both games highlight story elements over graphics and technical innovations, saying each game's "true strength comes from its ability to tell a story in the extremely short time frame."
Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku praised the game, writing, "if you own a PC, you owe it to yourself to play Gravity Bone." He said the game was "one of the coolest things I've played on PC lately." Kieron Gillen from Rock, Paper, Shotgun considered Gravity Bone to be an intellectual mix of Hitman, No-one Lives Forever, and Team Fortress 2, stating that it is the "wittiest game" he has played since World of Goo. Gillen applauded every aspect of the game, stating that Gravity Bone was an "indie art game whose main effect is to delight you at every turn." It received the "Best Arthouse Game" award in Game Tunnel's Special Awards of 2008.
## Sequel
A sequel to Gravity Bone, Thirty Flights of Loving, was announced as a reward for contributing to the Idle Thumbs podcast revival Kickstarter. The game was released to Kickstarter backers in July 2012, and later offered as a purchasable title on Steam, which included Gravity Bone as an additional feature. The game, though not a direct sequel in story to Gravity Bone, follows the main character in a heist with two other characters that goes very wrong. The title was critically acclaimed by reviewers, who called the very short but non-linear storytelling of Thirty Flights a novel use of the video game medium.
|
31,775,043 |
Prometheus (2012 film)
| 1,172,503,015 |
2012 science fiction horror film by Ridley Scott
|
[
"2010s American films",
"2010s British films",
"2010s English-language films",
"2010s science fiction horror films",
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"Adventure horror films",
"Alien (franchise) films",
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"Films about extraterrestrial life",
"Films about religion",
"Films based on classical mythology",
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"Films produced by Ridley Scott",
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"Films scored by Marc Streitenfeld",
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"Films set in Scotland",
"Films set on fictional moons",
"Films set on spacecraft",
"Films shot at Ciudad de la Luz",
"Films shot at Pinewood Studios",
"Films shot in Buckinghamshire",
"Films shot in Highland (council area)",
"Films shot in Iceland",
"Films shot in Jordan",
"Films shot in Surrey",
"Films with screenplays by Damon Lindelof",
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"Religion in science fiction",
"Religious adventure films",
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"Religious science fiction films",
"Religious thriller films",
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] |
Prometheus (/prəˈmiːθiəs/ prə-MEE-thee-əs) is a 2012 science fiction horror film co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott, with the screenplay co-written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. It is the fifth installment in the Alien franchise. The film features an ensemble cast including Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron. Set in the late 21st century, the film centers on the crew of the spaceship Prometheus as it follows a star map discovered among the artifacts of several ancient Earth cultures. Seeking the origins of humanity, the crew arrives on a distant world and discovers a threat that could cause the extinction of the human species.
Scott and director James Cameron developed ideas for a film that would serve as a prequel to Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien. In 2002, the development of Alien vs. Predator took precedence, and the project remained dormant until 2009 when Scott again showed interest. Spaihts wrote a script for a prequel to the events of the Alien films, but Scott opted for a different direction to avoid repeating cues from those films. In late 2010, Lindelof joined the project to rewrite Spaihts's script, and he and Scott developed a story that precedes the story of Alien but is not directly connected to the original series. According to Scott, although the film shares "strands of Alien's DNA," and takes place in the same universe, Prometheus explores its own mythology and ideas.
Prometheus entered production in April 2010, with extensive design phases during which the technology and creatures that the film required were developed. Principal photography began in March 2011, with an estimated \$120–130 million budget. The film was shot using 3D cameras throughout, almost entirely on practical sets, and on location in England, Iceland, Scotland, Jordan and Spain. It was promoted with a marketing campaign that included viral activities on the web. Three videos featuring the film's leading actors in character, which expanded on elements of the fictional universe, were released and met with a generally positive reception and awards.
Prometheus was released on June 1, 2012, in the United Kingdom and on June 8, 2012, in North America. The film earned generally positive reviews, receiving praise for the designs, production values and cast performances, but was criticized for its uneven script and unresolved plot points. The film grossed over \$403 million worldwide. A sequel, Alien: Covenant, was released in May 2017, tying the film permanently to the Alien franchise.
## Plot
As a spacecraft departs a planet, a humanoid alien drinks a liquid, causing its body to dissolve. Its remains cascade into a waterfall and the alien's DNA falls apart and recombines.
In 2089, archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover a star map in Scotland that matches others from several unconnected ancient cultures. They interpret this as an invitation from humanity's forerunners, the "Engineers". Peter Weyland, the elderly CEO of Weyland Corporation, funds an expedition, aboard the scientific vessel Prometheus, to follow the map to the distant moon LV-223. The ship's crew travels in stasis while the android David monitors their voyage. They arrive in December 2093.
The Prometheus lands on the barren, mountainous surface near a large, artificial structure, which the team explores. Inside, they find stone cylinders, a monolithic statue of a humanoid head, and the decapitated corpse of a large alien, thought to be an Engineer; Shaw recovers its head. The crew finds other bodies, leading them to surmise that the species is extinct. Crew members Millburn and Fifield grow uncomfortable with the discoveries and attempt to return to Prometheus, but get lost in the structure. The expedition is cut short when a storm forces the crew to return to the ship. David secretly takes a cylinder with him, while the remaining ones begin leaking a dark liquid. In the ship's lab, the Engineer's DNA is found to match that of humans. David investigates the cylinder and the liquid inside. He intentionally taints a drink with the liquid and gives it to the unsuspecting Holloway, who had stated he would do anything for answers. Shortly after, Shaw and Holloway have sex.
Inside the structure, a snake-like creature kills Millburn and sprays a corrosive fluid that melts Fifield's helmet. Fifield falls face-first into a puddle of dark liquid. When the crew returns, they find Millburn's corpse. David separately discovers a control room containing a surviving Engineer in stasis and a holographic star map highlighting Earth. Meanwhile, Holloway sickens rapidly. He is rushed back to Prometheus, but mission-director Meredith Vickers refuses to let him aboard. At his urging, she burns him to death with a flamethrower. Later, a medical scan reveals that Shaw, despite being previously infertile, is now in advanced pregnancy. Fearing the worst, she uses an automated surgery table to extract a squid-like creature from her abdomen. Shaw then discovers that Weyland has been in stasis aboard Prometheus. He explains that he wants to ask the Engineers how to not die from old age. Vickers addresses him as "Father".
A monstrous, mutated Fifield returns to the Prometheus and kills several people before being killed. The captain of Prometheus, Janek, speculates that the structure was an Engineer military base that lost control of a virulent biological weapon, the dark liquid. The structure also houses a spacecraft. Weyland and the team return to the structure, accompanied by Shaw. David wakes the Engineer from stasis and speaks to him in Proto-Indo-European to try to explain what Weyland wants. The Engineer responds by decapitating David and killing Weyland and his team, before reactivating the spacecraft. Shaw flees and warns Janek that the Engineer is planning to release the liquid on Earth, convincing him to stop the spacecraft. Janek and the remaining crew sacrifice themselves by ramming the Prometheus into the alien craft, ejecting the lifeboat in the process. The Engineer's disabled spacecraft crashes onto the ground, causing the death of Vickers. Shaw goes to the lifeboat and finds her alien offspring is alive and has grown to gigantic size. The Engineer forces open the lifeboat's airlock and attacks Shaw, who releases her alien offspring onto him. It thrusts an ovipositor down the Engineer's throat, subduing him. Shaw recovers David's remains and, with his help, launches another Engineer spacecraft. She intends to reach the Engineers' homeworld in an attempt to understand why they wanted to destroy humanity.
In the lifeboat, an alien creature bursts out of the Engineer's chest.
## Cast
- Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw:
Rapace described Shaw, an archaeologist, as a believer in God with a very strong faith, and said that, "In the middle of the movie, things happen and she changes into more of a warrior. And in the end, she's such a survivor." To aid her method acting, she developed a complete backstory for Shaw, and worked with a dialect coach to achieve an English accent. She also asked her make-up artist to apply extra blood and sweat during filming to more accurately portray her character. Rapace said, "I was out there filming for about six months and it was super-intense, my body was in so much pain sometimes but it was absolutely amazing." She dismissed comparisons to the Alien franchise's Ellen Ripley. Rapace came to director Ridley Scott's attention for her performance as Lisbeth Salander in the 2009 drama film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She met Scott in August 2010, and by January 2011 she had secured the role. Actresses Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Gemma Arterton, Carey Mulligan, and Abbie Cornish were all considered for the role during development. Lucy Hutchinson, who was eight years old in 2012, portrays Shaw as a child.
- Michael Fassbender as David:
David is an android that acts as the ship's butler and maintenance man. It is designed to be indistinguishable from humans, and begins to develop "its own ego, insecurities, jealousy and envy." Writer Damon Lindelof stated that the character provides a non-human perspective on the film's events, and said, "What does the movie look like from the robot's point of view? If you were to ask him, 'What do you think about all of this? What's going on? What do you think about these humans who are around you?' Wouldn't it be cool if we found a way for that robot to answer those questions?" Fassbender said, "David's views on the human crew are somewhat childlike. He is jealous and arrogant because he realizes that his knowledge is all-encompassing, and therefore he is superior to the humans. David wants to be acknowledged and praised for his brilliance." In developing his character, Fassbender avoided watching the android characters of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), and instead studied the replicants in Scott's 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner, with a focus on Sean Young's character Rachael, whose "vacancy" and longing for a soul interested him. Fassbender drew further inspiration from the voice of the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the "funny walk and economy of movement" of Olympic diver Greg Louganis, and the performances of David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth, Dirk Bogarde in The Servant, and Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia. David's blond hair was modeled on that of T. E. Lawrence. Scott favored Fassbender for the role; by January 2011 he was confirmed to have joined the cast, despite earlier reports that his agents had sought too high a fee.
- Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers:
Vickers is a Weyland Corporation employee who is sent to monitor the expedition. Theron described the character as "a suit who slowly sheds [her] skin through the film," and also as "somewhat of a villain ... [who] definitely has an agenda." She stated, "Vickers is pragmatic, and desperately wants to control the situation." Scott wanted the character to lurk in the background of scenes watching other characters instead of being the focus. Theron said that this helped layer her character because "you're just so suspicious of her, instantly." The similarities between the appearances and mannerisms of Vickers and David were intended to raise the possibility that David was based on Vickers's DNA, or that Vickers is an android herself. After Theron was cast in the role, she developed three new scenes with Scott and Lindelof to expand her character. Physical action scenes, some of which involved her running through sand in 30-pound (14 kg) boots, were a problem for Theron. It was intended that Theron would portray Shaw, but a prior commitment to Mad Max: Fury Road prevented her involvement. When that film was delayed, she was able to rejoin Prometheus. Michelle Yeoh and Angelina Jolie were considered for the role.
- Idris Elba as Janek:
Janek is the captain of the Prometheus. Elba described the character as "a longshoreman and a sailor" with a military background. He said, "[Being the captain is] his life and the crew is his responsibility," and, "He's a realistic, pragmatic character. He has to get involved ... in a film with huge ideas, you need a character like this, who can go 'Wait ... why are we doing this?'"
- Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland:
Weyland is the billionaire founder and CEO of Weyland Corp. Lindelof described him as having a massive ego and suffering from a god complex. Applying the necessary prosthetics and make-up to transform Pearce into the aging Weyland took five hours, and an hour to remove it. Pearce observed elderly individuals to gain insight into the movement for his character, as he found replicating the impeded physical movement the most difficult part of the role. Max von Sydow was Scott's original choice to play Weyland, but the casting of Pearce made it possible for him to portray Weyland as both an elderly character and a younger man who appeared in an earlier script draft.
- Logan Marshall-Green as Charlie Holloway:
Holloway is an archaeologist and Shaw's love interest. Marshall-Green was cast after he was seen performing on stage "off-off-off Broadway." He described Holloway as the "X Games-type scientist," and said that he liked the character's "leap-before-looking" philosophy. He also said that Holloway "doesn't want to meet his maker. He wants to stand next to his maker. He's willing to go to the edge to get that." Describing the character's motivation, he said: "He goes to the extreme in everything he does, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse of the [Prometheus crew]. I think what drives him is the thrill of the search." Marshall-Green contrasted Holloway with Shaw, and said: "She's the believer. I'm the scientist. I'm the skeptic. I'm the atheist."
- Sean Harris as Fifield:
Fifield is a geologist who has become mentally unstable after many missions. Harris described the character as "someone who can sense when things are up. He's your audience guy, going, 'Don't go in that tunnel. We should not be doing this!'" Fifield's bright red mohawk hairstyle was designed by Harris and Scott based on Scott's sketch of a man with a "severe haircut."
- Rafe Spall as Millburn:
Millburn is a biologist. Spall auditioned for another role, but Scott wanted him to play Millburn. On his casting, Spall said, "Alien is one of the best films ever made, and it's a real buzz to be in a space suit on an Alien set with Ridley Scott coming and speaking to you. It's incredible. That's why I wanted to be an actor, to be in a space suit on an Alien set."
Other cast members include Kate Dickie as the ship's medic, Ford; Emun Elliott and Benedict Wong as, respectively, ship pilots Chance and Ravel; and Patrick Wilson as Shaw's father. Ian Whyte and Daniel James portray Engineers.
## Themes
The central theme in Prometheus concerns the eponymous Titan of Greek mythology who defies the gods and gifts humanity with fire, for which he is subjected to eternal punishment. The gods want to limit their creations in case they attempt to usurp the gods. The film deals with humanity's relationship with the gods—their creators—and the consequence of defying them. A human expedition intends to find them and receive knowledge about belief, immortality and death. They find superior beings who appear god-like in comparison to humanity, and the Prometheus crew suffer consequences for their pursuit. Shaw is directly responsible for the events of the plot because she wants her religious beliefs affirmed, and believes she is entitled to answers from her god; her questions remain unanswered and she is punished for her hubris. The film offers similar resolution, providing items of information but leaving the connections and conclusions to the audience, potentially leaving the question unanswered. Further religious allusions are implied by the Engineers' decision to punish humanity with destruction 2,000 years before the events of the film. Scott suggested that an Engineer was sent to Earth to stop humanity's increasing aggression, but was crucified, implying it was Jesus Christ. However, Scott felt that an explicit connection in the film would be "a little too on the nose."
Artificial intelligence, a unifying theme throughout Scott's career as a director, is particularly evident in Prometheus, primarily through the android David. David is like humans but does not want to be like them, eschewing a common theme in "robotic storytelling" such as in Blade Runner. David is created in the image of humanity, and while the human crew of the Prometheus ship searches for their creators expecting answers, David exists among his human creators yet is unimpressed; he questions his creators about why they are seeking their own. Lindelof described the ship as a prison for David. At the conclusion of the film, David's creator (Weyland) is dead and his fundamental programming will end without someone to serve. Lindelof explained that David's programming becomes unclear and that he could be programmed by Shaw or his own sense of curiosity. Following Weyland's death, David is left with Shaw, and is sincere and interested in following her, partly out of survival and partly out of curiosity.
Another theme is creation and the question of "Who Am I? Who Made Me? Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?" Development of the in-universe mythology explored the Judeo-Christian creation of humanity, but Scott was interested in Greco-Roman and Aztec creation myths about gods who create humans in their own image by sacrificing a piece of themselves. This creation is shown in the film's opening in which an Engineer sacrifices itself after consuming the dark liquid, acting as a "gardener in space" to bring life to a world. One of their expeditions creates humanity, who create artificial life (David) in their own image. David then introduces the dark liquid to Holloway who impregnates a sterile Shaw, and the resulting child impregnates an Engineer, creating the child of all three generations. Scott likened the Engineers to the dark angels of John Milton's Paradise Lost, and said that humanity was their offspring and not God's.
Shaw is the only religious believer in the crew and openly displays her religious belief with a necklace of a Christian cross. Lindelof said that with her scientific knowledge, her beliefs felt outdated in 2093. Shaw is excited when she learns that she was created by the Engineers and not a supernatural deity, but rather than cause her to lose her faith, it reinforces it. Lindelof said that asking questions and searching for meaning is the point of being alive, and so the audience is left to question whether Shaw was protected by God because of her faith. Scott wanted the film to end with Shaw's declaration that she is still searching for definitive answers. In addition to the religious themes, Lindelof said that Prometheus is pro-science and explores whether scientific knowledge and faith in God can co-exist.
Beside drawing several influences from Paradise Lost, The Atlantic's Govindini Murty noted further influences, and wrote that "[t]he striking images Ridley Scott devises for Prometheus reference everything from Stanley Kubrick's 2001 to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires. Scott also expands on the original Alien universe by creating a distinctly English mythology informed by Milton's Paradise Lost and the symbolic drawings of William Blake." In September 2021, a further analysis of the film was reported.
## Production
### Development
Development on a fifth film in the Alien franchise was in progress by 2002. Scott considered returning to the series he created with his 1979 science fiction horror film Alien, to pursue a sequel that would explore the engineered origins of the series' Alien creatures, and the "space jockey"—the extraterrestrial being, who briefly appears in Alien, as the deceased pilot of a derelict spaceship. Alien star Sigourney Weaver also expressed interest in returning to the series. Aliens director James Cameron discussed the potential for a sequel with Scott, and began working with another writer on a story for the film. It was then that 20th Century Fox approached Cameron with a script for a crossover film that would pit the series's monsters against the title characters of the Predator films; this project became the 2004 science fiction film Alien vs. Predator. After Fox confirmed that it would pursue the crossover, Cameron stopped working on his own project, believing the crossover would "kill the validity of the franchise." In 2006, Cameron confirmed that he would not return to the Alien sequel project, believing that the series was Fox's asset, and he was unwilling to deal with the studio's attempts to influence the potential sequel.
In May 2009, Fox said that the project was a "reboot" of the Alien franchise, and soon afterwards was reported as an untitled prequel to Alien. Development stopped in June 2009 when Fox clashed with Scott over his selection of former television advertisement director Carl Erik Rinsch as director. Fox was only interested in pursuing the project if Scott directed. By July 2009, Scott was contracted to direct the film, and screenwriter Jon Spaihts was hired to write the script based on his pitched idea for a direct Alien prequel. With the director and writer in place, and pleased with Spaihts's pitch, Fox scheduled a release date for December 2011, but this was eventually canceled. In June 2010, Scott announced that the script was complete and that pre-production would begin, and a filming date was set for January 2011. Fox eventually pushed to develop the project into an original work, and by July 2010, Lindelof had been hired to redevelop Spaihts's screenplay. In October 2010, Lindelof submitted his rewritten screenplay to Fox. Scott had initially requested a \$250 million budget and an adult oriented project, but Fox was reluctant to invest this amount of money, and wanted to ensure the film would receive a lower age-rating to broaden the potential audience.
In December 2010, it was reported that the film would be called Paradise, named after John Milton's poem Paradise Lost, but Scott considered that this would convey too much information about the film. Fox CEO Thomas Rothman suggested Prometheus, which was confirmed as the title in January 2011. A release date was scheduled for March 9, 2012, but weeks later the release was postponed until June 8, 2012. With the name confirmed, the production team began to publicly distance the film from its Alien origins, and were deliberately vague about the connection between the films, believing it would build audience anticipation for Prometheus. Scott stated that "while Alien was indeed the jumping-off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place. The keen fan will recognize strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative." In June 2011, Scott and Lindelof confirmed that Prometheus takes place in the same universe as the events of the Alien series. In July 2011, Scott stated that "by the end of the third act you start to realize there's a DNA of the very first Alien, but none of the subsequent [films]."
### Writing
Spaihts met Scott in late 2009 and they discussed Scott's desire to pursue an Alien prequel. Spaihts offered his concept, including a "bridge" that would connect the story of the film's human characters to the Alien saga. Spaihts was quickly hired, which he credited to the reception of his "bridge" idea. Spaihts claimed he created the concept spontaneously, without preconception. Spaihts wrote a 20-page "extremely detailed outline"; within three and a half weeks he had completed his first draft, and he submitted it to the producers on Christmas Day, 2009. Within 12 hours, Scott returned the script with notes for changes, and Spaihts spent the Christmas holiday redrafting.
Spaihts was tasked with exploring unresolved mysteries from Alien, such as the Space Jockey. He considered the mysteries of Alien to be alien in nature, and said, "all the mysteries have alien players: the exoskeleton nightmare and ... the elephantine titan that was called the 'space jockey' ... How do you make anyone care about events between creatures like this?" His solution was to link the alien mysteries to the past and future of humanity. He said: "If that story is somehow ours and deeply enmeshed with the human story, that story changes meaning within our life, things of such significance that we think of our own lives differently." Spaihts found translating Scott's stylistic visual concepts to text difficult, and he periodically constrained some of Scott's ideas. He reminded Scott that in the scene they were discussing, the characters were subject to gravity and so could not simply float. By April 2010, the script was on the fourth draft. Scott said about the script, "We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?"
In June 2010, Scott announced that the script was complete and ready for filming. However, Scott instead contacted Lindelof and asked him to review Spaihts's script. Within the hour, a messenger delivered the script to Lindelof and informed him that he would wait outside to return it as soon as Lindelof had finished reading it. Lindelof was unaware of what Scott and the producers liked about the existing script, and informed them that he found the general concept appealing, but that the story relied too heavily on elements of the Alien films, such as the Alien creatures' life-cycle. As a direct prequel to Alien, the story was shaped to lead into that film's story, and to recreate the familiar cues of that series, and Scott wanted to avoid repeating his previous accomplishments. Lindelof said, "If the ending to [Prometheus] is just going to be the room that John Hurt walks into that's full of [alien] eggs [in Alien], there's nothing interesting in that, because we know where it's going to end. Good stories, you don't know where they're going to end." "A true prequel should essentially precede the events of the original film, but be about something entirely different, feature different characters, have an entirely different theme, although it takes place in that same world."
Lindelof said that the other parts of the script were strong enough to survive without the Alien hallmarks, such as the Alien creature, which he believed had been diluted by the exposure it had received. He said, "[The producers] were just looking for someone to say to them, Hey, we don't need the Alien stuff in here. It shouldn't be about that. It can be a part of this movie, but it shouldn't be what it's about." Lindelof said that the film could instead run parallel to the Alien series and that a sequel would be Prometheus 2 and not Alien, and submitted an idea for how such a sequel could work. Lindelof met with the producers the following morning, and was hired shortly afterward in late 2010. Under Lindelof, the script diverged from Spaihts's Alien prequel into an original creation. Scott and Lindelof worked together five days a week between July and August 2010 to construct the vision Scott wanted to convey and decide what script changes were needed, including scaling back the Alien symbolism and tropes. In August and September 2010, Lindelof spent almost five weeks writing his first draft, which he submitted in mid-September 2010. Inspired by Blade Runner and Spaihts's script, Lindelof thought that it would be possible to combine an Alien story of action and horror with "the Blade Runner thematic," to ask bigger questions than he felt were normally posed in science fiction films. Lindelof said,
> Blade Runner might not have done well [financially] when it first came out, but people are still talking about it because it was infused with all these big ideas. [Scott] was also talking about very big themes in Prometheus. It was being driven by people who wanted the answers to huge questions. But I thought that we could do that without ever getting too pretentious. Nobody wants to see a movie where people are floating in space talking about the meaning of life ... That was already present in [Spaihts's] original script and [Scott] just wanted to bring it up more.
Scott's story concept was partially inspired by Chariots of the Gods?, Erich von Däniken's work about the theory of ancient astronauts which hypothesizes that life on Earth was created by aliens. Scott said, "NASA and the Vatican agree that [it is] almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today without there being a little help along the way ... That's what we're looking at [in the film], at some of Erich von Däniken's ideas of how did we humans come about." Spaihts originated the idea that David, the android, is like humans but does not want to be anything like them, eschewing a common theme in "robotic storytelling" such as in Blade Runner. He also developed the theme that while the human crew is searching for their creators, David is already among its creators. Scott liked these ideas and further explored them in Lindelof's rewrite. For Shaw, Lindelof felt it was important that she be distinct from Alien's Ripley, to avoid inevitable comparisons between the two characters. In Spaihts's draft, Shaw was directly responsible for the events of the plot because she wants to seek out potentially dangerous knowledge. As with David, Lindelof expanded this facet of the character during his rewrites. He spent approximately eight months developing the script, finishing in March 2011 as filming began.
### Pre-production
Pre-production began in April 2010. A team developed graphic designs for the film. Scott convinced Fox to invest millions of dollars to hire scientists and conceptual artists to develop a vision of the late 21st century. The production of Prometheus was marked by a high degree of secrecy.
In July 2011, Lindelof said that the film would rely upon practical effects, and would use CGI generally for on-set pre-visualization of external space visuals. Scott said that "you can pretty much do anything you want" with digital technology, and, "Doug Trumbull once said to me 'If you can do it live, do it live.' That was 29 years ago. Even though we have remarkable digital capabilities I still say do it live. It's cheaper." Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski convinced Scott that it would be possible to film in 3D with the same ease and efficiency of 2D filming. 3D company 3ality Technica provided some of the rigs and equipment to facilitate 3D filming, and trained the film's crew in their proper operation. According to Scott, the decision to film in 3D added \$10 million to the film's budget. Since 3D films need high lighting levels on set, the hallmark dark and shadowy atmosphere of the Alien films was added in post-production using color grading processes, and the 3D equipment was based on post-Avatar technology.
### Filming
With an estimated \$120–130 million budget, principal photography began on March 21, 2011, andlasted 82 days Filming began at Shepperton Studios and Pinewood Studios in England. Scott used eight sound stages for filming, including the 007 Stage. Studio space was limited and the crew had to make five stages work for approximately 16 sets, and increased the size of the 007 stage by over 30%.
Exterior shots of the alien world were shot in Iceland, where filming took two weeks. It commenced on July 11, 2011, at the base of Hekla, an active volcano in southern Iceland. Speaking about working at the volcano, Scott said, "If one is afraid of nature in this profession then it would be best to find a different job." Filming also took place at Dettifoss, one of the most powerful waterfalls in Europe. The Iceland shoot involved 160 Icelandic crew members and over 200 imported crew. Scott said that the filming in Iceland comprised approximately fifteen minutes of footage for the film, and that the area represented the beginning of time. Morocco had been chosen as a location for these scenes, but the 2010 Arab Spring protests forced the change of venue. Alternatives including the Mojave Desert had been considered, but Scott explained that Iceland was ultimately chosen because "here it is so rough and 'Jurassic-like' and that proved decisive."
In September 2011, filming moved to the Ciudad de la Luz audiovisual complex in Alicante, Spain. Shooting areas included the complex's large water tank, and a nearby beach. The complex was booked from August 22, 2011, through to December 10, 2011, and set construction occurred from August until late September. Approximately 250 people worked on the three-month-long Spain shoot, generating over €1 million in the local economy. Filming also took place in the Wadi Rum valley in Jordan.
Scott avoided using green screens unless necessary. Instead, he used various items so the actors would know where they should be looking in any particular scene on the practical sets where CGI elements would be inserted in post-production. Rapace said that green screens were used fewer than six times during filming. The production used five 3ality Technical Atom 3D rigs, four of which were configured with Red Epic 3D cameras set on camera dollies and tripods, which were continuously in use during filming. The fifth rig used an Epic camera as a steadicam, which was used only occasionally.
### Post-production
Scott used the 3D footage to increase the illusion of depth. Despite this being his first 3D film he found the process easy. He said, "You can literally twiddle a knob and the depth will increase," and, "the trick is not to overdo it." In December 2011, Rapace undertook additional dialogue recordings for the film. Additional pick-up scenes were filmed during January 2012, including a one-day shoot on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and a new scene shot at a cave in the Scottish mountains. For dark scenes, the film was color graded to specifically compensate for the light loss of 3D glasses, to ensure the image was comparable to the 2D version.
In July 2011, Scott said that he was filming Prometheus with both adult-oriented R and more accessible PG-13 film ratings in mind, allowing the more adult content to be cut if necessary without harming the overall presentation. Scott said he had a responsibility to 20th Century Fox to be able to present a PG-13 cut of the film if the studio demanded, allowing it to be viewed by a wider potential audience. When asked about the rating, Scott said, "The question is, do you go for the PG-13, or do you go for what it should be, which is R? Financially it makes quite a difference ... essentially it's kinda R ... it's not just about blood, it's about ideas that are very stressful." Scott also said that, regardless of rating, he would present the most aggressive cut of the film he could, while Rothman said that Scott would not be forced to compromise the film's quality to avoid an R-rating. On May 7, 2012, Fox confirmed that the film had received an R-rating and would be released without any cuts being made. According to Scott, the scene of Shaw surgically removing her alien offspring was the significant cause of the restrictive rating, and it was suggested that removing the scene entirely would be the only way to gain a lower one. A fight scene between Shaw and the Engineer was shortened because Scott decided that Shaw directly wounding the Engineer diminished his role. Scott concluded work on the film in March 2012.
### Music
Marc Streitenfeld, who had worked with Scott on earlier projects, composed the musical score for Prometheus. It took just over a week to record with a 90-piece orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London, England. Streitenfeld began writing ideas for the score after reading the script before filming commenced. He used some unusual techniques to compose the score, and said, "I actually wrote out the sheet music backwards so the orchestra played it backwards and then I digitally flipped it. So you're hearing the score as it's written, the same melody, but with a backwards sounding orchestra which gives it a kind of unusual, unsettling sound." The Prometheus (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) album was released on iTunes on May 15, 2012, and on CD on June 4, 2012. It features 23 tracks by Streitenfeld and two supplemental tracks by Harry Gregson-Williams. Frédéric Chopin's "Raindrop prelude" (1838) is also featured in the film.
## Design
Production designer Arthur Max led the film's design staff. His art team were tasked with deconstructing the art and visuals of Alien, and reverse-designing them for the chronologically earlier setting of Prometheus. Influence was drawn from the work of Alien creature designer H. R. Giger, and designers Ron Cobb and Chris Foss, including their designs for that film which Scott had been unable to develop at the time.
### Costume design
For the crew's space suits, Scott was inspired to include spherical glass helmets after reading a story in Steve Jobs' biography about building an office out of Gorilla Glass. Scott said, "If I'm in 2083 and I'm going into space, why would I design a helmet that has blind spots. What I want is something where I have 360 [vision]. Glass, by then, will be light and you won't be able to break it with a bullet." The interior of the prop helmets had nine functioning video screens, internal lighting, an air supply provided by two fans, and battery packs concealed within a backpack. The helmet's exterior featured a functional light source and high definition video cameras with a transmitter and recorder. For the suit itself, Scott wanted to avoid the unwieldy NASA-style suit. His frequent collaborator, Janty Yates, used medical research concepts relating to skin replacement treatments and materials to develop a garment that would be believable, flexible and comfortable. The outfit comprised a neoprene suit worn under an outer space suit, a base to which the helmet could be attached, and a backpack.
Aboard the ship, Yates gave the characters their own distinct looks. Theron is dressed in an ice-silver, silk mohair suit. Yates said, "[Theron] is the ice queen. It was always our vision to make her look as sculptural as possible." Fassbender's David is dressed similarly to other crew members, but his outfit was given finer lines to produce a more linear appearance. To create a casual, relaxed appearance, Marshall-Green's Holloway was dressed in hoodies, fisherman pants, and flip-flops, while Elba wore a canvas-greased jacket to represent his long career at the helm of a ship.
### Sets and vehicles
Arthur Max designed the sets such as the alien world landscape and structures, and the vehicles, including the Prometheus and the Engineer's ship. Digital 3D models and miniature replicas of each set were built to allow the designers to envisage the connections between them and to know where the CGI elements would be inserted. To better blend the practical and the digital, the design team took rock samples from the Iceland location so they could match the graphical textures with the real rocks. To create the Prometheus, Max researched NASA and European Space Agency spacecraft designs, and extended these concepts with his own ideas of how future space vehicles might look. He said that he wanted "to do something that was state-of-the-art, which would represent a flagship spacecraft with every technology required to probe into the deepest corners of the galaxy."
The interior of the Prometheus was built across a two-level structure, fronted by a large, faceted, wrap around windscreen. Theron's quarters were designed to represent her high status in the crew, and were furnished with modern and futuristic items, including Swarovski chandeliers and a Fazioli piano. The ship's garage was built on the backlot of Pinewood Studios in England. The vehicles inside were built in 11 weeks and were designed to operate on difficult terrain while having a futuristic aesthetic. Max created a large pyramid structure for the alien world, which had its main interior areas connected by a series of chambers, corridors, and tunnels; it was so large that some members of the film crew became lost inside it. The pyramid was enhanced in post-production to further increase its size. One of the key sets, the chamber where the crew find the humanoid-head statue, was designed to resemble the interior of a cathedral and convey a quasi-religious impression. Giger designed the murals that appear within the chamber.
For the scene of the Prometheus' descent to the alien moon LV-223, visual effects art director Steven Messing referenced NASA imagery, including vortex cloud structures. He also used aerial photographs of locations in Iceland and Wadi Rum shot by VFX supervisor Richard Stammers and his team. Messing painted over these images and combined them with 3D set extensions to create a realistic altered landscape. Scott wanted the ship's descent scenes to have a sense of grandeur to contrast the dark and shrouded descent featured in Alien. Much of LV-223s world was based upon the world visited in Alien, but scaled back as Scott felt some elements were too unrealistic. Other influences were the Martian mountain Olympus Mons and several large mountain structures on Earth. NASA advisers provided concepts for the aesthetics of alien worlds which were incorporated into the design work. MPC developed a digital representation of Wadi Rum using the design material, modified it to locate the alien pyramid and a landing area for the Prometheus, and resized the planet's natural features relative to the alien structures.
### Creature effects
Neal Scanlan and Conor O'Sullivan developed the film's alien creatures, aiming to convey that each creature has a logical biological function and purpose. Scanlan said that much of Scott's inspiration for creature design is drawn from natural life, such as plants and sea creatures. Creature designer Carlos Huante chose to make the creature designs pale to contrast the black-toned, Giger-influenced aesthetic of Alien. Huante designed them to be white and embryonic because the events in the film occur before Giger's influence had taken effect. Huante took influences from references Scott was using to design the pale-skinned Engineers. Huante also referenced other Giger works, national monuments, large sculptures, and the Crazy Horse Memorial statue in South Dakota. Part of Huante's early design work included developing precursors to Alien's Facehugger, and a primitive Alien creature, but these were cut from the final release. When designing the Engineers, Scott and Huante referenced paintings by William Blake and J. M. W. Turner, and classical sculptures. Scott wanted the Engineers to resemble Greco-Roman gods, and instructed designer Neville Page to reference the Statue of Liberty, Michelangelo's David, and Elvis Presley. The 8-foot tall, humanoid Engineers were created by applying bulky, full-body prosthetics to the actors, whose facial features were diminished by the material, and were later digitally enhanced to preserve the "godlike" physical perfection. Scott described the Engineers as tall, elegant "dark angels."
The snake-like alien dubbed the "Hammerpede" was given life through a mixture of CGI and practical effects, and the wires controlling the practical puppet were digitally removed. For a scene in which the Hammerpede is decapitated, the VFX team digitally animated and inserted the spontaneous growth of a replacement head. During the scene in which the Hammerpede erupts from Spall's character's corpse, Scott controlled the puppet using wires. Scott did not inform Dickie about what was to occur in the scene and her screaming reaction was real. The creature's design was partially inspired by translucent sea creatures with visible arteries, veins, and organs beneath the skin's surface, and cobras. The designers gave the creature a smooth, muscular, and powerful appearance. Early designs of the "Trilobite," the tentacled offspring cut from Shaw, resembled an octopus or squid. Page redeveloped this creature as an embryo in an early state of development, with tentacles that began fused together and would gradually split, creating new tentacles, as the creature developed. The practical creature was a remotely operated animatronic creation with a silicone skin.
The mutated Fifield effects were achieved mainly through the use of make-up and prosthetics. Due to concerns that the practical effects would be unsatisfactory, the filmmakers completed an alternative version of the sequence, in which Fifield was rendered as "a digital character with elongated limbs and an engorged, translucent head, incorporating a semblance of Harris's face." Three other variations of the mutated Fifield were modeled, but these were rejected as being too inhuman.
For its grown form, the "Adult Trilobite," Max found inspiration from an arthropod-like creature from Earth's Cambrian period, and the alien octopus in Jean Giraud's illustrations for the comic strip The Long Tomorrow. Further inspiration came after Max found a formaldehyde-preserved giant squid, an image which met with Scott's approval. The film's last-unveiled creature, the "Deacon," was named by Scott for its long, pointed head that he considered resembled a bishop's mitre. Scanlan aimed to represent the creature's genetic lineage, beginning with Shaw and Holloway who produce the Trilobite which impregnates the Engineer, in its design. However, the creature was given a somewhat feminine appearance, since "it was born of a female before being born of a male." Messing drew inspiration for the Deacon's birth scene from the birth of foals, and created an iridescent appearance for its skin, based on the equine placenta. The Deacon's protruding jaw was inspired by the goblin shark.
### Sound effects
Sound effects were generated with a variety of sources including Pop Rocks—a brand of popping candy—and a parrot. The glistening ice forming on the stone cylinders discovered in the film was created by applying the popping candy to materials such as wet metal and stone that was then sprayed with water to produce the "popping, cracking" sound. Sound designer Ann Scibelli's parrot was recorded over several weeks to document her variety of vocalizations which were then used as beeps, alarms and the cries of Shaw's alien offspring.
### Visual effects
Prometheus contains approximately 1,300 digital effect shots. The main effects studio was Moving Picture Company (MPC), which produced 420 of the shots. Several other studios, including Weta Digital, Fuel VFX, Rising Sun Pictures, Luma Pictures, Lola Visual Effects, and Hammerhead Productions, also produced effects shots for the film.
The creation of life from the disintegration of an Engineer in the film's opening scene was created by WETA Digital. The scene was difficult to produce because it had to convey the story of the Engineer's DNA breaking apart, reforming and recombining into Earth DNA in a limited span of time. The team focused on making the DNA stages distinct to convey its changing nature. Scott requested the studio to focus on the destruction occurring within the Engineer. A light color scheme was used for the Engineer's DNA and decayed fish spines were used as an image reference, while the infected DNA had a melted appearance. To find methods of depicting the DNA destruction, the team carved vein-like structures from silicone and pumped black ink and oils into them while filming the changes occurring over an extended period of time.
A key scene involving a large 3D hologram star map, dubbed the Orrery, was inspired by the 1766 Joseph Wright painting A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, in which a scientist displays a mechanical planetarium by candlelight. While discussing the necessity of a star map with Spaihts, Scott mentioned that he envisaged a physical representation being similar to the painting, although he was unaware of its title and described it as "circles in circles with a candle lit image." Using Scott's description, Spaihts located an image of the painting. Spaihts said, "making the leap from a star map, to an Enlightenment painting, and then back into the far future. [Scott's] mind just multiplexes in that way." The Orrery was one of the most complex visual effects, contained 80–100 million polygons, and took several weeks to render as a single, complete shot.
## Marketing
Prometheus' marketing campaign began on July 21, 2011, at the San Diego Comic-Con International, where images and footage from the film were presented by Lindelof and Theron; Scott and Rapace participated via satellite contribution. A segment of the footage showed Theron performing naked push-ups, which attracted much attention. A teaser poster was released on December 14, 2011, with the tagline, "The search for our beginning could lead to our end." A bootleg recording of an incomplete trailer was leaked online on November 27, 2011, but was quickly taken down by Fox. The trailer was released on December 22, 2011.
On March 17, 2012, Scott, in partnership with AMC Theatres, hosted the premiere of the first full Prometheus trailer at the AMC Downtown Disney during WonderCon in Anaheim, California. The event was streamed live via Facebook, Twitter, and the AMC Theatre website, and the trailer was posted on AMC's YouTube channel immediately after its debut. Reactions to the trailer from WonderCon attendees, and on Twitter, were generally positive, and it received nearly three million views in the three days following its release. On April 10, 2012, media outlets were shown a 13-minute montage of scenes in 3D from the film's opening at the Vue Cinema in Leicester Square, London. The screening, and in particular the 3D visuals and the performances of Fassbender, Rapace, Theron, and Elba, was well received.
On April 29, 2012, the international launch trailer debuted in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 during the first advertisement break of the TV show Homeland. Viewers were encouraged to share their opinions about the trailer on Twitter, some of which were then shared in a live broadcast during a later break. This was the first time that viewers' tweets were used in a broadcast advertisement. A competition, offering viewers a chance to win tickets to the film whenever the social platform Zeebox detected the advertisement airing, was launched on that site. On May 8, 2012, the advertisement became the subject of an investigation by the British broadcasting regulatory body Ofcom for allegedly breaching broadcast rules when a voiceover encouraged viewers to book tickets during the advertisement with the Channel 4 logo onscreen. The broadcast potentially broke a ruling that advertising and teleshopping must be clearly distinguishable from editorial content.
Although marketers typically avoid promoting adult-oriented films to reach a broader demographic, the film attracted several promotional partners including Coors, Amazon, and Verizon FiOS, which were estimated to have spent \$30 million in marketing support. Amazon directed interested users to purchase tickets through Fandango, and placed promotional material in products shipped to customers; this was the first time that Amazon had allowed such marketing by an external company. The premiere in London was streamed live via the film's website and the Verizon FiOS Facebook page. The event was facilitated by BumeBox, which took audience questions from social sites and gave them to reporters to ask at the event. The National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA) released a series of Prometheus action figures in September 2012. A book, Prometheus: The Art of the Film, containing production art and behind-the-scenes photographs, was released on June 12, 2012.
### Viral campaign
A viral marketing campaign began on February 28, 2012, with the release of a video featuring a speech by Pearce, in character as Peter Weyland, about his vision for the future. Set in 2023, the TED 2023 video presents a futuristic vision of a TED conference, an annual technology and design event held in Long Beach, California. The segment was conceived and designed by Scott and Lindelof, and directed by Scott's son, Luke. The production was made in collaboration with, and made available through TED because Lindelof wanted to introduce new audiences to the conference itself. Lindelof said that the scene takes place in a futuristic stadium because "a guy like Peter Weyland—whose ego is just massive, and the ideas that he's advancing are nothing short of hubris—that he'd basically say to TED, 'If you want me to give a talk, I'm giving it in Wembley Stadium.'"
TED community director Tom Rielly helped the film's producers gain approval for the use of the TED brand, which had not previously been used for promotional purposes. Rielly was involved in designing the 2023 conference, and said that the association generated millions of unique visits to the TED website. The video's release was accompanied by a fictional TED blog about the 2023 conference and a tie-in website for the fictional Weyland Corporation. On March 6, 2012, the Weyland website was updated to allow visitors to invest in the company as part of a game, which would reveal new Prometheus media.
During the 2012 WonderCon, attendees at the film's panel were given Weyland Corporation business cards that directed them to a website and telephone number. After calling the number, the caller was sent a text message from Weyland Corporation that linked them to a video that was presented as an advertisement for the "David 8" android, narrated by Fassbender. An extended version of the video, released on April 17, 2012, lists the android's features, including its ability to seamlessly replicate human emotions without the restrictions of ethics or distress. A full page "David 8" advertisement was placed in The Wall Street Journal; a Twitter account operated by a David8, that allowed Twitter users to ask the character questions, was included. A partnership with Verizon FiOS was launched, offering a virtual tour of the Prometheus spaceship. Another video, "Quiet Eye," starring Rapace as Shaw, was released on May 16, 2012, and debuted on the Verizon FIOS Facebook page. In a telephone call monitored by Yutani, a fictional company from the Alien series, Shaw requests Weyland's aid to seek out alien life. In France, the Saint-Martin ghost train station was converted to resemble alien architecture from the film, and was visible to passing commuters. The campaign continued after the film's release with a website that was listed during the film's end credits. The site referenced the philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, and featured a video of Weyland, who quotes from the book. Another video followed in September 2012, featuring Elba's Captain Janek preparing for a mission.
At the May 2012 Digital Hollywood conference, Lindelof said that the videos originated from the question of the film's status as an Alien prequel. It was decided that creating videos with the film's stars would generate more interest than any commentary about its connection to the Alien films. He also said that the videos needed to be cool enough to justify their existence, but not so important that their absence from the final film would be an issue for audiences.
## Release
The premiere of Prometheus took place on May 31, 2012, at the Empire cinema in Leicester Square, London. The film was released in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2012, and in North America on June 8, 2012. It was simultaneously released in IMAX theaters and in 3D, and it is encoded for D-Box motion seats that provide physical feedback to the audience during the film.
### Pre-release
In the United Kingdom, approximately £1 million (\$1.6 million) of tickets were pre-sold. 18,827 tickets pre-sold for the London IMAX, the largest IMAX screen in the country, which broke the theater records for the highest grossing week of pre-sales with £293,312 (\$474,687), and the highest grossing first day of pre-sales with £137,000 (\$221,717). It extended this record to 30,000 tickets sold and £470,977 (\$737,588) earned, and become the most pre-booked film at that theater, exceeding the performance of high-profile IMAX releases including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and Avatar.
In North America, audience tracking showed high interest among males, but low among females. In the week before the film's release, predictions were conflicted on whether Prometheus or Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (the first family-oriented film of the summer), which were released simultaneously, would reach number 1 for that weekend. On June 6, 2012, Fandango reported that with 42% of daily sales Prometheus was beating Madagascar 3. The online tracking for Prometheus surged with each additional promotional footage. Prometheus was predicted to earn approximately \$30 million, and Madagascar 3 around \$45 million. As the weekend approached, tracking suggested a \$55 million debut for Madagascar 3 and \$50–\$55 million for Prometheus. Prometheus was disadvantaged by Madagascar opening in 264 more theaters and its adult rating.
### Box office
Prometheus was considered a financial success overall. After a strong start in North America, the film failed to meet the studio's expectations, but it continued to perform strongly in other territories until the end of its theatrical run. Prometheus earned \$126.4 million (31.4%) in North America and \$276.9 million (68.6%) elsewhere for a worldwide total of \$403.4 million, making it the 18th highest-grossing film of 2012, and at its peak it was the 155th highest-grossing film worldwide unadjusted for inflation.
Prometheus was released in 15 markets between May 30 and June 1, 2012—about a week before its North American release. The earlier start in these countries was timed to avoid competition with the start of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship the following week. On its opening day, which varies depending on the country, it earned \$3.39 million in the United Kingdom, \$2.2 million in Russia, and \$1.5 million in France. The film earned \$34.8 million during its opening weekend from 4,695 theaters in 15 markets, and debuted at number 1 in 14 of them, with an average of \$7,461 per theater. Its overall rank for the weekend was third behind Men in Black 3 and Snow White & the Huntsman. Its opening weekends in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta (\$10.1 million), Russia and the CIS (\$9.80 million), and France and the Maghreb region (\$6.68 million) represented its largest takings. By June 8, the film had opened in a total of 50 markets, and was also successful during its opening weekends in Australia (\$7.2 million) and South Korea (\$4.2 million). During its late August opening in Japan, the film earned \$9.6 million.
In North America, Prometheus earned \$3.561 million in midnight showings at 1,368 theaters, including \$1.03 million from 294 IMAX theaters, and went on to earn \$21.4 million through its opening day. During its opening weekend, the film earned \$51.05 million from 3,396 theaters—an average of \$15,032 per theater—ranking second behind Madagascar 3 (\$60.4 million), which made it the second largest opening for a film directed by Scott behind his 2001 thriller Hannibal, the third largest second-place opening, the ninth largest opening for a prequel, and the tenth largest for an R-rated film. The largest demographic of the opening weekend audience was over the age of 25 (64%) and male (57%). 3D showings accounted for 54% of ticket sales, while IMAX contributed 18%—the majority of which was accounted for in the 3D figure. The film closed on September 20, 2012, after 105 days (15 weeks) in release with a total gross of \$126.4 million. The figure made it the number 43 highest-grossing film to never finish a week as the number 1 film.
### Home media
In North America, Prometheus DVD and Blu-ray disc releases were listed for pre-order in partnership with Amazon on June 1, 2012, a week before the film was released in theaters. A limited number of cinema tickets for the film were offered as a pre-order incentive. In June 2012, FX obtained the rights to the film's network television premiere. On September 7, 2012, Fox announced that Prometheus would be the launch title of its new digital distribution initiative "Digital HD." The film was released on September 18, 2012, three weeks prior to its DVD, Blu-ray disc and Video on demand (VOD) release, for downloading and streaming through platforms including Amazon, iTunes, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live in over 50 countries. The film was released on Blu-ray disc and DVD on October 9, 2012. The Blu-ray disc edition of the film was released in a 2-disc set and a 4-disc "Collector's Edition." Both versions contain the theatrical cut of Prometheus, commentary by Scott, Lindelof and Spaihts, a DVD and digital copy of the film, alternate and deleted scenes, and other features. Additionally, the Collector's Edition contains the 3D version of the film and approximately 7 hours of supplemental features including a documentary on the film's production. On October 8, 2012, it was reported that Fox had requested an extended version of the film for home media, but Scott refused to edit cut scenes back into the theatrical version of the film, which he considered his director's cut. During its first week of sale in the United Kingdom, Prometheus was the number 1 selling film on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, outselling its nearest competitor by a factor of three. An Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released in September 2017.
## Reception
### Critical reception
The film has approval rating from critics with an average rating of on the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which says, "Ridley Scott's ambitious quasi-prequel to Alien may not answer all of its big questions, but it's redeemed by its haunting visual grandeur and compelling performances—particularly Michael Fassbender as a fastidious android." Metacritic provides a score of 64 out of 100 from 43 critics, which indicates "generally favorable" reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B" on a scale of A+ to F, while audience members under 25 rated it the highest at A−. Reviews frequently praised both the film's visual aesthetic and design, and Fassbender's performance as the android David received almost universal acclaim. However the plot drew a mixed response from critics, who criticized plot elements that remained unresolved or were predictable, tempered by appreciation for the action and horror set-pieces.
The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy called the film's visuals vivid, stunning, and magnificent on a technical level, and praised the performances of Fassbender, Rapace, and Theron, but wrote that the film "caters too much to imagined audience expectations when a little more adventurous thought might have taken it to some excitingly unsuspected destinations." Time Out London's Tom Huddleston wrote that "the photography is pleasingly crisp and the design is stunning," but that, "[t]he script feels flat ... the dialogue is lazy, while the plot, though crammed with striking concepts, simply fails to coalesce. After an enjoyable setup, the central act is baggy, confusing and, in places, slightly boring, while the climax has flash and fireworks but no real momentum." Emanuel Levy wrote that the writing was his only complaint about the film, which, he said, "is not only uneven, but promises more original ideas and thematic provocations than it can possibly deliver."
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, labeling it a "seamless blend of story, special effects and pitch-perfect casting, filmed in sane, effective 3-D that doesn't distract." Ebert wrote that Rapace's performance "continues here the tradition of awesome feminine strength begun by Sigourney Weaver in Alien," but considered that Elba's Janek has the most interesting character evolution. Ebert thought that the plot raises questions and does not answer them, which made the film intriguing and parallel to the "classic tradition of golden age sci-fi." He later went on to name it as one of the best films of 2012.
Total Film's Jonathan Crocker wrote that the plot successfully integrated itself with Alien's mythology while offering its own original ideas. Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum was positive towards the cast, particularly Rapace, and the cinematography. Salon's Andrew O'Hehir wrote that the film was "somber, spectacular and ponderous," but that the "portentousness and grandiosity ... is at once the film's great strength and great weakness" and criticized the characters for lacking common sense. O'Hehir also mentioned Wolski's cinematography and Max's production design. The New York Times''' A. O. Scott criticized the story as weak, and argued that the narrative's twists and reversals undermine its "lofty, mindblowing potential." He said the film has no revelations, just "bits of momentarily surprising information bereft of meaning or resonance," and that Rapace is a "fine heroine, vulnerable and determined."
Variety film critic Justin Chang wrote that the film's narrative structure was unable to handle the philosophical dimension of the plot, and that Prometheus was lazily deferring key plot points under the presumption that a sequel would be made. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw wrote that Prometheus was "more grandiose, more elaborate—but less interesting" than Alien, and lacked the latter's "central killer punch." Ian Nathan of Empire magazine was unimpressed by Rapace—whom he described as an unconvincing lead—and said that with "a lack of suspense, threadbare characters, and a very poor script, the stunning visuals, gloopy madness, and sterling Fassbenderiness can't prevent Prometheus feeling like Alien's poor relation." The Village Voice's Nick Pinkerton wrote that the film is "prone to shallow ponderousness," and that Scott "can still mimic the appearance of an epic, noble, important movie—but the appearance is all." He criticized Rapace and Marshall-Green for failing to instill interest in their characters' relationship, but added: "There are a few set pieces here that will find a place of honor among aficionados of body horror and all things clammy and viscous."
James Cameron said: "I enjoyed Prometheus. I thought it was great. I thought it was Ridley returning to science fiction with gusto, with great tactical performance, beautiful photography, great native 3D. There might have been a few things that I would have done differently, but that's not the point—you could say that about any movie." However, despite his praise, he also said he thought it "didn't add up logically."
### Accolades
## Sequel
Scott discussed a continuation of the series in March 2012, saying that Prometheus leaves many questions unanswered and that these could be answered in a sequel. In June 2012, Lindelof said that while plot elements were deliberately left unresolved so that they could be answered in a sequel, he and Scott had thoroughly discussed what should be resolved so that Prometheus could stand alone, as a sequel was not guaranteed. By August 2012, a sequel was announced to be in development for release no earlier than 2014. Lindelof chose not to work on the new film, citing other commitments.
Titled Alien: Covenant, the sequel premiered in London, England on May 4, 2017, and was released in the United States on May 19, 2017. Set eleven years after the events of Prometheus, Alien: Covenant's story follows the crew of the Covenant space ship who land on an uncharted and seemingly uninhabited planet. The film stars Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Jussie Smollett, Amy Seimetz, Carmen Ejogo, Callie Hernandez, Alex England and Billy Crudup. On release, Alien: Covenant earned a worldwide box office gross of \$240.7 million (compared to Prometheus' \$403.4 million), and received generally favorable reviews. A sequel to Alien: Covenant is in development. In 2013, a comic book series was announced by Dark Horse Comics that serves as a spin-off to Prometheus. The series, titled Fire and Stone, is an Alien vs. Predator crossover featuring content exclusive to Prometheus. The first issue of Fire and Stone'' was released on September 10, 2014.
|
31,889,792 |
Waddesdon Bequest
| 1,171,583,041 |
Collection of Renaissance art in the British Museum
|
[
"Decorative arts",
"Limoges enamel",
"Prehistory and Europe objects in the British Museum",
"Renaissance art",
"Rothschild family",
"Waddesdon Manor"
] |
In 1898 Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed to the British Museum as the Waddesdon Bequest the contents from his New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor. This consisted of a wide-ranging collection of almost 300 objets d'art et de vertu, which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass and maiolica. One of the earlier objects is the outstanding Holy Thorn Reliquary, probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry. The collection is in the tradition of a schatzkammer, or treasure house, (and is referred to as such by some writers) such as those formed by the Renaissance princes of Europe; indeed, the majority of the objects are from late Renaissance Europe, although there are several important medieval pieces, and outliers from classical antiquity and medieval Syria.
Following the sequence of the museum's catalogue numbers, and giving the first number for each category, the bequest consists of: "bronzes", handles and a knocker (WB.1); arms, armour and ironwork (WB.5); enamels (WB.19); glass (WB.53); Italian maiolica (WB.60); "cups etc in gold and hard stone" (WB.66); silver plate (WB.87); jewellery (WB.147); cutlery (WB.201); "caskets, etc" (WB.217); carvings in wood and stone (WB.231–265). There is no group for paintings, and WB.174, a portrait miniature on vellum in a wooden frame, is included with the jewellery, though this is because the subject is wearing a pendant in the collection.
The collection was assembled for a particular place, and to reflect a particular aesthetic; other parts of Ferdinand Rothschild's collection contain objects in very different styles, and the Bequest should not be taken to reflect the totality of his taste. Here what most appealed to Ferdinand Rothschild were intricate, superbly executed, highly decorated and rather ostentatious works of the Late Gothic, Renaissance and Mannerist periods. Few of the objects could be said to rely on either simplicity or Baroque sculptural movement for their effect, though several come from periods and places where much Baroque work was being made. A new display for the collection, which under the terms of the bequest must be kept and displayed together, opened on 11 June 2015.
## History
The collection was started by Baron Ferdinand's father, Baron Anselm von Rothschild (1803–1874), and may include some objects from earlier Rothschild collections. For Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812) of Frankfurt, who began the prominence of the family, his business dealing in coins, "antiques, medals, and objects of display" preceded and financed his banking operations, and most Rothschilds continued to collect art.
At least one of the objects now in the British Museum can be seen in a cabinet in the background of a family portrait from 1838 (left), the year before Ferdinand was born. In his Reminiscences Ferdinand recalled his excitement as a child when he was allowed to help wrap and unwrap his father's collection, which spent the summers in a strongroom when the family left Vienna for a country villa.
The period after the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars offered tremendous opportunities for collectors of the decorative arts of the medieval and Renaissance periods. These categories were valued very little by the art market in general, and metalwork was routinely sold for its bullion value alone. Some of the older objects in precious metal in the collection may have first been received by the family as part of banking transactions; ownership of such pieces had always been partly a way to get some use from capital. Ferdinand records several complaints that his father did not make more use of his opportunities, but in his last years Anselm began to expand his collecting range, and it was he who bought both the Holy Thorn Reliquary and the Ghisi Shield. This golden age for collectors had passed by the time Ferdinand inherited his part of his father's collection in 1874, which was also the year he bought the Waddesdon estate and began to build there. Ferdinand continued to expand the collection until his death in 1898, mostly using dealers, and expanding the range of objects collected. In particular Ferdinand expanded to around fifty the ten or so pieces of jewellery in his father's collection.
The New Smoking Room built to hold the collection was only planned from 1891, and the collection was moved in there in early 1896, less than three years before Ferdinand's death. Good photographs allow an appreciation of how the objects were displayed, in glassed cases and on open shelves around the walls, over doors, and over the small fireplace, which had an elaborate shelved chimneypiece in wood above. Several objects, including the Casket of Saint Valerie, were on tables away from the walls. Comfortable seating was plentiful, some upholstered with pieces from medieval vestments, and there were framed photographs and houseplants. The room is now refilled with objects from the same period though of somewhat different types, and visitors to Waddesdon Manor can see it from the doorway.
The room, with the adjoining Billiards Room, is the only reception room at Waddesdon Manor to follow the French Renaissance style of the exterior; the other rooms are in broadly 18th-century styles, and contain a magnificent collection of paintings and furniture centred on that century. The segregation of the collection was part of the concept of what has been called the "neo-Kunstkammer", adopted by some other very wealthy collectors of the period. The Renaissance Room at what is now the Wallace Collection and the collection of Sir Julius Wernher were other examples formed in England over the same period. The neo-Kunstkammer aimed to emulate the collections formed during the Renaissance itself, mostly by princely houses; of these the outstanding survivals were the Habsburg collections in Vienna, Prague and Ambras, as well as the treasuries of the Green Vault in Dresden, the Munich Residenz and Kassel. Unlike those collections, contemporary and recent objects were not included.
Baron Ferdinand was a restless and, by his own account, unhappy man, whose life was blighted by the death of his wife after giving birth to their only child, who was stillborn; this was in 1866. Thereafter he lived with his unmarried sister Alice. As well as filling positions in local public life, he was Liberal MP for Aylesbury from 1885 until his death, and from 1896 a Trustee of the British Museum, probably at the instigation of Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks.
Ferdinand recognized and welcomed the drift of high quality art into public collections, which had begun in earnest during his time as a collector. While most of his assets and collections were left to his sister Alice, the collection now forming the Bequest and, separately, a group of 15 manuscripts now in the British Library, were left to the British Museum. He had already donated some significant objects to the museum in his lifetime, which are not counted in the Bequest.
Baron Ferdinand's bequest was most specific, and failure to observe the terms would make it void. It stated that the collection should be
> placed in a special room to be called the Waddesdon Bequest Room separate and apart from the other contents of the Museum and thenceforth for ever thereafter, keep the same in such room or in some other room to be substituted for it.
These terms are still observed, and until late 2014 the collection was shown in the rather small room 45, in a display opened in 1973. In 2015 the Bequest was moved to Room 2A, a new, larger gallery on the ground floor, close to the main entrance on Museum Street. Until the Chinese ceramics collection of the Percival David Foundation moved to the British Museum the Waddesdon Bequest was the only collection segregated in this way.
## Renaissance metalwork
Much of the collection consists of luxury objects from the 16th century. Large pieces of metalwork in silver or silver-gilt make an immediate impression in the display, and these were designed to dazzle and impress guests when used at table, or displayed in rows on a sideboard with shelves like a modern bookcase or Welsh dresser. Many are very heavily decorated in virtuoso displays of goldsmiths' technique; rather too heavily for conventional modern taste. They are certainly ostentatious objects designed to display the wealth of their owner, and in many cases were designed to be appreciated when held in the hand, rather than seen under glass.
There are a number of standing cups with a cover, many from Augsburg and Nuremberg; these were used to drink a toast from to welcome a guest, and were also a common gift presented in politics and diplomacy, and by cities to distinguished visitors. Their decoration sometimes reflected the latest taste, often drawing from designs made as prints and circulated around Europe, but there was also often a very conservative continuation of late Gothic styles, which persisted until they came to be part of a Neugotic ("Neo-Gothic") revival in the early 17th century. The largest object in the bequest with a specifically Jewish connection is a silver-gilt standing cup made in Nuremberg about 1600, but by 1740 belonging to a Jewish burial society in Bratislava, as a Hebrew language inscription records.
Apart from pieces purely in metal, a number are centred on either hardstone carvings or organic objects such as horns, seashells, ostrich eggshells, and exotic plant seeds. These "curiosities" are typical of the taste of the Renaissance "age of discovery" and show the schatzkammer and the cabinet of curiosities overlapping. A different form of novelty is represented by a table-ornament of a silver-gilt foot-high figure of a huntsman with a dog and brandishing a spear. There is a clockwork mechanism in his base which propels him along the table, and his head lifts off to show a cup, and he would have been used in drinking games. There are separate figures of a boar and stags for him to pursue, though not making a set; these can also function as cups.
One of the most important objects in the collection is the Ghisi Shield, a parade shield never intended for use in battle, made by Giorgio Ghisi, who was both a goldsmith and an important printmaker. It is signed and dated 1554. With a sword hilt, dated 1570 and now in at the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, this is the only surviving damascened metalwork by Ghisi. The shield is made of iron hammered in relief, then damascened with gold and partly plated with silver. It has an intricate design with a scene of battling horseman in the centre, within a frame, around which are four further frames containing allegorical female figures, the frames themselves incorporating minute and crowded subjects on a much smaller scale from the Iliad and ancient mythology, inlaid in gold.
Other major pieces are sets of a ewer and basin, basin in this context meaning a large dish or salver, which when used were carried round by pairs of servants for guests to wash their hands without leaving the table. However the examples in the collection were probably hardly ever used for this, but were intended purely for display on sideboards; typically the basins are rather shallow for actual use. These were perhaps the grandest type of plate, with large surfaces where Mannerist inventiveness could run riot in the decoration. They were already expensive because of the weight of the precious metal, to which a huge amount of time by highly skilled silversmiths was added. The Aspremont-Lynden set in the bequest is documented in that family back to 1610, some 65 years after it was made in Antwerp, and weighs a little less than five kilos.
## Renaissance enamels
Though the Waddesdon Bequest contains two very important medieval objects with enamel, and much of the jewellery and decorated cutlery uses enamel heavily, the great majority of the items that can be called "enamels" are in the French 16th-century style that was led by painted Limoges enamel, rather than the champlevé enamel for which Limoges was famous in the Romanesque period. The new technique produced pieces painted with highly detailed figurative scenes or decorative schemes. As with Italian maiolica, the imagery tended to be drawn from classical mythology or allegory, though the bequest includes some Old Testament scenes, and compositions were very often drawn from German, French or Italian prints. Enamels were produced in workshops which often persisted in the same family for several generations, and are often signed in the enamel, or identifiable, at least as far as the family or workshop, by punch marks on the back of panels, as well as by style. Leading artists represented in the collection include Suzanne de Court, Pierre Reymond, Jean de Court, Pierre Courtois and Léonard Limousin.
Enamels were made as objects such as candlesticks, dishes, vessels and mirrors, and also as flat plaques to be included in other objects such as caskets. The collection includes all these types, with both unmounted plaques and caskets fitted with plaques. The jolly grotesques illustrated at right are on the reverse of a large dish whose main face shows a brightly coloured depiction of the Destruction of Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. Both designs are closely paralleled, without being exactly copied, in pieces in other collections, notably one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The designs are also based on prints, but adapted by the enamellers for their pieces.
The Casket of the Sibyls is an elaborate small locking casket with a framework of silver-gilt and gems, set with grisaille panels with touches of gold and flesh-tints. It represents the sophisticated court taste of about 1535, and was probably intended for a lady's jewels. Most such sets of enamel inserts have lost the settings they were intended for.
## Jewellery
The emphasis of the jewellery is very firmly on spectacular badges and pendant jewels of the late Renaissance in what is known as the "Spanish Style" that was adopted throughout Europe between about 1550 and 1630, using gems together with gold and enamel to create dazzling tiny sculptures. These were originally worn by both men and women, but as a collection the Waddesdon group was chosen for display (and in a specifically male setting) rather than for wearing, except at the occasional fancy-dress ball, a fashion at the time. The group demonstrate little interest in gemstones and pearls for their own sake. Although such pieces have survived more often than styles emphasizing gem stones and massy gold, which were typically recycled for their materials when fashion changed, the demand from 19th-century collectors greatly exceeded the supply of authentic survivals, and many pieces include much work from that period (see below).
For many of the pieces though it is not easy to place the date or country of manufacture. There is no such difficulty with the most famous jewel in the collection, the Lyte Jewel, which was made in London and presented to Thomas Lyte of Lytes Cary, Somerset in 1610 by King James I of England, who loved large jewels, and giving them to others. Lyte was not a regular at court, but he had drawn up a family tree tracing James's descent back to the legendary Trojan, Brut. The jewel contains a miniature portrait of the king by Nicholas Hilliard, though for conservation reasons this is now removed from the jewel. Lyte wears the jewel in a portrait of 1611, showing a drop below the main oval set with three diamonds, which had gone before 1882. The front cover has an elaborate openwork design with James's monogram IR, while the back has very finely executed enamel decoration.
One pendant, shaped like a lantern with a tiny Crucifixion inside, was made in 16th-century Mexico, and from comparison with other pieces may originally have included Mexican feather work, a Pre-Columbian art whose craftspeople the Spanish missionaries employed in workshops for export luxury objects.
## Objects from before the Renaissance
The collection includes an eclectic group of objects of very high quality that predate the Renaissance. The oldest objects are a set of four Hellenistic bronze medallions with heads projecting in very high relief, and round handles hanging below. These date to the century before Christ, and came from a tomb in modern Turkey, and were fixtures for some wooden object, perhaps a chest. The heads are identified as Ariadne, Dionysus, Persephone and Pluto. The carved agate body of WB.68 may be late Roman, and is discussed below.
The Palmer Cup is an important early Islamic glass cup, made around 1200, in Syria or perhaps Egypt, and painted in enamels. In the same century it was given a silver-gilt and rock crystal stem and foot in France. Below a poetic Arabic inscription praising wine-drinking, a seated prince holding a cup or glass is flanked by five standing attendants, two playing castanets and the others holding weapons. As an early enamel-painted image the cup is extremely rare in Islamic glass, although similar images in Mina'i ware painted Persian pottery of the period are found. There are a handful of comparable early Islamic glass cups with enamel that have survived in old European collections, such as the Luck of Edenhall in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and others in the Green Vault in Dresden and the Louvre, and others are recorded in old inventories. Often these were given a new foot in metalwork in Europe, as here. There is also a large mosque lamp with enamelled decoration from the late 14th century.
Romanesque art is represented by an unusually large Limoges enamel reliquary in the common chasse shape, like a gabled house. This was made in about 1170 to hold relics of Saint Valerie of Limoges, a virgin-martyr of the Roman period who was the most important local saint of Limoges, a key centre for Romanesque champlevé enamel. Her highly visual story is told in several scenes that use a wide range of colours, with the rest of the front face decorated in the "vermicular" style, with the space between the figure filled with scrolling motifs on a gold background. According to legend, St Valerie was a cephalophore saint, who after she was beheaded carried her own head to give to her bishop, Saint Martial, who had converted her.
There are many more objects in a Gothic style, and as is typical for northern Europe several of these come from well into the 16th century, and should be considered as belonging to the Northern Renaissance. However the most important medieval object, and arguably the most important single piece in the collection, though from the late Gothic period, has nothing strictly Gothic in its style, and represents a very advanced court taste in this respect. This is the Holy Thorn Reliquary, which was probably created in the 1390s in Paris for the Valois prince John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns. It is one of a small number of major goldsmiths' works or joyaux that survive from the extravagant world of the courts of the Valois royal family around 1400. It is made of gold, lavishly decorated with jewels and pearls, and uses the technique of enamelling en ronde bosse, or "in the round", which had been recently developed when the reliquary was made, to create a total of 28 three-dimensional figures, mostly in white enamel.
In contrast, two highly elaborate metalwork covers for the treasure bindings of the Epistle and Gospel Books for the high altar of a large church, probably Ulm Minster, were made around 1506 but are full of spiky Gothic architectural details, although the many figures in high relief are on the verge of Renaissance style.
There are two German statues of saints in wood, about half life-size, from the decades around 1500, and a larger number of miniature boxwood carvings. These include "prayer nuts" of superb quality from around 1510 to 1530. These are small wooden "balls" which open up to reveal carvings of religious scenes that fit dozens of tiny figures into a space two or three inches across, and were a fashion among royalty and the wealthy; they were apparently made in the northern Netherlands. They seem to have often been suspended from belts, or formed part of a rosary; others still have copper carrying cases. A trick of technique in making them is that the main carved scene is made on a smaller hemisphere, allowing access from behind, which was then set into the main hemisphere.
## Rock crystal and hardstone pieces
There are seven glass vessels in the collection, but a larger number of pieces in transparent rock crystal or quartz, a mineral that might easily be taken for glass. This was always a much more valuable and prestigious material, qualifying as a semi-precious stone. Needing very patient grinding and drilling, it is much harder to work than glass (though correspondingly less easy to break once finished), and the pieces include mounts or bases in precious metal, which none of the actual glass has; nor are the rock crystal pieces painted. Read's catalogue groups these and other pieces in semi-precious stone with the objects in gold, as opposed to the "silver plate", which probably reflects how a Renaissance collector would have ranked them. There are ten pieces in crystal and nine in other stones.
Two crystal pieces are plain oval plaques engraved with figurative scenes, a different tradition going back to pieces such as the Carolingian Lothair Crystal, also in the British Museum. In 1902 Read's catalogue suggested that "It is to this section that in all probability most eyes will be attracted, as well for the beauty of the specimens as for their rarity and consequent cost"; if this was the case then, it is probably not so a century later. Some pieces are now regarded as 19th-century, or largely so, and Reinhold Vasters, the Van Meegeren of Renaissance metalwork, is now held responsible in several cases.
A wide low crystal vase with cover is engraved with the name of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, and was long thought to have been German, but sent out to India as a diplomatic gift, as the metalwork mounts are clearly European in style. It is now seen as an original, and exceptionally rare, Mughal crystal carving, to which the mounts were added in the 19th century, perhaps in Paris. However the cartouche with Akbar's name does not seem to specialists correct for a contemporary court piece, and the vase in India was probably carved after his reign (1556–1605), and the name perhaps added even later.
## Renaissance glass
Apart from the two pieces of Islamic glass described above, there are five Renaissance or Baroque glass vessels, all unusual and of exceptional quality. Most are Venetian glass; one is moulded opaque Bohemian glass (WB.56) with a Triumph of Neptune, and is now dated to the late 17th century; it is also dichroic glass, which changes colour depending on whether it is lit from the front or behind. There is a very rare goblet in opaque turquoise glass with enamels (WB.55); this was to imitate or suggest a vessel in even more expensive semi-precious stone. The late 15th-century Deblín Cup with its cover is one of a small group of vessels made in Murano, Venice in a German or Central European taste, drawing on metalwork shapes used there. It carries a later inscription in Czech urging that the health of the Lords of Deblín, near Brno, be drunk, and was probably the "welcome cup" of the castle there.
## Italian maiolica
The six pieces of painted Italian maiolica, or painted and tin-glazed earthenware, are all larger than the average, and there are none of the dishes that are the most common maiolica shape. The earliest piece is a large statue of Fortuna standing on a dolphin, holding a sail, by Giovanni della Robbia, made in Florence about 1500–10. This is a rare representative of the Early to High Italian Renaissance in the bequest.
The other pieces are from later in the 16th century. The most important are a pair of large snake-handled vases, nearly two feet (60 cm) high, painted with mythological scenes, to which French ormolu bases and lids were added shortly before they were bought in Paris by Horace Walpole for the "Gallery" at Strawberry Hill House in 1765–66. Ormolu mounts were often added by 18th-century collectors to such pieces, but few have remained in place.
## Other types of object
The collection includes a number of other objects, including a few guns, swords and military or hunting equipment. There is also a German brass "hunting calendar" with several thin leaves that unfold. These include recessed lines filled with wax, enabling the keen hunter on a large scale to record his bags of wolf, bear, deer, boar and rabbit, as well as the performance of his dogs. There is a small cabinet with 11 drawers (plus other secret ones) made as a classical facade, or perhaps a theatre stage with scenery; the decoration is mostly damascened iron, and is 16th-century Milanese work.
Apart from the older woodcarvings discussed above, the bequest includes a number of small mostly German Renaissance portraits as carvings in wood, either in relief or in the round. These are of very high quality and include two miniature busts by Conrad Meit of Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, who died young before the bust was made, and his Habsburg wife, Margaret of Austria. There are also some medallion portraits in very soft stone, that allows fine detail, and one allegorical scene attributed to Peter Flötner.
## Fakes and revised attributions
Any collection formed before the 20th century (and many later ones) is likely to contain pieces that can no longer sustain their original attributions. In general the Waddesdon Bequest can be said to have held up well in this regard, and the most significant brush with forgery has been to benefit the collection. In 1959 it was confirmed that the Waddesdon Holy Thorn Reliquary had been in the Habsburg Imperial Treasury in Vienna from 1677 onwards. It remained in Vienna until after 1860, when it appeared in an exhibition. Some time after this it was sent to be restored by Salomon Weininger, an art dealer with access to skilled craftsmen, who secretly made a number of copies. He was later convicted of other forgeries, and died in prison in 1879, but it was still not realised that he had returned one of his copies of the reliquary to the Imperial collections instead of the original, and later sold the original, which is now in the bequest. One of the copies remained in the Ecclesiastical Treasury of the Imperial Habsburg Court in Vienna, where the deception remained undetected for several decades.
In the 19th century a number of types of object were especially subject to major reworking, combining some original parts with those newly made. This was especially a feature of arms and armour, jewellery, and objects combining hardstone carvings and metal mounts. This was mostly done by dealers, but sometimes collectors also.
Another object with a complicated and somewhat uncertain history is a two-handled agate vase with Renaissance-style metal mounts, which was acquired, with other similar pieces, for Waddesdon from the Duke of Devonshire's collection about 1897, not long before Baron Ferdinand's death. Sir Hugh Tait's 1991 catalogue says of the vase:
"Origin:
\(i\) Carved agate: authenticity is uncertain; since 1899 loosely described as "antique Roman" or "antique", but recently attributed to the late Roman period, c. AD 400.
\(ii\) Enamelled gold mounts and cover: previously described as "Italian, 16th-century" and, subsequently, attributed to Benvenuto Cellini (1500–71) but now attributed to the hand of an early 19th-century copyist – before 1834 – perhaps working in London."
As he describes, it was Tait who overturned the attribution to Cellini in 1971.
In a collection of Renaissance metalwork Benvenuto Cellini (1500–71) represents the ultimate attribution, as his genuine works as a goldsmith are rarer than paintings by Giorgione. In his 1902 catalogue Charles Hercules Read mentions that many of the pendants had been attributed to Cellini, but refrains from endorsing the attributions. A small silver hand-bell (WB.95) had belonged to Horace Walpole, who praised it extravagantly in a letter as "the uniquest thing in the world, a silver bell for an inkstand made by Benvenuto Cellini. It makes one believe all the extravagant encomiums he bestows on himself; indeed so does his Perseus. Well, my bell is in the finest taste, and is swarmed by caterpillars, lizards, grasshoppers, flies, and masques, that you would take it for one of the plagues of Egypt. They are all in altissimo, nay in out-issimo relievo and yet almost invisible but with a glass. Such foliage, such fruitage!" However Baron Ferdinand had realized that it was more likely to be by Wenzel Jamnitzer, goldsmith to the Emperor Rudolf II, to whom it is still attributed. Another piece no longer attributed to Cellini is a large bronze door-knocker, with a figure of Neptune, 40 cm high, and weighing over 11 kilos.
One category of the bequest that has seen several demotions is the 16 pieces and sets of highly decorated cutlery (WB.201–216). Read dated none of these later than the 17th century, but on the British Museum database in 2014 several were dated to the 19th century, and were recent fraudulent creations when they entered the collection, some made by Reinhold Vasters. Doubts have also been raised over a glass cup and cover bearing the date 1518 (WB.59), which might in fact be 19th-century. Eight pieces of silver plate were redated to the 19th century by Hugh Tait, and some of the jewellery.
## Display
The Bequest was on display at the British Museum from 9 April 1900, in Room 40, which today contains the later medieval displays. An illustrated catalogue by Charles Hercules Read, who had replaced Franks as Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities, was published in 1902. Photographs in the catalogue show a typical museum display for the period, with wood and glass cases spaced around the walls and free-standing in the centre, the latter with two levels. In 1921 it was moved to the North Wing.
In 1973 the new setting in Room 45 aimed "to create an element of surprise and wonder" in a small space, where only the objects were brightly lit, and displayed in an outer octagon of wall cases, and an inner one of partition walls, rising to the low ceiling and set with shallow display cases, some visible from both sides. In the centre the Holy Thorn Reliquary occupied its own pillar display.
The new ground floor room at the front of the museum, opened in June 2015, returns the Bequest to a larger space and a more open setting. It is in the oldest part of the building and some later accretions to the room have been removed as part of the new installation. The design is by the architects Stanton Williams, and the project received funding from The Rothschild Foundation.
|
131,007 |
Hillsboro, Oregon
| 1,173,632,790 | null |
[
"1842 establishments in Oregon",
"Cities in Oregon",
"Cities in Washington County, Oregon",
"County seats in Oregon",
"Hillsboro, Oregon",
"Populated places established in 1842",
"Portland metropolitan area"
] |
Hillsboro (/ˈhɪlzbəroʊ/ HILZ-burr-oh) is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Situated in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city hosts many high-technology companies, such as Intel, locally known as the Silicon Forest. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 106,447.
For thousands of years the Atfalati tribe of the Kalapuya lived in the Tualatin Valley near the later site of Hillsboro. The climate, moderated by the Pacific Ocean, helped make the region suitable for fishing, hunting, food gathering, and agriculture. Settlers founded a community here in 1842, later named after David Hill, an Oregon politician. Transportation by riverboat on the Tualatin River was part of Hillsboro's settler economy. A railroad reached the area in the early 1870s and an interurban electric railway about four decades later. These railways, as well as highways, aided the slow growth of the city to about 2,000 people by 1910 and about 5,000 by 1950, before the arrival of high-tech companies in the 1980s.
Hillsboro has a council-manager government consisting of a city manager and a city council headed by a mayor. In addition to high-tech industry, sectors important to Hillsboro's economy are health care, retail sales, and agriculture, including grapes and wineries. The city operates more than twenty parks and the mixed-use Hillsboro Stadium, and ten sites in the city are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Modes of transportation include private vehicles, public buses and light rail, and aircraft using the Hillsboro Airport. The city is home to Pacific University's Health Professions Campus. Notable residents include two Oregon governors.
## History
The first people of the Tualatin Valley were the Atfalati or Tualaty tribe of the Kalapuya, who inhabited the region for up to 10,000 years before white settlers arrived. The valley consisted of open grassland maintained through annual burning by the Atfalati, with scattered groves of trees along the streams. The Kalapuya moved from place to place in good weather to fish and hunt and to gather nuts, seeds, roots, and berries. Important foods included camas and wapato, and the Atfalati traded for salmon from Chinookan tribes near Willamette Falls on the Willamette River. During the winter, they lived in longhouses in settled villages, some near what became Hillsboro and Beaverton. Their population was greatly reduced after contact in the late 18th century with Europeans, who carried smallpox, syphilis, and malaria. Of the original population of 1,000 to 2,000 Atfalati reported in 1780, only 65 remained in 1851. In 1855, the U.S. government sent the survivors to the Grande Ronde reservation further west.
The European-American community was founded by David Hill, Isaiah Kelsey, and Richard Williams, who arrived in the Tualatin Valley in 1841, followed by six more pioneers in 1842. The locality went by two other names—East Tualatin Plains and Columbia—before it was named "Hillsborough" in February 1850 in honor of Hill, when he sold part of his land claim to the county. On February 5, 1850, commissioners chosen by the territorial legislature selected the community to be the seat of the county government. Hill was to be paid \$200 for his land after plots had been sold for the town site, but he died before this occurred, and his widow Lucinda received the funds. The town's name was later simplified to Hillsboro. A log cabin was built in 1853 to serve as the community's first school, which opened in October 1854. Riverboats provided transportation to Hillsboro as early as 1867 when the side-wheel steamer Yamhill worked on the Tualatin River.
In 1871, the Oregon and California Railroad line was extended to the area, but it ran just south of town because the city did not want to give the railroad land in exchange for the rail connection. Hillsboro was incorporated as the Town of Hillsboro on October 19, 1876, by the Oregon Legislature. The first mayor was A. Luelling, who took office on December 8, 1876, and served a one-year term. Notable later mayors included Congressman Thomas H. Tongue (1882 and 1886) and state senator William D. Hare (1885). In 1923, the city altered its charter and adopted a council-manager government with a six-person city council, a part-time mayor who determined major policies, and a city manager who ran day-to-day operations.
On September 30, 1908, 5,000 people gathered as the Oregon Electric Railway opened a connection between the city and Portland with an interurban electric rail line, the first to reach the community. In January 1914, the Southern Pacific Railroad introduced its own interurban service, known as the Red Electric, on a separate line and serving different communities between Hillsboro and Portland. SP discontinued its Hillsboro service on July 28, 1929, while the Oregon Electric Railway's passenger service to Hillsboro lasted until July 1932.
A brick building was constructed in 1852 to house the county government, followed by a brick courthouse in 1873. In 1891, the courthouse was remodeled and a clock tower was added, and the building was expanded with an annex in 1912. A new courthouse replaced the brick structure in 1928. The last major remodel of the 1928 structure occurred in 1972, when the Justice Services Building was built and incorporated into the existing building.
The city's first fire department was a hook and ladder company organized in 1880 by the board of trustees (now city council). A drinking water and electricity distribution system added in 1892–93 gave the town three fire hydrants and minimal street lighting. Hillsboro built its first sewer system in 1911, but sewage treatment was not added until 1936. In 1913, the city built its own water system, and the first library, Carnegie City Library, opened in December 1914. From 1921 to 1952, the world's second-tallest radio tower stood on the south side of the city, but in 1952, the wireless telegraph tower was demolished. During the 1950s and 1960s, the privately owned company Tualatin Valley Buses, Inc., provided transit service connecting Hillsboro with Beaverton and Portland. It was taken over by the publicly owned transit agency TriMet in 1970.
In 1972, the Hillsboro City Council passed a Green River Ordinance banning door-to-door solicitation, but it was ruled unconstitutional by the Oregon Supreme Court in a 1988 decision. The court determined that the city ordinance was overly broad, in a case that was seen as a test case for many similar laws in the state. In 1979, Intel opened its first facility in Hillsboro. The Hawthorn Farm campus was followed by the Jones Farm campus adjacent to the airport in 1982, and finally by the Ronler Acres campus in 1994. TriMet opened a Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light rail line into the city in 1998. A cultural center was added in 2004, and a new city hall was completed in 2005. In 2008, SolarWorld opened a facility producing solar wafers, crystals, and cells, the largest plant of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. U.S. President Barack Obama visited the city and Intel's Ronler Acres campus in February 2011.
### Registered Historic Places
Properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in and around Hillsboro include the Old Scotch Church, completed in 1876 north of the city. Near the Orenco neighborhood is Imbrie Farm, which includes a house built in 1866 and the Frank Imbrie Barn, both of which McMenamins converted for use as a brewpub. Built in 1935, the Harold Wass Ray House is near Intel's Hawthorn Farm campus. Historic properties in downtown include the Zula Linklater House (completed 1923), Rice–Gates House (1890), Edward Schulmerich House (c. 1915), and Charles Shorey House (c. 1908). The Richard and Helen Rice House is adjacent to the Sunset Highway on the north side of the city and houses the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals. The Old Washington County Jail had been at the Washington County Fairgrounds (now known as the Westside Commons) in the city, but was restored and moved to the Five Oaks Museum outside the city in 2004, and was de-listed from the NRHP in 2008. In 2007, the Manning–Kamna Farm was added to the NRHP and includes 10 buildings, dating to as early as 1883. The Malcolm McDonald House in Orenco was added to the Registry in 2015.
## Geography
Hillsboro is located at . The United States Census Bureau reports the city has a total area of 21.6 sq mi (55.9 km<sup>2</sup>), all of which is land. In 2013, Hillsboro itself reported an area of 23.88 sq mi (61.8 km<sup>2</sup>), equivalent to 15,283 acres (61.8 km<sup>2</sup>). The city is located in the Tualatin Valley, and the Tualatin River forms part of the southern city limits. The city's terrain is fairly level, consistent with an agricultural past and the farms still in operation. Hillsboro is about 17 mi (27 km) west of Portland and immediately west of Beaverton, at an elevation of 194 ft (59 m) above sea level. In addition to the Tualatin River, streams include Dairy Creek, McKay Creek, Rock Creek, Dawson Creek, and Turner Creek. Neighboring communities in addition to Beaverton are Aloha, Cornelius, Glencoe, North Plains, Reedville, Scholls, and West Union.
Hillsboro's street system differs from many others in the county. Most cities in Washington County use a numbering system and cardinal direction orientation based on a grid that begins at the Willamette River in downtown Portland, which was originally part of Washington County. For example, the street names in Beaverton generally include Southwest (SW) prefixes because Beaverton lies in the southwest quadrant of the Portland grid. Previously, some county road names and addresses in Hillsboro conformed to the Portland grid instead of Hillsboro's internal cardinal direction grid. In January 2015, the city began the process of making all addresses and streets within Hillsboro conform to the internal grid, through the Connecting Hillsboro Address Project.
The internal grid in Hillsboro centers on the downtown intersection of Main Street, which runs east–west, and First Avenue, which runs north–south. Most addresses within the city include a quadrant prefix: NW, NE, SW, or SE. Main Street is simply designated as East Main or West Main, and First Avenue is only North First or South First. Addresses on the streets' south side and the avenues' east side have even numbers, while odd numbers are on the opposite side. Hillsboro's street system contains 20 blocks per mile (12.5 blocks per kilometer).
North–south through roadways are called avenues, while east–west roadways are called streets. All cul-de-sacs are named courts. Private roadways are named ways or places. Roads that curve can be named drives. Alleys are named lanes. Non-city streets may not conform to these naming conventions.
### Neighborhoods
The city's municipal code has designated several special plan areas, each of which follow area-specific plans and codes:
- Downtown encompasses the original city core and the area immediately surrounding it. Blocks in the downtown core are 400 ft (120 m) long on each side.
- Orenco consists of the Orenco Townsite Conservation zone (encompassing a former company town originally created by the Oregon Nursery Company) and the Orenco Station sub-area, which is described in the city code as a "compact, transit-supportive mixed-use neighborhood with reduced automobile reliance".
- The Hawthorn Farm / Fair Complex Plan District is centered on the Hawthorn Farm LRT station and the Washington County Fairgrounds (known since 2019 as the Westside Commons).
- Amberglen, located just south of the Tanasbourne neighborhood, is envisioned as "a vibrant, regional activity center enlivened with high-quality pedestrian and environmental amenities, taking advantage of the region’s light rail system". Located within the district is Oregon Health & Science University's West Campus.
- The South Hillsboro planning district encompasses the newly annexed South Hillsboro neighborhood, described in the city code as "a complete, connected and green community". The neighborhood, built on land once used as a hobby farm by William Ladd and Simeon Reed, is slated to become "a residential mixed-use community organized around a town center and complemented by a village center".
- The North Hillsboro Industrial Area Plan District lies within Hillsboro's Industrial District, where many of the Silicon Forest's manufacturing and technology businesses reside. Over half of the city's total employment is located within the Hillsboro Industrial District.
- The city's Comprehensive Plan outlines several other plan areas not defined in the city code: Quatama, Tanasbourne, NE 28th Ave/East Main Street Plan Area, and Witch Hazel Village.
### Climate
Summers in Hillsboro are generally warm, but temperatures year-round are moderated by a marine influence from the Pacific Ocean. The Willamette Valley in which Hillsboro lies receives the majority of its precipitation during the winter months, with the wettest period from November through March. This occasionally includes snowfall. Hillsboro receives precipitation on 161 days per year, on average. The average yearly precipitation between 1930 and 1998 was 38 in (970 mm). August is the warmest month with an average high temperature of 81 °F (27 °C), while January is the coolest month with an average high of 46 °F (8 °C). The highest recorded temperature, 114 °F (46 °C), occurred on June 28, 2021, and the lowest, −10 °F (−23 °C), occurred on January 31, 1950.
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Hillsboro has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb).
## Demographics
Hillsboro's population grew from 402 in 1880 to 2,016 by 1910, making it the county's most populated city, according to the 1910 census data. By 1970, it had increased to more than 15,000, although neighboring Beaverton had overtaken it as the county's most populous city. By 1990 there were more than 37,000 residents, and commuters raised this to 110,000 during daytime. At the 2010 Census, the population was 91,611, fifth in rank among the state's largest cities behind Portland, Eugene, Salem and Gresham and slightly ahead of Beaverton, which ranked sixth. This figure was a 30.5% increase from Hillsboro's 70,186 residents in 2000, which made Hillsboro the fourth fastest-growing city in the state during the 2000s (decade), and the fastest-growing city in the Willamette Valley over the same period. In 2007, there were 17,126 houses lived in by their owners, with an average home price in the city of \$246,900. Bloomberg Businessweek listed the city as the fastest-growing in Oregon for the period between 1990 and 2010, for cities with populations over 10,000.
### 2020 census
As of the census of 2020, there were 106,447 people, 40,891 households, and 25,874 families residing in the city. The population density was about 4,415/sq mi (1,700/km<sup>2</sup>). There were 41,432 housing units at an average density of about 1,860/sq mi (700/km<sup>2</sup>).
Among the 40,891 households, about 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51% were married couples living together, 7% had a female householder with no husband present, 5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 37% were non-families. About 26% of all households were made up of individuals, and about 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.21.
The median age in the city was 34.8 years. About 20% of residents were under the age of 18 and 11% were 65 years of age or older The gender makeup of the city was 50.0% male and 50.0% female.
### 2010 census
At the time of the 2010 census, there were 91,611 people, 33,289 households, and 22,440 families residing in the city. The population density was about 3,800/sq mi (1,500/km<sup>2</sup>). There were 35,487 housing units at an average density of about 1,500/sq mi (600/km<sup>2</sup>).
Among the 33,289 households, about 38% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51% were married couples living together, 11% had a female householder with no husband present, 5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 33% were non-families. About 24% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.24.
The median age in the city was 32 years. About 27% of residents were under the age of 18; 9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 35% were from 25 to 44; 21% were from 45 to 64; and 8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 50.2% male and 49.8% female.
### 2000 census
`At the time of the 2000 census, there were 25,079 households, of which about 38% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55% were married couples living together, 9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32% were non-families. About 23% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.8 and the average family size was 3.3.`
City residents included about 28% under the age of 18, 11% from 18 to 24, 37% from 25 to 44, 17% from 45 to 64, and 6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were about 106 males.
The median household income was about \$52,000 and the median family income was \$57,000. Males had a median income of \$41,000 compared to \$30,000 for females. The per capita income for the city was about \$22,000. Approximately 6% of families and 9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11% of those under age 18 and 8% of those age 65 or over. In 2007, 28% of people 25 and older held at least a bachelor's degree, while an additional 11% held an associate degree. Those with less than a high school diploma made up 15% of the population, and 22% of residents had more than a high school diploma but less than a college degree.
### Crime
For the year 2011, the city had 180 violent crimes reported to law enforcement, and 2,154 reports of property crimes. The violent crime rate was 157.2 per 100,000 people compared to a national average of 309.3 and 287 for Oregon. Property crime nationally was 3,335 per 100,000 compared to 3,203 in Hillsboro, and 4,402 for the state. Violent offenses include forcible rape, robbery, murder, non-negligent manslaughter, and aggravated assault. Property crimes include arson, motor vehicle theft, larceny, and burglary. Statistics published by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission showed a slight downward trend in the Washington County crime rate between 1991 and 2005. The rate for index crimes, a group comprising the combined violent offenses and property crimes mentioned above, was 3,930 per 100,000 in 1991 and rose to 4,440 per 100,000 in 1997 before falling to 3,410 per 100,000 in 2005.
## Economy
Manufacturing is the leading employment sector in Hillsboro, employing 24% of the workforce, followed by health care, education, and social services with a total of 15%. One example of a manufacturer headquartered in Hillsboro is Beaverton Foods, a family-owned condiment manufacturer since 1929, with 70+ employees and \$25 million in annual sales; it moved to its current headquarters in 2001. Retail employment constitutes 12%, construction makes up 7%, and 13% of workers are employed in the administrative, scientific, professional, or waste management industries. 68% of workers commute alone to the workplace, and 8% use public transportation. The average one-way commute time is about 24 minutes.
Many technology companies operate in Hillsboro, making it the center of Oregon's Silicon Forest. In particular, Intel's largest site is in Hillsboro, and includes three large campuses: Ronler Acres, Jones Farm, and Hawthorn Farm, along with several smaller campuses that employ about 16,000 workers. Other high-tech companies operating facilities in Hillsboro include Synopsys, Epson, Salesforce, and Oracle's (formerly Sun Microsystems) High-End Operations. Hillsboro is the corporate headquarters for RadiSys and Planar Systems among others.
In 2006, Genentech announced plans to locate a packaging and distribution facility on 100 acres (0.40 km<sup>2</sup>) in Hillsboro. The \$400 million facility opened in 2010, which Oregon officials hoped would eventually also be used for research and development for the biotechnology company. Other biotech or medical companies based in Hillsboro include FEI Company and Acumed.
The city is also a landing point on three fiber optic cable systems linking the United States across the Pacific Ocean: C2C, Southern Cross Cable, and VSNL Transpacific. These cable landings, lower energy costs, and tax breaks led to a boom of data centers being built starting about 2010. Data centers include those for Adobe, NetApp, Umpqua Bank, OHSU, and Fortune Data Centers.
Hillsboro serves as the corporate headquarters for Rodgers Instruments, Soloflex, Norm Thompson Outfitters, and Parr Lumber, among others. Fujitsu and NEC Corporation formerly had factories in Hillsboro. Hillsboro is also home to the Laika stop-motion animation studio, creator of the Oscar-nominated feature films Coraline (2009) and Paranorman (2012). In addition, Erickson Aero Tanker, an aviation company which operates McDonnell Douglas MD-87 jetliners converted for use as aerial firefighting air tankers, is based in Hillsboro.
The Hatfield Government Center in Hillsboro is the western terminus of the MAX Blue Line, part of the Portland metropolitan area's light-rail system. The presence of MAX prompted the development of the pedestrian-oriented community of Orenco Station within Hillsboro. (See also: Orenco, Oregon.) Orenco Station was called the Best Planned Community of 1999 by the National Association of Home Builders. It was also named "Best new burb" by Sunset magazine in 2006. Hillsboro overall was listed on CNN Money Magazine'''s list of best places to live in 2010 for cities with populations between 50,000 and 300,000 residents. The city came in at 92, the highest ranking for any city in the state.
Hillsboro's primary commercial cores are concentrated along Tualatin Valley Highway and Cornell Road. Additionally, the Tanasbourne neighborhood is a regional shopping area on the eastern edge of the city. The neighborhood is home to the lifestyle shopping center The Streets of Tanasbourne. The \$55 million outdoor complex with 368,000 sq ft (34,200 m<sup>2</sup>) of retail space opened in 2004 with Meier & Frank (later Macy's) as the anchor tenant.
The other large shopping center in the city is The Sunset Esplanade, located along Tualatin Valley Highway. In November 2005, the world's largest Costco, a warehouse club store, opened in Hillsboro. The store, with 205,000 sq ft (19,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of floor space, is about 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m<sup>2</sup>) bigger than the average Costco.
Wineries near the city include Oak Knoll Winery, established in 1970, the oldest and largest winery in Washington County. Helvetia Winery & Vineyards to the north of Hillsboro started in the 1980s. Wineries to the south include Gypsy Dancer Estates Winery and Raptor Ridge. Local wines include pinot noir, pinot gris, and chardonnay.
## Culture
Within the city are two commercial movie theaters with a total of 29 screens. Until its closure in 2017, one historic theater had also remained in operation: the Venetian Theatre, which had re-opened at the site of the old Town Theater in 2008. The Oregon Chorale (a 60-person symphonic choir), a men's barbershop chorus, the Hillsboro Symphony Orchestra, and the Hillsboro Artists' Regional Theatre are also located in Hillsboro. The orchestra was founded in 2001 under the direction of Stefan Minde. In 2004, the city opened the Glenn & Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center in a remodeled church in downtown. The center provides space for galleries and performances, as well as classrooms for art instruction. The Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals is located on the northern edge of the city. The Five Oaks Museum (at the time Washington County Museum) was located in downtown Hillsboro from 2012 to 2017, and later moved back to its previous location, at the Rock Creek campus of Portland Community College, just northeast of Hillsboro.
Hillsboro operates two library branches. Opened in 2007 after a smaller location was closed, the 38,000 sq ft (3,500 m<sup>2</sup>) main branch is located in the north-central section of the city. The older, smaller second branch is in Shute Park in the southwest area of the city. The Hillsboro libraries are part of Washington County Cooperative Library Services, which allows residents to use other libraries in the county and includes interlibrary loans.
### Media
The weekly Hillsboro Tribune, launched in 2012, was based in Hillsboro. It was replaced in 2019 by a Hillsboro edition of the News-Times, a weekly newspaper owned by the same company and based in nearby Forest Grove. Historically, the city's longtime newspaper of record was the weekly Hillsboro Argus newspaper (published twice-weekly from 1953 to 2015). It was published in Hillsboro for more than 120 years until its discontinuation in 2017.
The city is also served by Portland-based media outlets, including The Oregonian, Willamette Week, and all broadcast stations. AM radio station KUIK was based in Hillsboro until sold in 2018. KUIK was a 5,000-watt station broadcasting at the 1360 frequency.
### Recreation
Hillsboro's Department of Parks and Recreation operates more than 20 facilities, including the Gordon Faber Recreation Complex which includes Hillsboro Stadium and Ron Tonkin Field. There are 23 parks, two sports complexes, the Walters Cultural Arts Center, the Shute Park Aquatic & Recreation Center, and three other mixed-use facilities. The city also owns the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve along the Tualatin River on the south side of the community. South of city is Bald Peak State Scenic Viewpoint, which is day-use only, and is the closest state park to Hillsboro. L.L. "Stub" Stewart Memorial State Park is the closest full-service state park.
Local golf courses include The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club (36 holes) that was completed in 1997, Meriwether National Golf Course (27 holes) established in 1961, and the 9-hole McKay Creek Golf Course that was built in 1995. Other courses in the area include Killarney West Golf Club (9 holes), Rock Creek Country Club (18 holes), Forest Hills Country Club (18 holes), and Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club (36 holes).
Hillsboro's annual Fourth of July Parade is the second-largest Independence Day parade in Oregon. The Oregon International Air Show, Oregon's largest air show, is held each year during the summer at the Hillsboro Airport. Each summer the city offers a free concert series at Shute Park (Showtime at Shute), while the Washington County Fair is held annually at the Westside Commons (county fairgrounds) adjacent to the airport. The name Westside Commons is a 2019 renaming of the Washington County Fairgrounds (also known as Fair Complex). A new 89,000 sq ft (8,300 m<sup>2</sup>) conference center and exhibition hall, known as the Wingspan Event & Conference Center, opened at the Commons in August 2020, replacing buildings demolished in 2018.
Hillsboro Farmers' Markets operates weekend farmers' markets on Saturdays downtown and on Sundays at Orenco Station, from May to October. The Saturday market began in 1982 and sells arts and crafts, food, produce, and plants. A different organization, Hillsboro Tuesday Marketplace, operates a downtown market on Tuesdays from mid-June through September 1, called the Hillsboro Tuesday Night Market and focused on art and music, along with food and a display of vintage cars.
The city has two professional sports teams, the Portland Timbers 2 (T2) of MLS Next Pro who began play at Hillsboro Stadium in 2020 and the Hillsboro Hops of the Northwest League, a Minor League Baseball club affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The baseball team relocated from Yakima, Washington, in 2012 and began play as the Hops on June 14, 2013, with its inaugural home game at the new Ron Tonkin Field on June 17.
### Landmarks
Landmarks in Hillsboro include the Washington County Courthouse, the seat of county government. Along the western edge of the city is Hillsboro Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1870, which serves as the final resting place of city pioneers and politicians. Next to the airport is the Westside Commons (known as the Washington County Fairgrounds, or Fair Complex, until 2019), home to the annual county fair. Located at Shute Park was the 25 ft (7.6 m) tall wood sculpture Chief Kno-Tah'', donated to Hillsboro and dedicated in 1987 as part of Peter Wolf Toth's Trail of the Whispering Giants. Due to storm damage, it was removed in 2017.
## Government
Hillsboro operates under a council–manager form of city government. Voters elect six at-large councilors and a mayor, who each serve four-year terms, subject to a charter-imposed limitation of two consecutive terms. The mayor and council appoint a city manager to conduct the ordinary business of the city. Policy decisions are the responsibility of the council and mayor. Administrative functions are carried out by the manager and manager-appointed staff. Government functions are centered at the Hillsboro Civic Center, which houses the office of the city manager and is the location of the twice-monthly city council meetings. As of 2021, Steve Callaway was the mayor; Beach Pace, Rick Van Beveren, Kyle Allen, Anthony Martin, Olivia Alcaire, and Gina Roletto were the city councilors. Robby Hammond serves as the city's manager.
Hillsboro operates its own library system, fire department, parks department, water system, police department, and municipal internet service. The Hillsboro Fire Department has five stations, and the Hillsboro Police Department operates two standard precincts and a mobile precinct. Wastewater treatment is provided through the county-wide Clean Water Services. The city's municipal internet service, HiLight, was initially launched in 2020 and expects to cover all households by 2027.
At the federal level, Hillsboro lies in Oregon's 1st congressional district, represented by Suzanne Bonamici. In the State Senate, Hillsboro is in District 15, represented by Chuck Riley, District 13, represented by Kim Thatcher, and District 12 represented by Brian Boquist. In the House, Districts 24 (Ron Noble), 26 (Courtney Neron), 29 (Susan McClain) and 30 (Janeen Sollman) cover the city. Parts of county commissioner districts 1 (Nafisa Fai), 2 (Pam Treece), and 4 (Jerry Willey) overlap the city. In addition, Hillsboro lies within District 4 (Juan Carlos González) and District 3 (Gerritt Rosenthal) of the Metro regional government.
## Education
Public schools in Hillsboro are operated by the Hillsboro School District (1J). The district is a unified school district with twenty-three elementary schools, four middle schools, and four high schools. The district also operates the Miller Education Center, an alternative school, the Hare Field athletic complex, and City View Charter School. The school district covers Hillsboro, Scholls, Reedville, North Plains, West Union, and other surrounding communities. Total enrollment as of the 2015–16 school year was 20,501 students, making it the fourth-largest district in the state (behind Portland, Salem-Keizer, and Beaverton). The four traditional public high schools are, in order of creation:
Post-secondary educational opportunities include the west campus of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) while Pacific University operates a satellite Health Professions Campus in downtown adjacent to Tuality Community Hospital. The OHSU site was formerly that of the Oregon Graduate Institute (later OGI School of Science and Engineering) and the Oregon National Primate Research Center portions of OHSU. Other educational opportunities are available at the Work Force Training Center (Portland Community College) and a branch of the University of Phoenix. Hillsboro is home to private primary and secondary schools including Faith Bible High School, St. Matthew Catholic School, Tualatin Valley Academy, and Renaissance Alternative School, among others.
## Infrastructure
### Transportation
Public transportation is available by bus and light rail, managed by regional transit agency TriMet. The first MAX Light Rail line, now known as the Blue Line, was extended to serve Hillsboro on September 12, 1998. The western terminus is located downtown. The Willow Creek and Hillsboro transit centers (TC) are the main hubs of the public transit system, although seven other MAX stations provide varying degrees of bus interconnection. MAX stations (west to east) are the Hatfield Government Center, Hillsboro Central TC, Tuality Hospital, Washington/Southeast 12th Avenue, Fair Complex/Hillsboro Airport, Hawthorn Farm, Orenco, Quatama, and Willow Creek TC. Located next to the Tuality Hospital station is the Hillsboro Intermodal Transit Facility, which opened in 2010 and was jointly paid for by the hospital, Pacific University, and the city. The facility is primarily a parking garage, but includes lockers and showers for bicyclists along with electric vehicle charging stations.
Freight rail service from Portland and Western Railroad with interconnections to the BNSF Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad both serve Hillsboro. The city is not served by passenger rail service over a heavy-rail line. Air travel is available at the Hillsboro Airport in the center of the city and at Stark's Twin Oaks Airpark, a general aviation field south of the city. The Hillsboro Airport is a general aviation airport operated by the Port of Portland, and is the second-busiest airport in the state after Portland International Airport. The airport mainly serves private pilots and corporate flights, with no scheduled airline flights from its two runways, but does have an on-call customs service.
Oregon Route 8, known locally as the Tualatin Valley Highway (TV Highway), is the primary east–west highway. U.S. Route 26, also known as the Sunset Highway, bisects the northeast corner of the city. Other major east–west roads are Cornell Road and Main Street (formerly Baseline Road). Major north–south routes are Oregon Route 219 / 1st Avenue, 10th Avenue, Cornelius Pass Road, and Brookwood. The easternmost north–south route, 185th Avenue, borders Beaverton and runs between the Tanasbourne Town Center and the rest of Hillsboro. TV Highway connects to Cornelius and Forest Grove to the west and Beaverton to the east.
### Health care
Hospital services in the city are provided by Hillsboro Medical Center (formerly Tuality Community Hospital) in the downtown area of the city. Opened in 1918 as the city's first hospital, the 167-bed facility is operated by Tuality Healthcare. Other significant medical facilities include Kaiser Permanente's Sunset Medical Office and Providence Health & Services' immediate care center, both in the Tanasbourne neighborhood. Kaiser Permanente also opened the Kaiser Westside Medical Center, a 126-bed hospital in 2013, next to its Sunset Medical Office. The Department of Veterans Affairs opened a medical clinic in the Tanasbourne area in 2008.
## Notable people
For more than 150 years, the city has had residents as varied as David Hill, the city's founder, to Tiffeny Milbrett, an Olympic and World Cup champion soccer player. Sydney Collins is a player for the Canada national soccer team. Two governors of Oregon, James Withycombe and Paul L. Patterson, have called the city home. Other politicians included Congressmen Thomas H. Tongue and Samuel Thurston; mayors William N. Barrett, Benjamin P. Cornelius, and William D. Hare, patriarch of the Hare political family. Athletes include Erik Ainge, Scott Brosius, Colt Lyerla, Ad Rutschman, Wes Schulmerich, Wally Backman, and Olympic medalists Josh Inman, Thomas Garrigus, and Jean Saubert. Hillsboro has also been home to Peggy Y. Fowler, the former chief executive officer of Portland General Electric, producer Bryce Zabel, the "Mother Queen of Oregon" Mary Ramsey Wood, Tommy Overstreet, musician Esperanza Spalding and professional wrestler Roddy Piper.
## Sister city
Hillsboro's only sister city relationship is with Fukuroi, a city of about 85,000 residents in the Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan. The cities, which have similar economic bases in agriculture and high technology, began their relationship in November 1988. The relationship has included exchanges of students between schools in each city. In the late 2000s, Hillsboro unsuccessfully explored finding a sister city in Mexico and also neglected the relationship with Fukuroi. However, in 2008, a Fukuroi contingent of adults visited Hillsboro to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Sister City agreement.
|
47,711,320 |
Norse-American medal
| 1,158,388,968 |
US commemorative medal minted for the centennial of the voyage of the ship Restauration
|
[
"1925 introductions",
"Norwegian migration to North America",
"Norwegian-American culture",
"Norwegian-American history",
"Ships in art",
"United States commemorative medals",
"Works by James Earle Fraser (sculptor)"
] |
The Norse-American medal was struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1925, pursuant to an act of the United States Congress. It was issued for the 100th anniversary of the voyage of the ship Restauration, bringing early Norwegian immigrants to the United States.
U.S. Representative from Minnesota Ole Juulson Kvale, a Norse-American, wanted a commemorative for the centennial celebrations of the Restauration journey. Rebuffed by the Treasury Department when he sought the issuance of a special coin, he instead settled for a medal. Sculpted by Buffalo nickel designer James Earle Fraser, the medals recognize those immigrants' Viking heritage, depicting a warrior of that culture on the obverse and his vessel on the reverse. The medals also recall the early Viking explorations of North America.
Once authorized by Congress, they were produced in various metals and sizes, for the most part prior to the celebrations near Minneapolis in June 1925. Only 53 were issued in gold, and they are rare and valuable today; those struck in silver or bronze have appreciated much less in value. They are sometimes collected as part of the U.S. commemorative coin series.
## Background and inception
On July 4 or 5, 1825, the vessel Restauration sailed from Stavanger, Norway, for the United States, with 45 emigrants aboard. According to what The New York Times deemed "bacchanalian" legends of its passage, the expedition anchored off an English coastal village and traded ashore some of its rum, only to depart in haste when local officials took an interest. Off Madeira, expedition leader Lars Larsen is said to have fished a cask from the sea, which proved to be filled with rare wine that was thoroughly enjoyed by those aboard. After they arrived in New York on October 9, the ship was seized pursuant to a court order, as the passengers exceeded the permitted number for a ship of its size by 21, counting a baby girl born to the Larsens en route. In addition, a fine was to be imposed, but because the immigrants spoke no English and had no knowledge of American laws, President John Quincy Adams issued a pardon, releasing the ship and remitting the fine. Initially settling on land they purchased near the shore of Lake Ontario, about 35 miles (56 km) from Rochester, New York, the passengers were the first of many organized groups of Norse-Americans who crossed the Atlantic, especially to the northern and western United States.
Ole Juulson Kvale was a Minnesota congressman of the Farmer-Labor Party, and a proud Norse-American. Kvale was a member of the Norse-American Centennial Commission, which was to organize a 100th anniversary celebration of the Restauration's voyage. This celebration was important to a Norse-American community that had been perceived as antiwar during World War I, and was attempting to display both ethnic pride and assimilation. Kvale, a Lutheran minister, was also a member of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures, and in January 1925 approached the Treasury Department, seeking its support for a commemorative coin in honor of the anniversary; he was told that the Treasury would oppose it. Commemorative coins for ethnic heritage groups were unlikely to pass Congress at that time due to the controversy caused by the 1924 Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary half dollar, seen by some as Protestant propaganda.
On January 30, 1925, Kvale attended a meeting of the Coinage Committee, at which the proposal that would become the Vermont Sesquicentennial half dollar was considered. Treasury officials were present in opposition, suggesting a medal be issued instead, and Kvale asked several questions about the Mint's issuance of medals. On February 3, Kvale and his son Paul met with Treasury officials, bringing a draft bill authorizing the Bureau of the Mint to strike commemorative medals for the Restauration anniversary. Acting Mint Director Mary M. O'Reilly and Treasury Undersecretary Garrard Winston were dubious about the idea of striking silver medals that would be between the quarter and half dollar in size. To offset this concern, Paul Kvale suggested making the medal octagonal or hexagonal. O'Reilly and Winston favored the idea, and after Congressman Kvale met with legal counsel to the Treasury and other officials, he was assured of the department's full support. Kvale also successfully lobbied the Post Office Department for the issuance of commemorative stamps; he told Third Assistant Postmaster General Warren I. Glover that, in a broader sense, the medal recognized the North American explorations of the Vikings around the year 1000. Kvale declared that in seeking the souvenir medal and stamps, he was contributing to the "growth of the Norwegian heritage by having it 'preserved in metal' as well as 'paper time capsules'."
## Legislation
Kvale introduced a bill for a Norse-American medal in the House of Representatives on February 4, 1925. It was referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. On behalf of that committee, Kvale reported it favorably to the full House on February 10. In the report, Kvale stated that the 40,000 medals would be struck without expense to the government, and that Treasury officials supported the bill. "In view of the importance of this celebration to the many descendants of the Norse immigrants into this country, and through these to the State of Minnesota, which is officially sponsoring the event, and to the great Northwest, which they have been such a large factor in developing, the committee believes that such a medal is fitting and proper and that this bill should be enacted into law."
South Dakota Senator Peter Norbeck also introduced legislation for a Norse-American medal on February 5, 1925. It was referred to the Committee on the Library. On the 6th, that committee was discharged of responsibility for the bill and it was referred instead to the Committee on Banking and Currency. Norbeck, on behalf of the Banking Committee, reported the bill favorably and without amendment to the Senate on February 13. It was passed by the Senate without objection or amendment on the 18th.
The Senate-passed bill then was transmitted to the House of Representatives, and was referred to the Coinage Committee on February 20. It was brought forward on February 27, 1925. When the Speaker, Frederick H. Gillett, asked if there was objection to the consideration of the bill, Ohio's James T. Begg wanted to know if there was anyone present who could give him information about it, and if there was not, he would object. Kvale stated that he could, and when Begg inquired if Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon favored the bill, he assured the Ohioan that this was so. Kvale had the Senate-passed bill substituted for the one he had introduced, and it received the House's endorsement without objection or amendment. It was passed into law with the signature of President Calvin Coolidge on March 2, 1925.
The act provided for a maximum of 40,000 medals, to be struck at the Philadelphia Mint, from design models prepared by the Norse-American Centennial Commission. Medals would be turned over to a designated agent of the commission on payment of the cost of producing them. They were to be made subject to the provisions of section 52 of the Coinage Act of 1873. That section permitted medals of a national character to be struck at the Philadelphia Mint, but forbade Mint personnel from making dies for private medals, and was enacted after Philadelphia Mint Chief Coiner Franklin Peale had for some years run a private medals business on Mint premises, prior to his firing in 1854.
## Preparation
Kvale hoped that his friend and fellow Minnesotan, Senator Henrik Shipstead, could persuade sculptor Gutzon Borglum to design the medal for no fee or a nominal one. Borglum, who was busy with construction at Stone Mountain in Georgia (he would later sculpt Mount Rushmore), had designed the Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar; he had no time to accept the work. Buffalo nickel designer James Earle Fraser, a member of the Commission of Fine Arts, was engaged for a fee of \$1,500, about the usual for a commemorative coin.
Fraser prepared designs and submitted them to the Mint; O'Reilly sent them to the Commission of Fine Arts on April 14, 1925. The commission approved them; its only suggestion was that the first "the" be removed from the inscription on the reverse, "AUTHORIZED BY THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA", and this was done. Sketches had been printed in the Minneapolis Journal on March 29, provoking some reaction from those who felt that the design implied that Norwegians still dressed like Vikings in 1825, and that the date, 1000, should be moved from reverse to obverse to eliminate the confusion. The public objections had no effect on events.
## Design
The obverse of the medal shows a Norwegian Viking chieftain who has just come ashore from his ship (seen behind him) and is armed for war, with horned helmet, shield, sword, and svard (dagger). He is intended to be landing at Vinland, the lands in the Americas explored and to some extent settled by the Vikings about the year 1000. The helmet is most likely an anachronism, as they are not believed to have been used for two millennia prior to the Vinland landing, and were probably ceremonial, rather than intended for battle. The centennial and the years are recognized on the obverse. The reverse shows a Viking ship, along with the authorization by Congress and the approximate year in which Vinland was settled. "OPUS FRASER" (Fraser's work), the artist's signature, is to the left of the ship.
Numismatist Anthony Swiatek, in his volume on commemoratives, wonders if Leif Erikson, the famed explorer of that period, would not have been a superior choice. He concludes that Kvale would not have supported such a depiction, because "he was interested in pure romanticization. He saw a Viking ship and his chieftain in full regalia".
Julie Shultz, in her journal article on the 1925 celebration, finds it significant that the medal has nothing to do with the arrival of the Restauration in an already-formed United States, but symbolizes ethnic pride in the early explorers. Noting that one of the stamps depicts a Viking ship and the other the Restauration, she concludes of these three government issues for the celebration: "Though outwardly, these souvenirs were to symbolize the Norwegian immigrant heritage that began in 1825, they actually invert the dominant narrative by using an American form to proclaim that Norwegians were the first Europeans to land on American soil."
## Production, distribution, and collecting
Six thousand silver medals on a thin (1.6 mm) planchet were struck between May 21 and 23, 1925, at the Philadelphia Mint. They were handled like ordinary coins: They were counted, bagged, and transported to the Fourth Street National Bank of Philadelphia for the centennial commission's use. Between May 29 and June 13, a total of 33,750 pieces were struck on a thick (2 mm) silver planchet. The reason for the two varieties is uncertain; Swiatek theorizes that the Norse-American Centennial Commission might not have liked how the thin ones looked, or might have wanted collectors to buy two medals. One hundred were struck in gold, on June 3 and 4—Kvale received the second one struck. The medals cost the commission 30 cents each for the thin ones, 45 cents for the thick, and \$10.14 for the gold. The retail price of the thin ones is uncertain (Swiatek estimates \$1.75), the thick ones are known to have cost \$1.25, and the gold pieces about \$20. They were sold by mail order; none were sold at the celebrations or in person. There was a sales limit of one per person, but purchasers could buy on behalf of as many family members as they wanted. The thin pieces were not offered for sale until November or December 1925, and sold mostly to numismatists—the commission's secretary, J.A. Horvik, was frustrated that more "Norsemen" were not buying the medal. After the celebrations, Kvale took 5,000 medals to New York, hoping to sell them, but was not successful. Of the 100 gold pieces struck, 47 were eventually returned to the Treasury when they could not be sold, and some of the silver pieces (most likely thick ones) were as well.
The Norse-American Immigration Centennial Celebration was held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds near Minneapolis from June 6–9, 1925. Automobile caravans were organized to bring attendees from the Red River Valley, bearing the slogan, "The Norsemen are Coming!" President Coolidge was present; he called the Viking explorers "these sons of Thor and Odin", and told attendees, "the pledge of the Norwegian people has never yet gone unredeemed. I have every faith that through the vigorous performance of your duties you will add new lustre to your glories in the days to come." The New York Times noted that commemorative stamps and a congressionally authorized medal had been issued for the celebration. "Seldom before has the celebration of a similar event been so honored by the Government, as has this centennial."
The Times had inaccurately described the medal as "the first commemorative medal to be issued in the history of the mint". The publicity people for the celebration had billed it as the first medal to be issued pursuant to an act of Congress, but in October 1925, Mint Director Robert J. Grant learned that a medal had been authorized by Congress for the centennial of American independence in 1876, and it had been issued in different sizes. He informed Kvale, who was intrigued by the fact that the independence medal had been issued in a 3-inch (76 mm) size. The congressman felt that the larger size would allow the detail of his medal to be better shown, which would help when one was exhibited in a museum display case. Not all members of his board were enthusiastic about the idea, but between 60 and 75 of these larger medals were struck, likely in December at the Philadelphia Mint, with Kvale undertaking to purchase any that were not sold. They were plated in silver by a private firm in Washington, D.C., and about 30 were presented or mailed to dignitaries, including one to President Coolidge.
The Norse-American medal is not a coin, and is not legal tender. Due to its similarity to a coin, and the fact that it was authorized by Congress, it is sometimes collected as part of the U.S. commemorative coin series. Though the silver ones can be purchased for less than \$100 up to \$500, and the silver-plated one for between \$500 and \$3,500, the gold specimen has sold for as high as \$40,000. Some medals were used as pocket pieces or worn in mountings to the fair, and display damage or wear.
|
7,073,866 |
Talbot Baines Reed
| 1,169,773,391 |
English author
|
[
"1852 births",
"1893 deaths",
"19th-century English novelists",
"19th-century deaths from tuberculosis",
"Burials at Abney Park Cemetery",
"English children's writers",
"English typographers and type designers",
"Historians of printing",
"Tuberculosis deaths in England",
"Writers from Hackney Central"
] |
Talbot Baines Reed (3 April 1852 – 28 November 1893) was an English writer of boys' fiction who established a genre of school stories that endured into the mid-20th century. Among his best-known work is The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's. He was a regular and prolific contributor to The Boy's Own Paper (B.O.P.), in which most of his fiction first appeared. Through his family's business, Reed became a prominent typefounder, and wrote a standard work on the subject: History of the Old English Letter Foundries.
Reed's father, Charles Reed, was a successful London printer who later became a Member of Parliament (MP). Talbot attended the City of London School before leaving at 17 to join the family business in Fann Street. His literary career began in 1879, when the B.O.P. was launched. The family were staunchly Christian, pillars of the Congregational Church, and were heavily involved in charitable works. However, Reed did not use his writing as a vehicle for moralising, and was dismissive of those early school story writers who did, such as Dean Farrar. Reed's affinity with boys, his instinctive understanding of their standpoint in life and his gift for creating believable characters, ensured that his popularity survived through several generations. He was widely imitated by other writers in the school story genre.
In 1881, following the death of his father, Reed became head of the company. By then he had begun his monumental history which was published in 1887. Along with his B.O.P. contributions Reed wrote regular articles and book reviews for his cousin Edward Baines's newspaper, the Leeds Mercury. He was a co-founder and first honorary secretary of the Bibliographical Society, and a trustee for his family's charities. All this activity may have undermined his health; after struggling with illness for most of 1893, Reed died in November that year, at the age of 41. Tributes honoured him both for his contribution to children's fiction and for his work as the definitive historian of English typefounding.
## Family background
The Reeds were descended from John Reed, a colonel in Oliver Cromwell's army during the English Civil War. The family was based in Maiden Newton in the county of Dorset before moving to London at the end of the 18th century. Talbot Reed's grandfather, Andrew Reed (1787–1862), was a minister of the Congregational Church and the founder of several charitable institutions, including the London Orphan Asylum and a hospital for the incurably sick. He was also a hymn-writer of repute; his "Spirit Divine, attend our prayers" is still found in several 20th and 21st century hymnals.
Andrew Reed had five sons, the third of whom, Charles Reed (1819–81), was apprenticed in 1836 to a wool manufacturer in Leeds, Yorkshire, where he also became secretary of the local Sunday School union. Through this work he met Edward Baines, proprietor of the Leeds Mercury one of the town's two MPs. The Baines family had a strong tradition of public and political service; both of Edward Baines's sons followed him into Parliament, the elder, Matthew Talbot Baines, eventually reaching Cabinet rank. Charles Reed was attracted to the youngest Baines offspring, a daughter, Margaret, whom he married in 1844. By this time Charles had left the wool industry and returned to London, where he founded his first business, a printing firm.
The family settled in the London district of Hackney where Charles was active in public and religious affairs, with a particular interest in education. He became a member, and later chairman, of the London School Board, and helped to establish the Congregational Church Board of Education. From 1868 to 1881 he was one of Hackney's MPs. He also raised a family of five sons, the third of whom, named Talbot Baines after his distinguished uncle, was born at the family home, "Earlsmead", on 3 April 1852. Over the years, Charles expanded his business interests, and by 1861 had prospered sufficiently to acquire the Thorowgood type foundry in Fann Street, City of London.
## Early life
Talbot Baines Reed grew up in a happy household, dominated by Charles Reed's religious zeal and his belief that hardy outdoor sports were the best means for bringing up boys. This atmosphere of "simple, cheerful Puritanism" was, according to a friend, "eminently suited to [Talbot's] character and disposition". Talbot began his education at Priory House School, Clapton, and in 1864 became a day pupil at the City of London School, a relatively new foundation that had been established in Milk Street, Cheapside, in 1837. Talbot's eldest brother, Charles junior, had been notably successful there, as captain of the school and a leading figure in its cricket and football teams. Talbot soon made his own mark, particularly on the sporting field; a contemporary describes him as "full of life and vigour ... his strength of muscle, length of limb, boldness of attack, absolute fearlessness and perfection of nerve always made him conspicuous". Reed later showed some reticence about his academic achievements, asserting that one of his few successes was winning "the comfortable corner desk near the fire", reserved for the bottom place in Mathematics. In fact, in keeping with the school's record of producing men of letters and language scholars, Reed had excellent results in French, Greek and Latin, and had competed for the Sixth Form Latin prize. One of his school contemporaries was H. H. Asquith, the future British prime minister.
Despite evidence of considerable academic ability, Reed did not follow his brother Charles, who went on from the school to Trinity College, Cambridge. Instead, in 1869, Reed left the school to join the family firm, known as Sir Charles Reed & Sons or informally as the Fann Street Foundry, beginning a lifelong association with the printing trade. He found time, however, to pursue many other interests, physical, artistic and intellectual. Twice he walked the 53 miles (85 km) from London to Cambridge, each time leaving on Friday afternoon and arriving at St John's College for breakfast on Saturday. Reed was a competent swimmer, and won a Royal Humane Society medal for saving a cousin from drowning in rough seas. He was an accomplished pianist, a skilful pen-and-ink illustrator, and had an engaging style of writing. These artistic talents were put to service in the production of a family magazine, The Earlsfield Chronicle, which Reed edited (and largely wrote) from the mid-1870s. The magazine circulated only among the extended Reed family, and included serious articles ("Is total abstinence a moral duty?") alongside comic verses and cartoons.
## Printer and typefounder
Although Reed would later jokingly describe his work for the family firm as "drudgery", in reality he was enthusiastic about the trade and worked hard to master it. Early in his career he met the leading printer and bibliographer of the day, William Blades, from whom he acquired a lasting fascination with the printing and typefounding crafts. While still relatively inexperienced, Reed was asked by Blades to help organise a major exhibition to mark the 400th anniversary of William Caxton's printing of The Game and Playe of the Chesse. This was thought to be the first book printed in England, in 1474, and the exhibition was originally planned for 1874. However, Blades's research indicated that Caxton's first printing in England had been in 1477, of a different book: The Dictes and Notable Wise Sayings of the Philosophers, so the quatercentenary celebrations were rescheduled accordingly. The exhibition was held during the summer of 1877, at South Kensington, and was opened by William Gladstone, the former and future prime minister. It included displays of Caxton's printed works, together with many examples of printing through the intervening years. Reed contributed an essay to the exhibition's catalogue, entitled "The Rise and Progress of Type-Founding in England". The exhibition was supported by leading London printers, publishers, booksellers, antiquarians and scholars, and attracted wide public interest.
Sir Charles Reed, who had been knighted on Gladstone's recommendation in 1874, died in 1881. A few months later, Talbot's elder brother Andrew retired from the business because of ill health. As a result, at the age of 29, Talbot became the sole managing director of the Fann Street business, a position he held until his death. In 1878, in response to a suggestion from Blades, Reed began work on a general history of typefounding in England, a task which occupied him intermittently for nearly ten years. Published by Elliot Stock in 1887 under the title of History of the Old English Letter Foundries, the book became a standard text on the subject. Its 21 chapters are illustrated throughout with examples of typefaces and symbols used for four centuries. The text is presented in modern style, but with the initial letter of each chapter ornately drawn from a 1544 pattern. Also in 1887 Reed produced a revised and enlarged specimen book for the Fann Street foundry, with many new typeface designs and artistic ornamentations.
As an acknowledged expert in his field, Reed was in demand as a lecturer to learned societies. Among the papers he delivered were "Old and New Fashions in Typography", to the Royal Society of Arts in 1890, and "On the Use and Classification of a Typographical Library", to the Library Association in 1892. After Blades's death in 1890, Reed prepared his former mentor's unfinished Pentateuch of Printing for publication, adding a long memorial tribute to Blades. His foundry cast custom type such as the Golden Type for William Morris's Kelmscott Press in 1890 and Reed persuaded Morris to deliver a lecture on "The Ideal Book" for the Bibliographical Society in 1893.
## The Boy's Own Paper
The Reed family had longstanding connections with The Religious Tract Society (RTS), which had been founded in 1799 to publish and disseminate material of a Christian nature. Talbot's grandfather Andrew Reed, at the age of 12, had attended the Society's inaugural meeting; Charles Reed and his eldest son, Charles junior, were both active members. On 23 July 1878 an RTS subcommittee (including both Charles Reeds) recommended the publication of "a magazine for Boys to be issued weekly at a price of one penny". Although the Society had frequently expressed a desire to counter the "cheap and sensational" magazines that were read by young people, its main committee was initially hesitant about this proposal, fearing its financial implications. Finally, however, it felt obliged "to attempt an enterprise from which others shrank". Thereafter the committee moved swiftly, and the first issue of the new publication, The Boy's Own Paper, was on sale on 18 January 1879.
Although at that time his writing experience was limited, Reed was asked by his father and brother to contribute to the new venture, a challenge he accepted enthusiastically. Apart from his stories for The Earlsfield Chronicle, his sole prior experience of magazine writing had been an article entitled "Camping Out", for the Edinburgh-based young peoples' magazine Morning of Life. This account of a boating excursion on the Thames had appeared in 1875. For the first issue of the B.O.P., Reed wrote a school story, "My First Football Match" which, accompanied by a half-page illustration, appeared on the front page "by An Old Boy". The story was very well received, and prompted demands for more about "Parkhurst", the school where the football match was played. Reed responded with several more tales, among which were "The Parkhurst Paper Chase" and "The Parkhurst Boat Race".
In the new magazine's first year Reed was a regular contributor of articles and stories on a range of subjects, joining distinguished writers such as G. A. Henty, R.M. Ballantyne and Jules Verne. A prominent illustrator for the magazine was the artist and mountaineer Edward Whymper. Reed's association with the B.O.P. lasted for the remainder of his life; the magazine would be the initial publisher for almost all his subsequent output of fiction. This commitment to the B.O.P. delayed progress on his History of the Old English Letter Foundries, especially as Reed began writing regular columns and book reviews for the Leeds Mercury, now edited by his cousin, the younger Edward Baines.
The 1880s was a decade of growing national prosperity, and increasing numbers of families from the expanding middle classes were sending their sons to boarding schools. The B.O.P. editor, George Hutchison, felt that such schools would provide the ideal setting for stories in which a boy hero (or heroes) could display Christian principles and strength of character in the face of temptations, and planned to run a long serial story. Reed, who had not himself attended a boarding school, was not the obvious choice as the writer. However, the skill and imagination he had displayed in his short school stories convinced Hutchison that Reed should be given the assignment.
## School stories
Reed's first response to the request for school stories for The Boy's Own Paper was The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch, which ran for 19 instalments from October 1880 to April 1881. The travels of a schoolboy's pocket watch are charted through school, university and, finally, India at the time of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The school, "Randlebury", is believed to be based, like "Parkhurst", on information Reed received from friends who had boarded at Radley. The success of the story encouraged the B.O.P.'''s editors to ask Reed to attempt a longer and more ambitious work. The result was The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's, which became the favourite and most influential of all Reed's stories. Extended over 38 episodes, each a self-contained unit within an overall plot, this was the first of a sequence of school stories, all serialised in the B.O.P. The boarding school milieu was repeated, with a few variations, in The Willoughby Captains (serialised 1883–84), The Master of the Shell (1887–88), The Cock-House at Fellsgarth (1891) and Tom, Dick and Harry (1892–93). Reed followed the suggestion of his editors by setting My Friend Smith (1882–83) in a different kind of school, a "modest establishment for the backward and troublesome". It was, however, the boarding school stories that endured and which became the standard model for school stories for many decades. All the serials were quickly issued in book form, and most were reprinted for the benefit of successive generations of boys, up to the 1950s. The model was imitated or copied by other writers for the next half century; according to historian Isabel Quigly, "Reed was a better writer than his followers, and has been diminished by their imitations."
In a biographical sketch written in 2004, the historian Jeffrey Richards characterises Reed's work as a mixing of the earlier school story traditions established by Dean Farrar and Thomas Hughes, crafted with a vivid readability. Reed dismissed Farrar's Eric, or, Little by Little as a religious tract thinly disguised as a school story, and sought to produce something more "manly". Many of the incidents and characterisations introduced by Reed in St. Dominic's became standard elements in his subsequent stories, and in those of his imitators. Quigly lists among other recurrent features the stolen exam paper, the innocent who is wrongly accused and ultimately justified after much proud suffering, the boating accident, the group rivalries, the noble friendships. Adult characters are largely stereotypes: a headmaster known as "the Doctor" and modelled on Thomas Arnold of Rugby, "the jabbering French master (pointed beard and two-tone shoes)", the popular games master, the dry pedant, the generally comic domestic staff. Reed established a tradition in which the fictional boarding school was peopled by such characters and was almost invariably represented in terms of "dark passages, iron bedsteads, scratched desks, chill dormitories and cosy, shabby studies". Quigly suggests that one reason for the success of Reed's stories and their long-lasting appeal is that they are not so much books about school as books about people. John Sime of the RTS, in a memorial tribute to Reed after his death, notes that the boys in the stories are recognisably of flesh and blood, with "just that spice of wickedness ... without which a boy is not a boy".
## Personal life and other activities
In 1876 Reed married Elizabeth Greer, the daughter of Samuel MacCurdy Greer, a County Court judge and former MP for the County of Londonderry in the north of Ireland. Their first child, a daughter, died in infancy, but three healthy children followed: Charles in 1879, Margaret in 1882 and Talbot in 1886. The connection with Ireland was of great value to Reed, and the family regularly spent annual holidays on the shores of Lough Swilly in County Donegal.
Reed was constantly busy; he held the "loafer"—defined by him as "anyone who worked from nine to five and did nothing with the rest of the day"—in contempt. Alongside his heavy schedule of duties at the foundry and his prolific writing, he took his share in the supervision of the various charities founded by his grandfather Andrew Reed, and was a deacon at his local Congregational Church. In 1892 he was a co-founder of the Bibliographical Society and its first honorary secretary, an office he modestly agreed to hold "pro tem in the hopes of your finding a better man".
Physically active and energetic, Reed keenly followed his old school's fortunes on the sports field, on one occasion writing anxiously to the school about its apparent loss of enthusiasm for football and cricket. As part of a busy social life he regularly attended City of London Old Boys' reunion dinners, and was a member of two London clubs, the Savile and the Reform. In politics Reed was a Liberal, although he disagreed with Gladstone's Irish Home Rule policy. His busy and fulfilling life was punctuated from time to time by private tragedies. The loss of his baby daughter was followed, soon after, by the death of his younger brother Kenneth, drowned with a companion in Lough Allen in County Leitrim, while exploring the River Shannon. In 1883 his elder brother, The Rev. Charles Reed, "my 'father confessor' in times of all trouble", died after a fall during a walking holiday in Switzerland.
## Death and legacy
Reed generally enjoyed vigorous good health. However, early in 1893 there were signs that his workload was taking its toll. In January of that year he left London for an extended stay in Ireland, hoping to recover his energies. He returned to his various duties in May, but later in the summer became seriously ill with what was identified at the time as "consumption", and was probably pulmonary tuberculosis. He relinquished the secretaryship of the Bibliographical Society and returned to Ireland where, though largely confined indoors, he continued writing his regular weekly column for the Leeds Mercury and finished his final novel, Kilgorman. Letters to friends at home indicated that he remained in good spirits and was hopeful of recovery. However, his condition worsened, and he was advised to return home for urgent medical treatment. Back in London he wrote his last piece for the Mercury, a review of Seventy Years of Irish Life by W.R. Le Fanu. He died at his home in Highgate on 28 November 1893, aged 41, and was buried in Abney Park Cemetery, by the side of his father and grandfather.
Among the many tributes paid to Reed, Joseph Sime spoke for "the boys of the English-speaking world" who had "lost one of their best friends". Sime wrote of Reed's particular empathy with the young: "He possessed in himself the healthy freshness of heart of boyhood ... and could place himself sympathetically at the boy's standpoint in life." Reed's grave was visited by boys and their families for many years. He died a wealthy man, although long before his death he had transferred the copyright of his books to the Religious Tract Society for a nominal sum.
Reed's regular readers included the young P.G. Wodehouse, who particularly loved the school stories. Wodehouse's literary biographer Benny Green, while excoriating Reed as a "hereditary prig" and a "religious huckster", accepts that he influenced Wodehouse, and cites in particular The Willoughby Captains. Green also echoes Quigly in asserting that none of Reed's successors could match his abilities as a storyteller. Quigly summarises Reed's legacy to future school story writers: he established a genre by "alter[ing] the shapeless, long-winded, garrulous and moralistic school story" into something popular and readable, a convention followed by all his successors. Reed himself expressed the guiding principles of his life in a letter addressed to a new Boys' Club in Manchester: "The strong fellows should look after the weak, the active must look after the lazy, the merry must cheer up the dull, the sharp must lend a helping hand to the duffer. Pull together in all your learning, playing and praying."
The grave in Abney Park was eventually surmounted by a memorial stone for Reed's family in the style of a Celtic cross, reflecting their connections to Ireland. It was cut by the O'Shea brothers' firm. Reed's biographer, the printing executive and historian Stanley Morison, suggests that Reed's legacy is his History of the Old English Letter Foundries, while Jack Cox, historian of the B.O.P'', asserts that the school stories first serialised in the magazine are the writer's true memorial.
After Reed's death, Elizabeth Reed agreed that his considerable personal library should be given to the St Bride Foundation Institute, whose collection of typographic literature included the library of Reed's early mentor, William Blades. This collection now forms part of the St Bride Library, The books and collection of Reed's company, the Fann Street Foundry, went to first its later purchaser Stephenson Blake and then to the Type Museum collection.
|
1,091,190 |
Killing of Muhammad al-Durrah
| 1,173,028,739 |
2000 shooting of a Palestinian boy in the Gaza Strip
|
[
"2000 deaths",
"21st-century controversies",
"Conspiracy theories",
"Deaths by firearm in the Gaza Strip",
"Deaths by person in Asia",
"Filmed killings by law enforcement",
"Filmed killings in Asia",
"France 2",
"Israel Defense Forces",
"Palestinian casualties in the Second Intifada",
"Palestinian children",
"People from the Gaza Strip",
"September 2000 events in Asia"
] |
On 30 September 2000, the second day of the Second Intifada, 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah (Arabic: محمد الدرة, romanized: Muḥammad ad-Durra) was killed in the Gaza Strip during widespread protests and riots across the Palestinian territories against Israeli military occupation. Jamal al-Durrah and his son Muhammad were filmed by Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian television cameraman freelancing for France 2, as they were caught in crossfire between the Israeli military and Palestinian security forces. Footage shows them crouching behind a concrete cylinder, the boy crying and the father waving, then a burst of gunfire and dust. Muhammad is shown slumping as he is mortally wounded by gunfire, dying soon after.
Fifty-nine seconds of the footage were broadcast on television in France with a voiceover from Charles Enderlin, the station's bureau chief in Israel. Based on information from the cameraman, Enderlin told viewers that the al-Durrahs had been the target of fire from the Israeli positions and that the boy had died. After an emotional public funeral, Muhammad was hailed throughout the Muslim world as a martyr.
The Israel Defense Forces accepted responsibility for the shooting at first, claiming that Palestinians used children as human shields but later retracted the admission of responsibility. Critics of Enderlin's filmed report have since questioned the accuracy of France 2's footage. French journalists who saw the raw footage said that France 2 had cut a final few seconds in which Muhammad appeared to lift his hand from his face; they acknowledged that Muhammad had died, but said the footage alone did not show it. France 2's news editor said in 2005 that no one could be sure who fired the shots. Other commentators, particularly Philippe Karsenty, a French media commentator, went further, alleging that the scene had been staged by France 2; France 2 sued him for libel and in 2013 he was fined €7,000 by the Court of Appeal of Paris. In May that year an Israeli government report supported Karsenty's view. Jamal al-Durrah and Charles Enderlin rejected its conclusion and called for an independent international investigation.
The footage of the father and son acquired what one writer called the power of a battle flag. Postage stamps in the Middle East carried the images. Abu Rahma's coverage of the al-Durrah shooting brought him several journalism awards, including the Rory Peck Award in 2001.
## Background
On 28 September 2000, two days before the shooting, the Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, a holy site in both Judaism and Islam with contested rules of access. The violence that followed had its roots in several events, but the visit was provocative and triggered protests that escalated into rioting across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The uprising became known as the Second Intifada; it lasted over four years and cost around 4,000 lives, over 3,000 of them Palestinian.
The Netzarim junction, where the shooting took place, is known locally as the al-Shohada (martyrs') junction. It lies on Saladin Road, a few kilometres south of Gaza City. The source of conflict at the junction was the nearby Netzarim settlement, where 60 Israeli families lived until Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. A military escort accompanied the settlers whenever they left or arrived at the settlement, and an Israeli military outpost, Magen-3, guarded the approach. The area had been the scene of violent incidents in the days before the shooting.
## People
### Jamal and Muhammad al-Durrah
Jamal al-Durrah (Arabic: جمال الدرة, romanized: Jamāl ad-Durra; born c. 1963) was a carpenter and house painter before the shooting. Since then, because of his injuries, he has worked as a truck driver. He and his wife, Amal, live in the UNRWA-run Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. As of 2013 they had four daughters and six sons, including a boy, Muhammad, born two years after the shooting.
Until the shooting, Jamal had worked for Moshe Tamam, an Israeli contractor, for 20 years, since he was 14. Writer Helen Schary Motro came to know Jamal when she employed him to help build her house in Tel Aviv. She described his years of rising at 3:30 am to catch the bus to the border crossing at four, then a second bus out of Gaza so he could be at work by six. Tamam called him a "terrific man," someone he trusted to work alone in his customers' homes.
Muhammad Jamal Al-Durrah (born 1988) was in fifth grade, but his school was closed on 30 September 2000; the Palestinian Authority had called for a general strike and day of mourning following violence in Jerusalem the day before. His mother said he had been watching the rioting on television and asked if he could join in. Father and son decided instead to go to a car auction. Jamal had just sold his 1974 Fiat, Motro wrote, and Muhammad loved cars, so they went to the auction together.
### Charles Enderlin
Charles Enderlin was born in 1945 in Paris; his grandparents were Austrian Jews who had left the country in 1938 when Germany invaded. After briefly studying medicine, he moved to Jerusalem in 1968 where he became an Israeli national. He began working for France 2 in 1981, serving as their bureau chief in Israel from 1990 until his retirement in 2015. Enderlin is the author of several books about the Middle East, including one about Muhammad al-Durrah, Un Enfant est Mort: Netzarim, 30 Septembre 2000 (2010). Highly regarded among his peers and within the French establishment, he submitted a letter from Jacques Chirac, during the Philippe Karsenty libel action, who wrote in flattering terms of Enderlin's integrity. In 2009 he was awarded France's highest decoration, the Légion d'honneur.
According to French journalist Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, Enderlin's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was respected by other journalists but was regularly criticized by pro-Israel groups. As a result of the al-Durrah case, he received death threats, his wife was assaulted in the street, his children were threatened, the family had to move home, and at one point they considered emigrating to the United States.
### Talal Abu Rahma
Talal Hassan Abu Rahma studied business administration in the United States, and began working as a freelance cameraman for France 2 in Gaza in 1988. At the time of the shooting, he ran his own press office, the National News Center, contributed to CNN through the Al-Wataneya Press Office, and was a board member of the Palestinian Journalists' Association. His coverage of the al-Durrah shooting brought him several journalism awards, including the Rory Peck Award in 2001. According to France 2 correspondent Gérard Grizbec, Abu Rahma had never been a member of a Palestinian political group, had twice been arrested by Palestinian police for filming images that did not meet the approval of Yasser Arafat, and had never been accused of security breaches by Israel.
## Initial reports
### Before shooting
On the day of the shooting—Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year—the two-story Israel Defense Forces (IDF) outpost at the Netzarim junction was manned by Israeli soldiers from the Givati Brigade Engineering Platoon and the Herev Battalion. According to Enderlin, the soldiers were Druze.
The two-story IDF outpost sat northwest of the junction. Two six-story Palestinian blocks (known as the twins or twin towers and described variously as offices or apartments) lay directly behind it. South of the junction, diagonally across from the IDF, there was a Palestinian National Security Forces outpost under the command of Brigadier-General Osama al-Ali, a member of the Palestine National Council. The concrete wall that Jamal and Muhammad crouched against was in front of this building; the spot was less than 120 metres from the most northerly point of the Israeli outpost.
In addition to France 2, the Associated Press and Reuters also had camera crews at the junction. They captured brief footage of the al-Durrahs and Abu Rahma. Abu Rahma was the only journalist to film the moment the al-Durrahs were shot.
### Arrival at the junction
Jamal and Muhammad arrived at the junction in a cab around midday, on their way back from the car auction. There had been a protest, demonstrators had thrown stones, and the IDF had responded with tear gas. Abu Rahma was filming events and interviewing protesters, including Abdel Hakim Awad, head of the Fatah youth movement in Gaza. Because of the protest, a police officer stopped Jamal and Muhammad's cab from going any further, so father and son proceeded on foot across the junction. It was at that point, according to Jamal, that the live fire started. Enderlin said the first shots were fired from the Palestinian positions and returned by the Israeli soldiers.
Jamal, Muhammad, the Associated Press cameraman, and Shams Oudeh, the Reuters cameraman, took cover against the concrete wall in the south-east quadrant of the crossroads, diagonally across from the Israeli outpost. Jamal, Muhammad and Shams Oudeh crouched behind a three-foot-tall (0.91 m) concrete drum, apparently part of a culvert, that was sitting against the wall. A thick paving stone sat on top of the drum, which offered further protection. Abu Rahma hid behind a white minibus parked across the road about 15 metres away from the wall. The Reuters and Associated Press cameramen briefly filmed over Jamal and Muhammad's shoulders—the cameras pointing toward the Israeli outpost—before the men moved away. Jamal and Muhammad did not move away, but stayed behind the drum for 45 minutes. In Enderlin's view, they were frozen in fear.
### France 2 report
In an affidavit three days after the shooting, Abu Rahma said shots had been fired for about 45 minutes and that he had filmed around 27 minutes of it. (How much film was shot became a bone of contention in 2007 when France 2 told a court that only 18 minutes of film existed.) He began filming Jamal and Muhammad when he heard Muhammad cry and saw that the boy had been shot in the right leg. He said he filmed the scene containing the father and son for about six minutes. He sent those six minutes to Enderlin in Jerusalem via satellite. Enderlin edited the footage down to 59 seconds and added a voiceover:
> 1500 hours. Everything has just erupted near the settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians have shot live bullets, the Israelis are responding. Paramedics, journalists, passersby are caught in the crossfire. Here, Jamal and his son Mohammed are the target of fire from the Israeli positions. Mohammed is twelve, his father is trying to protect him. He is motioning. Another burst of fire. Mohammed is dead and his father seriously wounded.
The footage shows Jamal and Muhammad crouching behind the cylinder, the child screaming and the father shielding him. Jamal appears to shout something in the direction of the cameraman, then waves and shouts in the direction of the Israeli outpost. There is a burst of gunfire and the camera goes out of focus. When the gunfire subsides, Jamal is sitting upright and injured and Muhammad is lying over his legs. Enderlin cut a final few seconds from the footage that shows Muhammad lift his hand from his face. This cut became the basis of much of the controversy over the film.
The raw footage stops suddenly at this point and begins again with unidentified people being loaded into an ambulance. (At that point in his report, Enderlin said: "A Palestinian policeman and an ambulance driver have also lost their lives in the course of this battle.") Bassam al-Bilbeisi, an ambulance driver on his way to the scene, was reported to have been shot and killed, leaving a widow and eleven children. Abu Rahma said Muhammad lay bleeding for at least 17 minutes before an ambulance picked up father and son together. He said he did not film them being picked up because he was worried about having only one battery. Abu Rahma remained at the junction for 30–40 minutes until he felt it was safe to leave, then drove to his studio in Gaza City to send the footage to Enderlin. The 59 seconds of footage were first broadcast on France 2's nightly news at 8:00 pm local time (GMT+2), after which France 2 distributed several minutes of raw footage around the world without charge.
### Funeral
Jamal and Muhammad were taken by ambulance to the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Abu Rahma telephoned the hospital and was told that three bodies had arrived there: that of a jeep driver, an ambulance driver, and a boy, initially named by mistake as Rami Al-Durrah.
According to Abed El-Razeq El Masry, the pathologist who examined Muhammed, the boy had received a fatal injury to the abdomen. In 2002 he showed Esther Schapira, a German journalist, post-mortem images of Muhammad next to cards identifying him by name. Schapira also obtained, from a Palestinian journalist, what appeared to be footage of him arriving at the hospital on a stretcher. During an emotional public funeral in the Bureij refugee camp, Muhammad was wrapped in a Palestinian flag and buried before sundown on the day of his death, in accordance with Muslim tradition.
Jamal was taken at first to the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. One of the surgeons who operated on him, Ahmed Ghadeel, said Jamal had received multiple wounds from high-velocity bullets striking his right elbow, right thigh and the lower part of both legs; his femoral artery was also cut. Talal Abu Rahma interviewed Jamal and the doctor there on camera the day after the shooting; Ghadeel displayed x-rays of Jamal's right elbow and right pelvis. Moshe Tamam, Jamal's Israeli employer, offered to have him taken to hospital in Tel Aviv, but the Palestinian Authority declined the offer. He was transferred instead to the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, Jordan, where he was visited by King Abdullah. Jamal reportedly told Tamam that he had been hit by nine bullets; he said five were removed from his body in hospital in Gaza and four in Amman.
### Abu Rahma's account
Enderlin based his allegation that the IDF had shot the boy on the report of the cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma. Abu Rahma was clear in interviews that the Israelis had fired the shots. For example, he told The Guardian: "They were cleaning the area. Of course they saw the father. They were aiming at the boy, and that is what surprised me, yes, because they were shooting at him, not only one time, but many times." He said shooting was also coming from the Palestinian National Security Forces outpost, but that they were not shooting when Muhammad was hit. The Israeli fire was being directed at this Palestinian outpost, he said. He told National Public Radio:
> I saw the boy getting injured in his leg, and the father asking for help. Then I saw him getting injured in his arm, the father. The father was asking the ambulances to help him, because he could see the ambulances. I cannot see the ambulance ... I wasn't far away, maybe from them [Jamal and Muhammad] face to face about 15 meters, 17 meters. But the father didn't succeed to get the ambulance by waving to them. He looked at me and he said, "Help me." I said, "I cannot, I can't help you." The shooting till then was really heavy ... It was really raining bullets, for more than for 45 minutes. Then ... I hear something, "boom!" Really is coming with a lot of dust. I looked at the boy, I filmed the boy lying down in the father's lap, and the father really, getting really injured, and he was really dizzy. I said, "Oh my god, the boy's got killed, the boy's got killed," I was screaming, I was losing my mind. While I was filming, the boy got killed ... I was very afraid, I was very upset, I was crying, and I was remembering my children ... This was the most terrible thing that has happened to me as a journalist.
Abu Rahma alleged in an affidavit that "the child was intentionally and in cold blood shot dead and his father injured by the Israeli army." The affidavit was given to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza and signed by Abu Rahma in the presence of Raji Sourani, a human rights lawyer.
### Israel's response
The position of the IDF changed over time, from accepting responsibility in 2000 to retracting the admission in 2005. The IDF's first response, when Enderlin contacted them before his broadcast, was that the Palestinians "make cynical use of women and children," which he decided not to air.
On 3 October 2000, the IDF's chief of operations, Major-General Giora Eiland, said an internal investigation indicated the shots had apparently been fired by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers, under fire, had been shooting from small slits in the wall of their outpost; General Yom-Tov Samia, then head of the IDF's Southern Command said they may not have had a clear field of vision, and had fired in the direction from which they believed the fire was coming. Eiland issued an apology: "This was a grave incident, an event we are all sorry about."
The Israelis had been trying for hours to speak to Palestinian commanders, according to Israel's Cabinet Secretary, Isaac Herzog; he added that Palestinian security forces could have intervened to stop the fire.
## Controversy
Three mainstream narratives emerged after the shooting. The early view that Israeli gunfire had killed the boy developed into the position that, because of the trajectory of the shots, Palestinian gunfire was more likely to have been responsible. This view was expressed in 2005 by Denis Jeambar, editor-in-chief of L'Express, and Daniel Leconte [fr], a former France 2 correspondent, who viewed the raw footage. A third perspective, held by Arlette Chabot, France 2's news editor, is that no one can know who fired the shots.
A fourth, minority, position held that the scene was staged by Palestinian protesters to produce a child martyr or at least the appearance of one. This is known by those who follow the case as the "maximalist" view, as opposed to the "minimalist" view that the shots were probably not fired by the IDF. The maximalist view takes the form either that the al-Durrahs were not shot and Muhammad did not die, or that he was killed intentionally by Palestinians.
The view that the scene was a media hoax of some kind emerged from an Israeli government enquiry in November 2000. It was most persistently pursued by Stéphane Juffa, editor-in-chief of the Metula News Agency [fr] (Mena), a French-Israeli company; Luc Rosenzweig, former editor-in-chief of Le Monde and a Mena contributor;[^1] Richard Landes, an American historian who became involved after Enderlin showed him the raw footage during a visit to Jerusalem in 2003; and Philippe Karsenty, founder of a French media-watchdog site, Media-Ratings. It was also supported by Gérard Huber [fr], a French psychoanalyst, and Pierre-André Taguieff, a French philosopher who specializes in antisemitism, both of whom wrote books about the affair. The hoax view gained further support in 2013 from a second Israeli government report, the Kuperwasser report. Several commentators regard it as a right-wing conspiracy theory and smear campaign.
### Key issues
Several commentators questioned what time the shooting occurred; what time Muhammad arrived at the hospital; why there seemed to be little blood on the ground where they were shot; and whether any bullets were collected. Several alleged that, in other scenes in the raw footage, it is clear that protesters are play acting. One physician maintained that Jamal's scars were not from bullet wounds, but dated back to an injury he sustained in the early 1990s.
There was no criminal inquiry. Palestinian police allowed journalists to photograph the scene the following day, but they gathered no forensic evidence. According to a Palestinian general, there was no Palestinian investigation because there was no doubt that the Israelis had killed the boy. General Yom Tov Samia of the IDF said the presence of protesters meant the Israelis were unable to examine and take photographs of the scene. The increase in violence at the junction cut off the Nezarim settlers, so the IDF evacuated them and, a week after the shooting, blew up everything within 500 metres of the IDF outpost, thereby destroying the crime scene.
A pathologist examined the boy's body, but there was no full autopsy. It is unclear whether bullets were recovered from the scene or from Jamal and Muhammad. In 2002 Abu Rahma implied to Esther Schapira that he had collected bullets at the scene, adding: "We have some secrets for ourselves. We cannot give anything ... everything." According to Jamal al-Durrah, five bullets were recovered from his body by physicians in Gaza and four in Amman. In 2013 he said, without elaborating: "The bullets the Israelis fired are in the possession of the Palestinian Authority."
### Footage
#### Length and content
Questions arose about how much footage existed and whether it showed the boy had died. Abu Rahma said in an affidavit that the gunfight had lasted 45 minutes and that he had filmed about 27 minutes of it. Doreen Carvajal of the International Herald Tribune said in 2005 that France 2 had shown the newspaper "the original 27-minute tape of the incident." When the Court of Appeal of Paris asked, in 2007, to see all the footage, during France 2's libel case against Philippe Karsenty, France 2 presented the court with 18 minutes of film, saying the rest had been destroyed because it had not been about the shooting. Enderlin then said only 18 minutes of footage had been shot.
According to Abu Rahma, six minutes of his footage focused on the al-Durrahs. France 2 broadcast 59 seconds of that scene and released another few seconds of it. No part of the footage shows the boy dead. Enderlin cut a final few seconds from the end, during which Muhammad appears to lift his hand away from his face. Enderlin said he had cut this scene in accordance with the France 2 ethical charter, because it showed the boy in his death throes ("agonie"), the final struggle before death, which he said was "unbearable" ("J'ai coupé l'agonie de l'enfant. C'était insupportable ... Cela n'aurait rien apporté de plus).
#### Footage cut off
Another issue is why France 2, the Associated Press and Reuters did not film the scene directly after the shooting, including the shooting death of the ambulance driver who arrived to pick up Jamal and Muhammad. Abu Rahma's footage stops suddenly after the shooting of the father and son, then begins again—from the same position, with the white minibus behind which Abu Rahma was standing visible in the shot—with other people being loaded into an ambulance.
Abu Rahma said Muhammad lay bleeding for at least 17 minutes before an ambulance picked up Jamal and Muhammad together, but he did not film any of it. When Esther Schapira asked why not, he replied: "Because when the ambulance came it closed on them, you know?" When asked why he had not filmed the ambulance arriving and leaving, he replied that he had only one battery. Enderlin reportedly told the Paris Court of Appeal that Abu Rahma changed batteries at that point. Enderlin wrote in 2008 that "footage filmed by a cameraman under fire is not the equivalent of a surveillance camera in a supermarket." Abu Rahma "filmed what circumstances permitted."
#### French reaction to the footage
In October 2004 France 2 allowed three French journalists to view the raw footage—Denis Jeambar, editor-in-chief of L'Express; Daniel Leconte, former France 2 correspondent and head of news documentaries at Arte, a state-run television network; and Luc Rosenzweig, former editor-in-chief of Le Monde. They also asked to speak to the cameraman, Abu Rahma, who was in Paris at the time, but France 2 apparently told them he did not speak French and that his English was not good enough.
Jeambar and Leconte wrote a report about the viewing for Le Figaro in January 2005. None of the scenes showed that the boy had died, they wrote. They rejected the position that the scene had been staged, but when Enderlin's voiceover said Muhammad was dead, Enderlin "had no possibility of determining that he was in fact dead, and even less so, that he had been shot by IDF soldiers." They said the footage did not show the boy's death throes: "This famous 'agonie' that Enderlin insisted was cut from the montage does not exist."
Several minutes of the film showed Palestinians playing at war for the cameras, they wrote, falling down as if wounded, then getting up and walking away. Jeambar and Leconte concluded that the shots had come from the Palestinian positions, given the trajectory of the bullets.
The idea of writing about the raw footage had been Luc Rosenzweig's; he had initially offered a story about it to L'Express, which is how Jeambar (editor of L'Express) had become involved. But Jeambar and Leconte ended up distancing themselves from Rosenzweig. He was involved with the Israeli-French Metula News Agency (known as Mena), which was pushing the view that the scene was a fake. Rosenzweig later called it "an almost perfect media crime." When Jeambar and Leconte wrote up their report about the raw footage, they initially offered it to Le Monde, not Le Figaro, but Le Monde refused to publish it because Mena had been involved at an earlier stage. Jeambar and Leconte made clear in Le Figaro that they gave no credence to the staging hypothesis:
> To those who, like Mena, tried to use us to support the theory that the child's death was staged by the Palestinians, we say they are misleading us and their readers. Not only do we not share that point of view, but we attest that, given our present knowledge of the case, nothing supports that conclusion. In fact, the reverse is true."
#### Enderlin's response
Enderlin responded to Leconte and Jeambar in January 2005 in Le Figaro. He thanked them for rejecting that the scene had been staged. He had reported that the shots were fired by the Israelis because, he wrote, he trusted the cameraman, who had worked for France 2 since 1988. In the days following the shooting, other witnesses, including other journalists, offered some confirmation, he said. He added that the Israeli army had not responded to France 2's offers to cooperate with their investigation.
Another reason he had attributed the shooting to Israel, he wrote, was that "the image corresponded to the reality of the situation not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank." Citing Ben Kaspi in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, he wrote that, during the first months of the Second Intifada, the IDF had fired one million rounds of ammunition—700,000 in the West Bank and 300,000 in Gaza; from 29 September to late October 2000, 118 Palestinians had been killed, including 33 under the age of 18, compared to 11 adult Israelis killed during the same period.
### Confusion about timeline
Confusion arose about the timeline. Abu Rahma said the shooting began at noon and continued for 45 minutes. Jamal's account matched his: he and Muhammad arrived at the junction around noon, and were under fire for 45 minutes.
Enderlin's France 2 report placed the shooting later in the day. His voiceover said that Jamal and Muhammad were shot around 3:00 pm local time (GMT+3). James Fallows agreed that Jamal and Muhammad first made an appearance in the footage around 3:00 pm, judging by comments from Jamal and some journalists on the scene. Abu Rahma said he remained at the junction for 30–40 minutes after the shooting. According to Schapira, he left for his studio in Gaza at around 4 pm, where he sent the footage to Enderlin in Jerusalem at around 6 pm. The news first arrived in London from the Associated Press at 6:00 pm BST (GMT+1), followed minutes later by a similar report from Reuters.
Contradicting the noon and 3 pm timelines, Mohammed Tawil, the doctor who admitted Muhammad to the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told Esther Schapira that the boy had been admitted around 10:00 am local time, along with the ambulance driver, who had been shot through the heart. Tawil later said that he could not recall what he had told reporters about this. Records from the Al-Shifa Hospital reportedly show that a young boy was examined in the pathology department at midday. The pathologist, Dr. Abed El-Razeq El Masry, examined him for half an hour. He told Schapira that the boy's abdominal organs were lying outside his body, and he showed Schapira images of the body, with a card identifying the boy as Muhammad. A watch on a pathologist's wrist in one of the images appeared to say 3:50.
### Interview with soldiers
In 2002 Schapira interviewed three anonymous Israeli soldiers, "Ariel, Alexej and Idan," who said they had been on duty at the IDF post that day. They knew something was about to happen, one said, because of the camera crews that had gathered. One soldier said the live fire started from the high-rise Palestinian blocks known as "the twins"; the shooter was firing at the IDF post, he said. The soldier added that he had not seen the al-Durrahs. The Israelis returned fire on a Palestinian station 30 metres to the left of the al-Durrahs. Their weapons were equipped with optics that allowed them to fire accurately, according to the soldier, and none of them had switched to automatic fire. In the view of the soldier, the shooting of Jamal and Muhammad was no accident. The shots did not come from the Israeli position, he said.
### Father's injuries
In 2007 Yehuda David, a hand surgeon at Tel Hashomer Hospital, told Israel's Channel 10 that he had treated Jamal Al-Durrah in 1994 for knife and axe wounds to his arms and legs, injuries sustained during a gang attack. David maintained that the scars Jamal had presented as bullet wounds were in fact scars from a tendon-repair operation David had performed in the early 90s. When David repeated his allegations in an interview with a "Daniel Vavinsky," published in 2008 in Actualité Juive in Paris, Jamal filed a complaint with the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris for defamation and breach of doctor-patient confidentiality.
The court established that "Daniel Vavinsky" was a pseudonym for Clément Weill-Raynal [fr], a deputy editor at France 3. In 2011 it ruled that David and Actualité Juive had defamed Jamal. David, Weill-Raynal and Serge Benattar, the managing editor of Actualité Juive, were fined €5,000 each, and Actualité Juive was ordered to print a retraction. The Israeli government said it would fund David's appeal. The appeal was upheld in 2012; David was acquitted of defamation and breach of confidentiality. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli's prime minister, telephoned David to congratulate him. Jamal Al-Durrah said he would appeal the court's decision.
In 2012 Rafi Walden, deputy director of the Tel Hashomer hospital and board member of Physicians for Human Rights, wrote in Haaretz that he had examined Jamal's 50-page medical file, and that the injuries from the 2000 shooting were "completely different wounds" from the 1994 injuries. Walden listed "a gunshot wound in the right wrist, a shattered forearm bone, multiple fragment wounds in a palm, gunshot wounds in the right thigh, a fractured pelvis, an exit wound in the buttocks, a tear in the main nerve of the right thigh, tears in the main groin arteries and veins, and two gunshot wounds in the left lower leg."
### Israel's inquiries
#### 2000: Shahaf report
Major General Yom Tov Samia, the IDF's southern commander, set up an inquiry soon after the shooting. According to James Fallows, Israeli commentators questioned its legitimacy as soon as it started; Haaretz called it "almost a pirate endeavour." The team was led by Nahum Shahaf, a physicist, and Joseph Doriel, an engineer, both of whom had been involved in the Yitzhak Rabin assassination conspiracy theories. Other investigators included Meir Danino, chief scientist at Elisra Systems; Bernie Schechter, a ballistics expert, formerly with the Israeli police's criminal identification laboratory; and Chief Superintendent Elliot Springer, also from the criminal identification lab. A full list of names was never released.
Shahaf and Doriel built models of the wall, concrete drum and IDF post, and tried to reenact the shooting. A mark on the drum from the Israeli Bureau of Standards allowed them to determine its size and composition. They concluded that the shots may have come from a position behind Abu Rahma, where Palestinian police were alleged to have been standing.
On 23 October 2000, Shahaf and Doriel invited CBS 60 Minutes to film the reenactment. Doriel told the correspondent, Bob Simon, that he believed the boy's death was real, but that it had been set up to damage Israel. Those in the know, he said, included Abu Rahma and the boy's father, though the latter had not realized the boy would be killed. When General Samia heard about the interview, he removed Doriel from the investigation. The investigators' report was shown to the head of Israeli military intelligence; the key points were published in November 2000 as not ruling out that the IDF had shot the boy, though describing it as "quite plausible" that he had been hit by Palestinian bullets aimed at the IDF post. The inquiry provoked widespread criticism. A Haaretz editorial said, "it is hard to describe in mild terms the stupidity of this bizarre investigation."
#### 2005: Retraction of earlier position
In 2005 Major-General Giora Eiland publicly retracted the IDF's admission of responsibility, and a statement to that effect was approved by the prime minister's office in September 2007. The following year an IDF spokesman, Col. Shlomi Am-Shalom, said that the Shahaf report had shown the IDF could not have shot Muhammad. He asked France 2 to send the IDF the unedited 27 minutes of raw footage, as well as footage Abu Rahma shot the following day.
#### 2013: Kuperwasser report
In September 2012 the Israeli government set up another inquiry at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The team was led by Yossi Kuperwasser, director-general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry. In May 2013 it published a 44-page report concluding that the al-Durrahs had not been hit by IDF fire and may not have been shot at all.
The Kuperwasser report said that France 2's central claims were not substantiated by the material the station had in its possession at the time; that the boy was alive at the end of the video; that there was no evidence that Jamal or Muhammad were injured in the manner reported by France 2 or that Jamal was seriously injured; and that they may not have been shot at all. It included a medical opinion from Yehuda David, the doctor who treated Jamal in 1994. The report said it is "highly doubtful that bullet holes in the vicinity of the two could have had their source in fire from the Israeli position," and that the France 2 report was "edited and narrated in such a way as to create the misleading impression that it substantiated the claims made therein." The France 2 narrative relied entirely on Abu Rahma's testimony, the report said. Yuval Steinitz, Minister of International Affairs, Strategy and Intelligence, called the affair a "modern-day blood libel against the State of Israel."
France 2, Charles Enderlin and Jamal al-Durrah rejected the report's conclusions and said they would cooperate with an independent international investigation. France 2 and Enderlin asked the Israeli government to supply the commission's letter of appointment, membership and evidence, including photographs and the names of witnesses. Enderlin said the commission had failed to speak to him, France 2, al-Durrah or other eyewitnesses, and had consulted no independent experts. According to Enderlin, France 2 stood ready to help al-Durrah have his son's body exhumed; he and al-Durrah said they were willing to take polygraph tests.
## Philippe Karsenty litigation
### 2006: Enderlin-France 2 v. Karsenty
In response to claims that it had broadcast a staged scene, Enderlin and France 2 filed three defamation suits in 2004 and 2005, seeking symbolic damages of €1. The most notable lawsuit was against Philippe Karsenty, who ran a media watchdog, Media-Ratings. France 2 and Enderlin issued a writ two days later.
The case began in September 2006. Enderlin submitted as evidence a February 2004 letter from Jacques Chirac, then president of France, which spoke of Enderlin's integrity. The court upheld the complaint on 19 October 2006, fining Karsenty €1,000 and ordering him to pay €3,000 in costs. He lodged an appeal that day.
### 2007: Karsenty v. Enderlin-France 2
The first appeal opened in September 2007 in the Court of Appeal of Paris, before a three-judge panel led by Judge Laurence Trébucq. The court asked France 2 to turn over the 27 minutes of raw footage Abu Rahma said he had shot, to be shown during a public hearing. France 2 produced 18 minutes; Enderlin said that only 18 minutes had been shot.
During the screening, the court heard that Muhammad had raised his hand to his forehead and moved his leg after Abu Rahma had said he was dead, and that there was no blood on his shirt. Enderlin argued that Abu Rahma had not said the boy was dead, but that he was dying. A report prepared for the court by Jean-Claude Schlinger, a ballistics expert commissioned by Karsenty, said that had the shots come from the Israeli position, Muhammad would have been hit in the lower limbs only.
France 2's lawyer, Francis Szpiner, counsel to former President of France Jacques Chirac, called Karsenty "the Jew who pays a second Jew to pay a third Jew to fight to the last drop of Israeli blood," comparing him to 9/11 conspiracy theorist Thierry Meyssan and Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson. Karsenty had it in for Enderlin, Szpiner argued, because of Enderlin's even-handed coverage of the Middle East.
The judges overturned the ruling against Karsenty in May 2008 in a 13-page decision. They ruled that he had exercised in good faith his right to criticize and had shown the court a "coherent body of evidence." The court noted inconsistencies in Enderlin's statements and said that Abu Rahma's statements were not "perfectly credible either in form or content." There were calls for a public inquiry from historian Élie Barnavi, a former Israeli ambassador to France, and Richard Prasquier, president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France. The left-leaning Le Nouvel Observateur began a petition in support of Enderlin that was signed by 300 French writers, accusing Karsenty of a seven-year smear campaign.
### 2013: Defamation ruling
France 2 appealed to the Court of Cassation (supreme court). In February 2012 it quashed the decision of the appeal court to overturn the conviction, ruling that the court should not have asked France 2 to provide the raw footage. The case was sent back to the appeal court, which convicted Karsenty of defamation in 2013 and fined him €7,000.
## Impact of the footage
The footage of Muhammad was compared to other iconic images of children under attack: the boy in the Warsaw ghetto (1943), the Vietnamese girl doused with napalm (1972), and the firefighter carrying the dying baby in Oklahoma (1995). Catherine Nay, a French journalist, argued that Muhammad's death "cancels, erases that of the Jewish child, his hands in the air before the SS in the Warsaw Ghetto."
Palestinian children were distressed by the repeated broadcasting of the footage, according to a therapist in Gaza, and were re-enacting the scene in playgrounds. Arab countries issued postage stamps bearing the images. Parks and streets were named in Muhammad's honour, and Osama bin Laden mentioned him in a "warning" to President George Bush after 9/11. The images were blamed for the 2000 Ramallah lynching and a rise in antisemitism in France. One image could be seen in the background when journalist Daniel Pearl, an American Jew, was beheaded by al-Qaeda in February 2002.
Sections of the Jewish and Israeli communities, including the Israeli government in 2013, described the statements that IDF soldiers had killed the boy as a "blood libel," a reference to the centuries-old allegation that Jews sacrifice Christian children for their blood. Comparisons were made with the Dreyfus affair of 1894, when a French-Jewish army captain was found guilty of treason based on a forgery. In the view of Charles Enderlin, the controversy is a smear campaign intended to undermine footage coming out of the occupied Palestinian territories. Doreen Carvjal wrote in The New York Times'' that the footage is "a cultural prism, with viewers seeing what they want to see."
[^1]: Luc Rosenzweig, "Charles Enderlin et l’affaire Al Dura" , Cités, 4(44), 2010. Luc Rosenzweig, "Après Jérôme Cahuzac et Gilles Bernheim, Charles Enderlin?" , Atlantico, 20 May 2013.
|
21,739,989 |
Nothing to My Name
| 1,171,509,863 |
1986 song performed by Cui Jian
|
[
"1986 singles",
"1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre",
"Chinese songs",
"Cui Jian songs",
"Mandarin-language songs",
"Protest songs"
] |
"Nothing to My Name" (Chinese: 一无所有) is a 1986 Mandarin-language rock song by Cui Jian. It is widely considered Cui's most famous and most important work, and one of the most influential songs in the history of the People's Republic of China, both as a seminal point in the development of Chinese rock music and as a political sensation. The song was an unofficial anthem for Chinese youth and activists during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.
Both in its lyrics and instruments, the song mixes traditional Chinese styles with modern rock elements. In the lyrics, the speaker addresses a girl who is scorning him because he has nothing. However, the song has also been interpreted as being about the dispossessed youth of the time, because it evokes a sense of disillusionment and lack of individual freedom that was common among the young generation during the 1980s.
## Historical context
By the late 1970s, Western rock music was gaining popularity in mainland China. After the Cultural Revolution ended in the mid-1970s and the government began a period of economic reform called gaige kaifang, many students and businessmen went abroad and brought back Western music. Chinese singers began performing covers of popular Western rock songs.
At the same time, Chinese society and the Chinese government were quickly abandoning Maoism, and promoting economic policies that had a more capitalist orientation. Many Chinese teens and students were becoming disillusioned with their government, which they felt had abandoned its ideals. Because of the rapid economic changes, many of them felt that they had no opportunities and no individual freedom. These developments formed the background against which "Nothing to My Name" appeared in 1986.
## Music and lyrics
### Musical style
Cui Jian was heavily influenced by Western artists such as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Talking Heads; in the late 1980s he even performed with a hair style modeled on that of John Lennon. In "Nothing to My Name" and other songs, he intentionally altered the sounds of traditional Chinese musical instruments by mixing them with elements of rock music, such as electric guitar. He also purposely divorced his musical style from that of the revolutionary songs and proletarian operas that were common under Chairman Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution—for example, he performed his music very loud, as high as 150 decibels, just because Mao had considered loud music disruptive to the social order.
In genre, the song is often called the first work of Xibeifeng, a 1980s music style originating from Northwest China. Cui himself, however, considers the song pure rock and roll.
### Lyrics and meaning
Interpretations of the song's meaning vary from one listener to the next; some people view it as a song about love and desire, while others understand it as a political metaphor, the lyrics being addressed as much to the Chinese nation as to a girlfriend. Ethnomusicologist Timothy Brace has described this common analysis of the song lyrics as "recast[ing] the setting of this piece from that of a boy talking to his girlfriend to that of a youthful generation talking to the nation as a whole." The ambiguity is heightened by the structure of the phrase yī wú suŏ yŏu, an idiomatic chengyu. It literally means "to have nothing" and has no grammatical subject. Therefore, it can be interpreted as meaning "I have nothing" (implying that it is a song about two people), or "we have nothing" (understanding it as social commentary).
The narrator of the song worries that the girl he is addressing will ignore him because he has nothing to give her; likewise, the song's audience in the 1980s—young students and workers—were also suffering from not having resources to marry, to be with their girlfriends and boyfriends, or to attract members of the opposite sex. The lyrics also express Western concepts of individualism, and were some of the first popular song lyrics in China to promote self-expression and self-empowerment. This put the song in stark contrast with older music, which had emphasized conformity and obedience. As the narrator, later on in the song, confidently proclaims to the girl that he will "grab her hands" ("我要抓起你的双手") and then she will go with him ("你这就跟我走"), he suggests in the end that she can love the fact that he has nothing ("莫非你是正在告诉我/你爱我一无所有"). On one level, this suggests that the song is about "love conquering all", but the line has also been interpreted as threatening, and suggestive of an unorthodox and "Dionysian" mix of love and aggression.
Understood as social commentary, the substitution of "we" along with the replacement of every "you" with the Communist Party, means the song becomes an ironic response to the Chinese lyrics of "The Internationale".
> Slaves rise up, rise up! We cannot say that we have nothing [yiwu suoyou] We will be masters of all under heavens.
## Release and impact
Cui wrote "Nothing to My Name" himself and first performed it on a televised music competition in May 1986, with his band ADO. The song was an instant success, creating a "sensation" and turning Cui into a cult figure among urban youth. It was one of the first examples of Chinese, as opposed to imported, rock and roll music to gain popularity in China. The newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, People's Daily, gave the song a positive review, despite its politically sensitive message. The song was included on Cui's 1989 album Rock 'n' Roll on the New Long March, released by the China Tourism Sound and Video Publishing Company. (The version of the album released overseas was called Nothing to My Name.) By 1989, it had become a "battle song" or "anthem" among the youth movement.
Cui performed the song live at the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The performances by Cui and other rock artists during the protests have been described as "a revolutionary few days that rocked a nation," and many protesters sang "Nothing to My Name" to give voice to their rebellion against the government, and their desire for personal freedom and self-expression. Brace describes how, during Cui's Tiananmen performance, students "jumped to their feet and began to sing," a practice that had rarely happened at music performances in China before then. Not long after Tiananmen, Cui was restricted to playing in small venues; he did not play before a large audience in Beijing again until 2005.
Cui has become known as the "Father of Chinese Rock", and "Nothing to My Name" has become his most famous song. It has been described as "the biggest hit in Chinese history" and the beginning of Chinese rock.
|
189,981 |
Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)
| 1,170,947,769 |
Symphony by Gustav Mahler
|
[
"1906 compositions",
"Choral symphonies",
"Compositions in E-flat major",
"Music based on Goethe's Faust",
"Music for orchestra and organ",
"Symphonies by Gustav Mahler"
] |
The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. As it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is normally presented with far fewer than a thousand performers and the composer did not sanction that name – actually, he disapproved of it. The work was composed in a single inspired burst at his Maiernigg villa in southern Austria in the summer of 1906. The last of Mahler's works that was premiered in his lifetime, the symphony was a critical and popular success when he conducted the Munich Philharmonic in its first performance, in Munich, on 12 September 1910.
The fusion of song and symphony had been a characteristic of Mahler's early works. In his "middle" compositional period after 1901, a change of style led him to produce three purely instrumental symphonies. The Eighth, marking the end of the middle period, returns to a combination of orchestra and voice in a symphonic context. The structure of the work is unconventional: instead of the normal framework of several movements, the piece is in two parts ("1." and "2. Teil"). Part I is based on the Latin text of Veni creator spiritus ("Come, Creator Spirit"), a ninth-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, and Part II is a setting of the words from the closing scene of Goethe's Faust. The two parts are unified by a common idea, that of redemption through the power of love, a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.
Mahler had been convinced from the start of the work's significance; in renouncing the pessimism that had marked much of his music, he offered the Eighth as an expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit. In the period following the composer's death, performances were comparatively rare. However, from the mid-20th century onwards the symphony has been heard regularly in concert halls all over the world, and has been recorded many times. While recognising its wide popularity, modern critics have divided opinions on the work; Theodor W. Adorno, Robert Simpson, and Jonathan Carr found its optimism unconvincing, and considered it artistically and musically inferior to Mahler's other symphonies. Conversely, it has been compared by Deryck Cooke to Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 as a defining human statement for its century.
## History
### Background
By the summer of 1906, Mahler had been director of the Vienna Hofoper for nine years. Throughout this time his practice was to leave Vienna at the close of the Hofoper season for a summer retreat, where he could devote himself to composition. Since 1899 this had been at Maiernigg, near the resort town of Maria Wörth in Carinthia, southern Austria, where Mahler built a villa overlooking the Wörthersee. In these restful surroundings Mahler completed his Symphonies No. 4, No. 5, No. 6 and No. 7, his Rückert songs and his song cycle Kindertotenlieder ("Songs on the Death of Children").
Until 1901, Mahler's compositions had been heavily influenced by the German folk-poem collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn ("The Youth's Magic Horn"), which he had first encountered around 1887. The music of Mahler's many Wunderhorn settings is reflected in his Symphonies No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4, which all employ vocal as well as instrumental forces. From about 1901, however, Mahler's music underwent a change in character as he moved into the middle period of his compositional life. Here, the more austere poems of Friedrich Rückert replace the Wunderhorn collection as the primary influence; the songs are less folk-related, and no longer infiltrate the symphonies as extensively as before. During this period Symphonies No. 5, No. 6 and No. 7 were written, all as purely instrumental works, portrayed by Mahler scholar Deryck Cooke as "more stern and forthright ..., more tautly symphonic, with a new granite-like hardness of orchestration".
Mahler arrived at Maiernigg in June 1906 with the draft manuscript of his Seventh Symphony; he intended to spend time revising the orchestration until an idea for a new work should strike. The composer's wife Alma Mahler, in her memoirs, says that for a fortnight Mahler was "haunted by the spectre of failing inspiration"; Mahler's recollection, however, is that on the first day of the vacation he was seized by the creative spirit, and plunged immediately into composition of the work that would become his Eighth Symphony.
### Composition
Two notes in Mahler's handwriting dating from June 1906 show that early schemes for the work, which he may not at first have intended as a fully choral symphony, were based on a four-movement structure in which two "hymns" surround an instrumental core. These outlines show that Mahler had fixed on the idea of opening with the Latin hymn, but had not yet settled on the precise form of the rest. The first note is as follows:
1. Hymn: Veni creator
2. Scherzo
3. Adagio: Caritas ("Christian love")
4. Hymn: Die Geburt des Eros ("The birth of Eros")
The second note includes musical sketches for the Veni creator movement, and two bars in B minor which are thought to relate to the Caritas. The four-movement plan is retained in a slightly different form, still without specific indication of the extent of the choral element:
1. Veni creator
2. Caritas
3. Weihnachtsspiele mit dem Kindlein ("Christmas games with the child")
4. Schöpfung durch Eros. Hymne ("Creation through Eros. Hymn")
From Mahler's later comments on the symphony's gestation, it is evident that the four-movement plan was relatively short-lived. He soon replaced the last three movements with a single section, essentially a dramatic cantata, based on the closing scenes of Goethe's Faust, the depiction of an ideal of redemption through eternal womanhood (das Ewige-Weibliche). Mahler had long nurtured an ambition to set the end of the Faust epic to music, "and to set it quite differently from other composers who have made it saccharine and feeble." In comments recorded by his biographer Richard Specht, Mahler makes no mention of the original four-movement plans. He told Specht that having chanced on the Veni creator hymn, he had a sudden vision of the complete work: "I saw the whole piece immediately before my eyes, and only needed to write it down as though it were being dictated to me."
The work was written at a frantic pace—"in record time", according to the musicologist Henry-Louis de La Grange. It was completed in all its essentials by mid-August, even though Mahler had to absent himself for a week to attend the Salzburg Festival. Mahler began composing the Veni creator hymn without waiting for the text to arrive from Vienna. When it did, according to Alma Mahler, "the complete text fitted the music exactly. Intuitively he had composed the music for the full strophes [verses]." Although amendments and alterations were subsequently carried out to the score, there is very little manuscript evidence of the sweeping changes and rewriting that occurred with his earlier symphonies as they were prepared for performance.
With its use of vocal elements throughout, rather than in episodes at or near the end, the work was the first completely choral symphony to be written. Mahler had no doubts about the ground-breaking nature of the symphony, calling it the grandest thing he had ever done, and maintaining that all his previous symphonies were merely preludes to it. "Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving." It was his "gift to the nation ... a great joy-bringer."
### Reception and performance history
#### Premiere
Mahler made arrangements with the impresario Emil Gutmann for the symphony to be premiered in Munich in the autumn of 1910. He soon regretted this involvement, writing of his fears that Gutmann would turn the performance into "a catastrophic Barnum and Bailey show". Preparations began early in the year, with the selection of choirs from the choral societies of Munich, Leipzig and Vienna. The Munich Zentral-Singschule provided 350 students for the children's choir. Meanwhile, Bruno Walter, Mahler's assistant at the Vienna Hofoper, was responsible for the recruitment and preparation of the eight soloists. Through the spring and summer these forces prepared in their home towns, before assembling in Munich early in September for three full days of final rehearsals under Mahler. His youthful assistant Otto Klemperer remarked later on the many small changes that Mahler made to the score during rehearsal: "He always wanted more clarity, more sound, more dynamic contrast. At one point during rehearsals he turned to us and said, 'If, after my death, something doesn't sound right, then change it. You have not only a right but a duty to do so.'"
For the premiere, fixed for 12 September, Gutmann had hired the newly built Neue Musik-Festhalle, in the Munich International Exhibition grounds near Theresienhöhe (now a branch of the Deutsches Museum). This vast hall had a capacity of 3,200; to assist ticket sales and raise publicity, Gutmann devised the nickname "Symphony of a Thousand", which has remained the symphony's popular subtitle despite Mahler's disapproval. Among the many distinguished figures present at the sold-out premiere were the composers Richard Strauss, Camille Saint-Saëns and Anton Webern; the writers Thomas Mann and Arthur Schnitzler; and the leading theatre director of the day, Max Reinhardt. Also in the audience was the 28-year-old British conductor Leopold Stokowski, who six years later would lead the first United States performance of the symphony.
Up to this time, receptions of Mahler's new symphonies had usually been disappointing. However, the Munich premiere of the Eighth Symphony was an unqualified triumph; as the final chords died away there was a short pause before a huge outbreak of applause which lasted for twenty minutes. Back at his hotel Mahler received a letter from Thomas Mann, which referred to the composer as "the man who, as I believe, expresses the art of our time in its profoundest and most sacred form".
The symphony's duration at its first performance was recorded by the critic-composer Julius Korngold as 85 minutes. This performance was the last time that Mahler conducted a premiere of one of his own works. Eight months after his Munich triumph, he died at the age of 50. His remaining works—Das Lied von der Erde ("The Song of the Earth"), his Symphony No. 9 and the unfinished Symphony No. 10—were all premiered after his death.
#### Subsequent performances
On the day following the Munich premiere Mahler led the orchestra and choruses in a repeat performance. During the next three years, according to the calculations of Mahler's friend Guido Adler the Eighth Symphony received a further 20 performances across Europe. These included the Dutch premiere, in Amsterdam under Willem Mengelberg on 12 March 1912, and the first Prague performance, given on 20 March 1912 under Mahler's former Vienna Hofoper colleague, Alexander von Zemlinsky. Vienna itself had to wait until 1918 before the symphony was heard there.
In the U.S., Leopold Stokowski persuaded an initially reluctant board of the Philadelphia Orchestra to finance the American premiere, which took place on 2 March 1916. The occasion was a great success; the symphony was played several more times in Philadelphia before the orchestra and choruses travelled to New York, for a series of equally well-received performances at the Metropolitan Opera House.
At the Amsterdam Mahler Festival in May 1920, Mahler's completed symphonies and his major song cycles were presented over nine concerts given by the Concertgebouw Orchestra and choruses, under Mengelberg's direction. The music critic Samuel Langford, who attended the occasion, commented that "we do not leave Amsterdam greatly envying the diet of Mahler first and every other composer afterward, to which Mengelberg is training the music-lovers of that city." The Austrian music historian Oscar Bie, while impressed with the festival as a whole, wrote subsequently that the Eighth was "stronger in effect than in significance, and purer in its voices than in emotion". Langford had commented on the British "not being very eager about Mahler", and the Eighth Symphony was not performed in Britain until 15 April 1930, when Sir Henry Wood presented it with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The work was played again eight years later by the same forces; among those present in the audience was the youthful composer Benjamin Britten. Impressed by the music, he nevertheless found the performance itself "execrable".
The years after World War II saw a number of notable performances of the Eighth Symphony, including Sir Adrian Boult's broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall on 10 February 1948, the Japanese premiere under Kazuo Yamada in Tokyo in December 1949, and the Australian premiere under Sir Eugene Goossens in 1951. A Carnegie Hall performance under Stokowski in 1950 became the first complete recording of the symphony to be issued. After 1950 the increasing numbers of performances and recordings of the work signified its growing popularity, but not all critics were won over. Theodor W. Adorno found the piece weak, "a giant symbolic shell"; this most affirmative work of Mahler's is, in Adorno's view, his least successful, musically and artistically inferior to his other symphonies. The composer-critic Robert Simpson, usually a champion of Mahler, referred to Part II as "an ocean of shameless kitsch." Mahler biographer Jonathan Carr finds much of the symphony "bland", lacking the tension and resolution present in the composer's other symphonies. Deryck Cooke, on the other hand, compares Mahler's Eighth to Beethoven's Choral (Ninth) Symphony. To Cooke, Mahler's is "the Choral Symphony of the twentieth century: like Beethoven's, but in a different way, it sets before us an ideal [of redemption] which we are as yet far from realising—even perhaps moving away from—but which we can hardly abandon without perishing".
In the late 20th century and into the 21st, the symphony was performed in all parts of the world. A succession of premieres in the Far East culminated in October 2002 in Beijing, when Long Yu led the China Philharmonic Orchestra in the first performance of the work in the People's Republic of China. The Sydney Olympic Arts Festival in August 2000 opened with a performance of the Eighth by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under its chief conductor Edo de Waart. The popularity of the work, and its heroic scale, meant that it was often used as a set piece on celebratory occasions; on 15 March 2008, Yoav Talmi led 200 instrumentalists and a choir of 800 in a performance in Quebec City, to mark the 400th anniversary of the city's foundation. In London on 16 July 2010 the opening concert of the BBC Proms celebrated the 150th anniversary of Mahler's birth with a performance of the Eighth, with Jiří Bělohlávek conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This performance was its eighth in the history of the Proms.
## Analysis
### Structure and form
The Eighth Symphony's two parts combine the sacred text of the 9th-century Latin hymn Veni creator spiritus with the secular text from the closing passages from Goethe's 19th-century dramatic poem Faust. Despite the evident disparities within this juxtaposition, the work as a whole expresses a single idea, that of redemption through the power of love. The choice of these two texts was not arbitrary; Goethe, a poet whom Mahler revered, believed that Veni creator embodied aspects of his own philosophy, and had translated it into German in 1820. Once inspired by the Veni creator idea, Mahler soon saw the Faust poem as an ideal counterpart to the Latin hymn. The unity between the two parts of the symphony is established, musically, by the extent to which they share thematic material. In particular, the first notes of the Veni creator theme —
E → B → A:
— dominate the climaxes to each part; at the symphony's culmination, Goethe's glorification of "Eternal Womanhood" is set in the form of a religious chorale.
In composing his score, Mahler temporarily abandoned the more progressive tonal elements which had appeared in his most recent works. The symphony's key is, for Mahler, unusually stable; despite frequent diversions into other keys the music always returns to its central E major. This is the first of his works in which familiar fingerprints—birdsong, military marches, Austrian dances—are almost entirely absent. Although the vast choral and orchestral forces employed suggest a work of monumental sound, according to critic Michael Kennedy "the predominant expression is not of torrents of sound but of the contrasts of subtle tone-colours and the luminous quality of the scoring".
For Part I, most modern commentators accept the sonata-form outline that was discerned by early analysts. The structure of Part II is more difficult to summarise, being an amalgam of many genres. Analysts, including Specht, Cooke and Paul Bekker, have identified Adagio, Scherzo and Finale "movements" within the overall scheme of Part II, though others, including La Grange and Donald Mitchell, find little to sustain this division. The musicologist Ortrun Landmann has suggested that the formal scheme for Part II, after the orchestral introduction, is a sonata plan without the recapitulation, consisting of exposition, development and conclusion.
### Part I: Veni creator spiritus
Mitchell describes Part I as resembling a giant motet, and argues that a key to its understanding is to read it as Mahler's attempt to emulate the polyphony of Bach's great motets, specifically Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied ("Sing to the Lord a new song"). The symphony begins with a single tonic chord in E major, sounded on the organ, before the entry of the massed choirs in a fortissimo invocation: "Veni, veni creator spiritus".
The three note "creator" motif is immediately taken up by the trombones and then the trumpets in a marching theme that will be used as a unifying factor throughout the work.
After their first declamatory statement the two choirs engage in a sung dialogue, which ends with a short transition to an extended lyrical passage, the plea "Imple superna gratia" ("Fill with divine grace").
Here, what Kennedy calls "the unmistakable presence of twentieth-century Mahler" is felt as a solo soprano introduces a meditative theme. She is soon joined by other solo voices as the new theme is explored before the choirs return exuberantly, in an A episode in which the soloists compete with the choral masses.
In the next section, "Infirma nostri corporis / virtute firmans perpeti" ("Our weak frames fortify with thine eternal strength"), the tonic key of E major returns with a variation of the opening theme. The section is interrupted by a short orchestral interlude in which the low bells are sounded, adding a sombre touch to the music. This new, less secure mood is carried through when "Infirma nostri corporis" resumes, this time without the choruses, in a subdued D minor echo of the initial invocation.
At the end of this episode another transition precedes the "unforgettable surge in E major", in which the entire body of choral forces declaims "Accende lumen sensibus" ("Illuminate our senses").
The first children's chorus follows, in a joyful mood, as the music gathers force and pace. This is a passage of great complexity, in the form of a double fugue involving development of many of the preceding themes, with constant changes to the key signature. All forces combine again in the recapitulation of the Veni creator section in shortened form. A quieter passage of recapitulation leads to an orchestral coda before the children's chorus announces the doxology Gloria sit Patri Domino ("Glory be to God the Father").
Thereafter the music moves swiftly and powerfully to its climax, in which an offstage brass ensemble bursts forth with the "Accende" theme while the main orchestra and choruses end on a triumphant rising scale.
### Part II: Closing scene from Goethe's Faust
`The second part of the symphony follows the narrative of the final stages in Goethe's poem—the journey of Faust's soul, rescued from the clutches of Mephistopheles, on to its final ascent into heaven. Landmann's proposed sonata structure for the movement is based on a division, after an orchestral prelude, into five sections which he identifies musically as an exposition, three development episodes, and a finale.`
The long orchestral prelude (166 bars) is in E minor and, in the manner of an operatic overture, anticipates several of the themes which will be heard later in the movement. The exposition begins in near-silence; the scene depicted is that of a rocky, wooded mountainside, the dwelling place of anchorites whose utterances are heard in an atmospheric chorus complete with whispers and echoes.
A solemn baritone solo, the voice of Pater Ecstaticus, ends warmly as the key changes to the major when the trumpets sound the "Accende" theme from Part I. This is followed by a demanding and dramatic aria for bass, the voice of Pater Profundus, who ends his tortured meditation by asking for God's mercy on his thoughts and for enlightenment. The repeated chords in this section are reminiscent of Richard Wagner's Parsifal. The mood lightens with the entry of the angels and blessed boys (women's and children's choruses) bearing the soul of Faust; the music here is perhaps a relic of the "Christmas Games" scherzo envisioned in the abortive four-movement draft plan.
The atmosphere is festive, with triumphant shouts of "Jauchzet auf!" ("Rejoice!") before the exposition ends in a postlude which refers to the "Infirma nostri corporis" music from Part I.
The first phase of development begins as a women's chorus of the younger angels invoke a "happy company of blessed children" who must bear Faust's soul heavenwards. The blessed boys receive the soul gladly; their voices are joined by Doctor Marianus (tenor), who accompanies their chorus before breaking into a rapturous E major paean to the Mater Gloriosa, "Queen and ruler of the world!". As the aria ends, the male voices in the chorus echo the soloist's words to an orchestral background of viola tremolos, in a passage described by La Grange as "emotionally irresistible".
In the second part of the development, the entry of the Mater Gloriosa is signalled in E major by a sustained harmonium chord, with harp arpeggios played over a pianissimo violin melody which La Grange labels the "love" theme.
Thereafter the key changes frequently as a chorus of penitent women petition the Mater for a hearing; this is followed by the solo entreaties of Magna Peccatrix, Mulier Samaritana and Maria Aegyptiaca. In these arias the "love" theme is further explored, and the "scherzo" theme associated with the first appearance of the angels returns. These two motifs predominate in the trio which follows, a request to the Mater on behalf of a fourth penitent, Faust's lover once known as Gretchen, who has come to make her plea for the soul of Faust. After Gretchen's entreaty, a solo of "limpid beauty" in Kennedy's words, an atmosphere of hushed reverence descends. The Mater Gloriosa then sings her only two lines, in the symphony's opening key of E major, permitting Gretchen to lead the soul of Faust into heaven.
The final development episode is a hymnlike tenor solo and chorus, in which Doctor Marianus calls on the penitents to "Gaze aloft".
A short orchestral passage follows, scored for an eccentric chamber group consisting of piccolo, flute, clarinet, harmonium, celesta, piano, harps and a string quartet. This acts as a transition to the finale, the Chorus Mysticus, which begins in E major almost imperceptibly—Mahler's notation here is Wie ein Hauch, "like a breath".
The sound rises in a gradual crescendo, as the solo voices alternately join or contrast with the chorus. As the climax approaches, many themes are reprised: the love theme, Gretchen's song, the "Accende" from Part I. Finally, as the chorus concludes with "The eternal feminine draws us on high", the off-stage brass re-enters with a final salute on the Veni creator motif, to end the symphony with a triumphant flourish.
## Instrumentation
### Orchestra
The symphony is scored for a very large orchestra, in keeping with Mahler's conception of the work as a "new symphonic universe", a synthesis of symphony, cantata, oratorio, motet, and lied in a combination of styles. La Grange comments: "To give expression to his cosmic vision, it was ... necessary to go beyond all previously known limits and dimensions." The orchestral forces required are, however, not as large as those deployed in Arnold Schoenberg's oratorio Gurre-Lieder, completed in 1911. The orchestra consists of:
- Woodwinds
- 2 piccolos (1st doubling 5th flute)
- 4 flutes
- 4 oboes
- cor anglais
- 3 B clarinets
- E clarinet
- bass clarinet
- 4 bassoons
- contrabassoon
- Brass
- 8 horns
- 8 trumpets (four offstage)
- 7 trombones (three offstage)
- tuba
- Percussion
- 4 timpani
- bass drum
- cymbals
- triangle
- tam-tam
- 2 tuned bells in A and A
- glockenspiel (used only in part II)
- Keyboards
- organ
- celesta (used only in part II)
- piano (used only in part II)
- harmonium (used only in part II)
- Strings
- mandolin (used only in part II)
- 2 harps (preferably doubled, used only in part II)
- 1st violins
- 2nd violins
- violas
- cellos
- double basses
Mahler recommended that in very large halls, the first player in each of the woodwind sections should be doubled and that numbers in the strings should also be augmented. In addition, the piccolos, harps and mandolin, and the first offstage trumpet, should have "several to the part" ("mehrfach besetzt").
### Choral and vocal forces
- 3 soprano solos (3rd used only in part II)
- 2 alto solos
- tenor solo
- baritone solo
- bass solo
- 2 SATB choirs
- children's choir
In Part II the soloists are assigned to dramatic roles represented in Goethe's text, as illustrated in the following table.
La Grange draws attention to the notably high tessitura for the sopranos, for soloists and for choral singers. He characterises the alto solos as brief and unremarkable; however, the tenor solo role in Part II is both extensive and demanding, requiring on several occasions to be heard over the choruses. The wide melodic leaps in the Pater Profundus role present particular challenges to the bass soloist.
## Publication
Only one autograph score of Symphony No. 8 is known to exist. Once the property of Alma Mahler, it is held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. In 1906 Mahler signed a contract with the Viennese publishing firm Universal Edition (UE), which thus became the main publisher of all his works. The full orchestral score of the Symphony was published by UE in 1912. A Russian version, published in Moscow by Izdatel'stvo Muzyka in 1976, was republished in the United States by Dover Publications in 1989, with an English text and notes. The International Gustav Mahler Society, founded in 1955, has as its main objective the production of a complete critical edition of all of Mahler's works. As of 2016 its critical edition of the Eighth remains a project for the future.
## Recordings
Sir Adrian Boult's 1948 broadcast performance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was recorded by the BBC, but not issued until 2009 when it was made available in MP3 form. The first commercially issued recording of the complete symphony was performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Eduard Flipse. It was recorded live by Philips at the 1954 Holland Festival. In 1962, the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein made the first stereo recording of Part I for Columbia Records. This was followed in 1964 by the first stereo recording of the complete symphony, performed by the Utah Symphony conducted by Maurice Abravanel.
Since the symphony was first recorded, at least 70 recordings have been made by many of the world's leading orchestras and singers, mostly during live performances.
|
302,600 |
Gyromitra esculenta
| 1,168,730,975 |
Species of fungus
|
[
"Deadly fungi",
"Discinaceae",
"Edible fungi",
"Finnish cuisine",
"Fungi described in 1800",
"Fungi of Europe",
"Fungi of North America",
"Taxa named by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon"
] |
Gyromitra esculenta /ˌdʒaɪroʊˈmaɪtrə ˌɛskjəˈlɛntə, ˌdʒɪrə-/ is an ascomycete fungus from the genus Gyromitra, widely distributed across Europe and North America. It normally fruits in sandy soils under coniferous trees in spring and early summer. The fruiting body, or mushroom, is an irregular brain-shaped cap dark brown in colour that can reach 10 centimetres (4 inches) high and 15 cm (6 in) wide, perched on a stout white stipe up to 6 cm (2+1⁄2 in) high.
Although potentially fatal if eaten raw, Gyromitra esculenta is a popular delicacy in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and the upper Great Lakes region of North America. Although popular in some districts of the eastern Pyrenees, it is prohibited from sale to the public in Spain. It may be sold fresh in Finland, but it must be accompanied by warnings and instructions on correct preparation.
Although it is still commonly parboiled before preparation, evidence suggests that even this procedure may not make Gyromitra esculenta entirely safe for consumption. When consumed, the principal active agent, gyromitrin, is hydrolyzed into the toxic compound monomethylhydrazine (MMH), a type of rocket fuel. The toxin affects the liver, central nervous system, and sometimes the kidneys. Symptoms of poisoning involve vomiting and diarrhea several hours after consumption, followed by dizziness, lethargy and headache. Severe cases may lead to delirium, coma and death after five to seven days.
## Taxonomy and naming
The fungus was first described in 1800, by mycologist Christian Hendrik Persoon, as Helvella esculenta, and gained its current accepted binomial name when the Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries placed it in the genus Gyromitra in 1849. The genus name is derived from the Greek terms gyros/γυρος "round" and mitra/μιτρα "headband". Its specific epithet is derived from the Latin esculentus, "edible".
It is known by a variety of common descriptive names such as "brain mushroom", "turban fungus", elephant ears, or "beefsteak mushroom/morel", although beefsteak mushroom can also refer to the much less toxic basidiomycete Fistulina hepatica. Dating from the 19th century, the German term lorchel is a result of the older lorche, itself from the 18th century Low German Lorken, aligning with the similar-sounding (and similar-looking) morchel.
Gyromitra esculenta is a member of a group of fungi known as "false morels", so named for their resemblance to the highly regarded true morels of the genus Morchella. The grouping includes other species of the genus Gyromitra, such as G. infula (elfin saddle), G. caroliniana and G. gigas (snow morel). While some of these species contain little to no gyromitrin, many guidebooks recommend treating them all as poisonous, since their similar appearance and significant intraspecific variation can make reliable identification difficult. The toxic qualities of G. esculenta may be reduced by cooking, but possibly not enough to prevent poisoning from repeated consumption.
The more distantly related ascomycete mushrooms of the genus Verpa, such as V. bohemica and V. conica, are also known as false morels, early morels or thimble morels; like the Gyromitra, they are eaten by some and considered poisonous by others.
The genus Gyromitra had been classically considered part of the family Helvellaceae, along with the similar-looking elfin saddles of the genus Helvella. Analysis of the ribosomal DNA of many of the Pezizales showed Gyromitra esculenta and the other false morels to be only distantly related to the other members of the Helvellaceae and instead most closely related to the genus Discina, forming a clade which also contains Pseudorhizina and Hydnotrya. Thus the four genera are now included in the family Discinaceae.
## Description
Resembling a brain, the irregularly shaped cap may be up to 10 cm (4 in) high and 15 cm (6 in) wide. Initially smooth, it becomes progressively more wrinkled as it grows and ages. The cap colour may be various shades of reddish-, chestnut-, purplish-, bay-, dark or sometimes golden-brown; it darkens to black in age. Specimens from California may have more reddish-brown caps. Attached to the cap at several points, the stipe is 3–6 cm (1–2+1⁄2 in) high and 1–5 cm (1⁄2–2 in) wide. Gyromitra esculenta has been reported to have a solid stipe whereas those of true morels (Morchella spp.) are hollow, although a modern source says it is hollow as well. The smell can be pleasant and has been described as fruity, and the fungus is mild-tasting. The spore print is whitish, with transparent spores that are elliptical and 17–22 μm in length.
### Similar species
Gyromitra esculenta resembles the various species of true morel, although the latter are more symmetric and look more like pitted gray, tan, or brown sponges. Its cap is generally darker and larger.
Gyromitra gigas, G. infula and G. ambigua in particular are similar. The latter two are toxic to humans.
## Distribution and habitat
Gyromitra esculenta grows on sandy soil in Temperate coniferous forest and occasionally in deciduous woodlands. Among conifers it is mostly found under pines (Pinus spp.), but also sometimes under aspen (Populus spp.). The hunting period is from April to July, earlier than for other species, and the fungus may even sprout up with the melting snow. It can be abundant in some years and rare in others. The mushroom is more commonly found in places where ground has been disturbed, such as openings, rivulets, washes, timber clearings, plowed openings, forest fire clearings, and roadsides. Enthusiasts in Finland have been reported burying newspaper inoculated with the fungus in the ground in autumn and returning the following spring to collect mushrooms.
Although more abundant in montane and northern coniferous woodlands such as the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range in northwestern North America, Gyromitra esculenta is found widely across the continent, as far south as Mexico. It is also common in Central Europe, less abundant in the east, and more in montane areas than lowlands. It has been recorded from Northern Ireland, from Uşak Province in Western Turkey, and from the vicinity of Kaş in the Antalya Province of Turkey's southern coast.
## Toxicity
Toxic reactions have been known for at least a hundred years. Experts speculated the reaction was more of an allergic one specific to the consumer, or a misidentification, rather than innate toxicity of the fungus, due to the wide range in effects seen. Some would suffer severely or perish while others exhibited no symptoms after eating similar amounts of mushrooms from the same dish. Yet others would be not poisoned after eating Gyromitra esculenta for many years However, the fungus is now widely recognized as potentially deadly.
Gyromitra esculenta contains levels of the poison gyromitrin that vary locally among populations; although these mushrooms are only rarely involved in poisonings in either North America or western Europe, intoxications are seen frequently in eastern Europe and Scandinavia. A 1971 Polish study reported at the time that the species accounted for up to 23% of mushroom fatalities each year. Death rates have dropped since the mid-twentieth century; in Sweden poisoning is common, though life-threatening poisonings have not been detected and there was no fatality reported over the 50 years from 1952 to 2002. Gyromitra poisonings are rare in Spain, due to the widespread practice of drying the mushrooms before preparation and consumption, but has a mortality rate of about 25%.
A lethal dose of gyromitrin has been estimated to be 10–30 mg/kg for children and 20–50 mg/kg in adults. These doses correspond to around 0.2–0.6 kg (7 oz – 1 lb 5 oz) and 0.4–1 kg (14 oz – 2 lb 3 oz) of fresh mushroom respectively. Evidence suggests that children are more severely affected; it is unclear whether this is due to a larger weight consumed per body mass ratio or to differences in enzyme and metabolic activity.
### Geographical variation
Populations of Gyromitra esculenta appear to vary geographically in their toxicity. A French study has shown that mushrooms collected at higher altitudes have lower concentrations of toxin than those from lower elevations, and there is some evidence that fungi west of the Rocky Mountains in North America contain less toxin than those to the east. However, poisonings in the west have been reported, although less frequently than in Europe.
### Biochemistry
The identity of the toxic constituents eluded researchers until 1968, when acetaldehyde N-methyl-N-formylhydrazone, better known as gyromitrin, was isolated. Gyromitrin is a volatile water-soluble hydrazine compound hydrolyzed in the body into N-methyl-N-formylhydrazine (MFH) then monomethylhydrazine (MMH). Other N-methyl-N-formylhydrazone derivatives, such as, have been isolated in subsequent research, although they are present in smaller amounts. These other compounds would also produce monomethylhydrazine when hydrolyzed, although it remains unclear how much each contributes to the false morel's toxicity.
The toxins react with pyridoxal-5-phosphate—the activated form of pyridoxine (vitamin B<sub>6</sub>)—and form a hydrazone. This reduces production of the neurotransmitter GABA via decreased activity of glutamic acid decarboxylase, producing the neurological symptoms. MMH also causes oxidative stress leading to methemoglobinemia. Inhibition of diamine oxidase (histaminase) elevates histamine levels resulting in headaches, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.
MFH, as a mushroom component and an intermediary product of gyromitrin hydrolysis, has toxicities of its own. MFH undergoes cytochrome P450-regulated oxidative metabolism which, via reactive nitrosamide intermediates, leads to formation of methyl radicals which lead to liver necrosis.
### Symptoms
The symptoms of poisoning are typically gastrointestinal and neurological. Symptoms occur within 6–12 hours of consumption, although cases of more severe poisoning may present sooner—as little as 2 hours after ingestion. Initial symptoms are gastrointestinal, with sudden onset of nausea, vomiting, and watery diarrhea which may be bloodstained. Dehydration may develop if the vomiting or diarrhea is severe. Dizziness, lethargy, vertigo, tremor, ataxia, nystagmus, and headaches develop soon after; fever often occurs, a distinctive feature which does not develop after poisoning by other types of mushrooms. In most cases of poisoning, symptoms do not progress from these initial symptoms, and patients recover after 2–6 days of illness.
In some cases there may be an asymptomatic phase following the initial symptoms which is then followed by more significant toxicity including kidney damage, liver damage, and neurological dysfunction including seizures and coma. These signs usually develop within 1–3 days in serious cases. The patient develops jaundice and the liver and spleen become enlarged, in some cases blood sugar levels will rise (hyperglycemia) and then fall (hypoglycemia) and liver toxicity is seen. Additionally intravascular hemolysis causes destruction of red blood cells resulting in increase in free hemoglobin and hemoglobinuria which can lead to renal toxicity or kidney failure. Methemoglobinemia may also occur in some cases. This is where higher than normal levels of methemoglobin, which is a form of hemoglobin that can not carry oxygen, are found in the blood. It causes the patient to become short of breath and cyanotic. Cases of severe poisoning may progress to a terminal neurological phase, with delirium, muscle fasciculations and seizures, and mydriasis progressing to coma, circulatory collapse, and respiratory arrest. Death may occur from five to seven days after consumption.
### Treatment
Treatment is mainly supportive; gastric decontamination with activated charcoal may be beneficial if medical attention is sought within a few hours of consumption. However, symptoms often take longer than this to develop, and patients do not usually present for treatment until many hours after ingestion, thus limiting its effectiveness. Patients with severe vomiting or diarrhea can be rehydrated with intravenous fluids. Monitoring of biochemical parameters such as methemoglobin levels, electrolytes, liver and kidney function, urinalysis, and complete blood count is undertaken and any abnormalities are corrected. Dialysis can be used if kidney function is impaired or the kidneys are failing. Hemolysis may require a blood transfusion to replace the lost red blood cells, while methemoglobinemia is treated with intravenous methylene blue.
Pyridoxine, also known as vitamin B6, can be used to counteract the inhibition by MMH on the pyridoxine-dependent step in the synthesis of the neurotransmitter GABA. Thus GABA synthesis can continue and symptoms are relieved. Pyridoxine, which is only useful for the neurological symptoms and does not decrease hepatic toxicity, is given at a dose of 25 mg/kg; this can be repeated up to a maximum total of 15 to 30 g daily if symptoms do not improve. Benzodiazepines are given to control seizures; as they also modulate GABA receptors they may potentially increase the effect of pyridoxine. Additionally MMH inhibits the chemical transformation of folic acid into its active form, folinic acid, this can be treated by folinic acid given at 20–200 mg daily.
### Long-term effects
#### ALS
Lagrange et al. presented in 2018 a link between life-long foraging for Gyromitra esculenta and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in French Alps populations. Similar ALS clusters possibly related to mushrooms are found near Aosta Valley (Italy), in Sardinia, and in Michigan.
#### Carcinogenicity
Monomethylhydrazine, gyromitrin, raw Gyromitra esculenta, and N-methyl-N-formylhydrazine have been shown to be carcinogenic in experimental animals. Although Gyromitra esculenta has not been observed to cause cancer in humans, it is possible there is a carcinogenic risk for people who ingest these types of mushrooms. Even small amounts may have a carcinogenic effect. At least 11 different hydrazones have been isolated from Gyromitra esculenta, and it is not known if all potential carcinogens can be completely removed by parboiling.
## Consumption
Despite its recognized toxicity, Gyromitra esculenta is marketed and consumed in several countries or states in Europe and North America. It was previously consumed in Germany, with fungi picked in and exported from Poland; more recently, however, Germany and Switzerland discouraged consumption by prohibiting its sale. Similarly in Sweden, the Swedish National Food Administration warns that it is not fit for human consumption, and restricts purchase of fresh mushrooms to restaurants alone. The mushroom is still highly regarded and consumed in Bulgaria, being sold in markets and picked for export there. In some countries such as Spain, especially in the eastern Pyrenees, they are traditionally considered a delicacy, and many people report consuming them for many years with no ill effects. Despite this, the false morel is listed as hazardous in official mushroom lists published by the Catalan Government and sale to the public is prohibited throughout Spain. Outside of Europe, Gyromitra esculenta is consumed in the Great Lakes region and some western states in the United States.
Selling and purchasing fresh false morels is legal in Finland, where it is highly regarded. However, the mushrooms are required by law to be accompanied with a warning that they are poisonous and legally prescribed preparation instructions. False morels are also sold prepared and canned, in which case they are ready to be used. Official figures from the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry report a total amount of false morels sold in Finland of 21.9 tonnes in 2006 and 32.7 tonnes, noted as being above average, in 2007. In 2002, the Finnish Food Safety Authority estimated annual consumption of false morels to be hundreds of tonnes in plentiful years. In Finnish cuisine, false morels may be cooked in an omelette, or gently sautéed in butter in a saucepan, flour and milk added to make a béchamel sauce, or pie filling. Alternatively, more fluid can be added for a false morel soup. Typical condiments added for flavour include parsley, chives, dill and black pepper.
While cooking the fungus expels the toxins, the cook can inhale them through steam.
### Controversies
In 2015, Swedish chef caused a controversy when he prepared a dish with Gyromitra esculenta in a TV show. Mushroom expert Monica Svensson criticized him for including it, because of the mushroom's carcinogenic substances and the risk that inexperienced people might misinterpret the recipe and omit the steps that reduce the toxicity level. She also expressed criticism to Per Morberg for similar reasons. Paul Svensson said that he was not aware of the carcinogenic effects and apologized afterwards, and he promised to remove the mushroom from his dishes.
### Preparation
Most of the gyromitrin must be removed to render false morels edible. The recommended procedure involves either first drying and then boiling the mushrooms, or boiling the fresh mushrooms directly. To prepare fresh mushroom it is recommended that they are cut into small pieces and parboiled twice in copious amounts of water, at least three parts water to one part chopped mushrooms, for at least five minutes, after each boiling the mushroom should be rinsed thoroughly in clean water. Each round of parboiling reduces the gyromitrin contents to a tenth. The gyromitrin is leached into the water where it will remain, therefore the parboiling water must be discarded and replaced with fresh water after each round of boiling. However, it is still recommended that the mushroom be boiled after drying.
MMH boils at 87.5 °C (190 °F) and thus readily vaporizes into the air when water containing fresh false morels is boiled. Poorly ventilated spaces allow vapor to accumulate, resulting in gyromitrin poisoning. If boiling the mushrooms indoors, care should be taken to ensure adequate ventilation, and, if symptoms of gyromitrin poisoning appear, immediately seek fresh air. Even after boiling, small amounts of gyromitrin remain in the mushrooms. Given the possibility of accumulation of toxins, repeated consumption is not recommended.
### Prospects for cultivation
Strains with much lower concentrations of gyromitrin have been discovered, and the fungus has been successfully grown to fruiting in culture. Thus there is scope for future research into cultivation of safer strains.
## See also
- List of deadly fungi
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35,547,704 |
God of War: Ascension
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2013 video game
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God of War: Ascension is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). The game was first released on March 12, 2013, for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. It is the seventh installment in the God of War series and a prequel to the entire series. Loosely based on Greek mythology, it is set in ancient Greece with vengeance as its central motif. The player controls the protagonist, Kratos, the former servant of the God of War Ares, who tricked Kratos into killing his wife and daughter. In response to this tragedy, Kratos renounced Ares, breaking his blood oath to the god. Kratos was, therefore, imprisoned and tortured by the three Furies, guardians of honor and enforcers of punishment. Helped by the oath keeper, Orkos, Kratos escapes his imprisonment and confronts the Furies, aiming to free himself of his bond to Ares.
The gameplay is similar to previous installments, focusing on combo-based combat with the player's main weapon, the Blades of Chaos, and other weapons acquired by the game's World Weapons mechanic. It continues the use of quick time events from previous entries but also utilizes a promptless free-form system. Four magical attacks and a power-enhancing ability can be used as alternative combat options, and the game features puzzles and platforming elements. The game also features a redesigned combat system, gameplay mechanics not available in previous installments, and downloadable content. Notably, Ascension is the only installment in the series to include multiplayer, which is online-only and features modes for both competitive and cooperative play. From October 2012 to March 2013, a social experience was available online in the form of a graphic novel titled Rise of the Warrior, a prequel story that tied into the game's single-player and multiplayer modes. Ascension was the last game in the series (production-wise; chronologically it was God of War III) to be based on Greek mythology and also the last one to feature Terrence C. Carson as the voice of Kratos as the franchise shifted to Norse mythology with 2018's God of War and Christopher Judge took over the role of Kratos.
God of War: Ascension received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its fundamental gameplay and spectacle as true to the series, although the story was deemed to be less compelling than in previous installments. The game's multiplayer element received mixed responses: although reviewers found that the gameplay translated well into the multiplayer setting, they criticized the balance and depth of combat. Ascension sold less well than its predecessor, with only 3 million copies sold and received no awards, but it did however, receive several nominations, including "Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing" at the Writers Guild of America Videogame Awards and the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences award for "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design".
## Gameplay
In both of God of War: Ascension's single-player and multiplayer elements, it is primarily a third-person video game viewed from a fixed camera perspective. Some scenes in the single-player campaign feature a first-person camera view. In single-player mode, the player controls the character Kratos in combo-based combat, platforming, and puzzle games. The enemies are an assortment of creatures, most of whom are drawn from Greek mythology, including cyclopes, cerberuses, empusas, Sirens, Gorgons, satyrs, harpies, and centaurs. Other monsters were created specifically for the game, such as the juggernauts, wraiths, and manticores. Many of the monsters also appear in the multiplayer mode. Platforming elements require the player to climb walls and ladders, jump across chasms, and slide down walls to proceed through sections of the game. The game features a variety of puzzles, ranging from simple to complex.
### Combat
Kratos' main weapon is the Blades of Chaos, a pair of short swords attached to chains that are wrapped around his wrists and forearms. In gameplay, the blades can be swung offensively in various maneuvers. Introduced in Ascension is a weapons mechanic called the World Weapon system and it allows Kratos to pick up weapons scattered throughout game locations or to take them from defeated foes, and to use these for a limited time. There are five World Weapons (sword, club, javelin, sling, shield) that can be collected randomly, although Kratos may possess only one at any time. When a World Weapon is not equipped, Kratos may punch or kick foes as part of the reworked combat system. Another mechanic introduced is that Kratos can tether enemies, referred to as grappling; he can hold an enemy in place with one blade while he attacks other enemies with the other blade, and he can throw the tethered enemy.
Four magical disciplines are acquired, including the Fire of Ares, the Ice of Poseidon, the Lightning of Zeus, and the Soul of Hades, which, depending on the magic equipped, imbues the Blades of Chaos with that elemental property. For example, the Soul of Hades imbues the Blades with purple flames and can unleash souls of the Underworld to briefly attack enemies. The Ice of Poseidon also enables Kratos to breathe underwater, a necessary ability as substantial time is spent there. The Rage ability called Rage of the Gods that was featured in previous games is included, but in this game, its meter is filled by landing attacks on enemies and the ability is automatically activated once the meter has reached maximum capacity. It remains activated until Kratos is attacked or stops attacking for an extended period of time, after which, the meter must be refilled. The Rage ability is also affected by the magic equipped, allowing Kratos to use different Rage attacks, such as the lightning-based Rage of Zeus.
Three relics, the Amulet of Uroborus (Life Cycle mechanic), the Oath Stone of Orkos, and the Eyes of Truth, are acquired and needed for game progression. The Amulet of Uroborus allows Kratos to manipulate time by decaying or healing an object; examples include reconstructing broken pathways and using it during puzzle-solving. Construction can be paused or reversed if needed. The amulet can also be used against enemies to briefly slow their movements. The Oath Stone of Orkos gives Kratos the ability to create a "shadow" duplicate of himself that can depress plates, hold levers, or attack enemies. The Eyes of Truth remove illusions created by the Furies and cast a blinding light on enemies. As well as the quick time event (QTE) mechanic featured in the previous games, Ascension added a promptless free-form system that allows players to choose when to attack or dodge based on the enemy's actions. When certain foes, such as a cyclops or a juggernaut, have been sufficiently weakened, the player may jump on their back and briefly force them to attack other foes.
Other extra features include ten artifacts hidden in the game world that provide more abilities during New Game Plus, such as unlimited magic. This mode also allows players to change Kratos' costume, but trophies are disabled. A feature absent from previous installments but added in Ascension is "Chapter Select", which allows players to select and replay previously completed levels. Unlike previous installments, in which behind-the-scenes videos are unlocked after completing the game, these videos are already available from the main menu.
### Multiplayer
God of War: Ascension is the only installment in the series to offer a multiplayer feature, which is online-only, and up to eight players can take part. Before entering multiplayer battles, each player is introduced to a warrior, who, like Kratos, is an oath-breaker and is imprisoned in the Prison of the Damned—the warrior's backstory is explored in Rise of the Warrior. The player takes control of the warrior and aligns with one of the four deities: Ares, Hades, Zeus, or Poseidon. The main objective for players is to take control of a map to earn rewards from the gods. Each god offers a unique combat play-style and in-battle abilities. The attack style of the god with whom the player aligns is critical to their warrior's path. Players who ally with Ares are brute force experts with an up-close focus. Players who ally with Zeus are magical experts with a focus on space control. Players who ally with Poseidon are supports with a focus on team synergy and self-sustenance. Players who ally with Hades are versatile, unlike the other three, featuring other unique mechanics such as lifesteal, stealth, and curses. Players can create a total of four warriors to have a champion representing each god.
Players can unlock special magic abilities, new and upgraded armor, weapons, relics, and other treasures as they earn experience points (XP) to level-up their warrior. Players may also complete "Labors", which are challenges from the gods that rewards armor and weapons. Throughout multiplayer matches, players receive buffs and debuffs, and there is a color-coding system, called flashes, where a player's character will flash a certain color indicating a special property, such as vulnerability or invulnerability. A prestige feature called "Ascension", added in the June 10, 2013 update, allows players to reset their allegiance progression when they reach Level 40, and receive in-game currency for "Godly" armor and weapons—the "most valuable and powerful items in the game". They are classified as a Hero the first time they ascend and then a Demigod the second time and keep that title from then on.
There are five multiplayer modes: Team Favor of the Gods, Match of Champions, Trial of the Gods, Capture the Flag, and Bout of Honor. Team matches randomly assign players to compete on either the Spartan or Trojan team. The "signature" multiplayer mode is Team Favor of the Gods, in which two teams of two-to-four players try to win by accumulating a target quantity of points. Points, known as Favor, are earned by killing and other methods. When players are not on the offensive, they may help their team earn points by capturing altars, collecting red orbs from chests, and setting traps for opposing players. The non-team version, Match of Champions, is a four-to-eight-player deathmatch with a similar goal to Team Favor of the Gods. Trial of the Gods is a two-player, cooperative (co-op), time-trial mode in which the duo faces five waves of mythological monsters concluding with a boss fight. A single-player version is also available. In Capture the Flag, two teams of four players battle to capture the opposing team's flag and return it to their base until a target number of flags have been obtained. In Bout of Honor, added in the July 11, 2013 update, players test their skills in a best-of-seven-rounds one-on-one fight.
All but two of the fifteen multiplayer maps are based on locations explored throughout the God of War series, with eight of those based on locations explored in Ascension; for example, Desert of Lost Souls is from the original God of War, Bog of the Forgotten is from God of War II, and Labyrinth of Daedalus, Forum of Hercules, and Chamber of the Flame are from God of War III. The two original maps are the Coliseum of Persia and the Walls of Troy (which features the Trojan Horse). Every map features special power-ups awarded by the gods for earning points, such as the Boots of Hermes for acceleration and running attacks. Maps also have environmental obstacles or objectives to complete for more points. For example, on the Desert of Lost Souls map, the cyclops Polyphemus may attack nearby players and killing him with the Spear of Olympus will grant bonus points for that team.
## Synopsis
### Setting
As with previous games, God of War: Ascension is set in an alternate version of ancient Greece populated by the Olympian gods, Titans, and other beings from Greek mythology. Game events are set six months after Kratos killed his family, and ten years before the original God of War (2005). The next game chronologically would be Chains of Olympus (2008), which takes place some time between Ascension and God of War (2005). The game's narrative takes place over four weeks; it shifts between the present (the fourth week) and past (the preceding three weeks), while the player controls Kratos in both. Several locations, including the Prison of the Damned and some real-world locations—including the village Kirra, the city Delphi, and the island Delos—are explored in the game.
The Prison of the Damned is the Furies' massive prison to house all oath-breakers. Kirra is an abandoned village that lost its water supply after its water wheel and aqueduct were destroyed. Other than monsters, the only life is in its harbor, where the tamed Harbor Master guides vessels in and out of the port. Delphi is located in the snowy mountains north of Kirra and features the Tower of Delphi. After activating three massive, mechanical pythons, the Tower allows access to the Temple of Delphi, home of the Oracle. Delos features a Titan-sized statue of Apollo, constructed by the inventor Archimedes to honor the god.
### Characters
The game's protagonist is Kratos (voiced by Terrence C. Carson), a Spartan warrior who broke his blood oath to the god Ares after being tricked into killing his family by his former master. The main antagonists are the three Furies: Megaera (Nika Futterman), Tisiphone (Debi Mae West), and the Fury Queen, Alecto (Jennifer Hale). The Furies are the guardians of honor and the bane of traitors, who punish those they deem guilty. They were spawned from the eons-long war between the Primordials, the beings who created the Earth. Other characters include the oath keeper Orkos (Troy Baker), the son of Ares and Alecto, who was disowned by the god as he was not the perfect warrior that Ares sought; Aletheia (Adrienne Barbeau), the Oracle of Delphi with prophetic sight; the corrupted Prophet Castor (David W. Collins) and his conjoined twin Pollux (Brad Grusnick), who usurped the oracle, deciding who can consult her; and the Scribe of Hecatonchires (Robin Atkin Downes), the first mortal imprisoned by the Furies who has been keeping records to maintain his sanity. Kratos' wife Lysandra (Jennifer Hale) and his daughter Calliope appear in an illusion created by Alecto, and the King of Sparta (Crispin Freeman) and the Village Oracle (Susan Blakeslee) appear in an illusion created by Tisiphone with the help of her familiar, Daemon.
In the game's multiplayer mode, Zeus (Corey Burton), the King of the Olympian Gods, Ares (Steven Blum), the God of War, Poseidon (Gideon Emery), the God of the Sea, and Hades (Fred Tatasciore), the God of the Underworld, appear as statues at the Rotunda of Olympus where the player selects one to align to, after which the chosen god will communicate with the player during gameplay. Castor and Pollux, the demigod Hercules, the Titan cyclops Polyphemus, the Gorgon Stheno, and the giant scorpion Skorpius also appear in the multiplayer as bosses and/or environmental obstacles.
### Plot
The game begins with Kratos, who is imprisoned, chained, and tormented by the Furies for breaking his blood oath to Ares. The Fury Megaera tortures Kratos, but he manages to break free. Chasing her through the prison, he discovers that the prison itself is Aegaeon the Hecatonchires, the first traitor of the Furies who had broken a blood oath to Zeus; he was turned into the Prison of the Damned as punishment. Overcoming an illusion created by the Fury Tisiphone and her familiar Daemon, Kratos finds and kills Megaera, retrieving the Amulet of Uroborus, which the Furies had confiscated from him when he was imprisoned.
The narrative shifts to three weeks before Kratos' imprisonment. Confronted by Orkos in the Village of Kirra, Kratos is advised that the visions he has been experiencing are mind tricks created by the Furies, and instructs him to find the Oracle of Delphi. Upon arrival at the Temple of Delphi, he overcomes Castor and Pollux, who tried to kill the Oracle. In her dying breath, the Oracle instructs Kratos to travel to Delos to retrieve the Eyes of Truth. Taking the Amulet of Uroborus from the now-dead Castor and Pollux, Kratos travels to Kirra's harbor, where he again encounters Orkos. The oath keeper reveals that Ares wanted a perfect warrior to help him overthrow Zeus, so Ares helped Kratos against the barbarians to make him into a perfect warrior. Orkos became the oath keeper and did not question the Furies until Ares tricked Kratos into killing his own family. Armed with this knowledge, Kratos takes a ship to Delos.
A week later, Kratos arrives at the island of Delos and explores the ruined statue of Apollo. He is attacked by all three Furies and is eventually captured. Orkos appears and frees Kratos, transporting him to another location. Orkos gives Kratos his Oath Stone and reveals that he and Aletheia tried to warn Zeus of Ares' and the Furies' plan. In retaliation, they took the Oracle's eyes, the objects Kratos seeks. After a perilous journey, Kratos uses the Amulet of Uroborus to restore the statue and retrieve the eyes. On completing the Trials of Archimedes, Kratos is ambushed and captured by the Furies, who confiscate all his items.
Back in the present time, Tisiphone and Daemon cast another illusion to deceive Kratos, who overcomes it and retrieves the Oath Stone of Orkos. He encounters the Scribe of Hecatonchires, who reveals that the Furies were originally fair in their punishment, but devolved into ruthless beings because of Ares. Continuing his pursuit of the Furies, Kratos reaches the door to Alecto's Chamber, but seemingly returns home to his wife and daughter: another illusion, this time cast by the Fury Queen Alecto. She tries to convince Kratos he can live within this illusion if he rejoins Ares, but he refuses. Enraged, Alecto and Tisiphone attack Kratos, who retrieves the eyes, and Alecto transforms into a Charybdis. After a brutal battle, Kratos uses the eyes to break through the Furies' illusions before killing them both, which destroys the prison.
Kratos returns to Sparta, where he is met by Orkos. He praises Kratos' victory over the Furies, but reveals that Kratos will not be free from Ares' bond unless he kills Orkos, whom the Furies made Kratos' oath keeper again before Kratos killed them. He begs Kratos to give him an honorable death, which will free them both from Ares. Kratos initially refuses out of regret for killing so many innocents, but Orkos' continuing pleas ultimately force Kratos to kill him. Afterward, Kratos experiences the first of many nightmares—previously masked by his bond—and discovers his path to redemption through continual service to Olympus. Kratos burns down his house with the corpse of Orkos inside and leaves, beginning his path towards becoming the champion of the gods.
## Development
### Pre-E3 2012
In January 2010, Santa Monica's studio director John Hight told video-gaming blog Joystiq that "while God of War III will conclude the trilogy, it won't spell the end of the franchise" and said "We're going to be really careful about what we do next." From April 2011 until April 2012, several sources claimed that a fourth main entry would release sometime in 2012 and would feature an online component. On April 12, 2012, Sony released a teaser image on its official PlayStation Facebook page, which was followed by the game's announcement on April 19, though Amazon leaked the announcement the day before. The trailer announced Todd Papy, who had worked as a designer on God of War and God of War II and as Design Director on God of War III, as Game Director. David Jaffe confirmed that God of War III Game Director Stig Asmussen did not return to direct this game because he was working on another project at Santa Monica. The announcement trailer was narrated by Linda Hunt; it refers to a time before Kratos became the Ghost of Sparta and was not "bound in blood". The announcement officially confirmed that the game's title would be God of War: Ascension. Papy said the game was not titled God of War IV to avoid confusion because it is a prequel, rather than a sequel, to the trilogy. The name was chosen because it complements the story and the additional multiplayer component; according to Papy, in this mode, players are "basically ascending from an unknown hero to a god".
The game features a retooled God of War III engine, enabling online multiplayer battles for up to eight players. Papy said to allow customization, Kratos and other known gods would not be included as playable characters in the multiplayer modes because the developers did not want "red Kratos, blue Kratos, yellow Kratos", and selecting gods would lock players into established roles. This decision was made "to balance the game when players are pitted against each other". Papy also said there would be no female characters because each character in the multiplayer mode is based on Kratos' animation model. The first demonstration of the game's multiplayer element featured the Team Favor of the Gods mode running on the map Desert of Lost Souls, which features the Titan cyclops Polyphemus. Multiplayer had been discussed for past games, but had never been implemented as previous game directors felt that God of War was a single-player-only experience; in Chains of Olympus's case, it was cut due to time constraints during development. For Ascension, the development team made the decision to invest in multiplayer after a simple version, tested using two Kratoses, turned out to be "a lot of fun" for the game testers.
The development team faced challenges in adding multiplayer to an established single-player franchise. Other established franchises had been criticized for sub-par multiplayer implementations, so Santa Monica felt they had to prove to critics that their multiplayer mode would not be "tacked on". Since multiplayer was new to the team, new staff were hired who specialized in multiplayer, engineering, and design, but Santa Monica did not realize the amount of work required for the experience they had envisioned. Development was delayed because multiplayer mode required several rewrites. The player navigation code had to be changed for online play, which was initially designed for co-op; the team eventually decided this was unsatisfactory, and the changed approach cost significant development time. Local co-op was also explored, but the team decided to keep multiplayer online-only. The team finally "found the heart of [the] final multiplayer game" shortly before the first press show. Development focus switched back and forth between single-player and multiplayer; single-player received less attention while the team were preparing multiplayer for the first press announcement, but when single-player mode was reemphasized prior to its public debut, multiplayer mode suffered.
David Jaffe, creator and Game Director of the original God of War, spoke with NowGamer prior to the first press announcement in late April. He said that if he had worked on Ascension, he would have incorporated three specific elements: different myths, a co-star, and "look to the Zelda structure as a jumping off point". He liked the idea of a cooperative mode, and added "I'd love to see player one be Kratos and player two be this stupid annoying sidekick that—for some to be determined story reason—Kratos is stuck with for the whole adventure and in the end, once the main quest is over, Kratos just snaps the poor kid's neck". In May 2012, Jaffe spoke with IGN about the multiplayer element: "I think it looks cool. It looks like another great, impeccably executed Sony Santa Monica game", and added, "If it turns out to be the case that the single player is watered down because of [multiplayer], then I think they have some justification. But I don't see any evidence of that, and I don't see evidence of that based on the team they are."
### Post-E3 2012
At Sony's 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press conference, the North American release date was confirmed as March 12, 2013. A single-player demo was shown, revealing new gameplay mechanics and combat systems. An encounter with the sea monster Charybdis was included in the demo, but this sequence was cut from the final game. Charybdis was recast as the creature that Alecto transforms into during the final fight of the game. The same day, Papy confirmed on PlayStation.Blog that a collector's edition of the game would be released. He said Ascension was being developed to feature stereoscopic 3D, but it was ultimately cut. At Gamescom 2012, new multiplayer footage was shown, followed by the announcement of a multiplayer beta.
At the 2012 Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), Game Director Todd Papy, Lead Game Designer Mark Simon, Principal Character Artist Patrick Murphy, and writer of the God of War series Marianne Krawczyk, hosted the first God of War panel, discussing the origins of Ascension, and provided an overview of the evolution of Kratos. The Fury Megaera was revealed, and Mark Simon discussed the new combat system. Papy said he had considered using the goddess Artemis as a playable female character, which would have offered the player alternative combat options. Artemis would have been depicted as half-human and half-feline, with the head and torso of a woman and the legs of a lioness. Artemis was ultimately cut from the game, but Papy said he would like to explore the possibility of using other gods in the future.
In the developmental transition from God of War III to Ascension, one of the graphics engineers, Cedric Perthuis, noted that the limits of the God of War III engine restricted artist creativity, so they "tried to remove or push those limits as far as possible without losing any performance." For example, the number of UV sets was increased to three per mesh. For a complex character model like Kratos, "independent textures are needed for body parts unique to him, each wrapping around the head, torso and limbs—all of which form an editable 'UV set' when laid out flat." Allowing more UV sets also made it possible to have a more natural look to the environment. Ascension was not as dramatic an advance in graphics over its predecessor as God of War III had been: "From a graphics 'technical' perspective, to a large degree God of War: Ascension was more refinement on the graphics front" said another graphics engineer, Ben Diamand, who focused on optimization during Ascension's development. The development team also added dynamic lighting, which allowed for development of the Life Cycle gameplay mechanic. Particle effects were also greatly improved from God of War III: "the idea was to give artists more control to achieve better results with less particles" said Perthuis.
Terrence C. Carson, Linda Hunt, Corey Burton, Gideon Emery, Steven Blum, and Kevin Sorbo reprised their roles as Kratos, the narrator, Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, and Hercules, respectively. Jennifer Hale, who voiced two characters in the previous installment, voiced the Fury Alecto and Kratos' wife, Lysandra, who was previously voiced by Gwendoline Yeo. Debi Mae West, Adrienne Barbeau, and Crispin Freeman, who had each done voice work on previous installments, voiced the characters Tisiphone, Aletheia, and the King of Sparta. Troy Baker voiced the oath keeper Orkos and is the announcer in the multiplayer mode. Series veteran Fred Tatasciore assumed the role of Hades, who was previously voiced by Clancy Brown. Susan Blakeslee reprised her role as the Village Oracle, who makes a cameo appearance as an illusion created by Tisiphone. Unlike previous games in which motion capture and voice recording were done separately, Ascension used "voice-over motion capture"; voice recording and motion capture were done at the same time, which allowed the voice actors to act out their characters' scenes together. The voice-over motion capture was done at House of Moves in Culver City, California.
### Multiplayer beta
A global multiplayer beta was announced at Gamescom 2012. The beta included features that had not been previously revealed. Players who participated in the Rise of the Warrior social challenge on GodofWar.com received early access to the beta in December 2012. Players from SCE Europe also received an opportunity to access the beta early. The beta became available for PlayStation Plus subscribers on January 8, 2013. On January 19, Santa Monica allowed all PlayStation Network users in North and South America access to the beta via a redeemable voucher. The beta test ended at midnight Pacific time on January 21. In the beta, players could choose to align themselves with Ares or Zeus. It featured the eight-player Desert of Lost Souls map and the four-player Forum of Hercules map. The beta included the Desert of Lost Souls map in the modes Team Favor of the Gods and Capture the Flag, and the Forum of Hercules map in the mode Favor of the Gods, renamed Match of Champions in final release. All participants of the beta received the Champion's Armor and Blade for their multiplayer character when the game launched.
According to Santa Monica's senior producer Whitney Wade and director of internal development Chacko Sonny, the beta made the team look at the game as an "evolving service". The beta allowed the developers to make sure that the game design would meet with the approval of existing fans of the series, and that the system could cope with a high volume of players. Wade and Sonny said the testing went as expected, "revealing successive layers of issues that we would address, deploy fixes for, and then monitor in a live environment." The most important change from the beta, they said, was their planning in how to support the game post-launch. The team designed a process that allowed them to "quickly iterate on fixes, deploy them through infrastructure (testing, certification, patching), and coordinate with internal technology partners within Sony." They also developed a system to allow them to monitor, log, and interpret any changes added, and the beta test gave insight on how to prioritize key features.
## Soundtrack
God of War: Ascension (Original Soundtrack) was composed by Tyler Bates and was released on iTunes on March 5, 2013 by SCE and La-La Land Records. It was included as DLC in the God of War: Ascension – Collector's Edition and Special Edition. On October 15, the soundtrack was made available for free on PSN for a limited time. A notable feature of Ascension's soundtrack at the time was that it was scored by only one composer; all the previous games had multiple composers. Tyler Bates previously scored the similarly themed film 300 and game Rise of the Argonauts. Bates said "My goal was to create a sound that supported the timeless dark age of God of War, while expanding the parameters of the 'Sword and Sandals' genre." Although the game's story is linear, he approached the project as if he were scoring a novel as opposed to a film. Bates did not play any of the previous games and chose not to in order to take the score "to new places without being overtly aware of the great music that is emblematic" of the prior installments. The soundtrack was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, and features solo vocal work from Rafe Pearlman and Ciscandra Nostalghia.
Throughout the score, Bates uses a combination of techniques "to increase the drama of the game" said Emily McMillan of Game Music Online, who gave the album a 4 out of 5 stars. She said one of Bates's signature techniques is "an intense and simultaneous crescendo and glissando." All the themes take place on a harmonic minor scale. On the track, "Warriors' Truth", Bates used Gerard Marino's main God of War theme and "twists it for the prequel setting", "taking the harmonic ascending scale and reverting it to a downwards pattern with a harsh choir/brass combination." The track "Visions of Ruin" features the cimbalom, which is rarely used in video game soundtracks. She said overall "The music is powerful, rich, and pulsing", though listening to the whole album can seem repetitive.
## Release
At E3 2012, a single-player demo was shown, featuring new gameplay mechanics and combat systems. The demo revealed a redesigned quick time event mini-game, which replaced some button prompts with a new, prompt-less, free-form system. It featured the World Weapons mechanic and Kratos was shown to be capable of swinging opponents through the air while simultaneously attacking. Other new features included the Fire of Ares magic and the "Life Cycle" mechanic. Several new enemies, such as the juggernaut and the sea beast Charybdis, were also featured, though the latter was cut from the final game. The E3 2012 single-player demo was included with early copies of the "Director's Cut" Blu-ray edition and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack versions of the film, Total Recall, which were released on December 18, 2012. On February 26, 2013, a new single-player demo titled the Prison of the Damned was released on the PlayStation Store to download. Participants of the Rise of the Warrior social challenge who were on the Spartan team received access to the demo on February 20. The demo comprises the first 30-minutes of the single-player mode.
God of War: Ascension was released in North America on March 12, 2013, in mainland Europe and PAL regions on March 13, in Australia and New Zealand on March 14, and in the UK and Ireland on March 15. In the US, it sold 570,000 units in the first month of its release not including bundled sales, making it the fourth-best-selling game of March 2013. The game's sales were significantly lower than God of War III's first month sales, which were 1.1 million units. Ultimately, the game shipped over 3 million units worldwide and grossed over US\$100 million in revenue. On October 15, 2013, God of War: Ascension was released as a digital download on the PlayStation Store in North America. The digital version was released in Europe and Australia on October 23, and in Japan and Asia on October 31. On September 24, 2014, God of War: Ascension became available to play from Sony's game streaming service PlayStation Now.
### Marketing
God of War: Ascension's marketing campaign initially focused on its multiplayer feature. Between October 22, 2012, and the day of the game's release, there were four multiplayer trailers that featured each of the gods that players can align to, showcasing some of the abilities that players receive from them. On December 12, 2012, a multiplayer trailer titled "Evil Ways" was released, featuring Polyphemus. The first single-player trailer since the initial one in April 2012 came on January 19, 2013. A live action trailer titled "From Ashes" featuring a remix of Hanging On by Ellie Goulding was played during Super Bowl XLVII, which was followed by the last single-player trailer on February 26.
On June 4, 2012, Santa Monica Studio announced the release of God of War: Ascension – Collector's Edition, which was available for a limited time in North America. The package included a 6-inch (150 mm) statue of Kratos, a premium SteelBook game case, and exclusive downloadable content (DLC) available via the PlayStation Network (PSN). The exclusive DLC included the official game soundtrack, a PS3 dynamic XrossMediaBar (XMB) theme, a PSN avatar pack, 48 hours of double XP for multiplayer, and a Season Pass to unlock all future DLC weapons and armor at no extra cost. On August 30, 2012, Santa Monica announced the release of the Collector's Edition for European territories. The God of War: Ascension – Special Edition was also announced for release in European territories and was available for the same price as the standard edition. It included the premium SteelBook game case and the DLC that was available in the Collector's Edition, although not the Season Pass. The God of War: Ascension Legacy Bundle, which included Ascension, God of War Saga, a one-month subscription to PlayStation Plus, and a 500 GB garnet red PS3, was available for a limited time. Similarly, the UK received an exclusive PS3 bundle, which included a white 500 GB PS3, the God of War: Ascension – Special Edition, and a special God of War: Ascension DualShock 3 controller, which was released separately in Australia.
Pre-orders for the Collector's Edition commenced on June 4, 2012, in North America. Participating retailers offered the "Mythological Heroes Multiplayer DLC Pack" as a bonus for pre-ordering the standard or Collector's Edition of the game. The DLC pack included the armors of Achilles, Odysseus, Orion, and Perseus. Along with the DLC pack, GameStop offered an exclusive pre-order bonus—the armor and spear of King Leonidas, as depicted by Gerard Butler in the 2007 film 300, for use in multiplayer mode, and a double-sided God of War: Ascension poster measuring 22 by 28 inches (56 cm × 71 cm). For a limited time, all copies of God of War: Ascension purchased from Best Buy included the multiplayer weapon Mjölnir (the Hammer of Thor), inspired by the television series Vikings, as DLC. Walmart offered the Blade of Judgment multiplayer weapon as an exclusive pre-order bonus. All copies of God of War: Ascension included early access to the demo of Naughty Dog's video game The Last of Us. In North America, all copies included a voucher to download the characters Zeus and Isaac Clarke for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
### Rise of the Warrior
Rise of the Warrior was a graphic novel by Marianne Krawczyk with art by Christopher Shy. Only available on GodofWar.com, it was a prequel story that tied into Ascension's single-player and multiplayer modes, and had 20 chapters that were released from October 2012 to March 2013. It also featured a social experience during that same time period. For the social experience, players were aligned with either the Spartans or the Trojans and competed via social challenges to earn points, such as answering questions and solving riddles for each chapter. In the first challenge, the teams competed to earn their army a week of exclusive, early access to the multiplayer beta test that began on December 12, and a one-month subscription to PlayStation Plus, which was won by the Spartans; the Trojans received access on December 17. The Spartans also won the next team challenge and received early access to the Prison of the Damned single-player demo on February 20, 2013. Players could also earn early, in-game unlocks for the final game's multiplayer mode, including exclusive weapons and armor for all players who attained the rank of Champion of the Gods.
The story followed an unnamed warrior who became the player's character in the multiplayer mode. The warrior was a native of Kirra whose father was killed by a cruel general who poisoned the water supply of the village, killing many people. Before dying, the warrior's father beckoned him to honor the gods and swear to never let harm come to their family. The warrior swore his father's oath and was met by a cloaked figure, The Giver, who guided him and followed him throughout his journey. Soon after, the warrior called upon Ares to save his people from the poisonous water; the god destroyed the aqueduct and water wheel that supplied water to the village. The warrior then encountered the surviving soldiers who had been under his father's command. One soldier told the warrior that swords alone could not defeat the general. The warrior and his men traveled to the land of Aeaea and recruited the witch Circe, who seemingly also sought revenge against the general. Circe granted the soldiers magical weapons to aid them on their journey, and suggested that they see the Oracle of Delphi to discover whether the general had any weaknesses. During this time, the warrior vowed loyalty to Poseidon and to protect his men.
After traveling through Delphi, the warrior obtained the venomous blood of a cerberus. Eventually, both Circe and the warrior encountered the general, who was revealed to be the warrior's uncle. The general revealed that he killed the warrior's father because he refused to join the general. Circe was then revealed to be the general's lover who had aided the warrior only so he would reach the general, who planned to offer the warrior a chance to serve him in his conquests. The warrior refused, and Circe offered him with a choice; to serve the general and his men would be spared from Circe's wrath, or to kill the general and his men shall die. The Giver, who followed the two, reminded the warrior that if he were to kill the general, who was a member of his family, the oath he made to his father would be broken, yet if he killed Circe, his men would perish and the oath he made to protect his men would be broken. The warrior declared that he would not slay Circe and defended the lives of his men. However, he tricked the general into drinking from a cup he had secretly filled with the cerberus's blood, which killed the general. Circe was aghast at the warrior's vengeful act and retreated. Because the warrior killed his own uncle, the oath he made to his father was broken. The Giver revealed himself to be Orkos, the oath keeper of the Furies and the warrior was imprisoned by the Furies in the Prison of the Damned.
### Downloadable content
As well as the downloadable content (DLC) included in the Collector's Edition, the pre-order bonuses, and DLC from Rise of the Warrior, the developers released several multiplayer DLC packs after the game's release. All multiplayer maps that were released post-launch were free, and players who obtained the Season Pass from the Collector's Edition received all DLC weapons and armors at no additional cost. DLC weapons and armors could be purchased separately or in bundles. Other DLC, such as XP boosters, were available, but these were not covered by the Season Pass. On May 7, 2013, the first set of DLC armors and weapons, including the "Armors of Anarchy" and the "Blades of Darkness", were released for purchase together with the free Chimeran Armor. Several other DLC packs, such as the "Primordials Pack", the "Champions Pack", the "Marks of the Gods Pack", and the "Legendary Spears Pack", were released.
In June 2013, Santa Monica announced the "Community Cape Design Contest", in which the God of War community could create and submit original cape designs. The winner's design was released as DLC. For a limited time the following month, Sony allowed players to trial all available DLC weapons. Some of the last sets of DLC released included co-op weapons, the "Mantles of the Gods Pack", several gauntlets, and the "Fury Capes Pack". On October 11, 2013, Santa Monica announced that no further DLC maps, weapons, armors, or marks would be produced, but multiplayer gaming would still be supported with patch updates. All DLC items received special pricing options for the release of the digital version of God of War: Ascension. To celebrate the one year anniversary of the game's release, from March 25 through April 2, all DLC armor and weapons were available to download for free, XP boosters were discounted by 50%, and the developers released a Santa Monica Studio cape and a "Marked One" mark, allowing player's warriors to have Kratos' red tattoo when equipped.
The first maps were released via patch 1.06, called the "Hunter" update, on May 23, 2013. The "Tower of Delphi" and a modified version of the "Coliseum of Persia", which enabled the Trial of the Gods mode on that map, were included in this update. Because of technical difficulties experienced by some players who downloaded the patch, it was retracted and re-released via update 1.07 on June 3. Players who lost all online progress due to 1.06 received two 48-hour voucher codes granting five times the amount of XP earned, the Season Pass, 50 weapon and armor shards, and a special voucher code for the "Ascension" feature that ascended these players to "Hero", giving them immediate access to the Godly armor and weapons. The second set of maps were released via update 1.09 on July 11. This update included four maps for the Bout of Honor mode—"Canyons of Kirra", "Chamber of the Flame", "Landing at Delos", and "Streets of Sparta"—and a four-player map, "The Whirlpool of Alecto". On August 1, update 1.10 was released and added Trial of the Gods to the "Labyrinth of Daedalus" map. The last multiplayer map, the eight-player "Furnace of Archimedes", was released via update 1.11 on August 27.
## Reception
God of War: Ascension received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics praised the fundamental gameplay and spectacle, but were critical of the lack of new ideas and gave a mixed response to the additional multiplayer mode. Alex Simmons of IGN said the redesigned combat system adds a source of depth: "Learning how to use each power effectively ... provides a strategic lifeline when there's no energy re-gen chest nearby". Although he initially found the World Weapons useful, he felt that they became unnecessary after upgrading the Blades of Chaos. Simmons felt the magic system was a "positive step"; since magic attacks are unlocked at a later time, players cannot rely on them as much as they may have done in previous installments, which encourages players "to think wisely about where to allocate experience points rather than being the ultimate badass from the outset".
Combat and the new gameplay mechanics were well-received, with Dale North of Destructoid saying "God of War has never looked or played better than this", and Xav de Matos of Joystiq commenting that the combat is simpler than in God of War III, and rarely required much adjustment. Opinions on difficulty varied; Simmons felt that most of the gameplay was balanced, and that Ascension "is probably the easiest" in the series, but both he and Hollander Cooper of GamesRadar commented that some areas, such as the Trials of Archimedes, were too difficult. Simmons felt that in some sections, the many enemies made dying feel "cheap and frustrating", and in Cooper's opinion, some points in the game "[test] your patience, rather than your skills—including one [the Trials] that's easily the most difficult section in any God of War game to date, for all the wrong reasons".
Both Simmons and Matos criticized the story; Simmons felt that although the narrative is "meticulously delivered", it "felt a bit incidental", and said that in comparison to Zeus and Ares, "the Furies don't quite cut it". Matos was critical of the plot framing and the narrative structure as "just too chaotic"; he argued that "the narrative fabric woven throughout the franchise has begun to split", and Ascension does little to enhance its characters "in any meaningful way". He did praise the game for providing the "distinct God of War flair" known to the series.
Cooper praised the enhanced graphics engine as "not only the best the franchise has seen, but some of the most impressive on the PlayStation 3", and was impressed by Kratos' foes. North agreed, saying "there's a shine and polish that runs throughout the game that makes it a perfect send-off for the PS3", noting its improved textures, animations, and lighting. The review from Edge magazine also positively reviewed the graphics, but had some frustrations with the visual approach, such as some camera angles.
Matos was broadly critical of the game's multiplayer mode, though he singled out some elements, such as the maps, as well-designed. He disliked the connection to single-player mode, calling it "a weird narrative tie-in", and was concerned that although the gameplay translates well into the multiplayer element, "the entire experience may be too chaotic to enrapture a large audience ... it doesn't feel deep enough to command much more than a furiously dedicated fan following". Simmons was more positive, saying that the multiplayer mode is "a genuinely fresh addition ... that successfully carries over many of the hallmarks of the much-loved single-player [game]". He singled out Team Favor of the Gods as his favorite mode, but did not feel that the combat offered enough depth to make multiplayer "a truly engaging experience", describing it instead as "a curiosity that provides a few hours of enjoyment rather than being an essential addition". The review from Edge magazine described multiplayer mode as "chaotic at first", with overwhelming options, but said that it becomes easier as players learn the levels. The Edge review identified the fixed camera system as an asset because "you can always see exactly what's going on and fight your opponents instead of the viewpoint", and also praised the color-coding system, which "effectively lets you know when you have an opening and when to run".
### Controversy
Some reviewers disliked the title of one of the game's trophies, "Bros before Hos", which is received after graphically face-stomping a female villain. In response to the criticisms of misogyny, Santa Monica released a patch changing the name of the trophy to "Bros before Foes".
### Accolades
Unlike previous installments, God of War: Ascension won no awards, but it was nominated in several Best of E3 2012 categories by various media outlets. These nominations included "Best Action/Adventure" and "Best Multiplayer" from Game Rant, "Best PS3 Game" and "Best Action/Adventure Game" from G4, "Best PlayStation 3 Game" from Destructoid, and "Best PS3 Game" and "Best Action Game" from IGN. The game was a nominee for "Best Visual Design" at the 2013 Golden Joystick Awards. At the 2014 Writers Guild of America Videogame Awards, it was a nominee for "Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing" and during the 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit, it was a nominee for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences award for "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design".
|
3,081,760 |
Massospondylus
| 1,169,942,117 |
Sauropodomorph dinosaur genus from Early Jurassic South Africa and Botswana
|
[
"Early Jurassic dinosaurs of Africa",
"Fossil taxa described in 1854",
"Fossils of South Africa",
"Hettangian life",
"Jurassic South Africa",
"Massospondylidae",
"Pliensbachian life",
"Sinemurian life",
"Taxa named by Richard Owen"
] |
Massospondylus (/ˌmæsoʊˈspɒndɪləs/ mas-oh-SPON-di-ləs; from Greek, μάσσων (massōn, "longer") and σπόνδυλος (spondylos, "vertebra")) is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic (Hettangian to Pliensbachian ages, ca. 200–183 million years ago). It was described by Sir Richard Owen in 1854 from remains discovered in South Africa, and is thus one of the first dinosaurs to have been named. Fossils have since been found at other locations in South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. Material from Arizona's Kayenta Formation, India, and Argentina has been assigned to the genus at various times, but the Arizonan and Argentinian material are now assigned to other genera.
The type species is M. carinatus; seven other species have been named during the past 150 years, but only M. kaalae is still considered valid. Early sauropodomorph systematics have undergone numerous revisions during the last several years, and many scientists disagree where exactly Massospondylus lies on the dinosaur evolutionary tree. The family name Massospondylidae was once coined for the genus, but because knowledge of an early sauropod relationship is in a state of flux, it is unclear which other dinosaurs—if any—belong in a natural grouping of massospondylids; several 2007 papers support the family's validity.
Although Massospondylus was long depicted as quadrupedal, a 2007 study found it to be bipedal. It was probably a plant eater (herbivore), although it is speculated that the early sauropodomorphs may have been omnivorous. The genus was 4–6 metres (13–20 ft) long, and had a long neck and tail and a small head and slender body. On each of its forefeet, it bore a sharp thumb claw that was used in defense or feeding. Recent studies indicate that Massospondylus grew steadily throughout its lifespan, possessed air sacs similar to those of birds, and may have cared for its young.
## History of discovery
The first fossils of Massospondylus were described by paleontologist Sir Richard Owen in 1854. Originally, Owen did not recognize the finds as those of a dinosaur; instead he attributed them to "large, extinct, carnivorous reptiles" that were related to modern lizards, chameleons, and iguanas. The material, a collection of 56 bones, was found in 1853 by the government surveyor Joseph Millard Orpen in the Upper Elliot Formation at Harrismith, South Africa and was donated to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Among the remains were vertebrae from the neck, back, and tail; a shoulder blade; a humerus; a partial pelvis; a femur; a tibia; and bones of the hands and feet. All these bones were found disarticulated, making it difficult to determine if all material belongs to a single species or not. However, Owen was able to distinguish three different types of caudal vertebrae, which he attributed to three different genera: Pachyspondylus, Leptospondylus and Massospondylus. Massospondylus was separated from the other two genera on the basis of its much longer caudal vertebrae, which also led to the scientific name that has been derived from the Greek terms masson/μάσσων 'longer' and spondylos/σπόνδυλος 'vertebra', explained by Owen as "because the vertebrae are proportionally longer than those of the extinct Crocodile called Macrospondylus". However, later it was shown that the putative caudal vertebrae of Massospondylus were actually cervical vertebrae and that all the material probably belongs only to a single species. On May 10, 1941, the Hunterian Museum was demolished by a German bomb, destroying all the fossils; only casts remain. Because the plaster casts of the lost type specimen fossils were not adequate to accurately diagnose a genus and species under modern taxonomic practices and for research purposes, Yates and Barrett (2010) designated BP/1/4934, a skull and a largely complete postcranial skeleton in the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, as the neotype specimen.
Massospondylus remains have been found in the Upper Elliot Formation, the Clarens Formation, and the Bushveld Sandstone of South Africa and Lesotho, as well as the Forest Sandstone of Zimbabwe. These remains consist of at least 80 partial skeletons and four skulls, representing both juveniles and adults. The report of Massospondylus from Arizona's Kayenta Formation is based on a skull described in 1985. The skull of the Kayenta specimen from Arizona is 25% larger than the largest skull from any African specimen. The Kayenta specimen possesses four teeth in the premaxilla and sixteen in the maxilla. Uniquely among dinosaurs, it also had tiny, one-millimetre-(0.04 in-) long palatal teeth. A 2004 restudy of African Massospondylus skulls, however, indicated that the Kayenta specimen did not pertain to Massospondylus. This Kayenta skull and associated postcranial elements, identified collectively as MCZ 8893, was referred to the new genus Sarahsaurus in 2010.
Massospondylus had also been reported from Argentina, but the material has been reassessed as a closely related but distinct genus. The fossils included several partial skeletons and at least one skull, found in the Lower Jurassic Canon del Colorado Formation of San Juan, Argentina. lt was assigned to Adeopapposaurus in 2009. A specimen from South Africa previously assigned to Massospondylus, BP/1/4779, became the holotype of the new genus and species Ngwevu intloko in 2019.
### Species
Many species have been named, although most are no longer considered valid. M. carinatus, named by Richard Owen, is the type species. Other named species include: M. browni Seeley, 1895, M. harriesi Broom 1911, M. hislopi Lydekker, 1890, M. huenei Cooper, 1981, M. kaalae Barrett 2009, M. rawesi Lydekker, 1890, and M. schwarzi Haughton, 1924.
M. browni, M. harriesi, and M. schwarzi were all found in the Upper Elliot Formation of Cape Province, South Africa. All three are based on fragmentary material, and were regarded as indeterminate in the most recent review. M. browni is based on two cervical, two back, and three caudal vertebrae and miscellaneous hind limb elements. M. harriesi is known from a well-preserved forelimb and parts of a hindlimb. M. schwarzi is known from an incomplete hind limb and sacrum. M. hislopi and M. rawesi were named from fossils found in India. M. hislopi is based on vertebrae from the Upper Triassic Maleri Formation of Andhra Pradesh, whereas M. rawesi is based on a tooth from the Upper Cretaceous Takli Formation of Maharashtra. M. hislopi was tentatively retained as an indeterminate sauropodomorph in the latest review, but M. rawesi may be a theropod or nondinosaur. M. huenei is a combination derived by Cooper for Lufengosaurus huenei, as he considered Lufengosaurus and Massospondylus to be synonyms. This synonymy is no longer accepted.
M. kaalae was described in 2009 on the basis of a partial skull from the Upper Elliot Formation in Eastern Cape of South Africa. The species is known from the same time and region as some specimens of M. carinatus. It differs from the type species in the morphology of the braincase, as well as in several other characters of the skull such as the proportions of the premaxilla.
### Dubious names
Several genera have been previously synonymized with Massospondylus. These include the above-mentioned Leptospondylus and Pachyspondylus, as well as Aristosaurus, Dromicosaurus, Gryponyx taylori and Hortalotarsus, which are dubious names of little scientific value. Together with Massospondylus carinatus, Owen named Leptospondylus capensis and Pachyspondylus orpenii for vertebrae from the same unit and location. Aristosaurus erectus was named by E.C.N. van Hoepen in 1920 based on a nearly complete skeleton, and Hoepen also named Dromicosaurus gracilis, which consisted of a partial skeleton. Gryponyx taylori was named by Sidney H. Haughton in 1924. It consists of hip bones. All of the above fossils come from the Hettangian or Sinemurian faunal stages of South Africa, where Massospondylus has been found. Under the rules of zoological nomenclature, these names are junior synonyms. Massospondylus was described in a scientific paper; therefore the name Massospondylus takes priority.
Ignavusaurus, known from a young specimen, was considered by Yates et al. (2011) to be a probable synonym of Massospondylus. Cladistic analyses by Chapelle & Choiniere (2018) and Chapelle et al. (2019) agreed with Yates et al. (2011) in demonstrating the massospondylid nature of Ignavusaurus, but nevertheless recovered it as a distinct taxon of massospondylid.
## Description
Massospondylus was a mid-size sauropodomorph, around 4 metres (13 ft) in length, and weighed approximately 1000 kilograms (2200 lb), although a few sources have estimated its length at up to 6 metres (20 ft). It was a typical early sauropodomorph, with a slender body, a long neck and a proportionally very small head.
The vertebral column was composed of nine cervical (neck) vertebrae, 13 dorsal (back) vertebrae, three sacral (hip) vertebrae, and at least 40 caudal (tail) vertebrae. The pubis faced forward, as with most saurischians. It had a slighter build than that of Plateosaurus, an otherwise similar dinosaur. The neck was proportionally longer than in most other plateosaurids, with the foremost cervicals being four times the length of their width. The forelimbs were only half the length of the hindlimbs but quite powerful, as indicated by the broad upper end of the humerus that provided attachment areas for a large arm musculature. Like Plateosaurus, it had five digits on each hand and foot. The hand was short and wide, with a large sickle shaped thumb claw used for feeding or defense against predators. The thumb was the longest finger in the hand, while the fourth and fifth digits were tiny, giving the forepaws a lopsided look.
### Cranial anatomy
The small head of Massospondylus was approximately half the length of the femur. Numerous openings, or fenestrae, in the skull reduced its weight and provided space for muscle attachment and sensory organs. These fenestrae were present in pairs, one on each side of the skull. At the front of the skull were two large, elliptical nares, which were roughly half the size of the orbits. The orbits were proportionally larger in Massospondylus than in related genera, such as Plateosaurus. The antorbital fenestrae, smaller than those seen in Plateosaurus, were situated between the eyes and the nose. At the rear of the skull were two more pairs of temporal fenestrae: the lateral temporal fenestrae immediately behind the eye sockets, which were shaped like an inverted "T" in Massospondylus, and the supratemporal fenestrae on top of the skull. Small fenestrae also penetrated each mandible. The shape of the skull is traditionally restored as wider and shorter than that of Plateosaurus, but this appearance may be due just to differential crushing experienced by the various specimens. Some features of the skull are variable between individuals; for example, the thickness of the upper border of the orbit and the height of the posterior maxilla. These differences may be due to sexual dimorphism or individual variation.
Tooth count is variable between individuals and increases with skull size. The premaxilla shows the constant number of four teeth per side in all known skulls; however, in the maxilla, the tooth count ranges from 14 to 22. There are 26 teeth in each side of the lower jaw in the largest known skull. The height of the teeth crowns decreases from front to back in the upper jaw, but was more or less constant in the lower jaw. The lack of pronounced tooth wear and the variable height of the crowns suggests that the teeth were replaced by succeeding new ones in relatively short time intervals. Notably, there was variation in the tooth morphology based on the position of the teeth in the jaw. The heterodonty present in Massospondylus is greater than that present in Plateosaurus, although not as pronounced as the specialization of teeth in Heterodontosaurus. Teeth closer to the front of the snout had round cross-sections and tapered to points, unlike the back teeth, which were spatulate and had oval cross-sections.
As with other early sauropodomorphs, it has been proposed that Massospondylus had cheeks. This theory was proposed because there are a few large holes for blood vessels on the surfaces of the jaw bones, unlike the numerous small holes present on the jaws of cheekless reptiles. The cheeks would have prevented food from spilling out when Massospondylus ate. Crompton and Attridge (1986) described skulls of Massospondylus as possessing pronounced overbites and suggested the presence of a horny beak on the tip of the lower jaw to make up the difference in length and account for tooth wear on the teeth at the tip of the snout. However, the difference in length may be a misinterpretation based on crushing in a top–bottom plane, and the possession of a beak is considered unlikely in recent studies.
## Classification
Basal sauropodomorph systematics continue to undergo revision, and many genera once considered classic "prosauropods" have recently been removed from the group in phylogenetic nomenclature, on the grounds that their inclusion would not constitute a clade (a natural grouping containing all descendants of a single common ancestor). Yates and Kitching (2003) published a clade consisting of Riojasaurus, Plateosaurus, Coloradisaurus, Massospondylus, and Lufengosaurus. Galton and Upchurch (2004) included Ammosaurus, Anchisaurus, Azendohsaurus, Camelotia, Coloradisaurus, Euskelosaurus, Jingshanosaurus, Lessemsaurus, Lufengosaurus, Massospondylus, Melanorosaurus, Mussaurus, Plateosaurus, Riojasaurus, Ruehleia, Saturnalia, Sellosaurus, Thecodontosaurus, Yimenosaurus and Yunnanosaurus in a monophyletic Prosauropoda. Wilson (2005) considered Massospondylus, Jingshanosaurus, Plateosaurus, and Lufengosaurus a natural group, with Blikanasaurus and Antetonitrus possible sauropods. Bonnan and Yates (2007) considered Camelotia, Blikanasaurus and Melanorosaurus possible sauropods. Yates (2007) placed Antetonitrus, Melanorosaurus, and Blikanasaurus as basal sauropods and declined to use the term Prosauropoda, as he considered it synonymous with Plateosauridae. However, he did not rule out the possibility that a small group of prosauropods consisting of Plateosaurus, Riojasaurus, Massospondylus and their closest kin were monophyletic.
Massospondylus is the type genus of the proposed family Massospondylidae, to which it gives its name. The Massospondylidae may also include Yunnanosaurus, although Lu et al. (2007) placed Yunnanosaurus in its own family. Yates (2007) considered Massospondylus, Coloradisaurus, and Lufengosaurus massospondylids, with Yunnanosaurus in Anchisauria. Smith and Pol (2007) also found a Massospondylidae in their phylogenetic analysis, including Massospondylus, Coloradisaurus, and Lufengosaurus, as well as their new genus, Glacialisaurus. Adeopapposaurus, based on the fossils once thought to belong to a South American form of Massospondylus, was also classified as a massospondylid, as was Leyesaurus, another South American genus that was named in 2011. Pradhania was originally regarded as a more basal sauropodomorph but new cladistic analysis performed by Novas et al., 2011 suggests that Pradhania is a massospondylid. Pradhania presents two shared traits of the Massospondylidae recovered in their phylogenetic analysis, and the fossils of Pradhania were discovered from the same region and basin in India as M. hislopi.
The following cladogram shows the position of Massospondylus within Massospondylidae, according to Fernando E. Novas and colleagues, 2011:
The following cladogram shows the position of Massospondylus within Massopoda, according to Oliver W. M. Rauhut and colleagues, 2020:
## Paleobiology
As with all dinosaurs, much of the biology of Massospondylus, including its behavior, coloration, and physiology, remains unknown. However, recent studies have allowed for informed speculation on subjects such as growth patterns, diet, posture, reproduction, and respiration.
A 2007 study suggested that Massospondylus may have used its short arms for defense against predators ("defensive swats"), in intraspecies combat, or in feeding, although its arms were too short to reach its mouth. Scientists speculate that Massospondylus could have used its large pollex (thumb) claw in combat, to strip plant material from trees, digging, or for grooming.
### Growth
A 2005 study indicated that Massospondylus''' sister taxon, Plateosaurus, exhibited growth patterns affected by environmental factors. The study indicated that, when food was plentiful or when the climate was favorable, Plateosaurus exhibited accelerated growth. This pattern of growth is called "developmental plasticity". It is unseen in other dinosaurs, including Massospondylus, despite the close relationship between the two. The study indicated that Massospondylus grew along a specific growth trajectory, with little variation in the growth rate and ultimate size of an individual. Another study of age determination indicated that Massospondylus grew at a maximum rate of 34.6 kg (76.3 lb) per year and was still growing at around 15 years of age.
### Diet
Early sauropodomorphs such as Massospondylus may have been herbivorous or omnivorous. As recently as the 1980s, paleontologists debated the possibility of carnivory in the "prosauropods". However, the hypothesis of carnivorous "prosauropods" has been discredited, and all recent studies favor a herbivorous or omnivorous lifestyle for these animals. Galton and Upchurch (2004) found that cranial characteristics (such as jaw articulation) of most basal sauropodomorphs are closer to those of herbivorous reptiles than those of carnivorous ones, and the shape of the tooth crown is similar to those of modern herbivorous or omnivorous iguanas. The maximum width of the crown was greater than that of the root, resulting in a cutting edge similar to those of extant herbivorous or omnivorous reptiles. Barrett (2000) proposed that basal sauropodomorphs supplemented their herbivorous diets with small prey or carrion. Gastroliths (gizzard stones) have been found in association with three Massospondylus fossils from the Forest-Sandstone in Zimbabwe, and with a Massospondylus-like animal from the Late Triassic of Virginia. Until recently, scientists believed that these stones functioned as a gastric mill to aid ingestion of plant material, compensating for its inability to chew, as it is the case in many modern birds. However, Wings and Sander (2007) showed that the polished nature and the abundance of those stones precluded a use as an effective gastric mill in most non-theropod dinosaurs, including Massospondylus.
### Gait and range of motion
Although long assumed to have been quadrupedal, a 2007 anatomical study of the forelimbs has questioned this, arguing that their limited range of motion precluded effective habitual quadrupedal gait. Neither could the forelimbs swing fore and behind in a fashion similar to the hindlimbs, nor could the hand be rotated with the palmar surfaces facing downwards. This inability to pronate the hand is also supported by in-situ finds of articulated (still-connected) arms that always show unrotated hands with palmar faces facing each other. The study also ruled out the possibility of "knuckle-walking" and other forms of locomotion that would make an effective locomotion possible without the need to pronate the hand. Although its mass suggests a quadrupedal nature, Massospondylus would have been restricted to its hind legs for locomotion.
Since the discovery of rudimentary and nonfunctional clavicles in ceratopsians, it was assumed that these shoulder bones were reduced in all dinosaurs that did not have true furculae. Robert Bakker (1987) suggested that this would have allowed the shoulder blades to swing with the forelimbs in quadrupedal dinosaurs, increasing their functional forelimb length. This would have reduced the discrepancy of length between fore- and hindlimbs in a quadrupedal Massospondylus. However, a recent discovery shows that Massospondylus possessed well-developed clavicles that were joined in a furcula-like arrangement, acting like a clasp between the right and left shoulder blades and prohibiting any rotation of these bones. This discovery indicates that the clavicle reduction is limited to the evolutionary line leading to the ceratopsians. It also indicates that the furcula of birds is derived from clavicles.
Michael Cooper (1981) noted that the zygapophyses of the neck vertebrae were inclined, prohibiting significant horizontal movement of the neck, so that "consequently any significant movement in this direction must have been accomplished by a change in the position of the entire body". This was contradicted in a recent study, noting that only the basalmost cervicals show inclined zygapophyses, allowing sufficient horizontal movement of the neck as a whole.
### Reproduction
In 1976, a clutch of seven 190-million-year-old Massospondylus eggs was found in Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa by James Kitching, who identified them as most likely belonging to Massospondylus. It was nearly 30 years before extraction was started on the fossils of the 15-centimetre- (6 in-) long embryos. They remain the oldest dinosaur embryos ever found. By early 2012, at least 10 egg clutches from at least four fossiliferous horizons had been found, with up to 34 eggs per clutch. This indicates that this nesting site may have been used repeatedly (site fidelity), by groups of animals (colonial nesting); in both cases, these represent the oldest evidence of this behaviour. Sedimentary structures indicate that the nesting area was in the vicinity of a lake. The eggshells were very thin (about 0.1 mm), allowing gas exchange even in a low oxygen and carbon dioxide rich environment, which indicates that the eggs were at least partly buried in the substrate. There are no hints that Massospondylus constructed nests; however, the arrangement of the eggs in tight rows indicates that the eggs were pushed in this position by the adults.
The embryos probably represented near-hatchlings. While the skeletal features were similar to those of the adults, the body proportions were very dissimilar. The head was big with a short snout and very large orbits, whose diameter amounts 39% of the entire skull length. The neck was short, contrasting to the very long neck in the adults. Girdle bones and caudals were relatively tiny. The forelimbs were of equal length to the hindlimbs, indicating that newly hatched Massospondylus were quadrupedal, unlike the bipedal adults. However, the reliability of these results has been questioned. The discovery of hatching footprints with manus impressions confirmed their quadrupedality. These impressions show that the hand was not pronated, with palm faces facing each other and the thumb facing forwards. The unpronated manus and the big head indicate that an effective locomotion was not possible for newly hatched Massospondylus. Notably, the near-hatchings had no teeth, suggesting they had no way of feeding themselves. Based on the lack of teeth and the ineffective locomotion, scientists speculate that postnatal care might have been necessary. This is further supported by evidence that the hatchings remained at the nest sites until they had doubled in size.
Newly hatched juveniles are known from a second sauropodomorph, Mussaurus; these remains resemble those of the embryonic Massospondylus, suggesting that quadrupedality was present in newly hatched Mussaurus and presumably other basal sauropodomorphs as well. The quadrupedality of the hatchings suggests that the quadrupedal posture of later sauropods may have evolved from retention of juvenile characteristics in adult animals, an evolutionary phenomenon known as paedomorphosis. This discovery therefore "sheds some light in the evolutionary pathways through which the peculiar adaptations of giant dinosaurs were attained", stated French paleontologist Eric Buffetaut. However, a recent study, which evaluated locomotion in extinct taxa based on limb robusticity, found that previous conclusions that Massospondylus transitioned from quadrupedality to bipedality through ontogeny were based on unreliable allometric comparisons between limb lengths, but a model based on the circumferences of the humerus and femur supported bipedality throughout ontogeny.
### Respiratory system
Many saurischian dinosaurs possessed vertebrae and ribs that contained hollowed-out cavities (pneumatic foramina), which reduced the weight of the bones and may have served as a basic 'flow-through ventilation' system similar to that of modern birds. In such a system, the neck vertebrae and ribs are hollowed out by the cervical air sac; the upper back vertebrae, by the lung; and the lower back and sacral (hip) vertebrae, by the abdominal air sac. These organs constitute a complex and very efficient method of respiration. "Prosauropods" are the only major group of saurischians without an extensive system of pneumatic foramina. Although possible pneumatic indentations have been found in Plateosaurus and Thecodontosaurus, the indentations were very small. One study in 2007 concluded that basal sauropodomorphs like Massospondylus likely had abdominal and cervical air sacs, based on the evidence for them in sister taxa (theropods and sauropods). The study concluded that it was impossible to determine whether basal sauropodomorphs had a bird-like flow-through lung, but that the air sacs were almost certainly present.
## Paleoecology
The faunas and floras of the Early Jurassic were similar worldwide, with conifers adapted for hot weather becoming the common plants; basal sauropodomorphs and theropods were the main constituents of a worldwide dinosaur fauna. The environment of early Jurassic southern Africa has been described as a desert. African Massospondylus was a contemporary of temnospondyli; turtles; a sphenodont; rauisuchids; early crocodylomorphs; tritylodontid and trithelodontid therapsids; morganucodontid mammals; and dinosaurs including the small theropod Megapnosaurus and several genera of early ornithischians, such as Lesothosaurus and the heterodontosaurids Abrictosaurus, Heterodontosaurus, Lycorhinus and Pegomastax. Until recently, Massospondylus was regarded as the only known sauropodomorph from the Upper Elliot Formation. However, newer finds revealed a diverse contemporary sauropodomorph fauna with six additional species, including Ignavusaurus, Arcusaurus and two unnamed taxa as well as two unnamed sauropods.
It is not clear which carnivores may have preyed on Massospondylus. Most of the theropods that have been discovered in rocks of Early Jurassic age in southern Africa, such as Coelophysis, were smaller than mid-sized sauropodomorphs like Massospondylus. These smaller predators have been postulated as using fast slashing attacks to wear down sauropodomorphs, which could have defended themselves with their large hand and foot claws. The 6-metre-(20 ft-) long carnivorous theropod Dracovenator lived during the same period (Hettangian to Sinemurian stages) as Massospondylus'' and has also been found in the Elliot Formation of South Africa.
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4,368 |
Beagle
| 1,173,270,674 |
Breed of small scent hound
|
[
"Companion dogs",
"Dog breeds originating in England",
"FCI breeds",
"Hunting with hounds",
"Scent hounds"
] |
The beagle is a breed of small scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking instincts, the beagle is the primary breed used as a detection dog for prohibited agricultural imports and foodstuffs in quarantine around the world. The beagle is a popular pet due to its size, good temper, and a lack of inherited health problems.
The modern breed was developed in Great Britain around the 1830s from several breeds, including the Talbot Hound, the North Country Beagle, the Southern Hound, and possibly the Harrier.
Beagles have been depicted in popular culture since Elizabethan times in literature and paintings and more recently in film, television, and comic books.
## History
The origin of the beagle is not known. In the 11th century, William the Conqueror brought the St. Hubert Hound and the Talbot hound to Britain. In Britain, both of these strains were then crossed with Greyhounds to give them speed and stamina for deer hunting. Beagles are similar to the Harrier and the extinct Southern Hound, though they are smaller and slower.
From medieval times, beagle was used as a generic description for the smaller hounds, though these dogs differed considerably from the modern breed. Miniature breeds of beagle-type dogs were known from the times of Edward II and Henry VII, who both had packs of Glove Beagles, so named since they were small enough to fit on a glove, and Queen Elizabeth I kept a breed known as a Pocket Beagle, which stood 8 to 9 inches (20 to 23 cm) at the shoulder. Small enough to fit in a "pocket" or saddlebag, they rode along on the hunt. The larger hounds would run the prey to ground, then the hunters would release the small dogs to continue the chase through underbrush. Elizabeth I referred to the dogs as her singing beagles and often entertained guests at her royal table by letting her Pocket Beagles cavort amid their plates and cups. 19th-century sources refer to these breeds interchangeably and it is possible that the two names refer to the same small variety. In George Jesse's Researches into the History of the British Dog from 1866, the early 17th-century poet and writer Gervase Markham is quoted referring to the beagle as small enough to sit on a man's hand and to the:
> little small mitten-beagle, which may be companion for a ladies kirtle, and in the field will run as cunningly as any hound whatere, only their musick is very small like reeds.
By the 18th century, two breeds had been developed for hunting hare and rabbit: the Southern Hound and the North Country Beagle (or Northern Hound). The Southern Hound, a tall, heavy dog with a square head, and long, soft ears, was common from south of the River Trent and probably closely related to the Talbot Hound. Though slow, it had stamina and an excellent scenting ability. The North Country Beagle, possibly a cross between an offshoot of the Talbot stock and a Greyhound, was bred chiefly in Yorkshire and was common in the northern counties. It was smaller than the Southern Hound, less heavy-set, and with a more pointed muzzle. It was faster than its southern counterpart but its scenting abilities were less well-developed.
Standards for the Pocket Beagle were drawn up as late as 1901; these genetic lines are now extinct, although modern breeders have attempted to recreate the variety.
### Development of the modern breed
Reverend Phillip Honeywood established a beagle pack in Essex in the 1830s and it is believed that this pack formed the basis for the modern breed. Although details of the pack's lineage are not recorded, it is thought that North Country Beagles and Southern Hounds were strongly represented; William Youatt suspected that Harriers formed a good majority of the beagle's bloodline, but the origin of the Harrier is itself obscure. Honeywood's Beagles were small, standing at about 10 inches (25 cm) at the shoulder, and pure white according to John Mills (writing in The Sportsman's Library in 1845). Prince Albert and Lord Winterton also had Beagle packs around this time, and royal favor no doubt led to some revival of interest in the breed, but Honeywood's pack was regarded as the finest of the three.
Although credited with the development of the modern breed, Honeywood concentrated on producing dogs for hunting and it was left to Thomas Johnson to refine the breeding to produce dogs that were both attractive and capable hunters. Two strains were developed: the rough-coated and smooth-coated varieties. The rough-coated beagle survived until the beginning of the 20th century, and there were even records of one making an appearance at a dog show as late as 1969, but this variety is now extinct, having probably been absorbed into the standard beagle bloodline.
In the 1840s, a standard beagle type was beginning to develop; the distinction between the North Country Beagle and Southern Hound had been lost, but there was still a large variation in size, character, and reliability among the emerging packs. In 1856, "Stonehenge" (the pseudonym of John Henry Walsh), writing in the Manual of British Rural Sports, was still dividing beagles into four varieties: the medium beagle; the dwarf or lapdog beagle; the fox beagle (a smaller, slower version of the Foxhound); and the rough-coated or terrier beagle, which he classified as a cross between any of the other varieties and one of the Scottish terrier breeds. Stonehenge also gives the start of a standard description:
> In size the beagle measures from 10 inches, or even less, to 15. In shape they resemble the old southern hound in miniature, but with more neatness and beauty; and they also resemble that hound in style of hunting.
By 1887 the threat of extinction was on the wane: there were 18 beagle packs in England. The Beagle Club was formed in 1890 and the first standard drawn up at the same time. The following year the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles was formed. Both organisations aimed to further the best interests of the breed, and both were keen to produce a standard type of beagle. By 1902, the number of packs had risen to 44.
### Export
Beagles were in the United States by the 1840s at the latest, but the first dogs were imported strictly for hunting and were of variable quality. Since Honeywood had only started breeding in the 1830s, it is unlikely these dogs were representative of the modern breed, and the description of them as looking like straight-legged Dachshunds with weak heads has little resemblance to the standard. Serious attempts at establishing a quality bloodline began in the early 1870s when General Richard Rowett from Illinois imported some dogs from England and began breeding. Rowett's Beagles are believed to have formed the models for the first American standard, drawn up by Rowett, L. H. Twadell, and Norman Ellmore in 1887. The beagle was accepted as a breed by the American Kennel Club (AKC) in 1885. In the 20th century the breed has spread worldwide.
## Popularity
On its formation, the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles took over the running of a regular show at Peterborough that had started in 1889, and the Beagle Club in the UK held its first show in 1896. The regular showing of the breed led to the development of a uniform type, and the beagle continued to prove a success up until the outbreak of World War I when all shows were suspended. After the war, the breed was again struggling for survival in the UK: the last of the Pocket Beagles was probably lost during this time, and registrations fell to an all-time low. A few breeders (notably Reynalton Kennels) managed to revive interest in the dog and by World War II, the breed was once again doing well. Registrations dropped again after the end of the war but almost immediately recovered.
As purebred dogs, beagles have always been more popular in the United States and Canada than in their native country England. The National Beagle Club of America was formed in 1888 and by 1901 a beagle had won a Best in Show title. As in the UK, activity during World War I was minimal, but the breed showed a much stronger revival in the U.S. when hostilities ceased. In 1928 it won a number of prizes at the Westminster Kennel Club's show and by 1939 a beagle – Champion Meadowlark Draughtsman – had captured the title of top-winning American-bred dog for the year. On 12 February 2008, a beagle, K-Run's Park Me In First (Uno), won the Best In Show category at the Westminster Kennel Club show for the first time in the competition's history. In North America they have been consistently in the top-ten most-popular breeds for over 30 years. From 1953 to 1959 the beagle was ranked No. 1 on the list of the American Kennel Club's registered breeds; in 2005 and 2006 it ranked 5th out of the 155 breeds registered. In the UK they are not quite so popular, placing 28th and 30th in the rankings of registrations with the Kennel Club in 2005 and 2006 respectively. In the United States the beagle ranked 4th most popular breed in 2012 and 2013, behind the Labrador Retriever (#1), German Shepherd (#2), and Golden Retriever (#3) breeds.
## Name
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first mention of the beagle by name in English literature dates from c. 1475 in The Squire of Low Degree. The origin of the word "beagle" is uncertain, although it has been suggested that the word derives from the French begueule which means "gate throat".
It is not known why the black and tan Kerry Beagle, present in Ireland since Celtic times, has the beagle description, since at 22 to 24 inches (56 to 61 cm) it is significantly taller than the modern day beagle, and in earlier times was even larger. Some writers suggest that the beagle's scenting ability may have come from cross-breeding earlier strains with the Kerry Beagle. Originally used for hunting stags, it is today used for hare and drag hunting.
## Appearance
The general appearance of the beagle resembles a miniature Foxhound, but the head is broader and the muzzle shorter, the expression completely different and the legs shorter in proportion to the body. They are generally between 13 and 16 inches (33 and 41 cm) high at the withers and weigh between 18 and 35 lb (8.2 and 15.9 kg), with females being slightly smaller than males on average. They have a smooth, somewhat domed skull with a medium-length, square-cut muzzle, and a black (or occasionally liver) gumdrop nose. The jaw is strong, and the teeth scissor together with the upper teeth fitting perfectly over the lower teeth. Both sets align square to the jaw. The eyes are large, hazel or brown, with a mild, hound-like pleading look. The large ears are long, soft, and low-set, turning towards the cheeks slightly and rounded at the tips. Beagles have a strong, medium-length neck (which is long enough for them to easily bend to the ground to pick up a scent), with little folding in the skin but some evidence of a dewlap; a broad chest narrowing to a tapered abdomen and waist and a long, slightly curved tail (known as the "stern") tipped with white. The white tip, known as the flag, was bred for selectively, as the tail remains easily seen when the dog's head is down following a scent. The tail does not curl over the back, but is held upright when the dog is active. The beagle has a muscular body and a medium-length, smooth, hard coat. The front legs are straight and carried under the body while the rear legs are muscular and well bent at the stifles.
The tricolored beagle—white with large black areas and light brown shading—is the most common. Tricolored beagles occur in a number of shades, from the "Classic Tri" with a jet black saddle (also known as "Blackback"), to the "Dark Tri" (where faint brown markings are intermingled with more prominent black markings), to the "Faded Tri" (where faint black markings are intermingled with more prominent brown markings). Some tricolored dogs have a broken pattern, sometimes referred to as pied. These dogs have mostly white coats with patches of black and brown hair. Tricolor beagles are almost always born black and white. The white areas are typically set by eight weeks, but the black areas may fade to brown as the puppy matures. (The brown may take between one and two years to fully develop.) Some beagles gradually change colour during their lives, and may lose their black markings entirely.
Two-colour varieties always have a white base colour with areas of the second colour. Tan and white is the most common two-colour variety, but there is a wide range of other colours including lemon, a very light tan; red, a reddish, almost orange, brown; and liver, a darker brown, and black. Liver is not common and is not permitted in some standards; it tends to occur with yellow eyes. Ticked or mottled varieties may be either white or black with different coloured flecks (ticking), such as the blue-mottled or bluetick beagle, which has spots that appear to be a midnight-blue colour, similar to the colouring of the Bluetick Coonhound. Some tricolour beagles also have ticking of various colours in their white areas.
## Sense of smell
Alongside the Bloodhound and Basset Hound, the beagle has one of the best developed senses of smell of any dog. In the 1950s, John Paul Scott and John Fuller began a 13-year study of canine behavior. As part of this research, they tested the scenting abilities of various breeds by putting a mouse in a one-acre field and timing how long it took the dogs to find it. The beagles found it in less than a minute while Fox Terriers took 15 minutes and Scottish Terriers failed to find it at all. The long ears and large lips of the beagle probably assist in trapping the scents close to the nose.
## Variations
### Breed varieties
The American Kennel Club recognises two separate varieties of beagle: the 13-inch for hounds less than 13 inches (33 cm), and the 15-inch for those between 13 and 15 inches (33 and 38 cm). The Canadian Kennel Club recognises a single type, with a height not exceeding 15 inches (38 cm). The Kennel Club (UK) and FCI affiliated clubs recognise a single type, with a height of between 13 and 16 inches (33 and 41 cm).
English and American varieties are sometimes mentioned. However, there is no official recognition from any Kennel Club for this distinction. Beagles fitting the American Kennel Club standard – which disallows animals over 15 inches (38 cm) – are smaller on average than those fitting the Kennel Club standard which allows heights up to 16 inches (41 cm).
Pocket Beagles are sometimes advertised for sale but while the UK Kennel Club originally specified a standard for the Pocket Beagle in 1901, the variety is now not recognised by any Kennel Club.
A strain known as Patch Hounds was developed by Willet Randall and his family from 1896 specifically for their rabbit hunting ability. They trace their bloodline back to Field Champion Patch, but do not necessarily have a patchwork marking.
### Crossbreeds
In the 1850s, John Henry Walsh (Stonehenge) recommended a cross between a Beagle and a Scottish Terrier as a retriever. He found the crossbreed to be a good worker, silent and obedient, but it had the drawback that it was small and could barely carry a hare. More recently, the trend has been for "designer dogs" and one of the most popular has been the Beagle/Pug cross known as a Puggle. Some puppies of this cross are less excitable than a Beagle and with a lower exercise requirement, similar to the Pug parent; but many are highly excitable and require vigorous exercise.
## Temperament
The beagle has an even temper and gentle disposition. Described in several breed standards as "merry", they are amiable and typically neither aggressive nor timid, although this depends on the individual. They enjoy company, and although they may initially be standoffish with strangers, they are easily won over. They make poor guard dogs for this reason, although their tendency to bark or howl when confronted with the unfamiliar makes them good watch dogs. In a 1985 study conducted by Ben and Lynette Hart, the beagle was given the highest excitability rating, along with the Yorkshire Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Miniature Schnauzer, West Highland White Terrier, and Fox Terrier.
They are ranked 72nd in Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs, as Coren places them among the group with the lowest degree of working/obedience intelligence. Coren's scale, however, does not assess understanding, independence, or creativity.
Beagles are excellent with children and this is one of the reasons they have become popular family pets. Beagles are pack animals; they are prone to separation anxiety, a condition which causes them to destroy things when left unattended. Not all beagles will howl, but most will bark when confronted with strange situations, and some will bay (also referred to as "speaking", "giving tongue", or "opening") when they catch the scent of potential quarry. They also generally get along well with cats and other dogs. They are not too demanding with regard to exercise; their inbred stamina means they do not easily tire when exercised, but they also do not need to be worked to exhaustion before they will rest. Regular exercise helps ward off the weight gain to which the breed is prone.
## Health
The typical longevity of beagles is 12–15 years, which is a common lifespan for dogs of their size.
Beagles may be prone to epilepsy, but this can often be controlled with medication. Hypothyroidism and a number of types of dwarfism occur in beagles. Two conditions in particular are unique to the breed: "Funny Puppy", in which the puppy is slow to develop and eventually develops weak legs, a crooked back and although normally healthy, is prone to a range of illnesses; and Musladin-Lueke syndrome (MLS) in which the eyes are slanted and the outer toes are underdeveloped but otherwise development is as normal. Hip dysplasia, common in Harriers and in some larger breeds, is rarely considered a problem in beagles. Beagles are considered a chondrodystrophic breed, meaning that they are prone to types of disk diseases.
In rare cases, beagles may develop immune mediated polygenic arthritis (where the immune system attacks the joints) even at a young age. The symptoms can sometimes be relieved by steroid treatments. Another rare disease in the breed is neonatal cerebellar cortical degeneration. Affected puppies are slow, have lower co-ordination, fall more often, and do not have a normal gait. It has an estimated carrier rate of 5% and affected rate of 0.1%. A genetic test is available.
Their long floppy ears can mean that the inner ear does not receive a substantial air flow or that moist air becomes trapped, and this can lead to ear infections. Beagles may also be affected by a range of eye problems; two common ophthalmic conditions in beagles are glaucoma and corneal dystrophy. "Cherry eye", a prolapse of the gland of the third eyelid, and distichiasis, a condition in which eyelashes grow into the eye causing irritation, sometimes exist; both these conditions can be corrected with surgery. They can suffer from several types of retinal atrophy. Failure of the nasolacrimal drainage system can cause dry eye or leakage of tears onto the face.
As field dogs they are prone to minor injuries such as cuts and sprains, and, if inactive, obesity is a common problem as they will eat whenever food is available and rely on their owners to regulate their weight. When working or running free they are also likely to pick up parasites such as fleas, ticks, harvest mites, and tapeworms, and irritants such as grass seeds can become trapped in their eyes, soft ears, or paws.
Beagles may exhibit a behavior known as reverse sneezing, in which they sound as if they are choking or gasping for breath, but are actually drawing air in through the mouth and nose. The exact cause of this behavior is not known, but it can be a common occurrence and is not harmful to the dog.
### Reproduction
The average size of a beagle litter is six puppies. When mother beagles give birth to litters of puppies, the little pups weigh just a few ounces each.
## Hunting
Beagles were developed primarily for hunting hare, an activity known as beagling. They were seen as ideal hunting companions for the elderly who could follow on horseback without exerting themselves, for young hunters who could keep up with them on ponies, and for the poorer hunters who could not afford to maintain a stable of good hunting horses. Before the advent of the fashion for foxhunting in the 19th century, hunting was an all day event where the enjoyment was derived from the chase rather than the kill. In this setting the tiny beagle was well matched to the hare, as unlike Harriers they would not quickly finish the hunt, but because of their excellent scent-tracking skills and stamina they were almost guaranteed to eventually catch the hare. The beagle packs would run closely together ("so close that they might be covered with a sheet") which was useful in a long hunt, as it prevented stray dogs from obscuring the trail. In thick undergrowth they were also preferred to spaniels when hunting pheasant.
With the fashion for faster hunts, the beagle fell out of favor for chasing hare, but was still employed for rabbit hunting. In Anecdotes of Dogs (1846), Edward Jesse says:
> In rabbit-shooting, in gorse and thick cover, nothing can be more cheerful than the beagle. They also are easily heard over long distances and in thick cover. They have been called rabbit-beagles from this employment, for which they are peculiarly qualified, especially those dogs which are somewhat wire-haired.
In the United States they appear to have been employed chiefly for hunting rabbits from the earliest imports. Hunting hare with beagles became popular again in Britain in the mid-19th century and continued until it was made illegal in Scotland by the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 and in England and Wales by the Hunting Act 2004. Under this legislation beagles may still pursue rabbits with the landowner's permission. Drag hunting is popular where hunting is no longer permitted or for those owners who do not wish to participate in hunting a live animal, but still wish to exercise their dog's innate skills.
The traditional foot pack consists of up to 40 beagles, marshaled by a Huntsman who directs the pack and who is assisted by a variable number of whippers-in whose job is to return straying hounds to the pack. The Master of the Hunt is in overall day-to-day charge of the pack, and may or may not take on the role of Huntsman on the day of the hunt.
As hunting with beagles was seen as ideal for young people, many of the British public schools traditionally maintained beagle packs. Protests were lodged against Eton's use of beagles for hunting as early as 1902 but the pack is still in existence today. In 2001, the Wye College beagle pack was taken by the Animal Liberation Front. School and university packs are still maintained by Eton, Marlborough, Radley, the Royal Agricultural University, and Christ Church, Oxford.
In addition to organised beagling, beagles have been used for hunting or flushing to guns (often in pairs) a wide range of game including snowshoe hare, cottontail rabbits, game birds, roe deer, red deer, bobcat, coyote, wild boar, and foxes, and have even been recorded as being used to hunt stoat. In most of these cases, the beagle is employed as a gun dog, flushing game for hunter's guns.
## Detection
Beagles are used as detection dogs in the Beagle Brigade of the United States Department of Agriculture. These dogs are used to detect food items in luggage being taken into the United States. After trialling several breeds, beagles were chosen because they are relatively small and unintimidating for people who are uncomfortable around dogs, easy to care for, intelligent and work well for rewards. They are also used for this purpose in a number of other countries including by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in New Zealand, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, and in Canada, Japan, and the People's Republic of China. Larger breeds are generally used for detection of explosives as this often involves climbing over luggage and on large conveyor belts, work for which the smaller Beagle is not suited.
## Testing
Beagles are the dog breed most often used in animal testing, due to their size and passive nature. In the United States, as many as 65,000 beagles are used every year for medical, cosmetic, beauty, and other chemical tests. They are purpose bred and live their lives in cages undergoing experiments. The Rescue + Freedom Project (formerly Beagle Freedom Project) has successfully advocated for beagles to be released from labs. This organisation has freed hundreds of animals.
Beagles are used in a range of research procedures: fundamental biological research, applied human medicine, applied veterinary medicine, and protection of man, animals, or the environment. Of the 8,018 dogs used in testing in the UK in 2004, 7,799 were beagles (97.3%). In the UK, the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 gave special status to primates, equids, cats and dogs and in 2005 the Animal Procedures Committee (set up by the act) ruled that testing on mice was preferable, even though a greater number of individual animals were involved. In 2005 beagles were involved in less than 0.3% of the total experiments on animals in the UK, but of the 7670 experiments performed on dogs 7406 involved beagles (96.6%). Most dogs are bred specifically for this purpose, by companies such as Harlan. In the UK companies breeding animals for research must be licensed under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act.
### Bans and activism against beagle testing
Testing of cosmetic products on animals is banned in the member states of the European Community, although France protested the ban and has made efforts to have it lifted. It is permitted in the United States but is not mandatory if safety can be ascertained by other methods, and the test species is not specified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). When testing toxicity of food additives, food contaminants, and some drugs and chemicals the FDA uses beagles and miniature pigs as surrogates for direct human testing. Minnesota was the first state to enact a Beagle Freedom adoption law in 2014, mandating that dogs and cats are allowed to be adopted once they have completed research testing.
Anti-vivisection groups have reported on abuse of animals inside testing facilities. In 1997 footage secretly filmed by a freelance journalist inside Huntingdon Life Sciences in the UK showed staff punching and screaming at beagles. Consort Kennels, a UK-based breeder of beagles for testing, closed down in 1997 after pressure from animal rights groups.
There are various examples of activists utilizing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to obtain information about taxpayer funding of animal testing. For example, the White Coat Waste Project, a group of activists that hold that taxpayers should not have to pay \$20 billion every year for experiments on animals, highlighted that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases provided \$400,000 in taxpayer money to fund experiments in which 28 beagles were infected by disease-causing parasites. The White Coat Project found reports that said dogs taking part in the experiments were "vocalizing in pain" after being injected with foreign substances. Following public outcry, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) made a call to action that all members of the National Institute of Health resign effective immediately and that there is a "need to find a new NIH director to replace the outgoing Francis Collins who will shut down research that violates the dignity of nonhuman animals."
## Other roles
Although bred for hunting, Beagles are versatile and are nowadays employed for various other roles in detection, therapy, and as family pets.
Beagles are used as sniffer dogs for termite detection in Australia, and have been mentioned as possible candidates for drug and explosive detection. Because of their gentle nature and unimposing build, they are also frequently used in pet therapy, visiting the sick and elderly in hospital. In June 2006, a trained Beagle assistance dog was credited with saving the life of its owner after using her owner's mobile phone to dial an emergency number. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, a Beagle search and rescue dog with a Colombian rescue squad was credited with locating the owner of the Hôtel Montana, who was subsequently rescued after spending 100 hours buried in the rubble. Beagles were hired by New York City to help with bedbug detection, although some have expressed doubts about the role of such dogs in this type of detection.
## In popular culture
- Anthropomorphic Beagles appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons since the 1950s with the Peanuts character Snoopy, who was billed as "the world's most famous Beagle". The animated series Courage the Cowardly Dog also features an anthropomorphic beagle as its title character.
- Porthos is a beagle that belongs to Jonathan Archer, the captain on the television series Star Trek: Enterprise.
- Former US President Lyndon Baines Johnson had several beagles, and caused an outcry when he picked up one of them by its ears during an official greeting on the White House lawn.
- The ship on which Charles Darwin made the voyage which provided much of the inspiration for On the Origin of Species was named HMS Beagle after the breed, and, in turn, lent its name to the ill-fated British Martian lander Beagle 2.
- An American bred 15 inch male Beagle with the registered name of Ch K-Run's Park Me In First and the pet name of "Uno" won the 2008 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
- A Canadian bred 15 inch female Beagle with the registered name of Gr Ch Tashtins Lookin For Trouble and the pet name of "Miss P" won the 2015 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
## Notable Beagles
- Frodo, awarded the PDSA Gold Medal for animal bravery
- Uno, who in 2008 became the first Beagle to win the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
- Miss P, winner of the 2015 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
|
69,332,147 |
Shaylee Mansfield
| 1,171,330,831 |
American actress (born 2009)
|
[
"2009 births",
"21st-century American actresses",
"Actresses from Burbank, California",
"American YouTubers",
"American child actresses",
"American deaf actresses",
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"American television actresses",
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Shaylee Mansfield (born April 6, 2009) is an American actress and former YouTuber who is deaf. Mansfield was born in Burbank, California, and first gained recognition by making viral videos in which she tells Christmas stories in American Sign Language. Mansfield appeared in an "Unforgettable Stories" video advertisement by Disney Parks, in which she met Minnie Mouse, who was learning sign language at Walt Disney World. The video quickly went viral and became one of Disney's most-watched advertisements.
Mansfield made her acting debut in 2019 in Disney's Noelle. The following year, her request for automatic captioning on Instagram drew attention from several media publications and became popular on Twitter. She received further recognition for her roles in the films Feel the Beat (2020) and 13 Minutes (2021). In 2022, for her signed performance on the animated series Madagascar: A Little Wild, Mansfield possibly became the first deaf actor to be credited alongside voice actors.
## Life and career
### 2009–2018: early life and viral videos
Shaylee Mansfield was born deaf on April 6, 2009, in Burbank, California. Her parents—former actor Sheena McFeely and Manny Johnson—are also deaf and run ASL Nook, a website and YouTube channel that teaches American Sign Language (ASL). Mansfield has a younger sister named Ivy, who is hearing.
Mansfield appeared on ASL Nook from 2013 until 2019. She began signing Christmas stories on the channel at age four with The Nightmare Before Christmas. At five, she performed How the Grinch Stole Christmas!; E! stated: "We can't remember the last time a holiday story made us smile so much ... mostly because [Mansfield] is so into how she tells the story. She is so expressive with her sign-language and facial expressions." In 2015, she enacted Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. HuffPost called her 2016 retelling of The Polar Express "beautiful ... like you've never seen before".
At a Disney park in 2013, Mansfield met a staff member dressed as Tinker Bell who could sign. Three years later, due to this event, Disney flew the Mansfield family to Disneyland. At the park, the family filmed an "Unforgettable Stories" advertisement, in which they met an actor dressed as Minnie Mouse who had recently begun learning sign language. The video went viral, garnering, as of April 2016, 11 million views and becoming the second-most-watched of Disney's advertisements. Adweek highlighted its inclusivity as a major factor in its success. The Mansfields also appeared alongside two other predominantly deaf families in the documentary film Born This Way Presents: Deaf Out Loud, which aired on A&E on September 12, 2018. The New York Times's Margaret Lyons described it as earnest and the families featured as "incredibly compelling, thoughtful and telegenic".
### 2019–present: acting debut
In 2019, Mansfield made her acting debut as Michelle, a homeless, deaf girl, in the Disney+ film Noelle. Despite the film's mixed reception, the role was, according to Variety, helpful to Mansfield's career. In July 2019, Netflix announced Mansfield had been cast in its film Feel the Beat, which received ambivalent reviews. In 2021, Mansfield appeared as Peyton, the deaf daughter of Kim (Amy Smart) and Brad (Peter Facinelli), in 13 Minutes; The Hollywood Reporter said she had a "very natural screen presence".
Mansfield met Delbert and Jevon Whetter, deaf consultants for the animated series Madagascar: A Little Wild, at a panel for RespectAbility; following the panel, Mansfield's mother asked whether the show needed a deaf actor. After having a familiarization meeting with DreamWorks, Mansfield was quickly offered a role in the series. Because of the earlier relationship between Mansfield and the Whetters, Mansfield did not go through the regular casting procedure for A Little Wild. The show's original intent to depict a boy was adjusted to a girl, who was named and modeled after Mansfield. She was able to choose her own interpreter, which she stated enabled her to "focus on delivering [her] best performance". The animators based the character's actions on her signs using a video reference. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mansfield was required to work via Zoom. Jevon said: "We had to really slow it down to be extremely clear, and give various angles of the lines so that the animators can see where the hand shapes and hand movements should be". Mansfield made a guest appearance in the episode "Gloria's Got 'Em All", which was released on streaming services Hulu and Peacock on January 13, 2022; she is credited for her signed performance in the episode alongside the voice actors, which may be the first such credit for a deaf actor.
In 2023, Mansfield portrayed Ollie Nicoletti in ABC's drama series The Company You Keep. In a review, Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times praised her performance as "instantly endearing". The show was canceled after one season.
## Advocacy
During her YouTube career, Mansfield aimed to encourage children and families to learn ASL. Through her performances as an actor, she works to demonstrate authenticity to the deaf community and raise awareness about ASL. She uses her social media as a platform to teach others about sign language and raise awareness. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mansfield posted a video on Twitter criticizing Instagram for a lack of captioning; in it, she said she and over 400 million other deaf or hard-of-hearing people are unable to understand videos with sound. Her video was liked and retweeted thousands of times. Mansfield asked Instagram's chief executive officer, Adam Mosseri, to add automatic captioning to the network. In May 2021, Instagram released a sticker that automatically transcribes speech in Instagram Stories.
## Filmography
|
887,460 |
Franklin Knight Lane
| 1,153,858,224 |
American politician (1864–1921)
|
[
"1864 births",
"1921 deaths",
"20th-century American politicians",
"American prosecutors",
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"Canadian emigrants to the United States",
"Lawyers from San Francisco",
"National Park Service",
"Oakland High School (Oakland, California) alumni",
"People from Queens County, Prince Edward Island",
"People of the Interstate Commerce Commission",
"Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)",
"Politicians from San Francisco",
"Railway Wage Commission",
"San Francisco Chronicle people",
"San Francisco City Attorneys",
"United States Secretaries of the Interior",
"University of California College of the Law, San Francisco alumni",
"University of California, Berkeley alumni",
"Woodrow Wilson administration cabinet members"
] |
Franklin Knight Lane (July 15, 1864 – May 18, 1921) was an American progressive politician from California. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as United States Secretary of the Interior from 1913 to 1920. He also served as a commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and was the Democratic nominee for Governor of California in 1902, losing a narrow race in what was then a heavily Republican state.
Lane was born July 15, 1864, near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in what was then a British colony but is now part of Canada, and in 1871, his family moved to California. After attending the University of California while working part-time as a reporter, Lane became a New York correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, and later became editor and part owner of a newspaper. Elected City Attorney of San Francisco in 1898, a post he held for five years, Lane ran in 1902 for governor and in 1903 for mayor of San Francisco, losing both races. In 1903, he received the support of the Democratic minority in the California State Legislature during the legislature's vote to elect a United States Senator from California.
Appointed a commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 and confirmed by the Senate the following year, Lane was reappointed in 1909 by President William Howard Taft. His fellow commissioners elected him as chairman in January 1913. The following month, Lane accepted President-elect Woodrow Wilson's nomination to become Secretary of the Interior, a position in which he served almost seven years until his resignation in early 1920. Lane's record on conservation was mixed: he supported the controversial Hetch Hetchy Reservoir project in Yosemite National Park, which flooded a valley esteemed by many conservationists, but also presided over the establishment of the National Park Service.
The former Secretary died of heart disease at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, on May 18, 1921. Because of two decades of poorly paid government service, and the expenses of his final illness, he left no estate, and a public fund was established to support his widow. Newspapers reported that had he not been born in what is now Canada, he would have become president. In spite of that limitation, Lane was offered support for the Democratic nomination for vice president, though he was constitutionally ineligible for that office as well.
## Early life
Lane was born in DeSable, west of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on July 15, 1864, the first of four children of Christopher Lane and the former Caroline Burns. Christopher Lane was a preacher who owned a farm outside Charlottetown; when his voice began to fail, he became a dentist. The elder Lane, disliking the island colony's cold climate, moved with his family to Napa, California in 1871, and to Oakland in 1876, where Franklin graduated from Oakland High School. Franklin Lane was hired to work in the printing office of the Oakland Times, then worked as a reporter, and in 1884 campaigned for the Prohibition Party. From 1884 to 1886, he attended the University of California at Berkeley, though he did not graduate. Lane later wrote, "I put myself through college by working on vacation and after hours, and I am very glad I did it." He later received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from the University of California, from New York University, Brown University, and the University of North Carolina. After leaving college, he worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1889, he was admitted to the California Bar, having attended Hastings Law School.
Rather than practicing law, Lane moved to New York City to continue his newspaper career as a correspondent for the Chronicle. There he became a protégé of the reformer Henry George and a member of New York's Reform Club. He returned to the West Coast in 1891 as editor and part owner of the Tacoma News. He was successful in driving a corrupt chief of police into exile in Alaska, but the business venture as a whole was unsuccessful, and the paper declared bankruptcy in 1894, a victim of the poor economy and Lane's espousal of Democratic and Populist Party causes. In 1893, Lane married Anne Wintermute; they had two children, Franklin Knight Lane, Jr. and Nancy Lane Kauffman.
Lane moved back to California in late 1894, and began to practice law in San Francisco with his brother George. He also wrote for Arthur McEwen's Letter, a newspaper which crusaded against corruption, especially in the San Francisco Bay area and in the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1897–98, he served on the Committee of One Hundred, a group which was tasked with drafting a new city charter. The charter required the city to own its own water supply.
## California politician
In 1898, Lane, running as a Democrat, was elected to the combined position of City and County Attorney, defeating California's sitting Attorney General, W. F. Fitzgerald, by 832 votes in a year that otherwise saw most offices across the state fall to the Republicans. He was re-elected in 1899 and 1901.
Lane ran for Governor of California in 1902 on the Democratic and Non-Partisan tickets. At a time when California was dominated by the Republican Party, he lost by less than a percentage point to George Pardee. (Theodore Roosevelt won the state by 35 points two years later.) Between 8,000 and 10,000 votes were disqualified on various technicalities, possibly costing him the election. During the campaign, the influential San Francisco Examiner slanted its news coverage against him. Examiner owner William Randolph Hearst later denied responsibility for this policy, and stated that if Lane ever needed anything, he should send Hearst a telegram. Lane retorted that if Hearst received a telegram purportedly signed by Lane, asking him to do anything, he could be sure it was a forgery.
Journalist Grant Wallace wrote of Lane at the time of the gubernatorial campaign:
> That Lane is a man of earnestness and vigorous action is shown in ... every movement. You sit down to chat with him in his office. As he grows interested in the subject, he kicks his chair back, thrusts his hands way to the elbows in his trouser pockets and strides up and down the room. With deepening interest he speaks more rapidly and forcibly, and charges back and forth across the carpet with the heavy tread of a grenadier.
At the time, the state legislatures still elected United States Senators, and in 1903, Lane received the vote of the state legislature's Democratic minority in the Senate election. However, the majority Republicans backed incumbent George Clement Perkins, who was duly re-elected. Later that year, City Attorney Lane ran for mayor of San Francisco, but again was defeated, finishing third in the race. He returned to the private practice of law, and would not again stand for elective office.
Even before the mayoral election, there was support for Lane as a potential Democratic candidate for vice president, though since he was born in what was by then a Canadian province he was ineligible under the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In an era when political convention delegates were far more free to make their own choices than they are today, Lane wrote that he had heard that he could gain the support of the New York delegation, which he declined to do. While returning to California from a trip to Washington, D.C., as an advocate for the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir project, he stopped in Austin, Texas, to confer with Democratic leaders and address the legislature. The New York Times saw this as part of a campaign to secure the vice-presidential nomination, and stated that he had been promised help from Texas.
## Interstate Commerce Commission
### Appointment and confirmation
The railroad companies, which were loosely regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), exercised great power in California because of the lack of alternate means of shipping freight. Lane had taken cases against those corporations in his law practice, and, in his gubernatorial campaign, had argued that they had too much power. In early 1904, Benjamin Wheeler, president of the University of California, suggested to President Roosevelt that Lane would be an admirable choice to serve on the ICC. Roosevelt agreed, and promised to name him to the next ICC vacancy. When that vacancy occurred in early 1905, Roosevelt forgot his promise and instead named retiring five-term Senator Francis Cockrell of Missouri. Wheeler wrote to remind Roosevelt that he had said he would name Lane. Roosevelt apologized for his oversight, but noted that, as he had just been re-elected, "I shall make ample amends to Lane later".
In December 1905, Commissioner Joseph W. Fifer resigned from the ICC and on December 6, 1905, President Roosevelt named Lane to fill the remaining four years in his term. Opposition to the appointment came from Republicans, who pointed out that were the nominee to be confirmed by the Senate, three of the five commissioners would be from the minority Democratic Party. Historian Bill G. Reid, in his journal article about Lane, suggests that Lane's liberal record was a factor in the Senate's hesitation to confirm him. The dispute held up Senate approval. However, Republican Congressman William Peters Hepburn proposed legislation which, though its primary purpose was increased railroad regulation, would expand the Commission by two members. Roosevelt indicated that he would appoint Republicans to the new positions, and opposition to Lane's nomination dissipated. The resultant Hepburn Act was signed by President Roosevelt on June 29, 1906, while his nominee was confirmed the same day and was sworn in on July 2, 1906.
The City of San Francisco suffered a severe earthquake on April 18, 1906. Lane, who was living in north Berkeley while awaiting Senate confirmation, hurried to the city within hours of the earthquake to do what he could to help. Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz immediately appointed him to the Committee of Fifty to deal with the devastation of the earthquake and subsequent fire, and plan the rebuilding of the city. According to Lane's friend, writer Will Irwin, Lane did not content himself with committee work, but personally fought the fire, helping to save much of the Western Addition. In late April, the commissioner-designate took the train east to Washington, where he unsuccessfully fought to obtain Federal money to help the city's recovery.
### Commission work
The new commissioner spent the second half of 1906 attending ICC hearings around the country. The Hepburn Act had given the Commission broad powers over the railroads, and the Commission worked to deal not only with past railroad abuses, but to strike a balance between the desires of railroads and those of shippers.
There was a severe shortage of coal in the Upper Midwest in late 1906, especially in North Dakota, and President Roosevelt ordered an investigation. Railroad companies were accused of failing to send cars with coal to that region that could then be used to transport grain from that region to Great Lakes ports. It was alleged the companies were waiting for the lakes to freeze over before sending cars so that the grain would have to be transported by rail all the way to market instead of by water transport. Lane led the inquiry and held hearings in Chicago, and concluded that the car shortage was due to demand for cars further west, and that it would actually cause area railways to lose money since they could not transport the grain to port. In January 1907, he submitted his report to Roosevelt, which set out the causes of the shortage. He found that fifty million bushels of grain still remained on North Dakota farms or in the state's grain elevators, because of lack of space in eastbound railroad cars. He recommended that railroad companies pool their cars with neighboring lines.
The Commission spent much of 1907 investigating the railroads and other companies owned by Edward H. Harriman, holding hearings across the country. In October, Lane determined that the Southern Pacific Railroad, one of Harriman's lines, was engaged in rebating, a practice of effectively giving special rates to favored shippers that had been outlawed by the Hepburn Act.
Lane was reappointed as commissioner by President William Howard Taft on December 7, 1909, this time to a full seven-year term, and was confirmed by the Senate three days later. He was also approached by, as he put it, "a good many people" who urged him to seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of California in 1910. He did not run, remaining an ICC commissioner. Taft designated Lane as a U.S. delegate to the 1910 International Railways Congress. The Congress, which convened every five years, met in Berne, Switzerland. Before adjourning in anticipation of meeting in 1915 in Berlin, it elected Lane to its Permanent International Commission.
On July 1, 1911, the ICC ordered a "sweeping investigation" into the activities of express companies, which transported and delivered parcels. Lane presided over a lengthy hearing in New York in November 1911. Fellow Commissioner James S. Harlan noted that after hearing of the abuses of the express system, Lane recommended to Congress that it establish a parcel post service as part of the United States Post Office Department. Parcel post began on January 1, 1913, and was an immediate success.
Early in 1912, Commissioner Lane returned to New York to preside over hearings (begun on the Commission's own initiative) into oil pipelines. While investigating the sale of pipelines to the Standard Oil Company, he grew frustrated with the testimony of a witness who, though secretary of several pipeline companies, could not say who authorized the sales. "I don't want to deal with a clerk or one of your \$5,000 a year men. I want testimony from someone who can speak with authority." The Commission held that oil pipelines were common carriers, and ordered the companies owning them to file rate schedules and otherwise comply with the Interstate Commerce Act.
Lane also gave attention to improving the ICC's internal capabilities. Lane and his ally, fellow Commissioner Balthasar H. Meyer, supported increasing the Commission's ability to compute marginal rates, and the Commission engaged noted economist Max O. Lorenz (inventor of the Lorenz curve) for this task. Lane also advocated the creation of a new commission with powers over any corporation engaged in interstate commerce, as the best way to prevent trusts.
## Secretary of the Interior
### Selection by Wilson
In the 1912 presidential election, Lane supported Democratic candidate and New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, though he declined to make campaign speeches on Wilson's behalf, citing ICC policy that commissioners act in a nonpartisan manner. Wilson was elected on November 5, 1912, and on November 21 the commissioner spent much of the day with Colonel Edward M. House, the President-elect's advisor, who would play a key role in selecting Cabinet appointees. The possibility of Lane becoming Secretary of the Interior was discussed, but he indicated he was happy in his present position. After the meeting, Lane had second thoughts, and asked House if he would have a free hand as Interior Secretary. House indicated that were he to prove capable in the position, Wilson would not interfere. Colonel House did not immediately recommend Lane for the job, but went on to consider other candidates, such as former San Francisco mayor James D. Phelan and Wilson friend Walter Page.
At the ICC meeting on January 8, 1913, the commissioners elected Lane as the new chairman, effective January 13. Wilson continued to keep his Cabinet intentions quiet, and Lane noted in January 1913 of those who met with the President-elect in New Jersey, "nobody comes back from Trenton knowing anything more than when he went". On February 16, House met again with him (on Wilson's instructions) to get a better sense of the ICC chairman's views on conservation. According to House's diaries, Lane, while reluctant to leave his position as chairman, was willing to serve in the Interior position if offered. He considered the position the most difficult Cabinet post but was also willing to serve in any other capacity.
As Wilson adjusted his lineup of potential Cabinet appointees, he and House considered Lane for the positions of Attorney General and Secretary of War. Finally, Wilson wrote to him on February 24, 1913, offering him the Interior position, and, although the two had never met, he accepted the post. According to The New York Times, Chairman Lane was selected since he was one of the few California Democrats who had fought the railroads and who was not beholden to Hearst. At the time, it was customary not to make an official announcement of Cabinet appointments until the new president formally submitted the names to the Senate on the afternoon of Inauguration Day, March 4; however, The New York Times obtained the list of Wilson's appointees a day early. The Senate met in special session on March 5, and approved all of President Wilson's Cabinet appointees.
### Department activities
The Department of the Interior in 1913 was a hodgepodge of different agencies. Many of them, such as the Pensions Office, Indian Office, and General Land Office had been departmental responsibilities since the Interior Department was organized in 1849. Others, such as the Bureau of Education, the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines, had been added later. The Department was also responsible for national parks, the Patent Office, the United States Capitol building and grounds, Howard University, Gallaudet University, St. Elizabeths Hospital and the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua, charged with building a canal upon which work had been suspended for twenty years.
Soon after taking office in 1913, Lane became involved in the Hetch Hetchy Valley dispute. San Francisco had long sought to dam the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park to create a reservoir that would assure a steady flow of water to the city. Lane had supported the project as City Attorney and continued his advocacy as the new Interior Secretary. The Hetch Hetchy project was strongly opposed by many conservationists, led by John Muir, who said, "Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water tanks the people's cathedrals and churches; for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man." In spite of Muir's objections, Lane was successful: Congress authorized the project after a long and bitter battle.
The new Secretary sought allies in Congress to implement his agenda. One such ally was the new junior senator from Montana, Thomas J. Walsh, whose support was key to the passage of the Hetch Hetchy legislation. While Walsh dissented from Lane's policies on national parks, for example by supporting local control of development in his home state's Glacier National Park, he sided with him on subjects ranging from development of Alaska to reclamation projects. The Interior Secretary advocated leasing, rather than selling, public lands with possible mineral deposits, and Senator Walsh pursued legislation in this area. While the two were successful in providing for coal land leasing in Alaska, a general minerals leasing bill would not be passed until shortly after Lane left office in 1920.
In July 1913, Lane left on a long inspection tour of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other areas under the Interior Department's jurisdiction. Fearful that local employees would control what he was allowed to see, he sent an assistant to visit each site and provide him with a complete report on it two weeks in advance of his arrival. The tour was interrupted in August, when President Wilson asked his Interior Secretary to go to Denver and serve as his representative at the Conference of Governors. Lane did, and then rejoined his inspection party in San Francisco. After several days of meetings there, he collapsed because of an attack of angina pectoris. After three weeks recuperating, he returned to Washington against medical advice to resume his work. Following the death of Justice Horace Harmon Lurton, Lane was considered a possibility for elevation to the Supreme Court; however, Wilson chose another member of his cabinet, James Clark McReynolds.
As Interior Secretary, Lane was responsible for the territories, and advocated the development of the Alaska Territory. While private railroads had been established there, they were not successful, and he pushed for a government-built railroad, which he believed would lead to large-scale population movement into Alaska. In 1914, Congress passed a bill authorizing construction of the Alaska Railroad, which passed the Senate following a two-day speech in support by Walsh. Lane was the first Interior Secretary to appoint an Alaska resident, John Franklin Alexander Strong, as territorial governor. Secretary Lane's vision for the territory was, "Alaska should not, in my judgment, be regarded as a mere storehouse of materials on which the people of the States may draw. She has the potentialities of a State. And whatever policies may be adopted should look toward an Alaska of homes, of industries, and of an extended commerce."
Despite his role in the Hetch Hetchy controversy, Lane was friendly towards the National Park movement, and in 1915 hired Stephen Mather to oversee the parks for which the Department was responsible. Mather, a self-made millionaire and member of the Sierra Club, had written Lane a bitter letter in late 1914, complaining that the national parks were being exploited for private profit. Lane was intrigued by Mather's letter, made inquiry, and found that Mather was well thought of by Lane's friends—and had, like Lane, attended the University of California. Mather's advocacy led to the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916.
In 1915, Lane returned to San Francisco to open the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The President was supposed to open the fair, but was unable to attend, and sent the Interior Secretary in his place. In 1916, Wilson appointed Lane to lead the American delegation and meet with the Mexican commissioners at Atlantic City, New Jersey about the unstable military situation in Mexico. These negotiations led to the withdrawal of United States troops from Mexico.
The Interior Department had never had a central headquarters, but had worked from offices scattered across Washington, with the bulk of the department located in the old Patent Office building. The Secretary lobbied for a new building for the Department, and, after Congress appropriated the funds, construction went ahead and the building was opened in early 1917. The structure, located at 1800 F Street N.W., now houses the General Services Administration.
Mather, who had been appointed the first director of the National Park Service, began to display apparent mental illness in 1917. His assistant, Horace Albright, reported this condition to Lane. The Secretary chose to keep Mather in his position, while allowing Albright to perform the functions of Mather's job until Mather recovered, keeping all of this secret. According to Albright, Lane was not a conservationist, but did not care to interfere in the decisions of his officials, and so let Mather and Albright have free rein. Lane wrote in 1917:
> A wilderness, no matter how impressive and beautiful, does not satisfy this soul of mine, (if I have that kind of thing). It is a challenge to man. It says, 'Master me! Put me to use! Make me something more than I am.'
### World War I responsibilities
In 1916, Wilson appointed Lane to the Council of National Defense (CND), where he urged cooperation between the private and public sectors. He defused a difficult situation for the CND when it decided to merge its male-dominated state and local organizations with the separate Women's Committee into a unified Field Division. Lane headed the Division, leading a board of five men and five women.
Lane bitterly opposed what he saw as the President's hesitation to commit the country to war. He wrote to his brother George in February 1917:
> ... in Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Europe we have trouble. The country is growing tired of delay, and without positive leadership is losing its keenness of conscience and becoming inured to insult. Our Ambassador in Berlin is held as a hostage for days—our Consuls' wives are stripped naked at the border, our ships are sunk, our people killed—and yet we wait and wait! What for I do not know. Germany is winning by her bluff, for she has our ships interned in our own harbors.
Lane was a strong advocate of preparedness in the prelude to U.S. involvement in World War I. In early 1917, he urged Wilson to authorize the arming and convoying of merchant vessels. Wilson refused, but changed his mind when informed of the Zimmermann Telegram. In a critical Cabinet meeting in March 1917, Lane, with other Cabinet members, urged American intervention in the war.
He helped Thomas Garrigue Masaryk to create Washington Declaration in October 1918.
With Lane's support, the nation's railroads voluntarily united to form a Railroad War Board to meet the emergency. Lane made many effective speeches for the Committee on Public Information. The Secretary penned two brief works for the Committee, Why We Are Fighting Germany and The American Spirit, which were well received and widely distributed. He urged businessmen to make "sacrifices as worthy as those of the men on their way to the trenches". President Wilson reportedly stopped discussing matters of importance at Cabinet meetings because the "gregarious" Lane divulged confidential matters.
Lane was a supporter of the Treaty of Versailles and of the League of Nations. He wrote articles urging, in vain, U.S. ratification of the treaty establishing the international organization.
## Later life and legacy
On December 17, 1919, Lane confirmed rumors that had been circulating in Washington for some months that he would be leaving the Cabinet. Secretary Lane stated that he had not done so earlier because of President Wilson's illness. While he gave no specific reason for his departure, The New York Times reported that Lane had found it difficult to make ends meet on a Cabinet officer's salary of \$12,000 and desired to make more money for himself and his family.
As Lane prepared to leave office in January 1920, he reflected on the postwar world:
> But the whole world is skew-jee, awry, distorted and altogether perverse. The President is broken in body, and obstinate in spirit. Clemenceau is beaten for an office he did not want. Einstein has declared the law of gravitation outgrown and decadent. ... Oh God, I pray, give me peace and a quiet chop. I do not ask for power, nor for fame, nor yet for wealth.
Lane resigned in February 1920, and left office on March 1. He subsequently accepted employment as vice president and legal advisor to the Mexican Petroleum Company, which was run by Edward Doheny (who, after Lane's death, would be implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal), as well as a directorship of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
In a letter to Democratic presidential candidate and Ohio Governor James M. Cox in July 1920, Lane set forth his vision for America:
> We want our unused lands put to use. We want the farm made more attractive through better rural schools, more roads everywhere ... [W]e want more men with garden homes instead of tenement homes. We want our waters, that flow idly to the sea, put to use ... [W]e want fewer boys and girls, men and women, who cannot read or write the language of our laws, newspapers, and literature ... [T]he framing of our policies should not be left to emotional caprice, or the opportunism of any group of men, but should be result of sympathetic and deep studies by the wisest men we have, regardless of their politics ... [W]e want our soldiers and sailors to be more certain of our gratitude ... [W]e are to extend our activities into all parts of the world. Our trade is to grow as never before. Our people are to resume their old place as traders on the seven seas. We are to know other people better and make them all more and more our friends, working with them as mutually dependent factors in the growth of the world's life
By early 1921, Lane's health was failing, and he sought treatment at the Mayo Clinic. He was able to leave the Clinic and spend the remainder of the winter in warmer areas as advised by his physicians, but soon returned. Lane's heart was in such poor condition that the Clinic could not give him general anesthesia during his heart operation. Lane survived the operation, and wrote of the ordeal, but died soon afterward. According to his brother, George Lane, the former Secretary left no will or estate. The vice-president of Lane's company noted that the Californian had worked 21 years for the Government on a "living salary", and the earnings from the one year of substantial wages had been heavily sapped by illness. Lane's body was cremated, and his ashes thrown to the winds from atop El Capitan peak in Yosemite National Park.
According to newspapers reporting Lane's death, it was said that had he been born in the United States he would have been elected president. Following Lane's death, a memorial committee was formed by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and former Lane assistant and member of the Federal Reserve Board Adolph C. Miller. The committee established a Franklin K. Lane Memorial Fund, initially dedicated to the support of Lane's widow, Anne Lane, and upon her death to be used to promote causes in which her husband believed. The two future presidents, Miller, and National Park Service Director Mather were among the major contributors to the fund. In 1939, after Mrs. Lane's death, the corpus of the trust (just over \$100,000) was transferred to the former Secretary's alma mater, the University of California, to promote the understanding and improvement of the American system of democratic government. Fifty years later, the entrusted amount, still administered by the University, had grown to almost \$1.9 million.
In November 1921, Lane Peak in Mount Rainier National Park was named for the former Secretary. Lane was named a National Historic Person on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada on May 19, 1938. A federal plaque was affixed to a cairn reflecting that honor near his DeSable, PEI, birthplace. Other tributes to Lane included a World War II Liberty ship, a New York City high school, and a California redwood grove. Lane's patriotic essay "Makers of the Flag" adapted from a speech he delivered to Interior Department employees on Flag Day 1914, continues to be reprinted as a speech and in schoolbooks.
## See also
- List of foreign-born United States Cabinet members
- Bo Sweeney
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1,137,017 |
Today (The Smashing Pumpkins song)
| 1,173,706,540 |
1993 single by the Smashing Pumpkins
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[
"1990s ballads",
"1993 singles",
"1993 songs",
"Grunge songs",
"Music videos directed by Stéphane Sednaoui",
"Rock ballads",
"Self-harm in fiction",
"Song recordings produced by Billy Corgan",
"Song recordings produced by Butch Vig",
"Songs about suicide",
"Songs written by Billy Corgan",
"The Smashing Pumpkins songs",
"Virgin Records singles"
] |
"Today" is a song by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, written by lead vocalist and guitarist Billy Corgan. The song, though seemingly upbeat, contains dark lyrics; Corgan wrote the song about a day in which he was having suicidal thoughts. The contrast between the grim subject matter of the song and the soft instrumental part during the verses, coupled with use of irony in the lyrics, left many listeners unaware of the song's tale of depression and desperation. The song alternates between quiet, dreamy verses and loud choruses with layered, distorted guitars.
"Today" was released in September 1993 as the second single from the band's second album and major label debut, Siamese Dream. "Today" and its follow-up "Disarm" are credited in AllMusic for popularizing the band and "sen[ding] [Siamese Dream] into the stratosphere". "Today" has been generally well received by critics; a Blender article described it as having "achieved a remarkable status as one of the defining songs of its generation, perfectly mirroring the fractured alienation of American youth in the 1990s".
## Background and recording
After the release and minor success of the band's debut album, Gish, the Smashing Pumpkins were being hyped as "the next Nirvana". However, the band was experiencing several difficulties at the time. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was undergoing an increasingly severe addiction to heroin; James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky had recently broken up their romantic relationship; and Billy Corgan had become depressed to the point of contemplating suicide and plagued by writer's block. Corgan recalled that "after the first album, I became completely suicidal. It was an eight-month depression, give or take a month, and I was pretty suicidal for about two or three months." Under the pressure and other complications, the Pumpkins entered the Triclops Sound Studios in Atlanta to record the follow-up to Gish.
"Today" was the first song Corgan wrote for Siamese Dream. Corgan said, "The day after I wrote 'Today', my manager heard it and said, 'It's a hit', and I guess in a way, it was." Corgan played the self-recorded demo to producer Butch Vig and to the rest of his band, all of whom responded positively. "Today" already had a chord progression and a melody, but Corgan felt there needed to be an opening riff to the song. One day, "out of the blue, I heard the opening lick note for note in my head", Corgan said. "When I added the opening riff, it completely changed the character of the song. Suddenly, I had a song that was starting out quiet and then got very loud." Soon afterwards, Virgin Records executives were sent to check up on the band after hearing about their problems, but were pleased with the demo. The reaction from the executives only served to put more stress on Corgan; as a result, he recorded most of the guitar and bass guitar parts himself, including on the finished version of "Today".
Siamese Dream was completed after running four months after the deadline and considerably exceeding its budget. Virgin Records executives saw "Today" as the ideal lead single, but Corgan wanted "Cherub Rock", one of the last songs written for the album, as the lead single. Ultimately, "Cherub Rock" was released first, but it was only a modest success. "Today" brought the band popularity through wide radio airplay and a successful music video.
## Composition and lyrics
"Today" is written in the key of E-flat major (E) and its guitar parts are played in standard tuning. While Corgan briefly considered tuning the guitar down a half-step and playing the song with the fingerings and positions of E major, he said, "There was something about the E voicing that I liked. So it's absolutely, intentionally in E, not E." "Today" is one of the Siamese Dream songs on which Corgan took over Iha and Wretzky's duties on guitar and bass to ensure quality; Wretzky later stated that Corgan "can do something in three takes where it would maybe take me 20".
The song, spanning three minutes and 21 seconds, begins with a one-measure opening guitar riff that alludes to the E major-pentatonic scale. Corgan uses this riff (along with variations on it) to emphasize certain parts and to indicate shifts in the song. After the riff is played four times, the rest of the band enters backed with feedback-driven guitars. Ned Raggett of Allmusic commented on the song's ability to "alternate between calmer, almost Cure-like sections and the louder crunches, [and Corgan's] soon-to-be-trademark guitar style taking My Bloody Valentine's own hypnotic riffing to more accessible results". The chorus, consisting of multiple guitar tracks playing barre chords, is an example of the band's tendency to overdub several rhythm guitar tracks. While the song does not include a standard guitar solo, a short melodic guitar part appears during the bridge. Corgan explained: "The little guitar break over the C chord is actually a forwards sample that we laid in backwards. Then there's a weird vocal effect that moves across the speakers, a 'yan-yan-yan-yan' thing, which was generated by using a Roland Space Echo to regenerate on the last word of the vocal line, 'I wanna turn you on.'"
The dark, ironic lyrics of "Today", describing a day when Corgan was feeling depressed and suicidal, contrast with the instrumentation. Michael Snyder of the San Francisco Chronicle said that the song is "downright pretty as rock ballads go" but that "Corgan manages to convey the exhilaration and tragic release he seeks." Corgan told Rolling Stone that "I was really suicidal ... I just thought it was funny to write a song that said today is the greatest day of your life because it can't get any worse." Corgan later compared writing the lyrics of "Today" and "Disarm" to "ripping [his] guts out". They played the song live for the first time on September 20, 1993, on Late Night with David Letterman.
## Music video
The music video, directed by Stéphane Sednaoui, brought even more mainstream success to the band through repeated airplay on MTV. Debuting in September 1993, it was shot with low quality photographic equipment, which, like several other early Pumpkins videos, was an intentional stylistic decision. Corgan said that the video's plot was inspired by a memory he had of an ice cream truck driver who, upon quitting his job, gave out the rest of his ice cream to the neighborhood children. This image was then melded with Sednaoui's own sensibilities inspired by the film Zabriskie Point. The video is available on The Smashing Pumpkins – Greatest Hits Video Collection (1991–2000) DVD, released in 2001.
The video begins with Corgan reading a comic book dressed in an ice cream man uniform. A clip of the intro to the song is played and stopped repeatedly before the song begins. Groups of two or more people are kissing each other around him as he drives in an ice cream van through a desert. Corgan picks up a dress-wearing Iha and the two drive for a while before stopping at a gas station, where Chamberlin and Wretzky appear as gas attendants. After Iha changes into a yellow and white cowboy outfit, the band paints the van in various colors. More people are shown kissing in the hills as the band drives away from the gas station in the van. However, Corgan is ultimately kicked out, and the video ends with him walking off the road wearing a cowboy hat as the van drives away. The video was filmed on August 29, 1993. The opening shots were filmed outside the Taft Hardware • Wilsons building located at 331 Center Street, Taft, CA, 93268, on the 4th street side of the building.
## Reception
"Today" has received generally positive reviews. Ned Raggett of AllMusic called the song an "at-once storming but catchy smash single". Johnny Black of Blender noted that the song "has achieved a remarkable status as one of the defining songs of its generation". Robert Christgau cited "Today" as one of the highlights of Siamese Dream. However, Stylus Magazine's Brett Hickman said "nothing can make 'Today' sound fresh again [on the live album Earphoria, which this particular review is of]. This is a prime example of the power that radio and MTV have in ruining a great song." "Today" topped Eye Weekly magazine's year-end list of best singles, and also appeared at number 32 on NME's year-end list of best singles.
"Today" was one of the most successful early singles by the Smashing Pumpkins, and additionally has been recognized as one of the songs that brought the Pumpkins into the mainstream. The song was, at the time of its release, the highest-charting song by the band, peaking at number four on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. The song also reached a peak position of number 28 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks, and was one of the first Pumpkins songs to chart in the UK, peaking at number 44. "Today" was later called one of the "hits that took the cool alternative band into stadium rock territory" by the BBC's Dan Tallis in a review of the band's greatest hits album, Rotten Apples, and similarly referred to as the "Smashing Pumpkins' red carpet to the glorified frat houses of alternative rock radio" by Nick Sylvester of Pitchfork Media.
### Accolades
(\*) designates unordered lists.
## Other releases
"Today" has appeared on several Smashing Pumpkins official releases, including the band's greatest hits album Rotten Apples and the box set Siamese Singles. A live version of "Today" performed in the band's hometown of Chicago was included on the 1994 video release Vieuphoria and on its companion album Earphoria, and was praised as "a triumphant recording" by Pitchfork's Chris Dahlen. A different live recording from Chicago appears on the promotional album Live in Chicago 23.10.95 and the song is featured on 14 volumes of Live Smashing Pumpkins. The song has also appeared in different versions on several Smashing Pumpkins bootlegs such as Unplugged: 100% Pure Acoustic Performances, which includes unofficial live recordings and acoustic recordings.
"Today" has been included in a few compilation albums. The eighteenth volume of Indie Top 20, a Melody Maker-sponsored compilation series which serves as a "time capsule of U.K. indie music", features "Today" as its fourth track. The song appears on a two-disc MTV Dutch import, Rock Am Ring, a collection of hit singles from the early 1990s.
### Cover versions
The song has been covered for several tribute albums. A Gothic–Industrial Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins features a dance music-influenced version of the song by industrial band Shining. Solomon Burke Jr., the son of influential soul musician Solomon Burke, contributed a "radically altered" rendition of "Today" for Midnight in the Patch: Tribute to the Smashing Pumpkins, performing the song in a Motown style. Other covers of "Today" for tribute albums include performances by Armor for Sleep on The Killer in You: A Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins and by Death Rawk Boy on Ghost Children / Friends and Enemies. The main guitar passage was also sampled by Japanese hip-hop act Dragon Ash in its song "Grateful Days". It was covered by John Craigie on his album Leave the Fire Behind. Deerhunter reinterpreted the song live in 2015, following a legal dispute between frontman Bradford Cox and Corgan, "transforming the song's opening riff into a 10-minute noise-pop improvisation". In 2020 the Fruit Bats released a "breezy cover" of "Today" and a re-working of the entire "Siamese Dream" album. A. G. Cook also covered the song in 2020 on his debut album 7G, and covered it once more under the title "Today (Dream Mix)" on his follow-up remix album Apple vs. 7G, using an altered chord progression. It was covered by Olivia Holt in 2021 for the TV series Cruel Summer.
## Formats and track listings
## Personnel
- Jimmy Chamberlin – drums
- Billy Corgan – guitars, bass guitar, vocals, production
- Bob Ludwig – mastering engineer
- Butch Vig – production
## Charts
|
1,690,448 |
Ailanthus altissima
| 1,171,441,069 |
Deciduous tree in the family Simaroubaceae
|
[
"Ailanthus",
"Dioecious plants",
"Flora of Guangxi",
"Garden plants of Asia",
"Introduced plants of South America",
"Invasive species",
"Naturalized trees of Alabama",
"Ornamental trees",
"Trees of Asia",
"Trees of China",
"Trees of Korea",
"Trees of Taiwan"
] |
Ailanthus altissima /eɪˈlænθəs ælˈtɪsɪmə/ ay-LAN-thəss al-TIH-sim-ə, commonly known as tree of heaven, ailanthus, varnish tree, copal tree, stinking sumac, Chinese sumac, paradise tree, or in Chinese as chouchun (pinyin: chòuchūn), is a deciduous tree in the family Simaroubaceae. It is native to northeast and central China, and Taiwan. Unlike other members of the genus Ailanthus, it is found in temperate climates rather than the tropics.
The tree grows rapidly, and is capable of reaching heights of 15 metres (50 ft) in 25 years. While the species rarely lives more than 50 years, some specimens exceed 100 years of age. Its suckering ability allows this tree to clone itself indefinitely. It is considered a noxious weed and vigorous invasive species, and one of the worst invasive plant species in Europe and North America. In 21st-century North America, the invasiveness of the species has been compounded by its harboring of the also destructive and invasive spotted lanternfly.
## Description
Ailanthus altissima is a medium-sized tree that reaches heights between 17 and 27 m (60 and 90 ft) with a diameter at breast height of about 1 m (3 ft). The bark is smooth and light grey, often becoming somewhat rougher with light tan fissures as the tree ages. The twigs are stout, smooth to lightly pubescent, and reddish or chestnut in color. They have lenticels and heart-shaped leaf scars (i.e., a scar left on the twig after a leaf falls) with many bundle scars (i.e., small marks where the veins of the leaf once connected to the tree) around the edges. The buds are finely pubescent, dome-shaped, and partially hidden behind the petiole, though they are completely visible in the dormant season at the sinuses of the leaf scars. The branches are light to dark gray in color, smooth, lustrous, and contain raised lenticels that become fissures with age. The ends of the branches become pendulous. All parts of the plant have a distinguishing strong odor that is often likened to peanuts, cashews, or rotting cashews.
The leaves are large, odd- or even-pinnately compound on the stem. They range in size from 30 to 90 centimetres (1 to 3 ft) in length and contain 10–41 leaflets organised in pairs, with the largest leaves found on vigorous young sprouts. When they emerge in the spring, the leaves are bronze, then quickly turn from medium to dark green as they grow. The rachis is light to reddish-green with a swollen base. The leaflets are ovate-lanceolate with entire margins, somewhat asymmetric and occasionally not directly opposite to each other. Each leaflet is 5–18 cm (2–7 in) long and 2.5–5 cm (1–2 in) wide. They have a long, tapering end, while the bases have two to four teeth, each containing one or more glands at the tip. The leaflets' upper sides are dark green in color with light green veins, while the undersides are a more whitish green. The petioles are 5–12 millimetres (0.2–0.5 in) long. The lobed bases and glands distinguish it from similar sumac species.
The flowers are small and appear in large panicles up to 50 cm (20 in) in length at the end of new shoots. The individual flowers are yellowish green to reddish in color, each with five petals and sepals. The sepals are cup-shaped, lobed and united while the petals are valvate (i.e., they meet at the edges without overlapping), white and hairy towards the inside. They appear from mid-April in the south of its range to July in the north. A. altissima is dioecious, with male and female flowers being borne on different individuals. Male trees produce three to four times as many flowers as the females, making the male flowers more conspicuous. Furthermore, the male plants emit a foul-smelling odor while flowering to attract pollinating insects. Female flowers contain 10 (or rarely five through abortion) sterile stamens (stamenoids) with heart-shaped anthers. The pistil is made up of five free carpels (i.e., they are not fused), each containing a single ovule. Their styles are united and slender with star-shaped stigmata. The male flowers are similar in appearance, but they lack a pistil and the stamens do function, each being topped with a globular anther and a glandular green disc. The fruits grow in clusters; similar to the ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior), the fruits ripen to a bright reddish-brown color in September. A fruit cluster may contain hundreds of seeds. The seeds borne on the female trees are 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter and each is encapsulated in a samara that is 2.5 cm (1 in) long and 1 cm (0.4 in) broad, appearing July through August, but can persist on the tree until the next spring. The samara is large and twisted at the tips, making it spin as it falls, assisting wind dispersal, and aiding buoyancy for long-distance dispersal through hydrochory. Primary wind dispersal and secondary water dispersal are usually positively correlated in A. altissima, since most morphological characteristics of samaras affect both dispersal modes in the same way – except for the width of the samaras, which in contrast affects both types of dispersal in opposing ways, allowing differentiation in the dispersal strategies of this tree. The females can produce huge numbers of seeds, normally around 30,000 per kg, and fecundity can be estimated nondestructively through measurements of diameter at chest height.
## History
In China, the tree of heaven has a long and rich history. It was mentioned in the oldest extant Chinese dictionary and listed in many Chinese medical texts for its purported curative ability. The roots, leaves, and bark are used in traditional Chinese medicine, primarily as an astringent. The tree has been grown extensively both in China and abroad as a host plant for the ailanthus silkmoth, a moth involved in silk production. Ailanthus has become a part of Western culture, as well, with the tree serving as the central metaphor and subject matter of the best-selling American novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
The tree was first brought from China to Europe in the 1740s and to the United States in 1784. It was one of the first trees brought west during a time when chinoiserie was dominating European arts and was initially hailed as a beautiful garden specimen. However, enthusiasm soon waned after gardeners became familiar with its suckering habits and its foul odor. Despite this, it was used extensively as a street tree during much of the 19th century. Outside Europe and the United States, the plant has been spread to many other areas beyond its native range, and is regarded internationally as a noxious weed. In many countries, it is an invasive species due to its ability both to colonise disturbed areas quickly and to suppress competition with allelopathic chemicals. The tree also resprouts vigorously when cut, making its eradication difficult and time-consuming. This has led to its being called "tree of hell" among gardeners and conservationists.
## Taxonomy
The first Western scientific descriptions of the tree of heaven were made shortly after it was introduced to Europe by French Jesuit Pierre Nicholas d'Incarville, who had sent seeds from Peking via Siberia to his botanist friend Bernard de Jussieu in the 1740s. The seeds sent by d'Incarville were thought to be from the economically important and similar-looking Chinese varnish tree (Toxicodendron vernicifluum), which he had observed in the lower Yangtze region, rather than the tree of heaven. D'Incarville attached a note indicating this, which caused much taxonomic confusion over the next few decades. In 1751, Jussieu planted a few seeds in France and sent others on to Philip Miller, the superintendent at the Chelsea Physic Garden, and to Philip C. Webb, the owner of an exotic plant garden in Busbridge, England.
Confusion in naming began when the tree was described by all three men with three different names. In Paris, Linnaeus gave the plant the name Rhus succedanea, while it was known commonly as grand vernis du Japon. In London, the specimens were named by Miller as Toxicodendron altissima, and in Busbridge, it was dubbed in the old classification system as Rhus Sinese foliis alatis. Records exist from the 1750s of disputes over the proper name between Philip Miller and John Ellis, curator of Webb's garden in Busbridge. Rather than the issue being resolved, more names soon appeared for the plant: Jakob Friedrich Ehrhart observed a specimen in Utrecht in 1782 and named it Rhus cacodendron.
Light was shed on the taxonomic status of Ailanthus in 1788 when René Louiche Desfontaines observed the samaras of the Paris specimens, which were still labelled Rhus succedanea, and came to the conclusion that the plant was not a sumac. He published an article with an illustrated description and gave it the name Ailanthus glandulosa, placing it in the same genus as the tropical species then known as A. integrifolia (white siris, now A. triphysa). The name is derived from the Ambonese word ailanto, meaning "heaven-tree" or "tree reaching for the sky". The specific glandulosa, referring to the glands on the leaves, persisted until as late as 1957, but it was ultimately made invalid as a later homonym at the species level. The current species name comes from Walter T. Swingle, who was employed by the United States Department of Plant Industry. He decided to transfer Miller's older specific name into the genus of Desfontaines, resulting in the accepted name Ailanthus altissima. Altissima is Latin for "tallest", and refers to the sizes the tree can reach. The plant is sometimes incorrectly cited with the specific epithet in the masculine (glandulosus or altissimus), which is incorrect since botanical, like Classical Latin, treats most tree names as feminine.
The three varieties of A. altissima are:
- Ailanthus altissima var. altissima, which is the type variety and is native to mainland China
- Ailanthus altissima var. tanakai, which is endemic to northern Taiwan highlands: It differs from the type in having yellowish bark, odd-pinnate leaves that are also shorter on average at 45 to 60 cm (18 to 24 in) long with only 13–25 scythe-like leaflets. It is listed as endangered in the IUCN Red List of threatened species due to loss of habitat for building and industrial plantations.
- Ailanthus altissima var. sutchuenensis, which differs in having red branchlets
## Distribution and habitat
Ailanthus altissima is native to northern and central China, Taiwan and northern Korea. It was historically widely distributed, and the fossil record indicates clearly that it was present in North America as recently as the middle Miocene. In Taiwan it is present as var. takanai. In China it is native to every province except Gansu, Heilongjiang, Hainan, Jilin, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang. It is also not found in Tibet. It has been introduced in many regions across the world, and is now found on every continent except Antarctica.
The tree prefers moist and loamy soils but is adaptable to a very wide range of soil conditions and pH values. It is drought-hardy, but not tolerant of flooding. It also does not tolerate deep shade. In China, it is often found in limestone-rich areas. The tree of heaven is found within a wide range of climatic conditions. In its native range, it is found at high altitudes in Taiwan and lower ones in mainland China. These are virtually found anywhere in the U.S., but especially in arid regions bordering the Great Plains, very wet regions in the southern Appalachians, cold areas of the lower Rocky Mountains, and throughout much of the California Central Valley, forming dense thickets that displace native plants. Prolonged cold and snow cover cause dieback, although the trees resprout from the roots.
### As an exotic plant
The earliest introductions of A. altissima to countries outside of its native range were to the southern areas of Korea and to Japan. The tree may be native to these areas, but the tree is generally agreed to be a very early introduction. Within China, it has also been naturalised beyond its native range in areas such as Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang.
In 1784, not long after Jussieu had sent seeds to England, some were forwarded to the United States by William Hamilton, a gardener in Philadelphia. In both Europe and America, it quickly became a favoured ornamental, especially as a street tree, and by 1840, it was available in most nurseries. The tree was separately brought to California in the 1890s by Chinese immigrants who came during the California Gold Rush. It has escaped cultivation in all areas where it was introduced, but most extensively in the United States. It has naturalised across much of Europe, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Pannonian region (i.e. southeastern Central Europe around the Danube River basin from Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary south to the Balkan ranges) and most countries of the Mediterranean Basin. In Montenegro and Albania A. altissima is widespread in both rural and urban areas, and while in the first it was introduced as an ornamental plant, it very soon invaded native ecosystems with disastrous results and became an invasive species. Ailanthus has also been introduced to Argentina, Australia (where it is a declared weed in New South Wales and Victoria), New Zealand (where it is listed under the National Pest Plant Accord and is classed an "unwanted organism"), the Middle East, and in some countries in South Asia such as Pakistan. In South Africa, it is listed as an invasive species that must be controlled, or removed and destroyed.
In North America, A. altissima is present from Massachusetts in the east, west to southern Ontario, southwest to Iowa, south to Texas, and east to the north of Florida. In the west, it is found from New Mexico west to California and north to Washington. In the east of its range, it grows most extensively in disturbed areas of cities, where it was long ago present as a planted street tree. It also grows along roads and railways. For example, a 2003 study in North Carolina found the tree of heaven was present on 1.7% of all highway and railroad edges in the state, and had been expanding its range at the rate of 4.76% counties per year. Similarly, another study conducted in southwestern Virginia determined that the tree of heaven is thriving along roughly 30% of the state's interstate highway system length or mileage. It sometimes enters undisturbed areas as well, and competes with native plants. In western North America, it is most common in mountainous areas around old dwellings and abandoned mining operations. It is classified as a noxious or invasive plant on National Forest System lands and in many states because its prolific seed production, high germination rate, and capacity to regrow from roots and root fragments enable A. altissima to out-compete native species. For this reason, control measures on public lands and private property are advised where A. altissima has naturalised.
## Ecology
The tree of heaven is an opportunistic plant that thrives in full sun and disturbed areas. It spreads aggressively both by seeds and vegetatively by root sprouts, re-sprouting rapidly after being cut. It is considered a shade-intolerant tree and cannot compete in low-light situations, though it is sometimes found competing with hardwoods, but such competition rather indicates it was present at the time the stand was established. On the other hand, a study in an old-growth hemlock–hardwood forest in New York found that Ailanthus was capable of competing successfully with native trees in canopy gaps where only 2-15% of full sun was available. The same study characterised the tree as using a "gap-obligate" strategy to reach the forest canopy, meaning it grows rapidly during a very short period rather than growing slowly over a long period. It is a short-lived tree in any location and rarely lives more than 50 years. Among tree species, Ailanthus is among the most tolerant of pollution, including sulfur dioxide, which it absorbs in its leaves. It can withstand cement dust and fumes from coal tar operations, as well as resist ozone exposure relatively well. Furthermore, high concentrations of mercury have been found built up in tissues of the plant.
Ailanthus has been used to re-vegetate areas where acid mine drainage has occurred and it has been shown to tolerate pH levels as low as 4.1 (approximately that of tomato juice). It can withstand very low phosphorus levels and high salinity levels. The drought tolerance of the tree is strong due to its ability to effectively store water in its root system. It is frequently found in areas where few trees can survive. The roots are also aggressive enough to cause damage to subterranean sewers and pipes. Along highways, it often forms dense thickets in which few other tree species are present, largely due to the toxins it produces to prevent competition. The roots are poisonous to people.
Ailanthus produces an allelopathic chemical called ailanthone, which inhibits the growth of other plants. The inhibitors are strongest in the bark and roots, but are also present in the leaves, wood and seeds of the plant. One study showed that a crude extract of the root bark inhibited 50% of a sample of garden cress (Lepidium sativum) seeds from germinating. The same study tested the extract as an herbicide on garden cress, redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus), velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti), yellow bristlegrass (Setaria pumila), barnyard grass (Echinochloa crusgalli), pea (Pisum sativum cv. Sugar Snap), and maize (Zea mays cv. Silver Queen). It proved able to kill nearly 100% of seedlings with the exception of velvetleaf, which showed some resistance. Another experiment showed that a water extract of the chemical was either lethal or highly damaging to 11 North American hardwoods and 34 conifers, with the white ash (Fraxinus americana) being the only plant not adversely affected. The chemical does not, however, affect the tree of heaven's own seedlings, indicating that A. altissima has a defence mechanism to prevent autotoxicity. Resistance in various plant species has been shown to increase with exposure. Populations without prior exposure to the chemicals are most susceptible to them. Seeds produced from exposed plants have also been shown to be more resistant than their unexposed counterparts.
The tree of heaven is a very rapidly growing tree, possibly the fastest-growing tree in North America. Growth of 1 to 2 metres (3 to 7 ft) per year for the first four years is considered normal. Shade considerably hampers growth rates. Older trees, while growing much slower, still do so faster than other trees. Studies found that Californian trees grew faster than their East Coast counterparts, and American trees in general grew faster than Chinese ones.
In northern Europe the tree of heaven was not considered naturalised in cities until after the Second World War. This has been attributed to the tree's ability to colonise areas of rubble of destroyed buildings where most other plants would not grow. In addition, the warmer microclimate in cities offers a more suitable habitat than the surrounding rural areas; it is thought that the tree requires a mean annual temperature of 8 °C (46 °F) to grow well, which limits its spread in more northern and higher-altitude areas. For example, one study in Germany found the tree of heaven growing in 92% of densely populated areas of Berlin, 25% of its suburbs and only 3% of areas outside the city altogether. In other areas of Europe this is not the case as climates are mild enough for the tree to flourish. It has colonised natural areas in Hungary, for example, and is considered a threat to biodiversity at that country's Aggtelek National Park.
Several species of Lepidoptera use the leaves of Ailanthus as food, including the Indian moon moth (Actias selene) and the common grass yellow (Eurema hecabe). In North America the tree is the host plant for the ailanthus webworm (Atteva aurea), though this ermine moth is native to Central and South America and originally used other members of the mostly tropical Simaroubaceae as its hosts. In the US, it has been found to host the brown marmorated stink bug and the Asiatic shot-hole borer. The spotted lanternfly (L. delicatula), relies on the metabolites of A. altissima for the completion of its life cycle and the pervasiveness of A. altissima is seen as a driving factor in L. delicatula's invasive spread outside of China. In its native range A. altissima is associated with at least 32 species of arthropods and 13 species of fungi.
In North America, the leaves of ailanthus are sometimes attacked by Aculops ailanthii, a mite in the family Eriophyidae. Leaves infested by the mite begin to curl and become glossy, reducing their ability to function. Therefore, this species has been proposed as a possible biocontrol for ailanthus in the Americas. Research from September 2020 indicates a verticillium wilt, caused by Verticillium nonalfalfae, may function as a biological control for A. altissima, with the weevil Eucryptorrhynchus brandti serving as a vector.
Due to the tree of heaven's weedy habit, landowners and other organisations often resort to various methods of control to keep its populations in check. For example, the city of Basel in Switzerland has an eradication program for the tree. It can be very difficult to eradicate, however. Means of eradication can be physical, thermal, managerial, biological or chemical. A combination of several of these can be most effective, though they must of course be compatible. All have some positive and negative aspects, but the most effective regimen is generally a mixture of chemical and physical control. It involves the application of foliar or basal herbicides to kill existing trees, while either hand pulling or mowing seedlings to prevent new growth.
## Uses
In addition to its use as an ornamental plant, the tree of heaven is also used for its wood and as a host plant to feed silkworms of the moth Samia cynthia, which produces silk that is stronger and cheaper than mulberry silk, although with inferior gloss and texture. It is also unable to take dye. This type of silk is known under various names: "pongee", "eri silk", and "Shantung silk", the last name being derived from Shandong in China where this silk is often produced. Its production is particularly well known in the Yantai region of that province. The moth has also been introduced in the United States.
The pale yellow, close-grained, and satiny wood of ailanthus has been used in cabinet work. It is flexible and well-suited to the manufacture of kitchen steamers, which are important in Chinese cuisine for cooking mantou, pastries, and rice. Zhejiang in eastern China is most famous for producing these steamers. The plant is also considered a good source of firewood across much of its range, as it is moderately hard and heavy, yet readily available. The wood is also used to make charcoal for culinary purposes. However, there are problems with using the wood as lumber; because the trees exhibit rapid growth for the first few years, the trunk has uneven texture between the inner and outer wood, which can cause the wood to twist or crack during drying. Techniques have been developed for drying the wood so as to prevent this cracking, allowing it to be commercially harvested. Although the live tree tends to have very flexible wood, the wood is quite hard once properly dried.
### Cultivation
Tree of heaven is a popular ornamental tree in China and valued for its tolerance of difficult growing conditions. It was once very popular in cultivation in both Europe and North America, but this popularity dropped, especially in the United States, due to the disagreeable odor of its blossoms and the weediness of its habit. The problem of odor was previously avoided by only selling pistillate plants since only males produce the smell, but a higher seed production also results. Michael Dirr, a noted American horticulturalist and professor at the University of Georgia, reported meeting, in 1982, a grower who could not find any buyers. He further writes (his emphasis):
> For most landscaping conditions, it has no value as there are too many trees of superior quality; for impossible conditions this tree has a place; selection could be made for good habit, strong wood and better foliage which would make the tree more satisfactory; I once talked with an architect who tried to buy Ailanthus for use along polluted highways but could not find an adequate supply [...]
In Europe, however, the tree is still used in the garden to some degree as its habit is generally not as invasive as it is in America. In the United Kingdom it is especially common in London squares, streets, and parks, though it is also frequently found in gardens of southern England and East Anglia. It becomes rare in the north, occurring only infrequently in southern Scotland. It is also rare in Ireland. In Germany the tree is commonly planted in gardens. The tree has furthermore become unpopular in cultivation in the west because it is short-lived and that the trunk soon becomes hollow, making trees more than two feet in diameter unstable in high winds.
A few cultivars exist, but they are not often sold outside of China and probably not at all in North America:
- 'Hongye' – The name is Chinese and means "red leaves". As the name implies it has attractive vivid red foliage
- 'Thousand Leaders'
- 'Metro' – A male cultivar with a tighter crown than usual and a less weedy habit
- 'Erythrocarpa' – The fruits are a striking red
- 'Pendulifolia' – Leaves are much longer and hang elegantly
### Traditional medicine
Nearly every part of A. altissima has had various uses in Chinese traditional medicine, although there is no high-quality clinical evidence that it has an effect on any disease.
A tincture of the root bark was thought useful by American herbalists in the 19th century. It contains phytochemicals, such as quassin and saponin, and ailanthone. The plant may be mildly toxic. The noxious odours have been associated with nausea and headaches, and with contact dermatitis reported in both humans and sheep, which developed weakness and paralysis. It contains a quinone irritant, 2,6-dimethoxybenzoquinone, as well as quassinoids.
## Culture
### China
In addition to the tree of heaven's various uses, it has also been a part of Chinese culture for many centuries and has more recently attained a similar status in the west. Within the oldest extant Chinese dictionary, the Erya, written in the 3rd century BCE, the tree of heaven is mentioned second among a list of trees. It was mentioned again in a materia medica compiled during the Tang dynasty in 656 CE. Each work favoured a different character, however, and there is still some debate in the Chinese botanical community as to which character should be used. The current name, chouchun (Chinese: 臭椿; pinyin: chòuchūn), means "stinking tree", and is a relatively new appellation. People living near the lower Yellow River know it by the name chunshu (simplified Chinese: 椿树; traditional Chinese: 椿樹; pinyin: chūnshù), meaning "spring tree". The name stems from the fact that A. altissima is one of the last trees to come out of dormancy, and as such its leaves coming out would indicate that winter was truly over.
In Chinese literature, ailanthus is often used for two rather extreme metaphors, with a mature tree representing a father and a stump being a spoiled child. This manifests itself occasionally when expressing best wishes to a friend's father and mother in a letter, where one can write "wishing your ailanthus and daylily are strong and happy", with ailanthus metaphorically referring to the father and daylily to the mother. Furthermore, one can scold a child by calling him a "good-for-nothing ailanthus stump sprout", meaning the child is irresponsible. This derives from the literature of Zhuangzi, a Taoist philosopher, who referred to a tree that had developed from a sprout at the stump and was thus unsuitable for carpentry due to its irregular shape. Later scholars associated this tree with ailanthus and applied the metaphor to children who, like stump sprouts of the tree, will not develop into a worthwhile human being if they don't follow rules or traditions.
### United States
The 1943 book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith uses the tree of heaven as its central metaphor, using it as an analogy for the ability to thrive in a difficult environment. At that time as well as now, ailanthus was common in neglected urban areas. She writes:
> There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps. It grows up out of cellar gratings. It is the only tree that grows out of cement. It grows lushly...survives without sun, water, and seemingly earth. It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it.
In William Faulkner's novel, Sanctuary, a "heaven-tree" stands outside the Jefferson jail, where Lee Goodwin and a "negro murderer" are incarcerated. The tree is associated with the black prisoner's despair in the face of his impending execution and the spirituals that he sings in chorus with other black people who keep a sort of vigil in the street below:
> ...they sang spirituals while white people slowed and stopped in the leafed darkness that was almost summer, to listen to those who were sure to die and him who was already dead singing about heaven and being tired; or perhaps in the interval between songs a rich, sourceless voice coming out of the high darkness where the ragged shadow of the heaven-tree which snooded the street lamp at the corner fretted and mourned: "Fo days mo! Den dey ghy stroy de bes ba'yton singer in nawth Mississippi!"
>
> Upon the barred and slitted wall the splotched shadow of the heaven-tree shuddered and pulsed monstrously in scarce any wind; rich and sad, the singing fell behind.
In the 2013 book Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City by Gordon Young, the tree is referenced in a description of the Carriage Town neighborhood in Flint, Michigan.
> Festive Victorian-era homes in various stages of restoration battled for supremacy with boarded-up firetraps and overgrown lots landscaped with weeds, garbage, and "ghetto palms," a particularly hardy invasive species known more formally as Ailanthus altissima, or the tree of heaven, perhaps because only God can kill the things. Around the corner, business was brisk at a drug house where residents and customers alike weren't above casually taking a piss in the driveway.
Ailanthus is also sometimes counter-nicknamed "tree from hell" due to its prolific invasiveness and the difficulty in eradicating it. In certain parts of the United States, the species has been nicknamed the "ghetto palm" because of its propensity for growing in the inhospitable conditions of urban areas, or on abandoned and poorly maintained properties, such as in war-torn Afghanistan.
Until 26 March 2008, a 60-foot-tall (18 m) member of the species was a prominent "centerpiece" of the sculpture garden at the Noguchi Museum in the Astoria section in the borough of Queens in New York City. The tree had been spared by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi when in 1975 he bought the building which would become the museum and cleaned up its back lot. The tree was the only one he left in the yard, and the staff would eat lunch with Noguchi under it. "[I]n a sense, the sculpture garden was designed around the tree", said a former aide to Noguchi, Bonnie Rychlak, who later became the museum curator. By 2008, the old tree was found to be dying and in danger of crashing into the building, which was about to undergo a major renovation. The museum hired the Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop, an artists' collective, to use the wood to create benches, sculptures and other amenities in and around the building. The tree's rings were counted, revealing its age to be 75, and museum officials hoped it would regenerate from a sucker.
### Europe
Ingo Vetter, a German artist and professor of fine arts at Umeå University in Sweden, was influenced by the idea of the "ghetto palm" and installed a living ailanthus tree taken from Detroit for an international art show called Shrinking Cities at the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin in 2004.
## Explanatory notes
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1,054,296 |
Johnstown Inclined Plane
| 1,170,056,351 |
Funicular in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, US
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"Cableways on the National Register of Historic Places",
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"Heritage railroads in Pennsylvania",
"Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks",
"National Register of Historic Places in Cambria County, Pennsylvania",
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"Rail infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania",
"Railway lines opened in 1891",
"Tourist attractions in Johnstown, Pennsylvania",
"Transportation in Johnstown, Pennsylvania"
] |
The Johnstown Inclined Plane is a 896.5-foot (273.3 m) funicular in Johnstown, Cambria County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The incline and its two stations connect the city of Johnstown, situated in a valley at the confluence of the Stonycreek and the Little Conemaugh rivers, to the borough of Westmont on Yoder Hill. The Johnstown Inclined Plane is billed as the "world's steepest vehicular inclined plane". It can carry automobiles and passengers, up or down a slope with a grade of 71.9%. The travel time between stations is 90 seconds.
After a catastrophic flood in 1889, the Johnstown Inclined Plane was completed in 1891 to serve as an escape route from floods in the valley, as well as a convenient mode of transportation for residents of the new communities above the valley. It was operated by Cambria Iron Company and its successor Bethlehem Steel until 1935, when it was sold to the borough of Westmont. The incline was briefly shut down in 1962 when its supply of power from Bethlehem Steel was terminated.
Twice in its history, the Johnstown Inclined Plane fulfilled its role as a means of evacuation from floods—once in 1936 and again in 1977. The incline was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1994. It had major renovations in 1962 and from 1983 to 1984.
## Design
The Johnstown Inclined Plane was designed by Hungarian-American engineer Samuel Diescher, who had also designed the Duquesne, Castle Shannon and Fort Pitt Inclines in Pittsburgh. The funicular consists of a parallel set of broad gauge railroad tracks with a 70.9% grade or an angle of 35 degrees and 28 minutes from the horizontal. The incline is 896.5 feet (273.3 m) long and ascends 502.2 feet (153.1 m) vertically to the top of Yoder Hill and the borough of Westmont, the station of which is at an elevation of 1,693.5 feet (516.2 m) above sea level. The rails are supported by 720 14-foot-long (4 m) railroad ties made from Southern Yellow Pine. The incline is illuminated at night by 114 high-pressure sodium-vapor lamps mounted along the sides of tracks. There was a stairway between the tracks with 966 steps; this was removed c. 1963. Two cars traverse the slope; as one descends, the other ascends and acts as a counterweight. The cars are 15 feet 6 inches (4.7 m) wide, 15 feet 2 inches (4.6 m) tall, and 34 feet (10 m) long, and are large enough to carry either 65 people, 6 motorcycles, or an automobile. While the cars are open to the elements, an enclosed seating area with a bench is situated along the outer side of the incline. The cables connecting the cars are 2-inch-diameter (50.8 mm), 6×36 right regular lay, steel wire rope. They are wound around a 3-short-ton (2.7-metric-ton; 2.7-long-ton), 16-foot-diameter (5 m) drum that connects the cars. The cable on the north track is 1,075 feet (328 m) long, while the south cable is 7 feet (2.13 m) shorter. Each car weighs 22 short tons (20.0 metric tons; 19.6 long tons), but they and the cables can carry an additional load of 15 short tons (13.6 metric tons; 13.4 long tons). A 400-horsepower (298 kW) electric motor drives the drum, simultaneously winding and unwinding the cable, to propel the incline. The Johnstown Inclined Plane is unusual in that the motor and winch are located at a 90-degree angle to the incline instead of directly underneath it. Operation of the incline is controlled via a foot pedal located in a booth in the upper station.
An emergency brake engages if the air pressure needed to control the incline is insufficient; the brake also engages if a dead man's switch is tripped in the operator's booth. In addition to the hauling cables, a 972-foot (296 m) safety cable capable of withstanding 165 short tons (149.7 metric tons; 147.3 long tons) is also connected to the cars.
## History
### Background and construction
Inclines are common in Europe, and immigrants, like the German, Slavic, and Welsh people who settled near Johnstown, remembered them from their native lands and brought the concept to the United States. The earliest inclines in the United States were a series of 10 that were built in the 1830s as part of the Allegheny Portage Railroad. The portage railroad carried canal boats over the Allegheny Mountains to connect the canals from Pittsburgh to the ones from Philadelphia. Pittsburgh at one time also had "at least 17" inclines—some carried passengers, others freight, while another two inclines (like the Nunnery Hill Incline) were curved.
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam collapsed upstream of Johnstown on the Little Conemaugh River. The resulting deluge devastated the city, killing 2,209 people. As the city rebuilt, the Cambria Iron Company started work on a residential development atop Yoder Hill. To provide easy transportation on the steep slope for residents of the new community of Westmont, the company constructed an inclined plane. In addition to being a convenient mode of transportation, the Johnstown Inclined Plane doubled as an escape route in event of flood. Diescher was hired by Cambria Iron to design the incline. The rails used in the incline were manufactured in Johnstown at Cambria Iron, and many of the construction tools handcrafted there. The 232-foot (71 m) Inclined Plane Bridge was built to span the Stoneycreek River to provide access to the lower station of the incline. Originally named the Cambria Inclined Plane, the Johnstown Inclined Plane opened on June 1, 1891 and cost \$133,296 to build. The convenience the incline provided stimulated a rapid growth of population in Westmont and made the borough one of the country's first suburbs. Over 40 million trips were taken on the incline in its first 80 years of operation.
### Use
The incline's original steam engine was disconnected on January 6, 1912, and replaced with an electric motor. The cars used on the incline were originally double-deckers, but were reconfigured into a single-decker design in 1921. The double-decker cars had horses and wagons riding on the main, upper deck and passengers riding in a compartment below. Only one human fatality has occurred at the incline; it was determined that the incident was not caused by the incline itself. There were two incidents in the 1920s when horses aboard the incline became spooked and leapt from the car onto the tracks. Bethlehem Steel, the successor to Cambria Iron, sold the Johnstown Inclined Plane to the borough of Westmont in April 1935. On March 17, 1936, nearly 4,000 people were evacuated from Johnstown to higher ground via the incline as the Stoneycreek and Conemaugh Rivers overflowed their banks. The floodwaters continued downstream and eventually reached Pittsburgh. From February 1938 to July 1953, the Johnstown Traction Company operated transit buses from Johnstown to Westmont with the "fully loaded public buses" being carried by the incline. Bethlehem Steel stopped supplying electricity to the Johnstown Inclined Plane when the factory switched to "an incompatible power system", forcing the incline to close on January 31, 1962. Because of public pressure to keep the incline operating, it was reopened in July 1962 after extensive renovation, in which the electric motor was rewound, ties were replaced, and the cars were repainted.
The Johnstown Inclined Plane was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 18, 1973. On July 20, 1977, the incline was again used as an escape route, evacuating residents from the valley amid rising floodwaters. It also carried "boats, emergency personnel, and equipment down to the valley to aid in rescue operations". The incline was again sold for \$1 by Westmont borough on March 8, 1983, to the Cambria County Transit Authority, now CamTran. CamTran initiated a \$4.2 million renovation on September 7, 1983, replacing "the incline's foundation piers, structural steel, and track." The renovations were completed on August 22, 1984, and the incline was rededicated on September 6. It was designated an Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in September 1994. A footbridge spanning Pennsylvania Route 56 between the incline and Vine Street was opened around the same time. On September 1, 2000, the incline was closed when the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) undertook an \$2.3 million renovation of the bridge and its access road. It was reopened in April 2001, but again closed in September to allow PennDOT to finish repairs to the bridge deck. The repairs were completed on December 14, 2001. A strong thunderstorm disrupted power to the incline on April 16, 2010, stranding the cars and two passengers almost halfway down the slope. The rescue took three hours, and ended when firefighters rappelled down the tracks to reach the car. The Johnstown Inclined Plane was closed from September 9 to October 14, 2010, for the installation of a new 9,000-pound (4,100 kg) "hoist brake shaft." From October 29 to October 31, 2012, CamTran shut down the incline fearing power outages due to the passage of Hurricane Sandy. During the annual Thunder in the Valley motorcycle rally, two resistors failed and stopped the incline near the stations on June 28, 2014. Repairs took approximately a month after consultants diagnosed the failure. Sensor issues briefly disrupted service in August 2014 and, again, December 2014 forcing the incline to start its winter maintenance period early.
### Refurbishment
In 2021, the incline closed for a two year project to extensively renovate the incline at a cost of more than \$12 million. The refurbishment included restoration of the cars, a complete overhaul of the mechanical and electrical systems, and replacement all the track ties. The project was funded by a variety of state and federal grants, and donations from local foundations.
## Current operations
With the growing popularity of the automobile and construction of new roads, ridership on the incline diminished. It was losing \$25,000 a year by 1961. Since the 1980s, the incline has become one of the main tourist attractions in Johnstown, with people visiting the incline to "ride for fun, nostalgia and novelty." Primarily used for tourism, the incline's use by commuters, who bike or walk to work, has also increased. CamTran's Route 18 transit bus offers connections between the incline and downtown Johnstown. As of 2017, the cost for a ride on the incline is \$3 or \$5 for a roundtrip. The one way fare for automobiles \$8. The incline takes around 90 seconds to travel between stations. The same trip takes 10 minutes by automobile. In 2021, the Johnstown Inclined Plane had an annual ridership of 20,193 passengers, a decrease of 50.5 percent from the previous year.
The upper station has a gift shop selling souvenirs and snacks. A visitor center is located adjacent to the station. The mechanical room housing the incline's hoisting mechanism can be viewed from windows in the gift shop and the visitor center lobby. An observation deck providing views of the incline, the city, and the valley is located on the opposite side of the station from the visitor center. Two hiking trails and several mountain bike trails allow visitors to recreate on the hillside. One of the hiking trails is a sculpture trail, with works created in 1989 by local artist James Wolfe, who used remnants of the Bethlehem Steel factory in Johnstown. The mountain bike trails are a series of downhill style trails that all end at the lower Inclined Plane Station. They are unique in that they are one of the only trail systems with lift service provided by public transportation.
## See also
- List of funicular railways
- List of Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Cambria County, Pennsylvania
## Explanatory notes
## General sources
|
1,611,216 |
Arthur Mold
| 1,156,709,137 |
English cricketer
|
[
"1863 births",
"1921 deaths",
"C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers",
"Cricketers from Northamptonshire",
"England Test cricketers",
"English cricketers",
"Gentlemen of England cricketers",
"Hurst Park Club cricketers",
"Lancashire cricketers",
"Lyric Club cricketers",
"North v South cricketers",
"Northamptonshire cricketers",
"People from Middleton Cheney",
"Players cricketers",
"Wisden Cricketers of the Year"
] |
Arthur Webb Mold (27 May 1863 – 29 April 1921) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Lancashire as a fast bowler between 1889 and 1901. A Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1892, he was selected for England in three Test matches in 1893. Mold was one of the most effective bowlers in England during the 1890s but his career was overshadowed by controversy over his bowling action. Although he took 1,673 wickets in first-class matches, many commentators viewed his achievements as tainted.
Mold began his professional cricket career playing for Banbury and Northamptonshire in the mid-1880s, but by 1889 had qualified to play for Lancashire at county level. Immediately successful, he quickly established a good bowling partnership with Johnny Briggs and became one of the leading bowlers in the country. However, he only achieved selection for England in one series in 1893. Many critics thought he threw rather than bowled the ball, and he was among several bowlers at the time about whom there were similar suspicions. Controversy erupted in 1900 when Mold was no-balled for throwing by Jim Phillips, an umpire who had targeted several prominent bowlers with dubious bowling actions. After Mold avoided several games in which Phillips was umpire, the affair came to a head in 1901. On the opening morning of a match, Phillips repeatedly no-balled Mold. Several of Mold's teammates and most Lancashire supporters continued to believe that Mold bowled legally, but his reputation was ruined and, after three more appearances in 1901, he retired at the end of the season. After his departure from the game, throwing ceased to be a concern in English cricket for 50 years.
## Early life and career
Mold was born on 27 May 1863 in the village of Middleton Cheney in Northamptonshire. His family had links with the thatching trade, but Mold pursued a career in professional cricket. He began to play for the village team, making good progress as a bowler; in 1882, Middleton Cheney were unbeaten and Mold had the best bowling average in the team. In 1885 and 1886, he was employed as a professional at Banbury Cricket Club. In his second year, a successful match against the Free Foresters, an amateur team, impressed two Lancashire cricketers who played against him. Subsequently, in 1887, Mold was employed by Manchester Cricket Club, and played a few non-competitive cricket matches for Lancashire. In the same season, Northamptonshire, which at the time had not been awarded first-class status, asked Mold to play for them. Playing as a professional, Mold was immediately successful, taking ten wickets in a match against a team from Surrey and seven wickets for 22 runs (seven for 22) in an innings against Staffordshire. He continued to represent Northamptonshire in the following season but hoped to play for Lancashire. At the time, cricketers who wished to play competitive first-class matches for a county in which they were not born had to live there for two years to qualify.
By 1889, Mold was qualified for Lancashire and was expected by critics to make an impact. At the time, Lancashire had no fast bowler in their team, making Mold potentially an important player. He made his first-class debut for the county in a three-day match against Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) starting on 9 May 1889, taking one wicket in a drawn game. Throughout the rest of the season, Mold impressed critics. After a slow start in unhelpful conditions and unsuitable playing surfaces for his type of bowling, he took a total of 33 wickets in four consecutive games and established a reputation as the fastest bowler in England. His best performance statistically was seven for 35 against Yorkshire County Cricket Club, in a match during which he took 13 wickets, but he was successful in other high-profile matches. In all games against county opposition, Mold took 80 wickets at an average of 11.69; in all first-class matches he took 102 wickets at an average of 11.81. This placed him third in the national bowling averages. Although less successful in 1890, he took 118 wickets in first-class games at 14.72, which was 11th in the averages. His best figures, nine for 41, once more came against Yorkshire, and he helped Lancashire to second place in the first official County Championship. Mold came close to playing for England when he was included in the squad to play in the third Test match against Australia, but the match was abandoned owing to rain and no play took place.
## Leading bowler
Mold established himself as one of the leading bowlers in England during 1891. According to Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, "The season of 1891 brought him a great increase of reputation, and all through the summer he was uniformly successful." In all first-class matches, he took 138 wickets at 12.49 to finish second in the national bowling averages. As a result of his good performances in the season, he was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Lancashire finished as runners-up once again in the County Championship.
In 1892, Mold's aggregate of wickets fell to 120 at an average of 13.63, but he returned the best bowling figures of his career when he took nine for 29 against Kent. He was chosen in a representative match for the first time, playing for the North against the South. During the 1893 season, Mold took 166 wickets at 16.96; at the end of the season, The Times described him as a great bowler and noted that he and Johnny Briggs were Lancashire's only two effective bowlers. Between them, the pair took 225 wickets; the other bowlers in combination took 46. Once more representing the North during 1893, this time in a match against the touring Australian team, Mold also made his debut in the prestigious Gentlemen v Players match, playing for the professional "Players" and taking nine wickets in the game. His performances brought about his international debut; he played for England in all three Test matches against Australia, the only such appearances of his career. In the first game, he took three for 44 in Australia's only innings, his best figures of the series, and took four wickets in the other two matches to finish with seven wickets at an average of 33.42. It is likely that doubts about the legality of his bowling action prevented him from playing further Test matches, or touring Australia with a representative side. However, other factors may have played a part in his subsequent omission, including the emergence of Tom Richardson as a successful fast bowler, and the opinion that Mold's bowling was flattered by the difficult, uneven pitches on which Lancashire played their home games.
Mold's annual total of wickets continued to increase in the following seasons. In 1894, he again represented the North and the Players, taking 207 wickets in total at an average of 12.30. But as Lancashire increased the number of games they played, Mold and Briggs had an increased bowling workload and once more had little assistance from other bowlers. Between them, they took 324 wickets while the next most successful bowler took 13. The following year, Mold reached his highest seasonal tally with 213 wickets at 15.96, and made his final appearance for the Players. The Times commented on the effectiveness of Mold: "Mold preserves all his pace and break in bowling, and his success on the hard wickets was phenomenal."
Although Mold appeared for the North against the Australians, who toured again in 1896, he did not play any Tests or other representative cricket that year and his wicket total fell to 150 at 18.12; after this season, his bowling began to decline in effectiveness. Suffering frequently from injury in 1897, Mold failed to reach 100 wickets in the season for the first time. His 90 wickets in 1898 were taken at an average over 20, the only time his bowling average was so high, and he missed three weeks of the season owing to injury. After improving his record to 115 wickets at 18.68 during 1899, he was awarded a benefit match by Lancashire during 1900 which raised £2,050, a record total at the time and worth around £173,000 in 2010.
## Throwing controversy
### Background
For many years in England, there had been controversy over bowling actions; several bowlers were believed to throw rather than bowl the ball, which was contrary to the Laws of Cricket. Lancashire had a particularly poor reputation among other county teams for using bowlers who threw: by the early 1880s, up to four of Lancashire's main bowlers were judged to be unfair, including John Crossland who bowled very quickly. By the mid-1880s, several teams refused to play Lancashire on account of their bowling attack. Mainly through the actions of Lord Harris, many of the suspect bowlers were forced out of cricket, and bowling actions became more legitimate. However, some players continued to bowl with questionable actions, including members of the Lancashire team. The issue intensified in 1896 when two of the Australian touring team, Ernie Jones and Tom McKibbin, seemed to throw the ball regularly; Sydney Pardon, the editor of Wisden, wrote: "The mortifying fact was that the illegal bowling was due entirely to our own weakness in not having the laws of the game carried out. The Australians only did against us what we had over and over again done against them."
Following the 1896 tour, the English authorities realised action had to be taken. Jim Phillips, an Australian-born umpire who journeyed each year between his native country and England, travelled to Australia with an English touring team in 1897–98. During two of the matches he umpired, Phillips no-balled Ernie Jones for throwing. Upon returning to England for the 1898 season, Phillips also called C. B. Fry, a prominent amateur cricketer and all-round sportsman, for throwing. This was the second of three occasions in 1898 that Fry was no-balled. Other umpires, following Phillips' lead, no-balled Fry and Frank Hopkins. Two further bowlers, albeit not famous cricketers, were called for throwing in 1899.
### Mold called for throwing
During the 1900 season, Fry was once more no-balled at the beginning of June, this time by William West. The concerted action against throwing reached a peak when Phillips umpired the match between Nottinghamshire and Lancashire in Nottingham on 26 June. Early on the first morning of the three-day match, Mold came on to bowl when Nottinghamshire had scored 34. In Mold's first over, Phillips twice no-balled him for throwing. Lancashire's captain, Archie MacLaren, withdrew Mold from the bowling attack at the end of the over and he did not bowl again in the match. However, MacLaren later defended Mold in the press. The match reports in both The Times and Wisden commented that Mold had been lucky never to be no-balled before in his career; he was the most high-profile bowler to be called in the Phillips-led crackdown on bowling actions. Mold played another nine times in 1900 without being called for throwing, but he did not play in any of the Lancashire matches umpired by Phillips. Later in the season, Phillips called the Somerset bowler Ted Tyler. By the end of the season, Mold had taken 97 wickets at 14.01.
That December, at their annual meeting at Lord's, the captains of the first-class counties discussed the problem of throwing. MacLaren asked those present at the meeting to give their opinion of Mold's bowling. According to MacLaren, they "replied to a man that they considered that Mold was not always fair". Reports in the press stated that they voted by a majority of eleven to one that Mold's action was unfair, and that along with other bowlers whose actions were suspected, he should not bowl in the coming season. The captains further recommended that bowlers with illegal actions should be banned, suspended or warned depending on the severity of their transgression. The meeting proved controversial, and disputes arose over how many captains had supported the decision. MacLaren claimed that he was the only captain to support Mold. Despite the verdict of the meeting, Lancashire's committee remained of the opinion that Mold bowled legally; the Lancashire president A. N. Hornby and several of Mold's teammates also publicly backed the bowler. Opinions among other players and in the press varied as to the fairness of Mold's bowling, but sympathy was expressed for the damage to Mold's career and reputation, while Pelham Warner suggested that it was unfair to ban Mold completely. Some critics believed that the captains should not have passed judgement at all. The MCC, responsible for the laws of cricket and the organisation of the English game, were asked to adjudicate by several county committees. Reluctant to let the decision stand, the MCC overruled the captains, preferring to leave the matter to individual umpires. However, the umpires were instructed to pay close attention to suspect bowlers during the coming season.
Although he may have been expected to retire following the controversy and in view of his age, Mold continued to play for Lancashire, who were short of quality bowlers, at the start of the 1901 season. At least one umpire was asked by the MCC to report specifically on Mold's bowling, but decided it was fair, and no umpire initially called him for throwing. He missed two Lancashire matches in which Phillips was an umpire, wishing to avoid a confrontation, but Lancashire were criticised by the public for omitting Mold from these matches. Consequently, he played in the game against Somerset umpired by Phillips, which started on 11 July at Old Trafford Cricket Ground. Under the captaincy of MacLaren, Mold opened the attack and bowled with Phillips at square leg. In Mold's second over of the game, Phillips no-balled him for throwing. Acting at the request of the Lancashire committee, MacLaren then switched Mold to bowl from the opposite end so that Phillips would be at the bowler's end. Even so, Phillips continued to no-ball him, and after 10 overs, Mold had been called 16 times by Phillips. MacLaren removed Mold from the attack, although he returned to bowl later without further action from either umpire. For the remainder of the match, Mold bowled from Phillips' end without censure; Phillips believed he had made his point. The other umpire took no action at any point in the match. The crowd at the game protested noisily against Phillips, for a time shouting "no-ball" as every ball was bowled, and making comments about him. According to Wisden, Phillips' actions caused "a great sensation ... The incident naturally gave rise to much excitement, and for the next few days nothing else was talked about in the cricket world." At the conclusion of the match, Mitchell and Kenyon, a film-making company based in Blackburn, filmed the players leaving the field and took footage of Mold bowling in the nets to Hornby. Phillips received criticism for his actions and Mold had some support in the press. Mold's Times obituary noted: "Mold did not lack defenders, but those who argued that he was, and always had been, a perfectly fair bowler, had a very bad case. The weight of expert evidence was overwhelmingly against them."
### Aftermath
In December 1901, the MCC approved the scheme previously suggested—that the county captains should meet to discuss the fairness of suspected bowlers. It was proposed that any bowler who was judged to be unfair by a two-to-one majority of captains would be banned for at least a season. The MCC also recommended that the counties not play suspected bowlers and that any bowler called for throwing should be removed from the attack in the interests of the spirit of cricket. In the 1902 Wisden, Sydney Pardon wrote: "Never in the last twenty years or more has there been so little unfair or doubtful bowling as in the season of 1901. Indeed the improvement was so marked as to make it clear that, if the captains stick to their guns, we shall soon be entirely free from the evil of which not very long ago it seemed impossible to get rid." After 1901, there were only isolated incidents regarding illegal bowling actions until the Second World War, and throwing ceased to be an issue in English cricket, in which no cricketer was no-balled for throwing between 1908 and 1952.
### Final years and death
Mold played another three matches in 1901 without being no-balled for throwing, but his reputation was ruined and he retired at the end of the season, although Lancashire had offered him a new contract. In this final season, he took 59 wickets at 19.35. In his career as a whole, he took 1,673 first-class wickets at an average of 15.54. In 2012, he is 57th on the list of leading first-class wicket-takers; among those whose careers were contemporaneous with or preceded Mold's, he is placed 19th.
Subsequently, Mold returned to play for Northamptonshire in 1903, and played league cricket in his native county, although he struggled with increasing weight in his later years. In his retirement, he became the landlord of a public house in Middleton Cheney, the village in which he was born. He took up shooting as a hobby and looked after his ailing mother. After a long illness, he died on 29 April 1921 in Middleton Cheney. The memorial on his gravestone states: "This stone was erected by his old cricketing friends as a token of their affection, admiration and respect". It was paid for by a subscription opened by the Lancashire Committee.
## Bowling technique
A fast bowler who operated from a very short run-up, Mold bowled extremely quickly, releasing the ball with his arm very high in his early years, although later in his career, his arm was lower in delivery. Unusually for a bowler of his pace, he could make the ball deviate from straight, either through seam movement or cutting his fingers over it before release, but most of his wickets were taken through sheer speed. His obituary in the Manchester Guardian stated that he was among the fastest bowlers of all time and his bowling action was "beautiful" and possessed "fine grace". If the pitch was uneven or otherwise difficult for batting, he was extremely difficult to bat against: in 1892, Wisden noted: "On anything like a rough or bumpy wicket [pitch] he is, beyond all question, the most difficult and dangerous bowler of the day, the ball getting up from the pitch so high and so fast as to intimidate all but the very pluckiest of batsmen." The Times later noted that he was very successful for Lancashire and a difficult bowler to face. In combination with Briggs, he bowled a very high proportion of Lancashire's overs. At times, he struggled with a knee injury but continued to bowl with little opportunity to rest.
Opinion was divided over the legality of Mold's bowling action. After no-balling Mold for the second time, Phillips wrote that he had long suspected Mold of throwing. Even though he believed Mold was trying to bowl with a straight arm in the Somerset match, Phillips considered many more deliveries to be throws than merely those he called. In his own defence, Mold queried why Phillips never acted on his prior suspicions, and suggested that the umpire did not make it clear which part of Mold's bowling action was unfair. The Manchester Guardian, reporting on the Somerset match in 1901, noted that many umpires had apparently viewed Mold's action as fair earlier in the season, even after the instruction from the MCC to pay careful attention to him. It stated that "the general opinion was that if one ball was to be called a throw then every ball he sent down was of the same order." However, some critics noted that when bowling an occasional faster ball, Mold's action changed slightly; this was the delivery to which Phillips objected. His obituary in the Manchester Guardian stated that the lack of action by umpires other than Phillips in 1901, and throughout Mold's career, meant that the "charge against Mold, then, can hardly be said to have been 'proven'".
Mold continued to have his supporters. MacLaren later wrote that he believed Mold never intentionally threw; A. N. Hornby consistently defended Mold, partly because, as Mold's captain during the 1890s, it would have been a slur against his sportsmanship to admit that an unfair bowler had been in his team. Most Lancashire supporters never doubted that Mold's action was fair. Cricket historian Don Ambrose suggests that Mold probably did throw his faster delivery, which may have accounted for the high proportion of his wickets which were bowled. It also explained his ability to produce a delivery that surprised the batsman; W. G. Grace once observed that it was particularly painful to be struck by a delivery from Mold. The lack of action by Phillips' fellow umpires was possibly, according to Ambrose, due to their unwillingness to cause problems for a fellow professional cricketer. However, Ambrose also suggests that in the Somerset match, Phillips was determined to end Mold's career and that not every delivery that he called was actually a throw.
Mold was popular with other cricketers. The Times said: "Apart from the burning question of throwing, not a word could be said against him. He was liked by all his brother professionals, and popular wherever he played." However, his achievements were always qualified by suspicion over the legality of his bowling action, even before he was no-balled by Phillips. A batsman who played against him when he first appeared for Northamptonshire said: "If he is fair he is the best bowler in England, but I think he is a worse thrower than ever Crossland [the Lancashire bowler of the 1880s with a suspect bowling action] was." Mold's Times obituary stated: "He was a deadly fast bowler, but, all through his career, even his best feats in the cricket field were spoken of with something of apology".
|
341,814 |
Mariano Rivera
| 1,172,299,149 |
Panamanian-American baseball player (born 1969)
|
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"World Series Most Valuable Player Award winners"
] |
Mariano Rivera (born November 29, 1969) is a Panamanian-American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. Nicknamed "Mo" and "Sandman", he spent most of his career as a relief pitcher and served as the Yankees' closer for 17 seasons. A thirteen-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, he is MLB's career leader in saves (652) and games finished (952). Rivera won five American League (AL) Rolaids Relief Man Awards and three Delivery Man of the Year Awards, and he finished in the top three in voting for the AL Cy Young Award four times. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of its class of 2019 in his first year of eligibility, and is to date the only player ever to be elected unanimously by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA).
Raised in the modest Panamanian fishing village of Puerto Caimito, Rivera was an amateur player until he was signed by the Yankees organization in 1990. He debuted in the major leagues in 1995 as a starting pitcher, before permanently converting to a relief pitcher late in his rookie year. After a breakthrough season in 1996 as a setup man, he became the Yankees' closer in 1997. In the following seasons, he established himself as one of baseball's top relievers, leading the major leagues in saves in 1999, 2001, and 2004. Rivera primarily threw a sharp-moving, mid-90s mile-per-hour cut fastball that frequently broke hitters' bats and earned a reputation as one of the league's toughest pitches to hit. With his presence at the end of games, signaled by his foreboding entrance song "Enter Sandman", Rivera was a key contributor to the Yankees' success in the late 1990s and early 2000s. An accomplished postseason performer, he was named the 1999 World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) and the 2003 AL Championship Series MVP, and he holds several postseason records, including lowest earned run average (ERA) (0.70) and most saves (42).
Rivera is regarded as one of the most dominant relievers in major league history. Pitching with a longevity and consistency uncommon to the closer role, he saved at least 25 games in 15 consecutive seasons and posted an ERA under 2.00 in 11 seasons, both of which are records. When he retired, his career 2.21 ERA and 1.00 WHIP were the lowest in the live-ball era among qualified pitchers. Fellow players credit him with popularizing the cut fastball across the major leagues. Along with his signature pitch, Rivera was known for his precise control, smooth pitching motion, and composure on the field. In 2013, the Yankees retired his uniform number 42; he was the last major league player to wear the number full-time, following its league-wide retirement in 1997 in honor of Jackie Robinson. In 2014, MLB named its AL Reliever of the Year Award in Rivera's honor. A devout Christian, he has been involved in charitable causes and the religious community through the Mariano Rivera Foundation. For his philanthropy, Rivera received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, in September 2019.
## Early life
Mariano Rivera was born in Panama City, Panama, on November 29, 1969, to Mariano Rivera Palacios and Delia Jiron. Rivera has one older sister, Delia, and two younger brothers, Alvaro and Giraldo. Supported by Mariano Sr.'s job as captain of a fishing boat, the family lived in Puerto Caimito, a Panamanian fishing village that Rivera described as "poor". As a young man, Rivera played soccer and baseball with his friends on the beach during low tide. Soccer was his favorite sport, and Pelé his favorite athlete. For baseball games, they substituted cardboard milk cartons for gloves and tree branches for bats, and they fashioned balls by taping wads of shredded fishing nets. Rivera used this makeshift equipment until his father bought him his first leather glove when he was 12 years old. Speaking about his youth, Rivera said that although he stayed out of trouble, he "was hanging with the wrong people".
Rivera attended Escuela Victoriano Chacón for elementary school and La Escuela Secundaria Pedro Pablo Sanchez for his secondary education, but he dropped out in ninth grade. At age 16, he began to learn the fishing trade by working on a commercial boat captained by his father, catching sardines. Rivera, who worked six-day weeks, year round, called the job "extremely hard" and was more interested in becoming a mechanic. He spent three years learning the fishing trade, saving the money he earned in hopes of opening an automobile repair shop. Two incidents on his father's boat validated his doubts about fishing as a career. In 1988, Rivera's uncle Miguel was lashed by an unsecured rope that shot off a hydraulic mechanism, and a month later he died from his injuries. About a year later, at age 19, Rivera was forced to abandon his father's ship after it began capsizing due to a malfunctioning water pump and an overweight load of fish.
Rivera continued to play sports during his teenage years but eventually quit soccer around age 17 after a series of ankle and knee injuries. Consequently, he shifted his attention to baseball, though he considered it a hobby rather than a potential profession. At age 18, Rivera joined the Panamá Oeste Vaqueros, a local amateur baseball team, as a utility player. Scout Herb Raybourn watched him play shortstop in a 1988 baseball tournament but did not project him to be a major leaguer. A year later, Panamá Oeste's pitcher performed so poorly in a playoff game that Rivera was asked to replace him, and despite no experience at the position, he pitched well. Teammates Claudino Hernández and Emilio Gáez consequently contacted Chico Heron, a scout for the New York Yankees. Two weeks after his pitching debut, Rivera was invited to a Yankees tryout camp run by Heron in Panama City. Raybourn, who had returned to Panama to scout as the Yankees' director of Latin American operations, received a tip about Rivera. Raybourn was surprised to hear he had switched positions but decided to watch him throw. Although Rivera had no formal pitching training, weighed just 155 pounds (70 kg), and threw only 85–87 miles per hour (137–140 kilometers per hour), Raybourn was impressed by his athleticism and smooth, effortless pitching motion. Viewing Rivera as a raw talent, Raybourn signed the amateur free agent to a contract with the Yankees organization on February 17, 1990; the contract included a signing bonus of US\$2,500 (\$ today), according to Major League Baseball (MLB) records.
## Professional baseball career
### Minor leagues (1990–1995)
After signing his contract, Rivera—who spoke no English and had never left home before—flew to the United States and reported to the Gulf Coast League (GCL) Yankees, a Rookie level minor-league affiliate of the New York Yankees. Feeling lonely and homesick, he wrote home to his parents often, as they did not have access to telephones in Puerto Caimito. At that point in his career, scouts considered Rivera to be a "fringe prospect" at best, but he made progress with a strong 1990 season for the GCL Yankees. Pitching mostly in relief, he allowed only 24 baserunners and one earned run in 52 innings pitched—a 0.17 earned run average (ERA). The team permitted Rivera to start the season's final game in order for him to accumulate enough innings pitched to qualify for the league's ERA title (which carried a \$500 bonus); his subsequent seven-inning no-hitter "put him on the map with the organization", according to manager Glenn Sherlock. In the offseason, Rivera returned to Panama and tipped Raybourn off about a promising local player, Rivera's 16-year-old cousin Rubén, whom the Yankees consequently signed.
In 1991, Mariano was promoted to the Class A level Greensboro Hornets of the South Atlantic League, where he started 15 of the 29 games in which he pitched. Despite a 4–9 win–loss record, he recorded a 2.75 ERA in 114+2⁄3 innings pitched and struck out 123 batters while walking 36 batters. New York Yankees manager Buck Showalter took notice of Rivera's strong strikeout-to-walk ratio, calling it "impressive in any league" and saying, "This guy is going to make it." A minor-league scout for the Cincinnati Reds filed a report that season about Rivera that said: "long arms w/ slender strong body, loose actions...will challenge in velocity...maturity is a question, consistency is a question...consistency will need to be maintained to improve and advance."
In 1992, Rivera was promoted to the Class A-Advanced level Fort Lauderdale Yankees of the Florida State League (FSL), but he missed the first third of the season with elbow stiffness. He started ten games for Fort Lauderdale, compiling a 5–3 win–loss record and a 2.28 ERA, while walking only five batters in 59+1⁄3 innings pitched. Ultimately, Rivera was sidelined again after suffering damage to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow. The injury was attributed to him snapping his wrist during his throwing motion in an attempt to improve the movement of his slider. Rivera underwent elbow surgery on August 27, 1992, leading to concerns that he would be out through the 1993 season. Contrary to popular belief, the operation was not Tommy John surgery; Rivera's surgeon, Frank Jobe, determined that ligament replacement was not necessary and instead repaired the frayed UCL. Rivera was left unprotected by the Yankees in MLB's 1992 expansion draft, which filled the rosters for two expansion teams, the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies. At one point in the draft, Marlins general manager Dave Dombrowski was planning to select Rivera with his next pick, but after the Rockies chose Yankee Brad Ausmus, the Yankees were shielded from losing any more players; Rivera went undrafted.
During Rivera's rehabilitation, he played catch with former Yankees pitchers Whitey Ford and Ron Guidry, and faced batting practice from his first minor-league pitching coach, former pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm. After recuperating, Rivera pitched an abbreviated 1993 season for the Rookie-level Yankees and Class A Greensboro, during which he was kept on a limited pitch count. Hornets shortstop Derek Jeter, who would later be Rivera's teammate in the major leagues, tracked his pitch count during games. In 12 starts, Rivera recorded a 2.08 ERA, walking 16 batters in 43+1⁄3 innings pitched. Watching him recover, the Hornets' official scorer Ogi Overman was not optimistic about Rivera's future, saying, "I thought [he] was on a one-way trip to nowhere."
Rivera began the 1994 season with the Class A-Advanced level Tampa Yankees of the FSL. In June, he was promoted to the Double-A level Albany-Colonie Yankees of the Eastern League, followed by a promotion to the Triple-A level Columbus Clippers of the International League in July. Rivera finished his season with a 10–2 record and a 3.09 ERA overall, but he struggled in Columbus, recording a 5.81 ERA in six starts. At the start of the 1995 season, he was ranked the ninth-best prospect in the Yankees organization by sports magazine Baseball America; by contrast, Rivera's highly touted cousin Rubén was ranked the second-best prospect in the entire sport. Mariano's pitching repertoire primarily consisted of fastballs at the time, with a slider and changeup as secondary pitches. He began the 1995 season with Columbus, pitching to a 1–1 record and a 1.50 ERA in four starts.
### Major leagues (1995–2013)
#### 1995–1997
After being called up to the major leagues on May 16, 1995, Rivera made his debut for the New York Yankees on May 23 against the California Angels. Starting in place of injured pitcher Jimmy Key, Rivera allowed five earned runs in 3+1⁄3 innings pitched in a 10–0 loss. He struggled through his first four major-league starts, posting a 10.20 ERA, and as a result, he was demoted to Columbus on June 11. As a 25-year-old rookie just three years removed from major arm surgery, Rivera did not have a guaranteed spot in the Yankee organization. Management considered trading him to the Detroit Tigers for starter David Wells. While recovering from a sore shoulder in the minor leagues, Rivera pitched a no-hit shutout in a rain-shortened five-inning start on June 26. Reports from the game indicated that his pitches had reached 95–96 mph (153–154 km/h), about 6 mph (9.7 km/h) faster than his previous average velocity; Rivera attributes his inexplicable improvement to God. Yankees general manager Gene Michael was skeptical of the reports until verifying that Columbus' radar gun was not faulty and that another team's scout had taken the same measurements. Afterwards, he ended any trade negotiations involving Rivera. On July 4, in his first start back in the major leagues, Rivera pitched eight scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox, allowing just two hits while striking out 11 batters. In five subsequent starts, he was unable to match his success from that game. After a brief demotion to Columbus in August, Rivera made one last start in the major leagues in September before he was moved to the Yankees' bullpen. Overall, he finished his first major-league season with a 5–3 record and a 5.51 ERA in ten starts and nine relief outings. His performance in the American League Division Series against the Seattle Mariners, in which he pitched 5+1⁄3 scoreless innings of relief, convinced Yankees management to keep him and convert him to a relief pitcher the following season.
Rivera was nearly traded prior to the 1996 season to address the Yankees' depleted depth at the shortstop position. Owner George Steinbrenner considered an offer to send Rivera to the Mariners in exchange for shortstop Félix Fermín, but Yankees management convinced Steinbrenner to instead entrust the position to rookie Derek Jeter. In 1996, Rivera served primarily as a setup pitcher, typically pitching in the seventh and eighth innings of games before closer John Wetteland pitched in the ninth. Their effectiveness as a tandem helped the Yankees win 70 of 73 games that season when leading after six innings. Over a stretch of games between April 19 and May 21, Rivera pitched 26 consecutive scoreless innings, including 15 consecutive hitless innings. During the streak, he recorded his first career save in a May 17 game against the Angels. Rivera finished the regular season with a 2.09 ERA in 107+2⁄3 innings pitched and set a Yankees single-season record for strikeouts by a reliever (130). Baseball-Reference.com calculated his value to the Yankees that year to be 5.0 wins above replacement (WAR), a figure no reliever has surpassed in a single season since. In the postseason, he allowed just one earned run in 14+1⁄3 innings pitched, helping the Yankees advance to and win the 1996 World Series against the Atlanta Braves. It was the franchise's first World Series championship since 1978. In MLB's annual awards voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), Rivera finished in twelfth place for the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award and third for the AL Cy Young Award, which is given to the league's best pitcher. Commentator and former player Tim McCarver wrote that the Yankees "revolutionized baseball" that year with Rivera, "a middle reliever who should have been on the All-Star team and who was a legitimate MVP candidate".
Yankees management decided not to re-sign Wetteland in the offseason, opting instead to replace him with Rivera as the team's closer. In April 1997, MLB retired the uniform number 42 league-wide to honor the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the baseball color line, although Rivera was among 13 players allowed to keep the number per a grandfather clause. Rivera's transition from setup man to closer in 1997 was not seamless; he blew three of his first six save opportunities and indicated that he was initially uncomfortable in the role. With reassurance from manager Joe Torre, Rivera settled into the ninth-inning role, and he earned his first All-Star selection with 27 saves and a 1.96 ERA at the midseason break. In the 1997 All-Star Game, he pitched a perfect ninth inning to collect his first save in an All-Star Game. That summer, he added a cut fastball to his pitching repertoire after accidentally discovering how to throw the pitch. Rivera finished the regular season with 43 saves in 52 opportunities and a 1.88 ERA. His first year as closer ended with a blown save in Game 4 of the AL Division Series against the Cleveland Indians; with the Yankees four outs from advancing to the next round of the postseason, Rivera allowed a game-tying home run to Sandy Alomar Jr. The Yankees eventually lost the game as well as the next one, eliminating them from the postseason.
#### 1998–2001
After spending two weeks on the disabled list with a groin strain during the opening month of the 1998 season, Rivera continued to establish himself as one of the major leagues' best closers. Moreover, he became the central figure of a Yankees bullpen that, supported by middle relievers Jeff Nelson and Mike Stanton, contributed to the team's late-1990s dynasty. That year, Rivera made the cutter one of his primary pitches, and it quickly became his signature, earning a reputation for breaking hitters' bats with its sharp lateral movement. He saved 36 games in 41 opportunities and had a 1.91 ERA in the regular season. In the 1998 postseason, he pitched 13+1⁄3 scoreless innings and saved six games, three of which came in the 1998 World Series against the San Diego Padres. Rivera's save in Game 4 of the series clinched the Yankees' championship, capping off a season in which they won an MLB-record 125 games combined in the regular season and the postseason. By season's end, Rivera had allowed only two earned runs in 35 career postseason innings pitched—a 0.51 ERA—and by surpassing 30 innings pitched, he qualified for the major-league record for lowest postseason career ERA; it is a record he still holds after 141 innings pitched.
In his salary arbitration case during the offseason, Rivera was awarded a \$4.25 million salary, a raise from the \$750,000 he was previously earning. In 1999, Rivera was selected for the All-Star team for a second time with 23 saves and a 2.29 ERA in the first half of the season. That summer, the Yankee Stadium scoreboard production staff began playing the song "Enter Sandman" by heavy metal band Metallica as Rivera's entrance music. Staff members selected the song after witnessing in the previous year's World Series how enthusiastically San Diego fans reacted to closer Trevor Hoffman entering games accompanied by AC/DC's "Hells Bells". Although Rivera was indifferent to his entrance music, "Enter Sandman" soon became as much a part of his closer identity as his cutter. After recording three blown saves and a 7.84 ERA in July, he allowed just one earned run over his last 30 appearances. He ended the season with a 1.83 ERA and 45 saves in 49 opportunities, his first time leading the major leagues in saves. He received his first AL Rolaids Relief Man Award, which was given annually to the league's best closer based on their statistics. In the 1999 World Series against the Braves, Rivera recorded a win and two saves, the second of which clinched the Yankees' championship title, his third overall. For his performance against Atlanta, he received the World Series MVP Award. Rivera finished 1999 by pitching 43 consecutive scoreless innings in the regular season and postseason combined, and he placed third in voting for the AL Cy Young Award. After the season, he revealed tentative plans to retire and become a minister after playing four more seasons, though he backed off these plans the following year.
In the offseason, Rivera was denied a \$9.25 million salary in arbitration but was awarded \$7.25 million per year instead, which was at the time the highest arbitration award in baseball history. In the 2000 season, Rivera was selected as an All-Star with 21 saves and a 2.95 ERA in the first half. On July 8, he saved both games of a day-night doubleheader against the New York Mets, one at Shea Stadium and the other at Yankee Stadium. He ended the season with 36 saves in 41 opportunities and a 2.85 ERA. In the postseason, Rivera saved six games, allowed three earned runs in 15+2⁄3 innings pitched, and broke two major-league records: he eclipsed Dennis Eckersley's record for most postseason saves with the 16th of his career; he also broke Whitey Ford's record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched in postseason play, a streak that ended shortly thereafter at 33+1⁄3 innings. In the 2000 World Series against the Mets, Rivera clinched a championship for his team for the third consecutive year. It was his fourth World Series title overall. By this point, he had established a reputation as an exceptional postseason performer—journalist Jack Curry called him the "infallible weapon" and "the greatest reason the Yankees [were] three-time champions".
With Rivera's contract set to expire after 2001, the Yankees signed him to a four-year, \$39.99 million deal prior to the season, marking the first long-term contract of his career. In 2001, he was selected for the All-Star team for a third consecutive year. His final numbers included a 2.34 ERA, a closer career-high 80+2⁄3 innings pitched, and an MLB-leading 50 saves in 57 opportunities—his second time leading the league. His saves total that year surpassed Dave Righetti's 46 saves in 1986 for the most by a Yankee pitcher in a single season, and made him just the sixth MLB pitcher to reach 50 saves in a single season. For his performance, Rivera earned his second AL Rolaids Relief Man Award and finished eleventh in voting for the AL MVP Award. Despite having what sportswriters deemed an "aura of invincibility" in the postseason, Rivera failed to close out the decisive Game 7 of the 2001 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. In one of his most infamous moments, he blew the save in the ninth inning, in part due to his own throwing error, and later lost the series for the Yankees by allowing a bloop single to Luis Gonzalez with the bases loaded to score the winning run. It was the first and only loss of Rivera's postseason career, and it snapped his record streak of 23 consecutive postseason saves converted.
#### 2002–2005
On May 9, 2002, Rivera recorded his 225th career save, surpassing Dave Righetti as the Yankees' franchise leader in saves. Over the next few months of the season, injuries limited his playing time. He was first placed on the disabled list in June due to a groin strain, though his first-half numbers, which included a 1.47 ERA and 21 saves, earned him an All-Star selection. In a game on July 14, Rivera endured one of his worst outings, allowing six earned runs, including a walk-off grand slam. One week later, he was placed on the disabled list with a shoulder strain. Rivera was activated on August 8 after receiving a cortisone shot but returned to the disabled list after a recurrence of shoulder tightness. For the season, Rivera recorded a 2.74 ERA and 28 saves in 32 opportunities in just 46 innings pitched.
To placate the Yankees' concerns about his durability, Rivera followed a strength and conditioning program in the offseason, instead of throwing. Torre said that he intended to reduce Rivera's workload during the 2003 season to minimize injury risks, but Rivera suffered a groin injury before the season began, causing him to miss the first month. After returning on April 30, he pitched well in the season's first half, saving 16 games in 17 opportunities. His save on June 13 against the St. Louis Cardinals secured the 300th career win for starter Roger Clemens. Rivera slumped early in the second half; over one stretch, he blew five of eleven save opportunities, but he rebounded to convert his final 15 opportunities of the season. He finished the 2003 regular season with a new career best in ERA (1.66), along with 40 saves in 46 opportunities. In the AL Championship Series against the arch-rival Boston Red Sox, Rivera had one of the most memorable postseason performances of his career; in the decisive Game 7, he entered in the ninth inning with the score tied 5–5 and pitched three scoreless innings, his longest outing since 1996. He became the winning pitcher after Aaron Boone hit an eleventh-inning walk-off home run that clinched the Yankees' series victory and advanced them to the 2003 World Series. Rivera celebrated by running to the pitcher's mound and collapsing in joy to thank God, as Boone rounded the bases and was met by his teammates at home plate. Rivera was named the AL Championship Series MVP for recording two saves and a win in the series. The Yankees lost the World Series to the Florida Marlins; Rivera saved five games and allowed only one earned run in 16 innings pitched that postseason.
With a year remaining on his contract, Rivera signed a two-year extension in March 2004 worth \$21 million, with an option for a third year. On May 28, he reached 300 career saves, making him the 18th player to do so. He was selected to his sixth All-Star team with a 0.99 ERA and an AL record-setting 32 saves at the midseason break. Rivera's final numbers for the year included a 1.94 ERA and a career-high 53 saves in 57 opportunities; it was his third time leading the major leagues in saves. Along with winning a third AL Rolaids Relief Man Award, he placed third in the AL Cy Young Award voting. Following the Yankees' victory in the AL Division Series against the Minnesota Twins, Rivera returned home to Panama to mourn two relatives who had died in an accident in his swimming pool. Despite his status being in doubt for the AL Championship Series against the Red Sox, he returned to New York for Game 1 after attending the funeral in Panama earlier in the day. He recorded a save that night, as well as in Game 2. Although the Yankees led three-games-to-none in the series, Rivera blew saves in Games 4 and 5, and the Red Sox won both games in extra innings to avoid elimination. In Game 4, Boston's Dave Roberts pinch ran and stole second base against Rivera, eventually scoring on a single to tie the game. In Game 5, Rivera entered with a one-run lead with runners on base and allowed a sacrifice fly to tie the score. Boston's comeback victories helped them become the first (and, as of 2022, the only) team in MLB history to win a best-of-seven series in which they trailed three-games-to-none. Although he allowed just one earned run in the 2004 postseason, he blew three of five save opportunities in the two series.
Following a career high in appearances in 2004, Rivera did not throw during the offseason, unlike previous years. His 2005 season began on a low note. After missing time in spring training with elbow bursitis, he blew his first two save opportunities of the season against the Red Sox, marking four consecutive blown opportunities against Boston dating back to the previous postseason. Fans at Yankee Stadium booed Rivera, and baseball journalists speculated if his days as a dominant pitcher were over. He was subsequently cheered by Red Sox fans during pre-game introductions at Fenway Park the following week, in recognition of his struggles against the Red Sox. He responded to the ovation with a sense of humor by tipping his cap to the crowd.
Rivera rebounded in dominating fashion. He pitched 23 consecutive scoreless innings, set a new career high by converting 31 consecutive save opportunities, and was selected to the All-Star team. Over the course of the season, he passed Rollie Fingers, Randy Myers, and Jeff Reardon on MLB's all-time saves list, moving into fifth place. Rivera finished 2005 with 43 saves in 47 opportunities, and set new career bests in many statistical categories, including ERA (1.38) and walks plus hits per inning pitched, or WHIP (0.87). Rivera limited opposing hitters to a batting average against of .177, then the best mark of his closer career. In addition to winning a fourth AL Rolaids Relief Man Award, he was voted by fans as the inaugural winner of the Delivery Man of the Year Award. In the BBWAA's awards voting, Rivera placed second for the AL Cy Young Award behind starter Bartolo Colón, and ninth for the AL MVP Award—his best finishes for both awards. During the postseason, MLB announced the Latino Legends Team, an all-time roster of Latino players voted the greatest by fans; Rivera was named the team's relief pitcher.
#### 2006–2008
Rivera began 2006 with a 3.72 ERA and two losses in April, but his numbers improved in subsequent months. On June 6, he saved his 391st career game, passing Dennis Eckersley for the fourth-most saves in major-league history. Rivera was selected to his third consecutive All-Star team with a 1.76 ERA and 19 saves entering the midseason break. He saved the AL's comeback victory in the All-Star Game for his third career All-Star save, tying him with Eckersley for the most ever. On July 16, Rivera achieved another milestone by becoming the fourth MLB pitcher to reach 400 saves. In August, he guaranteed his \$10.5 million contract option for 2007 by reaching 114 games finished over two years. Although a throwing elbow strain sidelined Rivera for most of September, he finished the 2006 season with 34 saves in 37 opportunities and an ERA of 1.80—his fourth consecutive season with a sub-2.00 ERA. For a second consecutive year, fans voted him the Delivery Man of the Year.
With his contract set to expire after the 2007 season, Rivera sought an extension with the Yankees during spring training. Team management declined to negotiate near the start of the season, prompting him to respond that he would consider free agency at the end of the year. In April, Rivera blew his first two save opportunities, compiled two losses, and surrendered nine earned runs in 7+2⁄3 innings pitched. Concerned sportswriters attributed his struggles to infrequent use, as the Yankees presented him with few situations to enter a game. Rivera saved 30 of his next 32 opportunities and posted a 2.26 ERA over the final five months of the season. On July 14, he passed John Franco for third place on the all-time saves list with his 425th career save. Still, Rivera finished 2007 with closer career worsts in earned runs (25), hits (68), and ERA (3.15), and his 30 saves in 34 opportunities were his second-lowest total since 1997. After the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs in the opening round, Rivera stated his intentions to test the free agent market. He initially indicated that his decision of where to sign would be influenced by whether long-time manager Joe Torre was re-signed. Although Torre did not return, Rivera remained with the Yankees by agreeing to a three-year, \$45 million contract, making him the highest-paid reliever in baseball history.
Rivera rebounded in 2008 and began the year with 16 consecutive scoreless innings pitched and 28 consecutive save opportunities converted, both personal bests to start a season. His first-half performance, highlighted by a 1.06 ERA and 23 saves in as many opportunities, garnered him his ninth All-Star selection. Leading up to the 2008 MLB All-Star Game, which was held at Yankee Stadium in the venue's final year of existence, a few sportswriters proposed making Rivera the AL's starting pitcher as a tribute to him and his home ballpark. He instead was used as a reliever in the AL's extra-inning win. In the final month of the season, he recorded two milestones: on September 15, he recorded his 479th save to pass Lee Smith for second all-time in regular season saves; on September 21, in the final game at Yankee Stadium, Rivera threw the final pitch in the venue's history, retiring Brian Roberts of the Baltimore Orioles on a ground-out. After the Yankees missed the postseason for the first time in his career, Rivera disclosed that he had suffered from shoulder pain throughout the year. Tests revealed calcification of the acromioclavicular joint in his throwing shoulder, for which he underwent minor arthroscopic surgery in the offseason.
Rivera's 2008 season was one of his best individual years. Along with a 1.40 ERA and 39 saves in 40 opportunities, he set career bests in multiple statistical categories, including WHIP (0.67), on-base plus slugging (OPS)-against (.422), batting average against (.165), save percentage (97.5%), walks (6), earned runs (11), and blown saves (1). He averaged 9.81 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched, his best mark as a closer. He pitched with such control that his 12.83 strikeout-to-walk ratio made him the second MLB pitcher ever to record a figure that high in a season (minimum 50 innings pitched). He placed fifth in the AL Cy Young Award voting.
#### 2009–2012
In his first 12 appearances of 2009, Rivera surrendered four home runs and had a 3.97 ERA, leading to speculation about his cutter's effectiveness and his shoulder's health at age 39. As the season progressed, his numbers improved, and he reached a milestone on June 28 by becoming the second pitcher with 500 regular season saves. In the same game, while batting against fellow closer Francisco Rodríguez, he collected his first career run batted in by walking with the bases loaded. With 23 saves in 24 opportunities and a 2.43 ERA in the season's first half, Rivera was named an All-Star for the tenth time. His save in the All-Star Game was his fourth career All-Star save, setting a new record. In the season's second half, Rivera allowed earned runs in only two of his final 40 appearances, while he set a new personal best for consecutive save opportunities converted with 36. He finished the regular season with a 1.76 ERA, 44 saves in 46 opportunities, and a 0.90 WHIP. In the postseason, he pitched 16 innings, allowing one earned run and saving five games, and he clinched the Yankees' victory in the 2009 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies—his fifth championship. He was the only closer who did not record a loss or blown save that postseason. Rivera collected several awards at season's end, including his third Delivery Man of the Year Award, his fifth AL Rolaids Relief Man Award, and the 2009 Sporting News Pro Athlete of the Year Award. Reflecting on the decade's end, ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick called Rivera the most valuable major league pitcher of the previous 10 years.
In 2010, Rivera and two of his "Core Four" teammates, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, became the first trio in any of the four major sports leagues in North America (MLB, NFL, NBA, or NHL) to play together on the same team for 16 consecutive seasons. In May, Rivera blew a save to snap a personal streak of 51 consecutive save opportunities converted at home, tying him with Éric Gagné for the MLB record at the time. Rivera had one of his best first halves, compiling a 1.05 ERA, 20 saves in 22 opportunities, and 0.64 WHIP before the All-Star break, and in June, he set a personal best streak with 24 consecutive batters retired. He earned an 11th All-Star selection but withdrew from the game due to lingering oblique and knee injuries. In the second half, he was less effective—he struck out batters half as often, and in September, he compiled three blown saves and a 4.76 ERA. Rivera ended 2010 with a 1.80 ERA and 0.83 WHIP, numbers that were among his career bests, though his 33 saves in 38 opportunities and 6.75 strikeouts per 9 innings ratio were below his career averages. In the postseason, he pitched 6+1⁄3 scoreless innings while saving three games. After becoming a free agent in the offseason, he agreed to a two-year, \$30 million contract to remain with the Yankees.
That same offseason, Trevor Hoffman retired as the all-time regular season saves leader with a final tally of 601, leaving Rivera as the active leader in saves and 42 behind Hoffman's record to start 2011. Rivera's season was marked by several milestones. He broke the all-time record for games finished, and in May, he became the 15th pitcher to make 1,000 appearances and the first to do so with a single team. He was named an All-Star for the 12th time with a 1.85 ERA and 22 saves in 26 opportunities at the midseason break, but for the second consecutive year, he skipped the game to rest injuries. His pursuit of the saves record reached a climax in the final month of the season. On September 13, he collected his 600th save, making him just the second pitcher to accomplish the feat. Four days later, he saved his 601st game, tying him with Hoffman for the most in MLB history. Rivera broke the record on September 19 at Yankee Stadium by closing out a 6–4 win against the Twins, the final out a strikeout of Chris Parmelee. After the game, Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli called him to offer his congratulations. Rivera finished the season with a 1.91 ERA, a 0.90 WHIP, and 44 saves in 49 opportunities, making him the first pitcher over the age of 40 to save at least 40 games in a season. In the offseason, he underwent throat surgery to remove polyps from his vocal cords.
Rivera began the 2012 season by blowing a save on Opening Day but followed it with eight scoreless innings and five saves for the remainder of April. After just nine appearances, his season was prematurely ended by a freak injury; prior to a May 3 game against the Kansas City Royals, Rivera was shagging balls during batting practice but his right knee buckled on the field's warning track, causing him to tear his right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Speculation grew that the injury would end his career, as he had hinted at retirement during spring training. Rivera put those concerns to rest the following day when he announced his intentions to return, saying: "Write it down in big letters. I'm not going down like this." He successfully underwent ACL reconstructive surgery on June 12, while his meniscus, previously thought to have been damaged, did not need to be repaired. Rafael Soriano filled in as closer in Rivera's absence and saved 42 games in 46 opportunities. Rivera signed a one-year, \$10 million contract in the offseason to remain with the team.
#### 2013
After successfully rehabilitating his knee in the offseason, the 43-year-old Rivera announced on March 9, 2013, that he would retire after the 2013 season, his 19th in the major leagues. Throughout his final year, Rivera spent time during visits to each ballpark meeting privately with fans and unsung team employees to hear their stories and thank them for supporting baseball. He explained: "It was important for me to meet the people who make baseball what it is, the people who work in the game every day. They have given me far more than I have given them." Each opposing team returned the favor by honoring Rivera with a gift during his final visit to their city. In Cleveland, the Indians teamed up with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to present Rivera with a gold record of his entrance song "Enter Sandman". The Minnesota Twins commissioned a rocking chair made of broken bats, many broken personally by Rivera's cutter, called the "Chair of Broken Dreams". The rival Boston Red Sox gave him a painting and several artifacts from Fenway Park. Many teams made donations to the Mariano Rivera Foundation, the pitcher's charitable organization. Corporate sponsors of the Yankees paid tribute as well. Delta Air Lines dedicated a Boeing 757 airplane with Rivera's signature and uniform number 42 on the exterior, while Hard Rock Cafe retired "Enter Sandman" from its song system at all locations except for its Yankee Stadium restaurant.
Rivera's 10 saves in 10 opportunities in April were his highest total for the opening month of a season. He converted his first 18 save attempts of the season until blowing a save against the Mets on May 28; it was the first time that he blew a save and lost a game without recording an out. Rivera entered the midseason break with 30 saves in 32 opportunities and a 1.83 ERA, and he was named an All-Star for the 13th time in his career, the second-most All-Star selections for a pitcher behind Warren Spahn's 17. During the All-Star Game, held at Citi Field in New York, Rivera was called upon to pitch in the eighth inning for his final All-Star appearance. As he trotted onto the field, players from both teams remained near their dugouts and joined fans in giving Rivera a standing ovation as he stood alone on the field. Rivera retired all three batters he faced, preserving his 0.00 career ERA in All-Star Games. He was named the All-Star Game MVP, making him the first reliever selected to an All-Star team to ever receive the award, as well as the first pitcher since Pedro Martínez in 1999 and the second Yankee ever after Derek Jeter in 2000. He became the first MLB player to be named the MVP of a World Series, League Championship Series, and All-Star Game. Rivera's performance dipped in the second half of the season, as he blew five save opportunities in the last two months, including three consecutive chances for the first time in his career. In a Fox Sports documentary chronicling his final year entitled Being: Mariano, Rivera said that the season-long process of bidding farewell to baseball had mentally and physically drained him and that by September, he had "no desire" left for the sport.
On September 22, 2013, a day that Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg declared "Mariano Rivera Day", the Yankees held a 50-minute pre-game tribute to Rivera at Yankee Stadium. In a ceremony attended by former teammates, Yankees staff, and members of Jackie Robinson's family, Rivera's uniform number 42 was retired by the team, making him the first active Yankee to receive that honor. Metallica performed "Enter Sandman" live as he walked onto the field during the festivities. The team presented a video montage and several gifts to Rivera before he addressed the crowd to offer his thanks. Four days later against the Tampa Bay Rays, he pitched in the final game of his career before a home crowd at Yankee Stadium. Entering in the eighth inning to a pre-recorded introduction by late Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard, Rivera pitched 1+1⁄3 innings without allowing a baserunner. In the ninth inning, after retiring Yunel Escobar on a pop fly for the second out, Rivera was removed from the game; with permission from the umpires, Yankees manager Joe Girardi ceremonially delegated the substitution duty to Rivera's long-time teammates Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter. After they reached the mound to make the pitching change, the normally reserved Rivera tearfully embraced his teammates for nearly a minute. Walking off the field to a standing ovation from fans and players, he saluted the crowd and then took a curtain call. After the game, he visited the mound for a final time and grabbed a handful of dirt as a memento. Rivera finished his final season with a 2.11 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and 44 saves in 51 opportunities, earning him the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award, among several awards. During the World Series, he was honored as the 13th recipient of the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award for his accomplished career and for being "a great ambassador of the game".
## Player profile
### Pitching style
Rivera's signature pitch was a cut fastball or "cutter", which exhibited lateral movement towards left-handed hitters similar to that of a slider but with the velocity of a fastball. The sharp, late movement of Rivera's cutter prevented hitters from making contact with the ball on the sweet spot of their bats, leading to them not only making weak contact on batted balls but also frequently breaking their bats. According to a tally by columnist Buster Olney, Rivera broke 44 bats during the 2001 regular season. Chipper Jones, who once witnessed teammate Ryan Klesko break three bats in one plate appearance against Rivera in the 1999 World Series, called the pitch a "buzz saw". Rivera's long fingers and loose wrist allowed him to impart more spin on the ball, contributing to the pitch's movement. Describing his grip of the cutter, he said, "it's really a four-seam fastball with pressure on the middle finger". By adjusting the pressure that he applied to the ball with his fingertips, he could vary the pitch's movement. One of the keys to his cutter grip was bending his thumb at the knuckle and tucking it under the ball so the nail aligned with his middle finger; this position prevented his thumb pad from impeding the spin of the ball as it left his hand. Rivera threw four-seam and two-seam fastballs as complementary pitches but primarily used his cutter; according to baseball statistics website Fangraphs, Rivera threw at least 82% cutters each season from 2008 to 2013. All three pitches typically reached a velocity in the low-to-mid 90s mph.
Early in his major-league career, Rivera was a "power pitcher" who relied on an overpowering four-seam fastball that topped out at 96 mph (154 km/h) to retire hitters. By enticing them to swing and miss at pitches high in the strike zone, he accumulated strikeouts at a high rate. Rivera altered his pitching style after accidentally discovering the cutter. One day in June 1997 during one of his daily warm-up tosses with teammate Ramiro Mendoza, Rivera noticed that his fastballs were moving sharply and unpredictably, a problem that began to occur in games as well. After unsuccessfully spending a month trying to eliminate the movement, Rivera relented and incorporated the cutter into his pitching repertoire, making it one of his primary pitches in 1998. When asked about the pitch's origin, he explained: "It was just from God. I didn't do anything. It was natural." As he came to rely on the cutter, Rivera began to record more outs on batted balls. This change resulted in his strikeouts per 9 innings rate decreasing from 10.87 in 1996 to 5.3 in 1998, but it also decreased his pitches per inning rate from 18.7 in 1995 to 14.9 in 1998. Rivera credited his improved efficiency and consequent longevity in baseball to his long-time pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre.
Rivera had an impeccable ability to accurately locate pitches and consistently throw strikes, particularly on the inside and outside edges of the strike zone. This strength offset his reliance on one pitch and hitters' anticipation of it. His former catcher Joe Girardi said: "He was so easy to catch because he always put the ball right there. I don't think there's ever been a pitcher that great who was so easy to catch." Rivera's 4.10 career strikeout-to-walk ratio in the regular season ranks 15th-best in MLB history. His control was a byproduct of his smooth, easily repeated pitching motion, one that Darrin Fletcher found deceptive as an opposing hitter. He said in 1999 that Rivera "almost kind of lulls you to sleep with his delivery. It gives you a false sense of security, and then the ball is on you and it's exploding."
Defying conventional wisdom of lefty-righty matchups, switch hitters occasionally batted right-handed when facing the right-handed Rivera, believing that his cutter would jam a batter hitting left-handed. Similarly, some managers, such as Bruce Bochy in the 1998 World Series, sent right-handed batters to pinch hit for left-handers against Rivera, thinking that the cutter would be more difficult for lefties to hit. Opposing hitters occasionally chose to face Rivera with backup or batting practice bats, rather than risk breaking their best ones against his cutter.
Rivera was considered an exceptional athlete, distinguished by his slender physique and durability. His propensity to shag balls during batting practice convinced scouts he could be a top AL center fielder. Olney compared Rivera's regimen of physical preparation and guidelines for staying healthy to Satchel Paige's "Rules for Staying Young". Former teammate Alex Rodriguez expressed amazement at Rivera's athleticism and claimed that the pitcher completed a 35-inch (890 mm) vertical jump in Yankees training camp at age 41.
### Personality
Rivera exhibited a reserved demeanor on the field that contrasted with the emotional, demonstrative temperament of many of his peers. Hall of Fame closer Goose Gossage said that Rivera's composure under stress gave him the appearance of having "ice water in his veins". Commenting on his ability to remain focused in pressure situations, Rivera said, "When you start thinking, a lot of things will happen... If you don't control your emotions, your emotions will control your acts, and that's not good." His ability to compartmentalize his successes and failures impressed fellow reliever Joba Chamberlain, who said, "He's won and lost some of the biggest games in the history of baseball, and he's no worse for the wear when he gives up a home run." Rivera explained the need to quickly forget bad performances, saying, "the game that you're going to play tomorrow is not going to be the same game that you just played." Derek Jeter called him the "most mentally tough" teammate with whom he had ever played.
During his playing career, Rivera was regarded as a team leader within the Yankees organization, often mentoring younger pitchers and counseling teammates. He had a team-first mindset and deferred most discussions about individual accolades to team goals and his teammates, praising them for making his presence in games possible. When asked to describe his job, Rivera once put it simply, "I get the ball, I throw the ball, and then I take a shower."
## Legacy
Rivera was a dominant reliever throughout his career, pitching with a consistency and longevity uncharacteristic of a role commonly marked by volatility and high turnover. In his 17-year tenure as the Yankees' closer, Rivera compiled considerable career numbers. A 13-time All-Star, he is MLB's all-time regular season leader in saves (652) and games finished (952). He pitched in 1,115 regular season games, which is fourth-most in MLB history, the most in AL history, and the most by a right-handed pitcher. Rivera holds or shares several records for the most seasons of reaching various save milestones, including seasons with at least: 20 saves (sixteen); 25 saves (fifteen consecutive, sixteen non-consecutive); 30 saves (nine consecutive, fifteen non-consecutive); 35 saves (twelve); 40 saves (nine); and 50 saves (two). At the time of his retirement, Rivera's career ERA (2.21) and WHIP (1.00) were the lowest of any MLB pitcher in the live-ball era (minimum 1,000 innings pitched), making him one of the top pitchers since 1920 at preventing hitters from reaching base and scoring. He recorded an ERA under 2.00 in 11 seasons, tying him with Walter Johnson for the most such seasons (minimum 60 innings pitched each). Rivera also ranks first in career adjusted ERA+ (205), a statistic that adjusts ERA for league and ballpark to allow comparisons of pitchers on the same baseline.
In addition to his strong regular season numbers, Rivera excelled in the postseason, recording an 8–1 win–loss record and a 0.76 WHIP. He holds numerous postseason records, including lowest career ERA (minimum 30 innings pitched) (0.70), most saves (42), most consecutive scoreless innings pitched (33+1⁄3), most consecutive save opportunities converted (23), and most games pitched (96). He saved more than twice as many postseason games as any other pitcher; Kenley Jansen, with 20, has the next-highest total. In an oft-cited statistic, more people have walked on the Moon (12) than have scored an earned run against Rivera in the postseason (11). Joe Torre, who was the Yankees' manager for most of Rivera's career, said: "Let's face it. The regular season for Mo is great, but that's the cupcakes and the ice cream. What separates him from everybody else is what he's done in the postseason." Rivera's dominance in the postseason often led to him being utilized for two-inning appearances, as he saved a record 14 postseason games in this manner—more than all other relievers combined during his career. He ranks first all time in win probability added in the postseason with 11.7, nearly three times the total of the next-closest player. In a 2009 ESPN.com poll, Rivera was voted one of the top five postseason players in MLB history. Neil Greenberg of The Washington Post ranked him the most "clutch" player in MLB postseason history.
Rivera achieved a reputation as an all-time great reliever among baseball experts and his peers. Hall of Fame starter-turned-closer Dennis Eckersley called him "the best ever, no doubt", while Trevor Hoffman said he "will go down as the best reliever in the game in history". Torre said, "He's the best I've ever been around. Not only the ability to pitch and perform under pressure, but the calm he puts over the clubhouse." Writer Tom Verducci said, "Rivera is definitively the best at his position by a wider margin than any player at any position in the history of baseball. There is Rivera, a gulf, and then every other closer." He compared Rivera's reputation for being the best at his sport's position to those of Michael Jordan in basketball and Wayne Gretzky in ice hockey. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said, "Clearly unequivocally, he's the greatest relief pitcher of all time, and did it in a way that was remarkable." Speaking about Rivera's looming presence at the end of games, Alex Rodriguez said: "He's the only guy in baseball who can change the game from a seat in the clubhouse or the bullpen. He would start affecting teams as early as the fifth inning, because they knew he was out there. I've never seen anyone who could affect a game like that." Gossage said that Rivera "might be the greatest closer of all-time" but suggested that the modern closer's job has become too specialized and easy compared to multiple-inning "firemen" from Gossage's era; Rivera had only one regular season save of seven-plus outs in his career, whereas Gossage logged 53. In 2019, The Athletic ranked Rivera 91st on its list of the greatest baseball players, and in 2022, ESPN.com ranked him the 31st-greatest MLB player.
Rivera is well respected throughout baseball for his professionalism. Fellow closer Joe Nathan said: "I look up to how he's handled himself on and off the field... You never see him show up anyone and he respects the game. I've always looked up to him and it's always a compliment to be just mentioned in the same sentence as him." Michael Young said of Rivera: "I respect Mo more than anybody in the game. The guy goes out there, gets three outs and shakes [Jorge] Posada's hand. You appreciate someone who respects the game like he does, respects the people he plays with and against, and obviously his results speak for themselves." In a Sports Illustrated cover story about Rivera that was published in the final week of his career, Verducci said of the pitcher, "Few players in any sport have retired with more reverence from his peers." Rivera was the last MLB player to wear the uniform number 42 on a regular basis; at the time of his retirement, he was the only active player still grandfathered by the league to wear Jackie Robinson's retired number. Speaking about Rivera's connection to her husband, Robinson's widow Rachel said: "[Rivera] carried himself with dignity and grace, and that made carrying the number a tribute to Jack... I've always been proud and pleased that Mariano was the one chosen to wear that number because I think he brought something special to it." Presenting him with the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award, Selig said: "Throughout his illustrious career, he has represented his family, his country, the Yankees and all of Major League Baseball with the utmost class and dignity. It is wholly appropriate that Mariano was the last Major League player to wear Jackie Robinson's sacred number 42."
Rivera's cut fastball was a respected pitch among major-league players. Jim Thome called it "the single best pitch ever in the game". David Ortiz echoed his sentiment, saying: "[Rivera's] cutter was the single best pitch I've ever seen, but the really amazing thing is how he was able to do it for so many years. Are there guys now who have stuff as nasty as Mariano? Maybe for one year, two years. But nobody could maintain it like he did." In 2004, ESPN.com ranked his cutter as the best "out pitch" in baseball. Olney described his cut fastball as "the most dominant pitch of a generation". Several of Rivera's colleagues credit him with popularizing the cutter among major-league pitchers. Fellow closer Jason Isringhausen, who adopted the pitch later in his career, said: "I think he's been an influence on everybody that throws it. Everybody saw what [Rivera] could do, basically with one pitch. Nobody could throw it like he did, but now, you talk about the evolution of the cutter—just ask hitters about it and they tell you everybody's throwing one. And they hate it." Al Leiter, whose signature pitch was a cutter, echoed Isringhausen's sentiments: "Now, everybody throws it and Mo has had a huge influence on that. Pitchers watched him and marveled at what he did with one pitch." During the 2008 All-Star break, Roy Halladay consulted Rivera for help with his own cutter and traced the reliever's suggested grip onto a baseball as a visual reference; Rivera's willingness to help an opponent drew a playful fine from his teammates in the Yankees' kangaroo court.
## Personal life
Rivera and his wife Clara have known each other since elementary school, and they were married on November 9, 1991. They have three sons: Mariano III, Jafet, and Jaziel. The family lived in Panama until 2000, when they relocated to Westchester County, New York. In 2006, the Riveras purchased a 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m<sup>2</sup>) home in Rye, New York, for \$5.7 million. They listed it for sale for \$3.995 million in 2020 and planned to move to a newly built house in White Plains. The couple also sold a lakefront home in Tampa, Florida, for \$3.2 million in December 2019.
Mariano III pitched for Iona College in New Rochelle, not far from his home. He was drafted by the Yankees with the 872nd pick in the 2014 MLB draft, but decided to return to Iona for his junior year. In the following year's draft, Mariano III was selected by the Washington Nationals in the fourth round with the 134th overall pick.
Over the course of his professional career, Rivera learned English, beginning in 1991 with the Greensboro Hornets, when he realized none of his teammates spoke his native Spanish. He is now a proponent of Latino players learning English and of American press members learning Spanish to bridge the cultural gap. He encouraged immigrants to the United States to make learning English their top priority. Rivera became a naturalized citizen of the United States in October 2015 and was recognized as an Outstanding American by Choice during the ceremony.
In February 2019, a Panamanian woman accused Rivera of failing to financially support her two children, a boy and a girl then aged 11 and 15, that Rivera had allegedly fathered out of wedlock. Five lawsuits were filed in his native country, demanding child support that he allegedly stopped paying two years earlier. He called the demands "unfounded".
### Religion and philanthropy
Rivera is a devout Christian. During his childhood, neither he nor his family attended church, but after a born-again experience around the age of 21, Rivera became religious and converted from Catholicism to a Pentecostal faith. His parents followed his lead after seeing the difference it made in him. Rivera believes that God has a reason for everything that happens. For example, he found his failure in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series easier to deal with when he learned of the consequences it had for teammate Enrique Wilson. Had the Yankees won the series, Wilson would have remained in New York for the championship parade and would have departed for his native Dominican Republic on American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed shortly after takeoff and killed all 260 people aboard. Rivera told Wilson, "I am glad we lost the World Series, because it means that I still have a friend." Rivera's pitching glove was inscribed "Phil. 4:13", in reference to the Bible verse Philippians 4:13 ("I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me").
Rivera is involved with philanthropic efforts in several countries. The Mariano Rivera Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization established in July 1998, helps provide underprivileged children with an education, distributing more than \$500,000 annually in the US and Rivera's native Panama through church-based institutions. His contributions in Panama include building an elementary school, providing Christmas gifts to children, and developing a program that provides computer access and adult mentors to youths. In addition to funding church start-ups in Panama, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, California, and Florida, Rivera opened a church in New Rochelle in March 2014 that his foundation renovated at a cost of \$3 million. The church, named Refugio de Esperanza ("Refuge of Hope"), has his wife Clara as its pastor and hosts a Pentecostal congregation that previously met at the Rivera home.
For years, the Mariano Rivera Foundation was a private institution, but during his final baseball season in 2013, many teams wanted to commemorate the pitcher by donating to his foundation. As a result, he formed a public version of it; Naomi Gandia was appointed its executive director, working from its headquarters in Stanton, Delaware. Since retiring from baseball, Rivera has dedicated himself to philanthropy and his churches. In 2014, he and Clara created a scholarship in their names that they have awarded to students at the local College of New Rochelle. Recently, Rivera has organized an annual charity golf tournament that benefits White Plains Hospital and his foundation. He also holds multiple events annually in Delaware, including giveaways of backpacks with school supplies to children, distribution of turkey dinners during the holiday season, and the "Mariano Rivera Foundation 5K & Kids Run". In 2021, his foundation launched the Mariano Rivera Mentorship Program, a faith-based initiative aimed at serving underprivileged males in Gainesville, Florida; New Rochelle; and Houston.
In 2012, the Giving Back Fund estimated that Rivera donated \$627,500 to charity in 2010, ranking him as the 25th-most generous celebrity on a list that the fund compiled. He won the 2013 Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award, which is given to the MLB player "who inspires others through his on-field performances and contributions to his community".
### Business interests and endorsements
Rivera was an investor in two New York area restaurants: "Clubhouse Grill", which opened in New Rochelle in 2006 as "Mo's New York Grill"; and Siro's, which opened in Manhattan in 2012. Both restaurants have since closed. In 2015, he opened a Toyota and Scion car dealership in Mount Kisco, New York, and in 2022, he opened a Honda dealership in Port Jefferson Station, New York. Rivera has been a celebrity spokesman for several companies, including: Nike sports apparel; Canali, a premium men's clothing company, as their first athlete spokesperson; the New York Acura Dealers; Skechers footwear; and The Hartford Financial Services Group. Rivera donated all his earnings from endorsement deals to his foundation. In June 2019, a partnership between Rivera and e-commerce website eBay was announced. According to eBay, the company created a collection of Rivera-centric sports memorabilia that included 42 game-used and personal items donated by him for auction to benefit his foundation.
A 2011 list by the marketing firm Nielsen ranked him as the second-most marketable player in baseball behind only Derek Jeter; the list accounted for personal attributes such as sincerity, approachability, experience, and influence. Based on sales figures from Majestic Athletic, Rivera had the 18th-best-selling MLB jersey in 2011, and the top-selling jersey in the second half of 2013. He earned approximately \$169.6 million in salary during his baseball career, ten percent of which he donated to his foundation. After baseball, Rivera joined the Washington Speakers Bureau in July 2019 as a paid public speaker.
### Politics
Rivera is a supporter of Israel as a Jewish state. In 2013, the New York Board of Rabbis (NYBR) named him their "Man of the Year". The organization helped facilitate trips to Israel in 2015 and 2018 in which Rivera participated. The latter trip included a visit to Michve Alon, an Israel Defense Forces base, that was arranged by Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. Rivera attended the Christians United for Israel conference in July 2019.
Rivera served on the Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission formed by US President Donald Trump in March 2017. The following May, Rivera was nominated to co-chair the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. He was appointed to a second two-year term on the council in December 2020. He was removed from the co-chair position in April 2022, but continued to serve as member of the council.
In August 2018, he co-hosted a fundraiser dinner for the America First Action PAC with Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle. In response to a Daily Beast article that labeled his politics "far-right", Rivera defended himself and affirmed his support for President Trump, saying: "I respect him, I respect what he does. I believe that he's doing the best for the United States of America." Rivera said that their friendship predated Trump's presidency and that he would not "turn [his] back on [Trump]".
## Honors and recognition
In March 2014, Rivera was twice recognized for his philanthropic efforts, receiving the ROBIE Humanitarian Award from the Jackie Robinson Foundation, as well as a Jefferson Award for Public Service. Later that month, the "Legends Series", comprising two MLB exhibition games between the Yankees and Miami Marlins, was played in Rivera's native Panama to "honor [his] legacy". He helped promote the games, which were accompanied by charitable events and a gala benefiting his foundation.
On April 9, 2014, MLB announced that a new annual award for relief pitchers, the Reliever of the Year Award, would replace the existing Delivery Man of the Year Award, and that the AL honor would be named after Rivera. The following month, a section of River Avenue bordering Yankee Stadium at 161st Street was renamed "Rivera Avenue" in the pitcher's honor. This coincided with the release of his autobiography, The Closer: My Story, co-authored with Wayne Coffey. New York University bestowed an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree upon Rivera during its commencement ceremony at Yankee Stadium on May 21, 2014. During the 2015 Little League World Series, he was inducted into the Little League Hall of Excellence. The Yankees dedicated a plaque to Rivera in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park on August 14, 2016.
Rivera was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on January 22, 2019, in his first year of eligibility. He became the first player in history to be elected unanimously by the BBWAA, appearing on all 425 ballots; the previous record for election percentage was held by Ken Griffey Jr., who received 99.3% of votes in 2016. Rivera was the second Panamanian player to be elected to the Hall of Fame after Rod Carew, and the eighth relief pitcher. He was officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 21, 2019, in Cooperstown, New York. The ceremony was attended by 55,000 people, the second-largest crowd for a Hall of Fame induction. Among those in attendance were Panamanian president Laurentino Cortizo and Rivera's former teammates, including Bernie Williams, who performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" on guitar. Rivera's speech concluded the ceremony and lasted nearly 25 minutes, four of which he spoke in Spanish.
Leading up to and following his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Rivera was recognized by several institutions. The New York Racing Association hosted him at Saratoga Race Course as their guest of honor on July 12, 2019, and held a fundraising luncheon to benefit his foundation. At John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Gate 42B at Terminal 4 was renamed for Rivera in a ceremony with Delta Air Lines, which also placed a sticker bearing his signature and uniform number on one of their airplanes. On July 27, the City of New Rochelle held a parade in his honor and awarded him a key to the city. The Yankees held a pregame celebration for him at Yankee Stadium on August 17 and made a \$250,000 donation to his foundation. On September 16, 2019, President Trump, a long-time Yankees fan, presented Rivera with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award that can be bestowed upon a person by the United States government. A statement on whitehouse.gov said: "Off the field, through the Mariano Rivera Foundation, he has helped provide children in need with an education, empowering them to achieve a better future. The United States proudly honors Mariano Rivera for being a legend of the game of baseball and for his commitment to strengthening America's communities."
## Baseball accomplishments
### Awards and honors
### Records
## See also
- List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise
|
1,412,390 |
Alodia
| 1,172,517,883 |
Medieval Nubian Kingdom
|
[
"16th-century disestablishments in Africa",
"6th-century establishments in Africa",
"Christianity in Sudan",
"Christianity in the Middle Ages",
"Coptic Orthodox Church",
"Countries in ancient Africa",
"Countries in medieval Africa",
"Former countries",
"Former monarchies of Africa",
"History of Nubia",
"History of Sudan",
"Medieval Islamic world",
"Nubia",
"Sahelian kingdoms",
"Spread of Islam",
"States and territories disestablished in the 15th century",
"States and territories established in the 6th century"
] |
<table class="infobox ib-country vcard">
Nubian
Meroitic(Possibly still spoken)
Greek (liturgical) Others
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Alodia, also known as Alwa (Greek: Aρουα, Aroua; Arabic: علوة, ʿAlwa), was a medieval kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba, located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers.
Founded sometime after the ancient Kingdom of Kush fell, around 350 AD, Alodia is first mentioned in historical records in 569. It was the last of the three Nubian kingdoms to convert to Christianity in 580, following Nobadia and Makuria. It possibly reached its peak during the 9th–12th centuries when records show that it exceeded its northern neighbor, Makuria, with which it maintained close dynastic ties, in size, military power and economic prosperity. Being a large, multicultural state, Alodia was administered by a powerful king and provincial governors appointed by him. The capital Soba, described as a town of "extensive dwellings and churches full of gold and gardens", prospered as a trading hub. Goods arrived from Makuria, the Middle East, western Africa, India and even China. Literacy in both Nubian and Greek flourished.
From the 12th, and especially the 13th century, Alodia was declining, possibly because of invasions from the south, droughts and a shift of trade routes. In the 14th century, the country might have been ravaged by the plague, while Arab tribes began to migrate into the Upper Nile valley. By around 1500 Soba had fallen to either Arabs or the Funj. This likely marked the end of Alodia, although some Sudanese oral traditions claimed that it survived in the form of the Kingdom of Fazughli within the Ethiopian–Sudanese borderlands. After the destruction of Soba, the Funj established the Sultanate of Sennar, ushering in a period of Islamization and Arabization.
## Geography
Alodia was located in Nubia, a region which, in the middle ages, extended from Aswan in southern Egypt to an undetermined point south of the confluence of the White and Blue Nile rivers. The heartland of the kingdom was the Gezira, a fertile plain bounded by the White Nile in the west and the Blue Nile in the east. In contrast to the White Nile Valley, the Blue Nile Valley is rich in known Alodian archaeological sites, among them Soba. The extent of the Alodian influence to the south is unclear, although it is likely that it bordered the Ethiopian highlands. The southernmost known Alodian sites are in the proximity of Sennar.
To the west of the White Nile, Ibn Hawqal differentiated between Al-Jeblien, which was controlled by Makuria and probably corresponded with northern Kordofan, and the Alodian-controlled Al-Ahdin, which has been identified with the Nuba Mountains, and perhaps extended as far south as Jebel al Liri, near the modern border to South Sudan. Nubian connections with Darfur have been suggested, but evidence is lacking.
The northern region of Alodia probably extended from the confluence of the two Niles downstream to Abu Hamad near Mograt Island. Abu Hamad likely constituted the northernmost outpost of the Alodian province known as al-Abwab ("the gates"), although some scholars also suggest a more southerly location, nearer the Atbara River. No evidence for a major Alodian settlement has been discovered north of the confluence of the two Niles, although several forts have been recorded there.
Lying between the Nile and the Atbara was the Butana, grassland suitable for livestock. Along the Atbara and the adjacent Gash Delta (near Kassala) many Christian sites have been noted. According to Ibn Hawqal, a vassal king loyal to Alodia governed the region around the Gash Delta. In fact, much of the Sudanese-Ethiopian-Eritrean borderlands, once under control of the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum, appear to have been under Alodian influence. The accounts of both Ibn Hawqal and al-Aswani suggest that Alodia also controlled the desert along the Red Sea coast.
## History
### Origins
The name Alodia might be of considerable antiquity, perhaps appearing first as Alut on a Kushite stela from the late 4th century BC. It appeared again as Alwa on a list of Kushite towns by the Roman author Pliny the Elder (1st century AD), said to be located south of Meroë. Another town named Alwa is mentioned in a 4th-century Aksumite inscription, this time located near the confluence of the Nile and the Atbara rivers.
By the early 4th century the Kingdom of Kush, which used to control much of Sudan's riverbanks, was in decline, and Nubians (speakers of Nubian languages) began to settle in the Nile Valley. They originally lived west of the Nile, but changes in the climate forced them eastward, resulting in conflicts with Kush from at least the 1st-century BC. In the mid-4th century the Nubians occupied most of the area once controlled by Kush, while it was limited to the northern reaches of the Butana. An Aksumite inscription mentions how the warlike Nubians also threatened the borders of the Aksumite kingdom north of the Tekeze River, resulting in an Aksumite expedition. It describes a Nubian defeat by Aksumite forces and a subsequent march to the confluence of the Nile and Atbara. There the Aksumites plundered several Kushite towns, including Alwa.
Archaeological evidence suggests the Kingdom of Kush ceased to exist in the middle of the 4th century. It is not known whether the Aksumite expeditions played a direct role in its fall. It seems likely that the Aksumite presence in Nubia was short-lived. Eventually, the region saw the development of regional centers whose ruling elites were buried in large tumuli. Such tumuli, within what would become Alodia, are known from El-Hobagi, Jebel Qisi and perhaps Jebel Aulia. The excavated tumuli of El-Hobagi are known to date to the late 4th century, and contained an assortment of weaponry imitating Kushite royal funerary rituals. Meanwhile, many Kushite temples and settlements, including the former capital Meroë, seem to have been largely abandoned. The Kushites themselves were absorbed into the Nubians and their language was replaced by Nubian.
How the Kingdom of Alodia came into being is unknown. Its formation was completed by the mid-6th century, when it is said to have existed alongside the other Nubian kingdoms of Nobadia and Makuria in the north. Soba, which by the 6th century had developed into a major urban center, served as its capital. In 569 the Kingdom of Alodia was mentioned for the first time, being described by John of Ephesus as a kingdom on the cusp of Christianization. Independently of John of Ephesus, the kingdom's existence is also verified by a late 6th century Greek document from Byzantine Egypt, describing the sale of an Alodian slave girl.
### Christianization and peak
John of Ephesus' account describes the events around the Christianization of Alodia in detail. As the southernmost of the three Nubian kingdoms, Alodia was the last to be converted to Christianity. According to John, the Alodian King was aware of the conversion of Nobadia in 543 and asked him to send a bishop who would also baptize his people. The request was granted in 580 and Longinus was sent, leading to the baptism of the King, his family and the local nobility. Thus, Alodia became a part of the Christian world under the Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria. After conversion, several pagan temples, such as the one in Musawwarat es-Sufra, were probably converted into churches. The extent and speed with which Christianity spread among the Alodian populace is uncertain. Despite the conversion of the nobility, it is likely that Christianization of the rural population progressed only slowly, if at all. John of Ephesus' report also implies tensions between Alodia and Makuria. Several forts north of the confluence of the two Niles have recently been dated to this period. However, their occupation did not exceed the 7th century, suggesting that the Makurian-Alodian conflict was soon resolved.
Between 639 and 641, Muslim Arabs conquered Egypt from the Byzantine Empire. Makuria, which by this time had been unified with Nobadia, fended off two subsequent Muslim invasions, one in 641/642 and another in 652. In the aftermath, Makuria and the Arabs agreed to sign the Baqt, a peace treaty that included a yearly exchange of gifts and socioeconomic regulations between Arabs and Nubians. Alodia was explicitly mentioned in the treaty as not being affected by it. While the Arabs failed to conquer Nubia, they began to settle along the western coast of the Red Sea. They founded the port towns of Aydhab and Badi in the 7th century and Suakin, first mentioned in the 10th century. From the 9th century, they pushed further inland, settling among the Beja throughout the Eastern Desert. Arab influence would remain confined to the east of the Nile until the 14th century.
Based on the archaeological evidence it has been suggested that Alodia's capital Soba underwent its peak development between the 9th and 12th centuries. In the 9th century, Alodia was, albeit briefly, described for the first time by the Arab historian al-Yaqubi. In his short account, Alodia is said to be the stronger of the two Nubian kingdoms, being a country requiring a three-month journey to cross. He also recorded that Muslims would occasionally travel there.
A century later, in the mid-10th century, Alodia was visited by traveler and historian Ibn Hawqal, resulting in the most comprehensive known account of the kingdom. He described the geography and people of Alodia in considerable detail, giving the impression of a large, polyethnic state. He also noted its prosperity, having an "uninterrupted chain of villages and a continuous strip of cultivated lands". When Ibn Hawqal arrived, the ruling king was named Eusebius, who was, upon his death, succeeded by his nephew Stephanos. Another Alodian king from this period was David, who is known from a tombstone in Soba. His rule was initially dated to 999–1015, but based on paleographical grounds it is now dated more broadly, to the 9th or 10th centuries.
Ibn Hawqal's report describing Alodia's geography was largely confirmed by al-Aswani, a Fatimid ambassador sent to Makuria, who went on to travel to Alodia. In a similar manner to al-Yaqubi's description of 100 years before, Alodia was noted as being more powerful than Makuria, more extensive and having a larger army. The capital Soba was a prosperous town with "fine buildings, and extensive dwellings and churches full of gold and gardens", while also having a large Muslim quarter.
Abu al-Makarim (12th century) was the last historian to refer to Alodia in detail. It was still described as a large, Christian kingdom housing around 400 churches. A particularly large and finely constructed one was said to be located in Soba, called the "Church of Manbali". Two Alodian kings, Basil and Paul, are mentioned in 12th century Arabic letters from Qasr Ibrim.
There is evidence that at certain periods there were close relations between the Alodian and the Makurian royal families. It is possible that the throne frequently passed to a king whose father was of the royal family of the other state. Nubiologist Włodzimierz Godlewski states that it was under the Makurian king Merkurios (early 8th century) that the two kingdoms began to approach each other. In 943 al Masudi wrote that the Makurian king ruled over Alodia, while Ibn Hawqal wrote that it was the other way around. The 11th century saw the appearance of a new royal crown in Makurian art; it has been suggested that this derived from the Alodian court. King Mouses Georgios, who is known to have ruled in Makuria in the second half of the 12th century, most likely ruled both kingdoms via a personal union. Considering that in his royal title ("king of the Arouades and Makuritai") Alodia is mentioned before Makuria, he might have initially been an Alodian king.
### Decline
Archaeological evidence from Soba suggests a decline of the town, and therefore possibly the Alodian kingdom, from the 12th century. By c. 1300 the decline of Alodia was well advanced. No pottery or glassware postdating the 13th century has been identified at Soba. Two churches were apparently destroyed during the 13th century, although they were rebuilt shortly afterwards. It has been suggested that Alodia was under attack by an African, possibly Nilotic, people called Damadim who originated from the border region of modern Sudan and South Sudan, along the Bahr el Ghazal River. According to geographer Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, they attacked Nubia in 1220. Soba may have been conquered at this time, suffering occupation and destruction. In the late 13th century, another invasion by an unspecified people from the south occurred. In the same period poet al-Harrani wrote that Alodia's capital was now called Waylula, described as "very large" and "built on the west bank of the Nile". In the early 14th century geographer Shamsaddin al-Dimashqi wrote that the capital was a place named Kusha, located far from the Nile, where water had to be obtained from wells. The contemporary Italian-Mallorcan Dulcert map features both Alodia ("Coale") and Soba ("Sobaa").
Economic factors also seem to have played a part in Alodia's decline. From the 10th to 12th centuries the East African coast saw the rise of new trading cities such as Kilwa. These were direct mercantile competitors since they exported similar goods to Nubia. A period of severe droughts occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa between 1150 and 1500 would have affected the Nubian economy as well. Archeobotanical evidence from Soba suggests the town suffered from overgrazing and overcultivation.
By 1276 al-Abwab, previously described as the northernmost Alodian province, was recorded as an independent splinter kingdom ruling over vast territories. The precise circumstances of its secession and its relations with Alodia thereafter remain unknown. Based on pottery finds it has been suggested that al-Abwab continued to thrive until the 15th and perhaps even the 16th century. In 1286 a Mamluke prince sent messengers to several rulers in central Sudan. It is not clear if they were still subject to the king in Soba or if they were independent, implying a fragmentation of Alodia into multiple petty states by the late 13th century. In 1317 a Mamluk expedition pursued Arab brigands as far south as Kassala in Taka (one of the regions which received a Mamluk messenger in 1286), marching through al-Abwab and Makuria on their return.
During the 14th and 15th centuries much of what is now Sudan was overrun by Arab tribes and briefly conquered by the Adal Sultanate. They perhaps profited from the plague which might have ravaged Nubia in the mid-14th century killing many sedentary Nubians, but not affecting the nomadic Arabs. They would have then intermixed with the remaining local population, gradually taking control over land and people, greatly benefiting from their large population in spreading their culture. The first recorded Arab migration to Nubia dates to 1324. It was the disintegration of Makuria in the late 14th century that, according to archaeologist William Y. Adams, caused the "flood gates" to "burst wide open". Many, initially coming from Egypt, followed the course of the Nile until they reached Al Dabbah. Here they headed west to migrate along the Wadi Al-Malik to reach Darfur or Kordofan. Alodia, in particular the Butana and the Gezira, was the target of those Arabs who had lived among the Beja in the Eastern Desert for centuries.
Initially, the kingdom was able to exercise authority over some of the newly arrived Arab groups, forcing them to pay tribute. The situation grew increasingly precarious as more Arabs arrived. By the second half of the 15th century, Arabs had settled in the entire central Sudanese Nile valley, except for the area around Soba, which was all that was left of Alodia's domain. In 1474 it was recorded that Arabs founded the town of Arbaji on the Blue Nile, which would quickly develop into an important centre of commerce and Islamic learning. In around 1500 the Nubians were recorded to be in a state of total political fragmentation, as they had no king, but 150 independent lordships centered around castles on both sides of the Nile. Archaeology attests that Soba was largely ruined by this time.
### Fall
It is unclear if the Kingdom of Alodia was destroyed by the Arabs under Abdallah Jammah or by the Funj, an African group from the south led by their king Amara Dunqas. Most modern scholars agree now that it fell due to the Arabs.
Abdallah Jammah ("Abdallah the gatherer"), the eponymous ancestor of the Sudanese Abdallab tribe, was a Rufa'a Arab who, according to Sudanese traditions, settled in the Nile Valley after coming from the east. He consolidated his power and established his capital at Qerri, just north of the confluence of the two Niles. In the late 15th century he gathered the Arab tribes to act against the Alodian "tyranny", as it is called, which has been interpreted as having a religious-economic motive. The Muslim Arabs no longer accepted the rule of, nor taxation by, a Christian ruler. Under Abdallah's leadership Alodia and its capital Soba were destroyed, resulting in rich booty such as a "bejeweled crown" and a "famous necklace of pearls and rubies".
According to another tradition recorded in old documents from Shendi, Soba was destroyed by Abdallah Jammah in 1509 having already been attacked in 1474. The idea of uniting the Arabs against Alodia is said to have already been on the mind of an emir who lived between 1439 and 1459. To this end, he migrated from Bara in Kordofan to a mountain near Ed Dueim on the White Nile. Under his grandson, called Emir Humaydan, the White Nile was crossed. There he met other Arab tribes and attacked Alodia. The king of Alodia was killed, but the "patriarch", probably the archbishop of Soba, managed to flee. He soon returned to Soba. A puppet king was crowned and an army of Nubians, Beja and Abyssinians was assembled to fight "for the sake of religion". Meanwhile, the Arab alliance was about to fracture, but Abdallah Jammah reunited them, while also allying with the Funj king Amara Dunqas. Together they finally defeated and killed the patriarch, razing Soba afterwards and enslaving its population.
The Funj Chronicle, a multi-authored history of the Funj Sultanate compiled in the 19th century, ascribes the destruction of Alodia to King Amara Dunqas; he was also allied with Abdallah Jammah. This attack is dated to the 9th century after the Hijra (c. 1396–1494). Afterwards, Soba is said to have served as the capital of the Funj until the foundation of Sennar in 1504. The Tabaqat Dayfallah, a history of Sufism in Sudan (c. 1700), briefly mentions that the Funj attacked and defeated the "kingdom of the Nuba" in 1504–1505.
### Legacy
Historian Jay Spaulding proposes that the fall of Soba was not necessarily the end of Alodia. According to the Jewish traveler David Reubeni, who visited the country in 1523, there was still a "Kingdom of Soba" on the eastern bank of the Blue Nile, although he explicitly noted Soba itself was in ruins. This matches the oral traditions from the Upper Blue Nile, which claim that Alodia survived Soba's fall and still existed along the Blue Nile. It had gradually retreated to the mountains of Fazughli in the Ethiopian-Sudanese borderlands, forming the Kingdom of Fazughli. Recent excavations in western Ethiopia seem to confirm the theory of an Alodian migration. The Funj eventually conquered Fazughli in 1685 and its population, known as Hamaj, became a fundamental part of Sennar, eventually seizing power in 1761–1762. As recently as 1930 Hamaj villagers in the southern Gezira would swear by "Soba the home of my grandfathers and grandmothers which can make the stone float and the cotton ball sink".
In 1504–1505 the Funj founded the Funj sultanate, incorporating Abdallah Jammah's domain, which, according to some traditions, happened after a battle where Amara Dunqas defeated him. The Funj maintained some medieval Nubian customs like the wearing of crowns with features resembling bovine horns, called taqiya umm qarnein, the shaving of the head of a king upon his coronation, and, according to Jay Spaulding, the custom of raising princes separately from their mothers, under strict confinement.
The aftermath of Alodia's fall saw extensive Arabization, with the Nubians embracing the tribal system of the Arab migrants. Those living along the Nile between al Dabbah in the north and the confluence of the two Niles in the south were subsumed into the Ja'alin tribe. To the east, west and south of the Ja'alin the country was now dominated by tribes claiming a Juhaynah ancestry. In the area around Soba, the tribal Abdallab identity prevailed. The Nubian language was spoken in central Sudan until the 19th century, when it was replaced by Arabic. Sudanese Arabic preserves many words of Nubian origin, and Nubian place names can be found as far south as the Blue Nile state.
The fate of Christianity in the region remains largely unknown. The church institutions would have collapsed together with the fall of the kingdom, resulting in the decline of the Christian faith and the rise of Islam in its stead. Islamized groups from northern Nubia began to proselytize the Gezira. As early as 1523 King Amara Dunqas, who was initially a Pagan or nominal Christian, was recorded to be Muslim. Nevertheless, in the 16th century large portions of the Nubians still regarded themselves as Christians. A traveler who visited Nubia around 1500 confirms this, while also saying that the Nubians were so lacking in Christian instruction they had no knowledge of the faith. In 1520 Nubian ambassadors reached Ethiopia and petitioned the Emperor for priests. They claimed that no more priests could reach Nubia because of the wars between Muslims, leading to a decline of Christianity in their land. In the first half of the 17th century, a prophecy made by the Sudanese Sheikh Idris Wad al-Arbab mentioned a church in the Nuba Mountains. As late as the early 1770s there was said to be a Christian princedom in the Ethiopian-Sudanese border area, called Shaira. Apotropaic rituals stemming from Christian practices outlived the conversion to Islam. As late as the 20th century several practices of undoubtedly Christian origin were "common, though of course not universal, in Omdurman, the Gezira and Kordofan", usually revolving around the application of crosses on humans and objects.
Soba, which remained inhabited until at least the early 17th century, served, among many other ruined Alodian sites, as a steady supply of bricks and stones for nearby Qubba shrines, dedicated to Sufi holy men. During the early 19th century many of the remaining bricks in Soba were plundered for the construction of Khartoum, the new capital of Turkish Sudan.
## Administration
While information about Alodia's government is sparse, it was likely similar to that of Makuria. The head of state was the king who, according to al-Aswani, reigned as an absolute monarch. He was recorded to be able to enslave any of his subjects at will, who would not oppose his decision, but prostrated themselves before him. As in Makuria, succession to the Alodian throne was matrilineal: it was the son of the king's sister, not his son who succeeded to the throne. There might be evidence a mobile royal encampment existed, although the translation of the original source, Abu al-Makarim, is not certain. Similar mobile courts are known to have existed in the early Funj sultanate, Ethiopia and Darfur.
The kingdom was divided into several provinces under the sovereignty of Soba. It seems delegates of the king governed these provinces. Al-Aswani stated that the governor of the northern al-Abwab province was appointed by the king. This was similar to what Ibn Hawqal recorded for the Gash Delta region, which was ruled by an appointed Arabophone (Arabic speaker). In 1286, Mamluk emissaries were sent to several rulers in central Sudan. It is unclear whether those rulers were actually independent, or if they remained subordinate to the king of Alodia. If the latter was the case, this would provide an understanding of the kingdom's territorial organization. The "Sahib" of al-Abwab seems certain to have been independent. Apart from al-Abwab, the following regions are mentioned: Al-Anag (possibly Fazughli); Ari; Barah; Befal; Danfou; Kedru (possibly after Kadero, a village north of Khartoum); Kersa (the Gezira); and Taka (the region around the Gash Delta).
State and church were intertwined in Alodia, with the Alodian kings probably serving as its patrons. Coptic documents observed by Johann Michael Vansleb during the later 17th century list the following bishoprics in the Alodian kingdom: Arodias, Borra, Gagara, Martin, Banazi, and Menkesa. "Arodias" may refer to the bishopric in Soba. The bishops were dependent on the patriarch of Alexandria.
Alodia may have had a standing army, in which cavalry likely projected force and symbolized royal authority deep into the provinces. Because of their speed, horses were also important for communication, providing a rapid courier service between the capital and the provinces. Aside from horses, boats also played a central role in transportation infrastructure.
## Culture
### Languages
While Alodia was polyethnic, and hence polylingual, it was essentially a Nubian state whose majority spoke a Nubian language. Based on a few inscriptions found in Alodian territory it has been suggested that the Alodians spoke a dialect distinct from Old Nobiin of northern Nubia, dubbed as Alwan-Nubian''. This assumption rests primarily on the script used in these inscriptions, which, while also being based on the Greek alphabet, differs from that employed in Makuria by making no use of Coptic diacritics and instead having special characters based on Meroitic hieroglyphs. However, ultimately the classification of this language and its relationship to Old Nobiin has yet to be specified. In the 1830s it was said a Nubian language was still being spoken as far south as Berber near the junction of the Nile and the Atbara. It was supposedly similar to Kenzi but with many differences.
Although Greek, a prestigious sacral language, was used, it does not appear to have been spoken. An example of the use of Greek in Alodia is the tombstone of King David from Soba, where it is written with quite correct grammar. Al-Aswani noted that books were written in Greek and then translated into Nubian. The Christian liturgy was also in Greek. Coptic was probably used to communicate with the Patriarch of Alexandria, but written Coptic remains are very sparse.
Apart from Nubian, a multitude of languages were spoken throughout the kingdom. In the Nuba mountains several Kordofanian languages occurred together with Hill Nubian dialects. Upstream along the Blue Nile Eastern Sudanic languages like Berta or Gumuz were spoken. In the eastern territories lived the Beja, who spoke their own Cushitic language, as did the Semitic Arabs and the Tigre.
## Economy
### Agriculture
Alodia was in the savannah belt, giving it an economic advantage over its northern neighbor Makuria. According to al-Aswani the "provisions of the country of Alwa and their king" came from Kersa, which has been identified with the Gezira. North of the confluence of the two Niles agriculture was limited to farms along the river watered by devices like the shadoof or the more sophisticated sakia. In contrast, the farmers of the Gezira profited from sufficient rainfall to make rainfall cultivation the economic mainstay. Archaeological records have provided insight into the types of food grown and consumed in Alodia. At Soba, the primary cereal was sorghum, although barley and millet were also known to be consumed. Al-Aswani noted that sorghum was used to make beer and said that vineyards were quite rare in Alodia compared to Makuria. There is archaeological evidence of grapes. According to al-Idrisi, onions, horseradish, cucumbers, watermelons and rapeseed were also cultivated, but none were found at Soba. Instead, figs, acacia fruits, doum palm fruits and dates have been identified.
Sedentary farmers formed one part of Alodia's agriculture, the other consisted of nomads practicing animal husbandry. The relationship between these two groups was symbiotic, resulting in an exchange of goods. Al-Aswani wrote that beef was plentiful in Alodia, which he attributed to the bountiful grazing land. Archaeological evidence from Soba attests to the relevance cattle had there, as most animal bones are attributed to that species, followed by those of sheep and goats. Chickens were probably also bred at Soba, although available archaeological proof is very limited, probably due to the fragile nature of bird bones. No remains of pigs have been identified. Camel remains have been noted, but none bore signs of butchery. Fishing and hunting made only minor contributions to the overall diet of Soba.
### Trade
Trade was an important source of income for the people of Alodia. Soba served as a trading hub with north-south and east-west trade routes; goods arrived in the kingdom from Makuria, the Middle East, western Africa, India and China. Trade with Makuria probably ran through the Bayuda Desert, following Wadi Abu Dom or Wadi Muqaddam, while another route went from near Abu Hamad to Korosko in Lower Nubia. A route going east originated around Berber near the confluence of the Nile and the Atbara, terminating in Badi, Suakin and Dahlak. Merchant Benjamin of Tudela mentions a route heading west, going from Alodia to Zuwila in Fezzan. Archaeological evidence for trade with Ethiopia is virtually absent, although trading relations are suggested by other evidence. Trading with the outside world was handled predominantly by Arab merchants. Muslim merchants were recorded as having traversed Nubia, some living in a district in Soba.
Exports from Alodia likely included raw materials such as gold, ivory, salt and other tropical products, as well as hides. According to an oral tradition Arab merchants came to Alodia to sell silk and textiles, receiving beads, elephant teeth and leather in return. At Soba silk and flax have been found, both probably originating from Egypt. Most of the glass found there was also imported. Benjamin of Tudela claimed merchants traveling from Alodia to Zuwila carried hides, wheat, fruits, legumes and salt, while carrying gold and precious stones on their return. Slaves are commonly assumed to have been exported by medieval Nubia. Adams postulates that Alodia was a specialized slave-trading state that exploited the pagan populations to the west and south. Evidence for a regulated slave trade is very limited. It is only from the 16th century, after the fall of the Christian kingdoms, that such evidence begins to appear.
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The Boat Race 2021
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Cambridge University vs Oxford University rowing race
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[
"2020s in Cambridgeshire",
"2021 in English sport",
"2021 in English women's sport",
"2021 in rowing",
"April 2021 sports events in the United Kingdom",
"Ely, Cambridgeshire",
"River Great Ouse",
"The Boat Race",
"Women's Boat Race"
] |
The Boat Race 2021 was an event comprising two side-by-side rowing races that took place on 4 April 2021. The Boat Race is contested annually between crews from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Usually held on the traditional Championship Course in London, the 2021 race took place on the River Great Ouse near Ely, Cambridgeshire, between Queen Adelaide Bridge (hamlet of Queen Adelaide) and Sandhill Bridge (village of Littleport). This was the 75th women's race and the 166th men's race; the 2020 race was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Before the 2021 races, Cambridge led the longstanding rivalry 84–80 in the men's race and 44–30 in the women's.
The crews were announced on 25 March 2021. It was the first time in the history of the event that both the women's and men's races were officiated by female umpires, Judith Packer and Sarah Winckless respectively. Cambridge's women's crew were considered strong favourites to win their race. Oxford's women's crew took an early lead but Cambridge responded to win. Oxford's men were favourites to defeat Cambridge, but failed to do so: Cambridge won by just under one length. The reserve races took place three weeks later on 25 April 2021: Cambridge completed a clean sweep for a third consecutive year after Goldie won the men's and Blondie won the women's reserves race.
## Background
The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing competition between the University of Oxford (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues") and the University of Cambridge (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues"). First held in 1829, the race usually takes place on the 4.2 mi (6.8 km) Championship Course, between Putney and Mortlake on the River Thames in south-west London. The 2020 event was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. In 2021, the race was held behind closed doors along a section of the River Great Ouse near Ely, Cambridgeshire. The organisers noted that the move to Ely was not only due to COVID-19, but also safety concerns relating to Hammersmith Bridge which had been closed to pedestrians after cracks in the structure had worsened. It was the second time in the event's 191-year history that the race had taken place near Ely: the previous occasion was an unofficial wartime staging of the event in 1944, which Oxford's men won by three-quarters of a length. The 2021 course started at the stone marking the end of that wartime race, and proceeded along a 4,890 m (5,350 yd) course, from the Queen Adelaide Bridge towards Littleport. Only the main men's and women's races were scheduled to take place on the same day — the women's race around 3:50 p.m. and the men's an hour later. The reserves races took place three weeks after the main event, on 25 April 2021.
The rivalry is a major point of honour between the two universities; the race is followed throughout the United Kingdom and broadcast worldwide. Cambridge's men went into the race as champions, having won the 2019 race by a margin of one length, and led overall with 84 victories to Oxford's 80 (the 1877 race was a dead heat). Cambridge's women were also victorious in 2019, winning by five lengths, which took the overall record in the Women's Boat Race to 44–30 in their favour.
In May 2020, the University of Cambridge's three boat clubs, Cambridge University Boat Club, Cambridge University Women's Boat Club and Cambridge University Lightweight Rowing Club, agreed to merge into a single club under the Cambridge University Boat Club (CUBC) name, with Callum Sullivan as the Men's President and Sophie Paine the Women's President. Alex Bebb held the position of Oxford University Boat Club (OUBC) president for the race while Kaitlyn Dennis was the Oxford University Women's Boat Club (OUWBC) president. The 75th women's race was umpired by international rowing judge Judith Packer, while the 166th men's race was officiated by Olympic bronze medallist Sarah Winckless. Both had been selected for the cancelled 2020 event, and it was the first time in the history of the event that women oversaw both main races.
The main races were streamed live on YouTube. They were also broadcast on television channels in the United Kingdom (BBC One), Canada (TSN2), Israel (Sport 3), New Zealand (Sky Sport 9), Spain (Teledeporte) and throughout most of Africa (SuperSport).
## Coaches
Sean Bowden was the chief coach for OUBC, having been responsible for the senior men's crew since 1997, winning 12 from the last 18 races. He is a former Great Britain Olympic coach and coached the Light Blues in the 1993 and 1994 Boat Races. His assistant coach was Brendan Gliddon, a South African who formerly coached under-23 and FISU teams for both South Africa and Great Britain. Alex Bowmer was OUBC's physical therapist. The OUWBC chief coach was Andy Nelder, who previously worked with Bowden and OUBC for eleven years. He was assisted by James Powell.
The Cambridge men's crew coaching team was led by their chief coach, Rob Baker, who had previously coached Cambridge's women to victories in both the 2017 and 2018 races, and Cambridge's men to a win in 2019. Cambridge women's chief coach was Robert Weber, who joined Cambridge University before the 2019 race from Hamilton College in New York, where he was Head Rowing Coach and Associate Professor of Physical Education. CUBC's assistant coaches were Paddy Ryan, Katy Knowles, Nick Acock and Jordan Stanley.
## Trials
Each year before Christmas, each squad stages a race between two of their eights over the Boat Race distance called Trial VIIIs. Normally, these are held on the Championship Course. To minimise the risk of COVID-19 transmission, the trials took place on the Great Ouse behind closed doors and there was no pre-race social media or marketing. Cambridge trials took place on 17 December 2020 and Oxford's races were staged two days later. Because of restrictions imposed by the university, Oxford had been prevented from practising on the water until 11 December 2020. As a result of changes to the UK's COVID-19 tier system, neither Winckless nor Packer were able to travel to Ely and both of Oxford's trial races were umpired by Kath Finucane, the reserve race official.
### Women
The CUBC women's trial featured the boats Hakuna and Matata, named after the Swahili phrase which approximates to "no worries" used in The Lion King film. In fine conditions and umpired by Packer, Matata made the better start to lead by half a length at 500 m. At the inlet from the River Lark, Hakuna's cox, Dylan Whitaker, moved her boat into the middle of the river to take advantage of the faster flowing stream. Hakuna took the lead around the 3,000 m mark and pulled away to win in a time of 16 minutes 5 seconds, two lengths ahead of Matata.
OUWBC's trial boats were named after two of the pharmaceutical companies developing COVID-19 vaccines: Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Pfizer took an early lead and held an advantage of three-quarters of a length, but steering too close to their opponents, they clashed oars with AstraZeneca and were warned by Finucane. Five minutes into the race, Pfizer held a two-length lead and moved to the centre of the river. They extended their lead to three lengths before AstraZeneca reduced the deficit by half a length. As the crews passed the finishing line, Pfizer won by three lengths.
### Men
The CUBC men's trial boats were named Henry I and 10,000 Eels to reflect Henry I's annual order of lampreys from Ely. Officiated by Winckless, both crews started strongly with Henry I holding a half-length lead after 500 m. They extended their lead by a quarter of length by 750 m and their cox attempted to move across to the centre of the river, receiving multiple warnings from Winckless. 10,000 Eels held their line and pulled back to within half a length by 1,250 m and while both crews pushed for the final 500 m, Henry I crossed the finishing line in 14 minutes 4 seconds, one third of a length ahead.
The OUBC trial boats were named Track and Trace, after the NHS Test and Trace system designed to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Trace took an early lead in a race that was initially dominated by oar clashes. Track began to reduce the deficit as the crews passed the Lark, and following another clash, took the lead and held clear water advantage with 1,000 m to go, eventually beating Trace by two lengths.
## Crews
The crews for both senior boats were announced on 25 March 2021, on a Zoom call. The Cambridge women were considered strong favourites to win their race while Oxford's men were favoured to win.
### Women
### Men
## Races
Conditions on race day were reasonably clement with a temperature of 16 °C (61 °F) and clear skies with a westward crosswind.
### Women's
Cambridge won the toss and elected to start on the west side of the river. After a brief delay before both coxes indicated they were ready to start, the race commenced at 3:53 p.m. Early on Oxford were warned by Packer for encroaching into Cambridge's water and were instructed to steer away, and Cambridge took a slight lead. Both boats were close to one another and four minutes in, Oxford held a slight advantage, although Packer continued to warn the Dark Blue cox. After seven minutes, Oxford was around a third of a length ahead as Cambridge started a push, taking a lead with fourteen minutes of the race gone. The Light Blues held a length's lead a minute later and although Oxford remained in touch, Cambridge passed the finishing line first. It was Cambridge's fourth consecutive victory and took the overall record in the event to 45–30 in their favour.
### Men's
Oxford took the west side of the river. The men's race started at 4:53 p.m. with Oxford falling behind despite a slightly higher stroke rate than their opponents. Within two minutes, Cambridge was almost a length ahead but was warned several times by Winckless for encroachment. Four minutes in, she issued a warning to both crews of potential debris in the river ahead which both crews navigated without issue. Oxford then went for a push in the sixth minute but Cambridge remained in the lead, although down to half a length. At the ten-minute mark, Cambridge pushed before Oxford reciprocated two minutes later and, with less than 1,000 m (3,300 ft) remaining, the Dark Blues began to reduce the deficit. Cambridge passed the finishing line first, winning by almost one length. It was Cambridge's fourth victory in the last five races, and took the overall record in the event to 85–80 in their favour.
### Reaction
According to tradition, both winning coxes were thrown into the river, however this year they were followed by the victorious crews. Sarah Tisdall, Cambridge's stroke, was magnanimous in victory: "Awesome race, massive congrats to Oxford. That's the closest boat race the females have had." The Cambridge women's president Sophie Paine received the trophy and noted that "I think this is absolutely historic for women. So many of us have been training for this for two years now, and it means so much for us to have that pay off."
James Cracknell suggested that the Oxford men's cox should have "steered into those reeds and forced a restart". The bow for Cambridge men's boat, Theo Weinberger, suggested that he would "dream of this moment ... it's two years' worth of training and hard work ... there's anything you can quite compare it to." Cambridge's men's president Callum Sullivan described the season as "fantastically unique".
The winning margin in both races was less than one length, which was the narrowest in the men's race since 2003 and in the women's race since 2011.
### Reserves
Both reserves races were held along the same section of the River Great Ouse three weeks later, on 25 April 2021. CUBC's Blondie beat Oxford's Osiris in the 49th women's reserve boat race by seven lengths. In the 56th men's reserve race, CUBC's Goldie secured a six-length victory over OUBC's Isis. CUBC Women's spare pair won their race easily after the OUWBC spare pair capsized in rough water at Ely, OUBC won the men's spare pair race.
### Lightweights
The 2021 Lightweight Boat Races were also held at Ely. On 18 May 2021, CUBC Lightweight Women beat Oxford University Women's Lightweight Rowing Club by 2 1/2 lengths. In the Lightweight Men's Boat Race on 23 May 2021, OULRC beat CUBC Lightweight Men by 1 1/2 lengths, thus preventing a Cambridge clean sweep of all 6 boat races, last achieved in 2018.
|
420,993 |
SMS Dresden (1907)
| 1,168,994,724 |
Light cruiser of the German Imperial Navy
|
[
"1907 ships",
"1915 in Chile",
"Dresden-class cruisers",
"Scuttled vessels of Germany",
"Ships built in Hamburg",
"Shipwrecks in the Chilean Sea",
"World War I commerce raiders",
"World War I cruisers of Germany",
"World War I shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean"
] |
SMS Dresden ("His Majesty's Ship Dresden") was a German light cruiser built for the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). The lead ship of her class, she was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in 1906, launched in October 1907, and completed in November 1908. Her entrance into service was delayed by accidents during sea trials, including a collision with another vessel which necessitated major repairs. Like the preceding Königsberg-class cruisers upon which her design was based, Dresden was armed with ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns and two torpedo tubes.
Dresden spent much of her career overseas. After commissioning, she visited the United States in 1909 during the Hudson–Fulton Celebration, before returning to Germany to serve in the reconnaissance force of the High Seas Fleet for three years. In 1913, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Division. She was then sent to the Caribbean to protect German nationals during the Mexican Revolution. In mid-1914, she carried the former dictator Victoriano Huerta to Jamaica, where the British had granted him asylum. She was due to return to Germany in July 1914, but was prevented from doing so by the outbreak of World War I. At the onset of hostilities, Dresden operated as a commerce raider in South American waters in the Atlantic, then moved to the Pacific Ocean in September and joined Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron.
Dresden saw action in the Battle of Coronel in November, where she engaged the British cruiser HMS Glasgow, and at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December, where she was the only German warship to escape destruction. She eluded her British pursuers for several more months, until she put into Robinson Crusoe Island in March 1915. Her engines were worn out and she had almost no coal left for her boilers, so the ship's captain contacted the local Chilean authorities to have Dresden interned. She was trapped by British cruisers, including her old opponent Glasgow. The British violated Chilean neutrality and opened fire on the ship in the Battle of Más a Tierra. The Germans scuttled Dresden and the majority of the crew escaped to be interned in Chile for the duration of the war. The wreck remains in the harbor; several artifacts, including her bell and compass, have been returned to Germany.
## Design
The 1898 Naval Law authorized the construction of thirty new light cruisers; the program began with the Gazelle class, which was developed into the Bremen and Königsberg classes, both of which incorporated incremental improvements over the course of construction. The primary alteration for the two Dresden-class cruisers, assigned to the 1906 fiscal year, consisted of an additional boiler for the propulsion system to increase engine power.
Dresden was 118.3 meters (388 ft 1 in) long overall with a beam of 13.5 m (44 ft 3 in) and a draft of 5.53 m (18 ft 2 in) forward. She displaced 3,664 metric tons (3,606 long tons) as designed and up to 4,268 t (4,201 long tons) at full load. She had a crew of 18 officers and 343 enlisted men.
Her propulsion system consisted of two Parsons steam turbines, designed to give 14,794 shp (11,032 kW) for a top speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph). The engines were powered by twelve coal-fired water-tube boilers. Dresden carried up to 860 t (850 long tons) of coal, which gave her a range of 3,600 nautical miles (6,700 km; 4,100 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph).
The ship was armed with a main battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns in single mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, six were located amidships, three on either side, and two were placed side by side aft. The guns could engage targets out to 12,200 m (13,300 yd). They were supplied with 1,500 rounds of ammunition, for 150 shells per gun. The secondary battery comprised eight 5.2 cm (2 in) SK L/55 guns, with 4,000 rounds of ammunition. She was also equipped with two 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes with four torpedoes, mounted on the deck.
The ship was protected by an armored deck that was up to 80 mm (3.1 in) thick. The conning tower had 100 mm (3.9 in) thick sides, and the guns were protected by 50 mm (2 in) thick shields.
## Service history
Dresden was ordered under the contract name Ersatz Comet. She was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in 1906 and launched on 5 October 1907. The Oberbürgermeister of her namesake city, Otto Beutler, christened the ship. Fitting-out work then commenced, and Dresden was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 14 November 1908. Following her commissioning, Dresden began her sea trials. On 28 November she accidentally collided with and sank the Swedish galeas Cäcilie outside Kiel. Dresden's starboard propeller shaft was shoved in 30 mm (1.2 in), and she required six months of repair work. She resumed sea trials in 1909, but a turbine accident necessitated further repairs, which lasted until September.
Although Dresden had not completed the required testing, her trials were declared over on 7 September, as she had been ordered to visit the United States. The purpose of the voyage was to represent Germany at the Hudson–Fulton Celebration in New York; Dresden was joined by the protected cruisers Hertha and Victoria Louise and the light cruiser Bremen. Dresden left Wilhelmshaven on 11 September and stopped in Newport, where she met the rest of the ships of the squadron. The ships arrived in New York on 24 September, remained there until 9 October, and arrived back in Germany on 22 October.
Dresden then joined the reconnaissance force for the High Seas Fleet; the following two years consisted of the peacetime routine of squadron exercises, training cruises, and annual fleet exercises. On 16 February 1910, she collided with the light cruiser Königsberg. The collision caused significant damage to Dresden, though no one on either vessel was injured. She made it back to Kiel for repairs, which lasted eight days. Dresden visited Hamburg on 13–17 May that year. From 14 to 20 April 1912, she was temporarily transferred to the Training Squadron, along with the armored cruiser Friedrich Carl and the light cruiser Mainz. For the year 1911–12, Dresden won the Kaiser's Schießpreis (Shooting Prize) for excellent gunnery amongst the light cruisers of the High Seas Fleet. From September 1912 through September 1913, she was commanded by Fregattenkapitän (Frigate Captain) Fritz Lüdecke, who would command the ship again during World War I.
On 6 April 1913, she and the cruiser Strassburg were sent from Kiel to the Adriatic Sea, where she joined the Mittelmeer-Division (Mediterranean Division), centered on the battlecruiser Goeben and commanded by Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Konrad Trummler. The ships cruised the eastern Mediterranean for several months, and in late August, Dresden was ordered to return to Germany. After arriving in Kiel on 23 September, she was taken into the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) for an overhaul that lasted until the end of December. She was scheduled to return to the Mediterranean Division, but the Admiralstab (Admiralty Staff) reassigned Dresden to the North American station to protect German interests in the Mexican Revolution. The cruiser Bremen, then in North American waters, was also due to return to Germany, but her intended replacement, Karlsruhe, had not yet entered service. On 27 December 1913, Dresden departed Germany and arrived off Vera Cruz on 21 January 1914, under the command of Fregattenkapitän Erich Köhler. The United States had already sent a squadron of warships to the city, as had several other countries.
The Admiralstab ordered Hertha, which had been on a training cruise for naval cadets, to join Dresden off Mexico. Bremen was also recalled to reinforce the German naval contingent; after arriving, she was tasked with transferring European nationals to German HAPAG liners. Dresden and the British cruiser HMS Hermione rescued 900 American citizens trapped in a hotel in Vera Cruz and transferred them to American warships. The German consul in Mexico City requested additional forces, and so Dresden provided a landing party of a maat (Junior Petty Officer) and ten sailors, armed with two MG 08 machine guns. On 15 April 1914, Dresden steamed to Tampico on Mexico's Gulf coast. That month, the German-flagged merchant ship SS Ypiranga arrived in Mexico, carrying a load of small arms for the regime of Mexican dictator Victoriano Huerta. The United States had put an arms embargo into effect in an attempt to reduce the violence of the civil war. The US Navy intercepted Ypiranga on 21 April. Dresden arrived, confiscated the merchantman, and pressed her into naval service to transport German refugees out of Mexico. Despite the American embargo, the Germans delivered the weapons and ammunition to the Mexican government on 28 May.
On 20 July, after the Huerta regime was toppled, Dresden carried Huerta, his vice president, Aureliano Blanquet, and their families to Kingston, Jamaica, where Britain had granted them asylum. Upon arriving in Kingston on the 25th, Köhler learned of the rising political tensions in Europe during the July Crisis that followed the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. By this time, the ship was in need of a refit in Germany, and met with her replacement, Karlsruhe, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the following day. Lüdecke, who had arrived in command of Karlsruhe, traded places with Köhler aboard Dresden. The Admiralstab initially ordered Dresden to return to Germany for overhaul, but the heightened threat of war by the 31st led the staff to countermand the order, instead instructing Lüdecke to prepare to conduct Handelskrieg (trade war) in the Atlantic.
### World War I
After receiving the order to remain in the Atlantic, Lüdecke turned his ship south while maintaining radio silence to prevent hostile warships from discovering his vessel. On the night of 4–5 August, he received a radio report informing him of Britain's declaration of war on Germany. He chose the South Atlantic as Dresden's operational area, and steamed to the Brazilian coast. Off the mouth of the Amazon River, he stopped a British merchant ship on 6 August. The ship, SS Drumcliffe, whose captain professed to know nothing of Britain's entry into the war, was permitted to proceed unmolested in accordance with the rules set forth in the Hague Convention of 1907. Dresden rendezvoused with the German collier SS Corrientes, a converted HSDG vessel. The cruiser moved to the Rocas Atoll on the 12th, along with the HAPAG steamers Prussia, Baden, and Persia. After departing the atoll, en route to Trinidade, Dresden caught the British steamer SS Hyades; Lüdecke took off the ship's crew and then sank the merchantman. Dresden captured the British collier SS Holmwood on 24 August and sank her after evacuating her crew. After arriving in Trinidade, she rendezvoused with the gunboat Eber and several steamers.
On 26 August, while steaming off the mouth of the Río de la Plata, she caught two more British steamers, but the poor condition of Dresden's engines curtailed further operations. On 5 September, Dresden put into Hoste Island for engine maintenance until the 16th. While the ship was there, the HAPAG steamer Santa Isabel arrived from Punta Arenas with news of the war, and the heavy merchant traffic off the western coast of South America. Lüdecke decided to steam there, and on 18 September Dresden passed the Strait of Magellan. While en route, Dresden encountered the French steamer SS Ortega; Lüdecke refrained from attacking the transport ship, since she had fled into neutral waters. After steaming up the Chilean coast, she stopped in the Juan Fernández Islands, where she made radio contact with the light cruiser Leipzig, which was operating on the Pacific coast of South America. Dresden saw no further success against British shipping, and on 12 October, she joined Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron, which had crossed the Pacific and was coaling at Easter Island. The following day, Lüdecke was promoted to Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea).
On 18 October, Dresden and the East Asia Squadron, centered on the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, departed Easter Island for the South American coast. They arrived at Más a Fuera island on 26 October. The following evening, the German cruisers escorted the auxiliary cruiser SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich and the merchant ships SS Yorck and SS Göttingen to Chile. The flotilla arrived off Valparaiso on 30 October, and the following evening, Spee received intelligence that a British cruiser was at the Chilean port of Coronel. Spee decided his squadron should ambush the cruiser—HMS Glasgow—when it was forced to leave port due to Chile's neutral status, which required belligerent warships to leave after twenty-four hours. Spee did not realize Glasgow was in the company of Rear Admiral Christopher Craddock's 4th Cruiser Squadron, which also included the armored cruisers Monmouth and Good Hope and the auxiliary cruiser Otranto.
#### Battle of Coronel
Early on the morning of 1 November, Spee took his squadron out of Valparaiso, steaming at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) south toward Coronel. At around 16:00, Leipzig spotted the smoke column from the leading British cruiser. By 16:25, the other two ships had been spotted. The two squadrons slowly closed the distance, until the Germans opened fire at 18:34, at a range of 10,400 m (11,400 yd). The German ships engaged their opposite numbers, with Dresden firing on Otranto. After Dresden's third salvo, Otranto turned away; the Germans claimed a hit that caused a fire, though Otranto reported taking no damage. Following Otranto's departure, Dresden shifted her fire to Glasgow, which was also targeted by Leipzig. The two German cruisers hit their British opponent five times.
At around 19:30, Spee ordered Dresden and Leipzig to launch a torpedo attack against the damaged British armored cruisers. Dresden increased speed to position herself off the British bows, and briefly spotted Glasgow as she was withdrawing, but the British cruiser disappeared in the haze and gathering darkness. Dresden then encountered Leipzig; both ships initially thought the other was hostile. Dresden's crew was loading a torpedo when the two ships confirmed each other's identity. By 22:00, Dresden and the other two light cruisers were deployed in a line that searched unsuccessfully for the British cruisers. Dresden had emerged from the battle completely unscathed.
On 3 November, Spee took Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Nürnberg back to Valparaiso for provisioning and to consult with the Admiralstab. Neutrality laws permitted only three belligerent warships in a port at a given time. Dresden and Leipzig remained with the squadron's colliers in Más a Fuera. Spee returned to Más a Fuera on 6 November, and detached Dresden and Leipzig for a visit to Valparaiso, where they also restocked their supplies. The two cruisers arrived on 12 November, left the following day, and met the rest of the squadron at sea on 18 November. Three days later, the squadron anchored in St. Quentin Bay in the Gulf of Penas, where they coaled. The Royal Navy had deployed Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee's pair of battlecruisers, Invincible and Inflexible, to hunt down the German squadron. They left Britain on 11 November, and arrived in the Falkland Islands on 7 December. There, they joined the armored cruisers Cornwall, Kent, and Carnarvon, and the light cruisers Glasgow and Bristol.
On 26 November, the German East Asia Squadron left St. Quentin Bay, bound for the Atlantic. On 2 December, they caught the Canadian sailing ship Drummuir, which was carrying 2,750 t (2,710 long tons) of high-grade Cardiff coal. The following morning, the Germans anchored off Picton Island, where they unloaded the coal from Drummuir into their own auxiliaries. On the morning of 6 December, Spee held a council aboard Scharnhorst to discuss their next moves. With the support of the captains of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, he successfully argued for an attack on the Falklands to destroy the British wireless station and coal stocks there. Lüdecke and the captains of Leipzig and Nürnberg all opposed the plan, and were in favor of bypassing the Falklands and proceeding to the La Plata area to continue to raid British shipping.
#### Battle of the Falkland Islands
On the afternoon of 6 December, the German ships departed Picton Island, bound for the Falklands. On 7 December, they rounded Tierra del Fuego and turned north into the Atlantic. They arrived off the Falklands at around 02:00; three hours later, Spee detached Gneisenau and Nürnberg to land a party ashore. By 08:30, the ships were approaching Port Stanley, when they noticed thick columns of smoke rising from the harbor. After closing to the harbor entrance, they quickly realized they were confronted by a much more powerful squadron, which was just getting up steam. Spee immediately broke off the operation and turned east to flee before the British ships could catch his squadron. By 10:45, Gneisenau and Nürnberg had rejoined the fleet, and the German auxiliaries were detached to seek shelter in the maze of islands off Cape Horn.
The British ships set off in pursuit, and by 12:50, Sturdee's two battlecruisers had overtaken the Germans. A minute later, he gave the order to open fire at the trailing German ship, Leipzig. Spee ordered the three small cruisers to try to escape to the south, while he turned back with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in an attempt to hold off the British squadron. Sturdee had foreseen this possibility, and so had ordered his armored and light cruisers to pursue the German light cruisers. The battlecruisers quickly overwhelmed Spee's armored cruisers, and destroyed them with heavy loss of life. Dresden, with her turbine engines, was able to outpace her pursuers, and was the only German warship to escape destruction. Lüdecke decided to take his ship into the islands off South America to keep a steady supply of coal available.
On 9 December, she passed back around Cape Horn to return to the Pacific. That day, she anchored in Sholl Bay, with only 160 t (157 long tons) of coal remaining. Oberleutnant zur See (lieutenant at sea) Wilhelm Canaris convinced the Chilean naval representative for the region to permit Dresden to remain in the area for an extra twenty-four hours so enough coal could be taken aboard to reach Punta Arenas. She arrived there on 12 December, and received 750 t (740 long tons) of coal from a German steamer. The Admiralstab hoped Dresden would be able to break through to the Atlantic and return to Germany, but the poor condition of her engines precluded this. Lüdecke instead decided to attempt to cross the Pacific via Easter Island, the Solomon Islands, and the Dutch East Indies and raid commerce in the Indian Ocean. Dresden took on another 1,600 t (1,575 long tons) of coal on 19 January. On 14 February, Dresden left the islands off the South American coast for the South Pacific. On 27 February, the cruiser captured the British barque Conway Castle south of Más a Tierra. From December to February, the German liner Sierra Cordoba had supplied Dresden and had accompanied her northward to a final coaling at Juan Fernández Islands just before the cruiser was scuttled.
On 8 March, Dresden was drifting in dense fog when lookouts spotted Kent, which also had her engines off, about 15 nautical miles (28 km; 17 mi) away. Both ships immediately raised steam, and Dresden escaped after a five-hour chase. The strenuous effort depleted her coal stocks and overtaxed her engines. Lüdecke decided his ship was no longer operational, and determined to have his ship interned to preserve it. The following morning, she put into Más a Fuera, dropping anchor in Cumberland Bay at 8:30. The following day, Lüdecke received by wireless the German Admiralty's permission to let Dresden be interned, and so Lüdecke informed the local Chilean official of his intention to do so.
#### Battle of Más a Tierra
On the morning of 14 March, Kent and Glasgow approached Cumberland Bay; their appearance was relayed back to Dresden by one of her pinnaces, which had been sent to patrol the entrance to the bay. Dresden was unable to maneuver, owing to her fuel shortage, and Lüdecke signaled that his ship was no longer a combatant. The British disregarded this message, as well as a Chilean vessel that approached them as they entered the bay. Glasgow opened fire, in violation of Chile's neutrality; Britain had already informed Chile that British warships would disregard international law if they located Dresden in Chilean territorial waters. Shortly thereafter, Kent joined in the bombardment as well. The German gunners fired off three shots in response, but the guns were quickly knocked out by British gunfire.
Lüdecke sent the signal "Am sending negotiator" to the British warships, and dispatched Canaris in a pinnace; Glasgow continued to bombard the defenseless cruiser. In another attempt to stop the attack, Lüdecke raised the white flag, which prompted Glasgow to cease fire. Canaris came aboard to speak with Captain John Luce; the former strongly protested the latter's violation of Chile's neutrality. Luce simply replied that he had his orders, and demanded an unconditional surrender. Canaris explained that Dresden had already been interned by Chile, and thereafter returned to his ship, which had in the meantime been prepared for scuttling.
At 10:45, the scuttling charge detonated in the bow and exploded the forward ammunition magazines. The bow was badly mangled; in about half an hour, the ship had taken on enough water to sink. As it struck the sea floor, the bow was torn from the rest of the ship, which rolled over to starboard. As the rest of the hull settled below the waves, a second scuttling charge exploded in the ship's engine rooms.
### Aftermath
Most of the ship's crew managed to escape; only eight men were killed in the attack, with another twenty-nine wounded. The British auxiliary cruiser HMS Orama took fifteen severely wounded men to Valparaiso; four of them died. The destruction of his ship had left Lüdecke in shock, and so Canaris took responsibility for the fate of the ship's crew. They remained on the island for five days until two Chilean warships brought a German passenger ship to take the men to Quiriquina Island, where they were interned for the duration of the war. Canaris escaped from the internment camp on 5 August 1915 and reached Germany exactly two months later. On 31 March 1917, a small group of men escaped on the Chilean barque Tinto; the voyage back to Germany lasted 120 days. The rest of the crew did not return to Germany until 1920.
The wreck lies at a depth of 70 meters (230 ft). In 2002, the first survey of the wreck was done by a team led by James P. Delgado for the Sea Hunters documentary produced by the National Underwater and Marine Agency. The team included the archaeologist Dr. Willi Kramer, the first German to visit the wreck since she sank 88 years before. Dresden lies on her starboard side pointed north, toward the beach. The wreck is heavily damaged; much of the upper works, including the bridge, the masts, the funnels, and many of the guns have been torn from the ship. The bow was cut off by the scuttling charges detonated by the ship's crew, and sits upright on the sea floor. The stern is also badly damaged, with the main deck blasted away and many shell holes in the ship's side. Some of the damage to the aft of the ship appears to have been done by an undocumented salvage operation before Delgado's survey. According to German records, Dresden was carrying gold coins from their colony at Tsingtau; Delgado speculated that this salvage work was an attempt to retrieve these.
In 1965, the ship's compass and several flags were recovered and returned to Germany, where they are held at the German Naval Academy Mürwik in Flensburg-Mürwik. In 2006, Chilean and German divers found and recovered Dresden's bell, which is now in Germany. C. S. Forester's 1929 novel Brown on Resolution, and two subsequent movies, were inspired by the Dresden's escape and subsequent destruction.
|
34,349,919 |
Flotilla (video game)
| 1,131,575,775 |
Turn-based strategy space combat video game created by Blendo Games
|
[
"2010 video games",
"Blendo Games games",
"Commercial video games with freely available source code",
"Cooperative video games",
"Microsoft XNA games",
"Multiplayer and single-player video games",
"Open-source video games",
"Split-screen multiplayer games",
"Turn-based strategy video games",
"Video games developed in the United States",
"Video games set in outer space",
"Windows games",
"Xbox 360 Live Indie games"
] |
Flotilla is a 2010 turn-based strategy space combat video game developed by Brendon Chung's studio, Blendo Games. The game was released in March 2010 on Steam for Microsoft Windows and on Xbox Live Indie Games for the Xbox 360. Flotilla was designed with Microsoft's XNA tools, and its development was influenced by animals as well as board games such as Axis and Allies and Arkham Horror. The game takes the player in an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy.
Chung began developing Flotilla immediately after the closure of Pandemic Studios, where he had worked as a designer. The new game used assets imported from Chung's early space combat prototype, Space Piñata. Flotilla incorporates several pieces of classical music in its score, such as Chopin's "Raindrop" prelude. It received mixed reviews from video game media outlets, scoring 72 out of 100 on review aggregate website Metacritic, and was included in Mike Rose's book 250 Indie Games You Must Play.
## Gameplay
Flotilla is a three-dimensional simultaneous turn-based strategy space combat video game set in a randomly generated galaxy. The player and computer-controlled opponents issue orders to their ships, which are carried in a simultaneous and real-time fashion over a period of 30 seconds. The game then freezes, and the player and opponents issue new orders to their ships, which are again performed for 30 seconds. This process repeats until one party is defeated. Orders are separated into three groups: attack move, flank move and focus fire. An attack move orders the ships to move and fire simultaneously; a flank move increases the ship's speed but deactivates weapons until the ship stops moving; and focus fire increases fire rate but significantly reduces the ship's speed.
At the beginning of the game, the player is usually given two ships to control, but more become available as the game continues. Ships may be rotated arbitrarily in any direction. The single-player mode is an "adventure" that can be played an indefinite number of times. These adventures have a duration of around 30 minutes. The character dies at the end of each adventure and the player is given the option to play again. A hardcore mode, which removes the solo mode's standard 30-minute time limit, was later added to the game. Each time the player starts a new adventure, a new galaxy is randomly generated and filled with planets and enemy ships. The player may take a short tutorial before beginning the adventure.
Each planet offers a possible quest or challenge to the player. Challenges are tactical battles in which the player must fight against a variety of enemies. However, ships can be harmed only from behind or below; attacks from any other position will be countered by the ships' shields. Upon succeeding, a new chapter is added to the player's character's story, and the player is rewarded with ship upgrades. These upgrades are used to customize ships with improvements, such as increased firing speed or heavier rear armor. The upgrades available to the player upon finishing each encounter with an enemy can vary, so the player may not receive the same upgrade by playing the same encounter in two different adventures. Flotilla has cooperative and split-screen multiplayer modes that can be played with an additional Xbox 360 controller.
## Development
Flotilla was developed by Brendon Chung's video game studio, Blendo Games. Chung, who worked as a level designer for Pandemic Studios, previously contributed to the development of Full Spectrum Warrior (2004) and Lord of the Rings: Conquest (2009). Chung started coding Flotilla in 2009 after Electronic Arts closed Pandemic Studios. He was excited at the time of the studio's closure, and said that "there was adrenaline pumping through my veins". The game was developed using Microsoft XNA, a set of game development tools created by Microsoft.
The concept of Flotilla came from a combination of "sci-fi like Star Wars and submarine movies". Chung explained that he "figured there was enough games about little fighter jets", and that what he had in mind was "a jumbo battleship floating in space". Animals, instead of aliens, are featured as characters in the game. Chung explained that he did so because "any fantastical creature design I came up with would pale in comparison to already-existing designs made by other people." Therefore, instead of trying to solve the problem of creating compelling alien characters, he switched to animals: "[they] have certain built-in characteristics, they were fairly unique in how they weren't typically associated with space adventures." In an interview with SquareGo, Chung revealed that board games such as Axis and Allies and Arkham Horror had an influential role in the game's development process.
Before Flotilla, Chung worked on a prototype, a two-dimensional turn-based space action game called Space Piñata, whose gameplay and structure were similar to those of the final version of Flotilla. Chung intentionally limited the solo mode's play time as an "experiment in making a short-story generator", such that an adventure could begin and end within a half hour. Following a negative response, a patch was deployed to change this limitation. The patch included a new "hardcore" mode. Flotilla's score incorporates several pieces of classical music, such as Chopin's "Raindrop" prelude. According to Edge magazine, the "Raindrop" prelude gives the game's battles "an emotional undercurrent". Chung said the soundtrack was designed to give the game "a tragic feel" and that he wanted the game to be portrayed as "the anti-testosterone-fueled" action game.
On February 27, 2020, Flotilla's 10th release anniversary, Blendo games released the game's source code to the public as open source software. The source code is Zlib licensed on GitHub, assets are not included and need to be bought.
## Reception
Flotilla received a mixed response from video game journalists upon release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the game received an average score of 72 based on 7 reviews. British magazine Edge included Flotilla in its 2010 list of the Best 20 Indie Games available in the Xbox Live Marketplace, and acknowledged that the game was "as exacting as it is quirky, a stiff challenge beneath a sugar coating." Mike Rose included Flotilla in his book 250 Indie Games You Must Play.
The American version of PC Gamer commented that Flotilla "is a charmingly crafted bite-size portion of tactical fun". Meanwhile, the British version of the magazine elaborated that although the game had its share of "charm and character," it was nonetheless a random experience. PC Zone UK characterized Flotilla as stylish and funny, but concluded that it was a "sadly disposable" experience. Edge gave a mixed response to the game, but praised the battles, which they considered "engaging despite their simplicity." An editor from the website Charge Shot praised the game's artificial intelligence and overall design, but criticized the multiplayer mode.
Joe Martin from Bit-Tech named Flotilla a "hilarious and brazenly original" game. However, he criticized the interface and navigation gameplay, which he condemned as "trying to pilot a radio-controlled helicopter with someone else's feet." He also mentioned the lack of a speed-up feature in battles; he considered such a feature necessary for the game. GameZone's Tom Dann also felt frustrated by the ship maneuvering mechanics, though he concluded that they "can also be rewarding and entertaining". Flotilla was nominated for the 2011 Independent Games Festival Visions Award, but lost to Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It was also listed among the Honorable Mentions for the Excellence in Visual Art and Excellence in Design awards.
## Sequel
Blendo Games announced Flotilla 2 in April 2018, with a then-expected release date of August 1, 2018. It was released on August 17, 2018. The sequel is designed for virtual reality hardware and initially exclusive to the HTC Vive headset; the virtual reality aspect allows players to move around the space environment to plan out their tactics.
|
151,995 |
Boeing 757
| 1,172,767,379 |
Airliner family by Boeing
|
[
"1980s United States airliners",
"1980s United States cargo aircraft",
"Aircraft first flown in 1982",
"Boeing 757",
"Boeing aircraft",
"Low-wing aircraft",
"Twinjets"
] |
The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the trijet 727, received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maiden flight on February 19, 1982 and it was FAA certified on December 21, 1982. Eastern Air Lines placed the original 757-200 in commercial service on January 1, 1983. A package freighter (PF) variant entered service in September 1987 and a combi model in September 1988. The stretched 757-300 was launched in September 1996 and began service in March 1999. After 1,050 had been built for 54 customers, production ended in October 2004, while Boeing offered the largest 737 NG variants as a successor.
The jetliner is powered by 36,600–43,500 lbf (163–193 kN) Rolls-Royce RB211 or Pratt & Whitney PW2000 underwing turbofan engines for a 255,000–273,000 lb (116–124 t) maximum takeoff weight (MTOW). The 757 has a 2,000 sq ft (185 m<sup>2</sup>) supercritical wing for reduced aerodynamic drag and a conventional tail. It keeps the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating and its two-crew glass cockpit has a common type rating with the concurrently designed 767 (a wide-body aircraft).
It was produced in two fuselage lengths: the 155 ft (47.3 m) long 757-200 (the most popular with 913 built) typically seats 200 passengers in two classes over 3,915 nautical mile [nmi] (7,250 km; 4,505 mi); while the 178 ft (54.4 m) long 757-300 typically seats 243 over 3,400 nmi (6,295 km; 3,900 mi). The 757-200F can haul a 72,210 lb (32,755 kg) payload over 2,935 nmi (5,435 km; 3,378 mi). Passenger 757-200s have been modified for cargo use as the Special Freighter (SF) and the Precision Converted Freighter (PCF).
Major customers for the 757 included U.S. mainline carriers, European charter airlines, and cargo companies. It was commonly used for short and mid-range domestic routes, shuttle services, and transcontinental U.S. flights. ETOPS extended flights were approved in 1986 to fly intercontinental routes. Private and government operators have customized the 757 as VIP carriers such as the US C-32. In July 2017, there were 665 Boeing 757 in commercial service, with Delta Air Lines being the largest operator with 127 airplanes in its fleet.
The airliner has recorded twelve hull-loss accidents, including eight fatal crashes, as of April 2022.
## Development
### Background
In the early 1970s, following the launch of the first wide-body airliner, the 747, Boeing began considering further developments of its narrow-body 727. Designed for short and medium length routes, the trijet was the best-selling jetliner of the 1960s and a mainstay of the U.S. domestic airline market. Studies focused on improving the 189-seat 727-200, the most successful variant. Two approaches were considered: a stretched 727 (to be designated 727-300), and an all-new aircraft code-named 7N7. The former was a cheaper derivative using the 727's existing technology and tail-mounted engine configuration, while the latter was a twin-engine aircraft which made use of new materials and improvements to propulsion technology which had become available in the civil aerospace industry.
United Airlines provided input for the proposed 727-300, which Boeing was poised to launch in late 1975, but lost interest after examining development studies for the 7N7. Although the 727-300 was offered to Braniff International Airways and other carriers, customer interest remained insufficient for further development. Instead, airlines were drawn to the high-bypass-ratio turbofan engines, new flight deck technologies, lower weight, improved aerodynamics, and reduced operating cost promised by the 7N7. These features were also included in a parallel development effort for a new mid-size wide-body airliner, code-named 7X7, which became the 767. Work on both proposals accelerated as a result of the airline industry upturn in the late 1970s.
By 1978, development studies focused on two variants: a 7N7-100 with seating for 160, and a 7N7-200 with room for over 180 seats. New features included a redesigned wing, under-wing engines, and lighter materials, while the forward fuselage, cockpit layout, and T-tail configuration were retained from the 727. Boeing planned for the aircraft to offer the lowest fuel burn per passenger-kilometer of any narrow-body airliner. On August 31, 1978, Eastern Air Lines and British Airways became the first carriers to publicly commit to the 7N7 when they announced launch orders totaling 40 aircraft for the 7N7-200 version. These orders were signed in March 1979, when Boeing officially designated the aircraft as the 757. The shorter 757-100 did not receive any orders and was dropped; 737s later fulfilled its envisioned role.
### Design effort
The 757 was intended to be more capable and more efficient than the preceding 727. The focus on fuel efficiency reflected airline concerns over operating costs, which had grown amid rising oil prices during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Design targets included a 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption from new engines, plus 10 percent from aerodynamic improvements, versus preceding aircraft. Lighter materials and new wings were also expected to improve efficiency. The maximum take-off weight (MTOW) was set at 220,000 pounds (99,800 kg), which was 10,000 pounds (4,540 kg) more than the 727. The 757's higher thrust-to-weight ratio allowed it to take off from short runways and serve airports in hot and high conditions with higher ambient temperatures and thinner air, offering better takeoff performance than that offered by competing aircraft. Competitors needed longer takeoff runs for these hot and high conditions. Boeing also offered options for higher payload capability.
The twin-engine configuration was chosen for greater fuel efficiency versus three- and four-engine designs. Launch customers Eastern Air Lines and British Airways selected the RB211-535C turbofan built by Rolls-Royce, which was capable of 37,400 pounds-force (166 kN) of thrust. This marked the first time that a Boeing airliner was launched with engines produced outside the U.S. Domestic manufacturer Pratt & Whitney subsequently offered the 38,200 pounds-force (170 kN) thrust PW2037, which Delta Air Lines launched with an order for 60 aircraft in November 1980. General Electric also offered its CF6-32 engine early in the program, but eventually abandoned its involvement due to insufficient demand.
As development progressed, the 757 increasingly departed from its 727 origins and adopted elements from the 767, which was several months ahead in development. To reduce risk and cost, Boeing combined design work on both twinjets, resulting in shared features such as interior fittings and handling characteristics. Computer-aided design, first applied on the 767, was used for over one-third of the 757's design drawings. In early 1979, a common two-crew member glass cockpit was adopted for the two aircraft, including shared instrumentation, avionics, and flight management systems. In October 1979 the nose was widened and dropped to reduce aerodynamic noise by six dB, to improve the flight deck view and to give more working area for the crew and for greater commonality with the 767. Cathode-ray tube (CRT) color displays replaced conventional electromechanical instruments, with increased automation eliminating the flight engineer position common to three-person cockpits. After completing a short conversion course, pilots rated on the 757 could be qualified to fly the 767 and vice versa, owing to their design similarities.
A new aft-loaded shape which produced lift across most of the upper wing surface, instead of a narrow band as in previous airfoil designs, was used for the 757's wings. The more efficient wings had less drag and greater fuel capacity, and were similar in configuration to those on the 767. A wider wingspan than the 727's produced less lift-induced drag, while larger wing roots increased undercarriage storage space and provided room for future stretched versions of the aircraft.
One of the last 727 vestiges, the T-tail, was dropped in mid-1979 in favor of a conventional tail. This avoided the risk of an aerodynamic condition known as a deep stall, and allowed for more passengers to be carried in a less tapered rear fuselage. At 155.3 feet (47.3 m) in length, the 757-200 was 2.1 feet (0.640 m) longer than the 727-200, and with a greater proportion of its internal volume devoted to cabin space, seating was available for 239 passengers, or 50 more than its predecessor. The fuselage cross-section, whose upper lobe was common to the 707 and 737, was the only major structural feature to be retained from the 727. This was mainly to reduce drag, and while a wider fuselage had been considered, Boeing's market research found low cargo capacity needs and reduced passenger preference for wide-body aircraft on short-haul routes.
### Production and testing
Boeing built a final assembly line in Washington at its Renton factory, home of 707, 727, and 737 production, to produce the 757. Early in the development program, Boeing, British Airways, and Rolls-Royce unsuccessfully lobbied the British aircraft industry to manufacture 757 wings. Ultimately, about half of the aircraft's components, including the wings, nose section, and empennage, were produced in-house at Boeing facilities with the remainder subcontracted to primarily U.S.-based companies. Fairchild Aircraft made the leading edge slats, Grumman supplied the flaps, and Rockwell International produced the main fuselage. Production ramp-up for the new narrow-body airliner coincided with the winding-down of the 727 program, and final assembly of the first aircraft began in January 1981.
The prototype 757 rolled out of the Renton factory on January 13, 1982. The aircraft, equipped with RB211-535C engines, completed its maiden flight one week ahead of schedule on February 19, 1982. The first flight was affected by an engine stall, following indications of low oil pressure. After checking system diagnostics, company test pilot John Armstrong and co-pilot Lew Wallick were able to restart the affected engine, and the flight proceeded normally thereafter. Subsequently, the 757 embarked on a seven-day weekly flight test schedule. By this time, the aircraft had received 136 orders from seven carriers, namely Air Florida, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines, Monarch Airlines, and Transbrasil.
The seven-month 757 flight test program used the first five aircraft built. Tasks included flight systems and propulsion tests, hot and cold weather trials, and route-proving flights. Data from the 767 program helped expedite the process. After design issues were identified, the 757's exit doors received dual-spring mechanisms for easier operation, and the fuselage was strengthened for greater bird strike resistance. The production aircraft was 3,600 pounds (1,630 kg) lighter than originally specified, and recorded a three percent better-than-expected rate of fuel burn. This resulted in a range increase of 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi), and prompted Boeing to tout the aircraft's fuel efficiency characteristics. After 1,380 flight test hours, the RB211-powered 757 received U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification on December 21, 1982, followed by UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) certification on January 14, 1983. The first delivery to launch customer Eastern Air Lines occurred on December 22, 1982, about four months after the first 767 deliveries. The first 757 with PW2037 engines rolled out about one year later, and was delivered to Delta Air Lines on November 5, 1984.
### Service entry and operations
Eastern Air Lines operated the first commercial 757 flight on January 1, 1983, on the Atlanta-to-Tampa route. On February 9, 1983, British Airways began using the aircraft for London-to-Belfast shuttle services, where it replaced Hawker Siddeley Trident 3B trijets. Charter carriers Monarch Airlines and Air Europe also began 757 operations later that year. Early operators noted improved reliability and quieter performance compared with previous jetliners. Transition courses eased pilots' introduction to the new CRT-based cockpit, and no major technical issues arose. Eastern Air Lines, the first 727 operator to take delivery of 757s, confirmed that the aircraft had greater payload capability than its predecessor, along with lower operating costs through improved fuel burn and the use of a two-crew member flight deck. Compared with the 707 and 727, the new twinjet consumed 42 and 40 percent less fuel per seat, respectively, on typical medium-haul flights.
Despite the successful debut, 757 sales remained stagnant for most of the 1980s, a consequence of declining fuel prices and a shift to smaller aircraft in the post-deregulation U.S. market. Although no direct competitor existed, 150-seat narrow-bodies such as the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 were less expensive and carried nearly as many passengers as some airlines' 757s. A three-year sales drought abated in November 1983 when Northwest Airlines placed orders for 20 aircraft, which averted a costly production rate decrease. In December 1985, a freighter model, the 757-200PF, was announced following a launch order for 20 aircraft from UPS Airlines, and in February 1986, a freighter-passenger combi model, the 757-200M, was launched with an order for one aircraft from Royal Nepal Airlines. The freighter model included a main deck cargo hold and entered service with UPS in September 1987. The combi model could carry both cargo and passengers on its main deck and entered service with Royal Nepal Airlines in September 1988.
In the late 1980s, increasing airline hub congestion and the onset of U.S. airport noise regulations fueled a turnaround in 757 sales. From 1988 to 1989, airlines placed 322 orders, including a combined 160 orders from American Airlines and United Airlines. By this time, the 757 had become commonplace on short-haul domestic flights and transcontinental services in the U.S., and had replaced aging 707s, 727s, Douglas DC-8s, and McDonnell Douglas DC-9s. The 757-200's maximum range of 3,900 nautical miles (7,220 km; 4,490 mi), which was over one-and-a-half times the 727's, allowed airlines to use the aircraft on longer nonstop routes. The 757 was also flown out of airports with stringent noise regulations, such as John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, and airports with aircraft size restrictions, such as Washington National Airport near downtown Washington, D.C. The largest U.S. operators, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, would ultimately operate fleets of over 100 aircraft each.
In Europe, British Airways, Iberia, and Icelandair were the 757's largest mainline customers, while other carriers such as Lufthansa rejected the type as too large for their narrow-body aircraft needs. Many European charter airlines, including Air 2000, Air Holland, and LTU International, also acquired the twinjet for holiday and tour package flights in the late 1980s. In Asia, where even larger aircraft were commonly preferred because of greater passenger volumes, the 757 found fewer orders. A 1982 sales demonstration was unable to attract a purchase from potential customer Japan Airlines, and the first Asian customer, Singapore Airlines, sold its four 757s in 1989 in favor of standardizing on the 240-seat wide-body Airbus A310, just five years after debuting the type on Indonesian and Malaysian routes. The 757 fared better in China, where following an initial purchase by the CAAC Airlines in 1987, orders grew to 59 aircraft, making it the largest Asian market. Operators such as China Southern, China Southwest, Shanghai Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, and Xinjiang Airlines used the 757 on medium length domestic routes.
In 1986, the FAA approved RB211-powered 757s for extended-range twin-engine operational performance standards (ETOPS) operations over the North Atlantic, following precedents set by the 767. Under ETOPS regulations, a set of safety standards governing twinjet flights over oceans and other areas without nearby suitable landing sites, airlines began using the aircraft for mid-range intercontinental routes. Although the 757 was not originally intended for transoceanic flights, regulators based their decision on its reliable performance record on extended transcontinental U.S. services. ETOPS certification for 757s equipped with PW2000 series engines was granted in 1992.
In the early 1990s, the FAA and other U.S. government agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), began studying the 757's wake turbulence characteristics. This followed several incidents, including two fatal crashes, in which small private aircraft experienced loss of control when flying close behind the twinjet. Smaller airliners had also suffered unexpected rolling movements when flying behind 757s. Investigators focused on the aircraft's aft-loaded wing design, which at certain points during takeoff or landing could produce wingtip vortices that were stronger than those emanating from larger 767s and 747s. Other tests were inconclusive, leading to debate among government agencies, and in 1994 and 1996 the FAA updated air traffic control regulations to require greater separation behind the 757 than other large-category jets. The 757 became the only sub-300,000-pound (136,000 kg) airliner to be classified as a "heavy" jet, alongside wide-body aircraft, under FAA separation rules.
### Stretched variant
Production of the 757 peaked at an annual rate of 100 aircraft in the early 1990s, during which time upgraded models came under consideration. For over a decade, the narrow-body twinjet had been its manufacturer's only single-aisle airliner without a stretched variant, and while rumors of a long-range 757-200X and stretched 757-300X persisted, no formal announcements had been made. European charter carriers were particularly interested in a higher-capacity version which could take better advantage of the 757's range. Besides meeting the needs of charter customers, a larger model would enable Boeing to match the passenger lift capabilities of the 767-200 with lower operating costs, and counter longer-range versions of the 185-seat Airbus A321, a new stretched variant of the A320 narrow-body airliner.
In September 1996, following a launch order for 12 aircraft from charter carrier Condor, Boeing announced the stretched 757-300 at the Farnborough Airshow. The new model was a 23.4-foot (7.13 m) stretch of the 757-200, resulting in room for 50 more passengers and nearly 50 percent more cargo. The type's design phase was intended to be the shortest in its manufacturer's history, with 27 months from launch to certification. Due to development and cost concerns, radical upgrades such as a Next Generation 737-style advanced cockpit were not implemented. Instead, the stretched derivative received upgraded engines, enhanced avionics, and a redesigned interior. The first 757-300 rolled out on May 31, 1998, and completed its maiden flight on August 2, 1998. Following regulatory certification in January 1999, the type entered service with Condor on March 19, 1999.
The 757-300 was also ordered by American Trans Air, Arkia Israel Airlines, Continental Airlines, Icelandair, and Northwest Airlines. Sales for the type remained slow, and ultimately totaled 55 aircraft. Boeing had targeted the 757-300 as a potential 767-200 replacement for two of its largest customers, American Airlines and United Airlines, but neither were in a financial position to commit to new aircraft. Overtures to other charter airlines also did not result in further orders. By November 1999, faced with diminishing sales and a reduced backlog despite the launch of the 757-300, Boeing began studying a decrease in 757 production rates.
### Further developments
While the 757 program had been financially successful, declining sales in the early 2000s threatened its continued viability. Airlines were again gravitating toward smaller aircraft, now mainly the 737 and A320, because of their reduced financial risk. An airline industry downturn and the large number of relatively young 757s already in service also reduced customer demand. In 2000, spurred by interest from Air 2000 and Continental Airlines, Boeing reexamined the possibility of building a longer-range 757-200X. The proposed derivative would have featured auxiliary fuel tanks, plus wing and landing gear upgrades from the 757-300, resulting in a higher MTOW and a potential range increase to over 5,000 nautical miles (9,260 km; 5,750 mi). However, the proposal failed to garner any orders. In March 2001, Boeing delivered the first 757-200SF, a second-hand 757-200 converted for freighter use, to DHL Aviation. The 757-200SF marked the manufacturer's first foray into passenger-to-freighter conversions.
Customer interest in new 757s continued to decline, and in 2003, a renewed sales campaign centered on the 757-300 and 757-200PF yielded only five new orders. In October 2003, following Continental Airlines' decision to switch its remaining 757-300 orders to the 737-800, Boeing announced the end of 757 production. The 1,050th and last example, a 757-200 built for Shanghai Airlines, rolled off the production line at the Renton factory on October 28, 2004, and was delivered on November 28, 2005, after several months of storage. With the conclusion of the 757 program, Boeing consolidated 737 assembly at its Renton factory, downsizing its facilities by 40 percent and shifting staff to different locations.
Since the end of production, most 757s have remained in service, mainly in the U.S. From 2004 to 2008, the average fuel cost for typical mid-range U.S. domestic 757 flights tripled, putting pressure on airlines to improve the fuel efficiency of their fleets. In May 2005, the FAA granted regulatory approval for manufacturer-sanctioned blended winglets from Aviation Partners Incorporated as a retrofit on the 757-200. The winglets improve fuel efficiency by five percent and increase range by 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) through the reduction of lift-induced drag. Continental Airlines was the first carrier to order winglets for the 757-200, and in February 2009 became the first operator of 757-300s with winglets.
Prior to the United-Continental merger in 2010, the 757 remained the only narrow-body aircraft in use by the large fleets of all three U.S. legacy carriers: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. During this period, the 757's capacity and range capabilities have remained largely unequaled among narrow-body airliners; when selecting replacement aircraft, airlines have had to either downsize to smaller single-aisle aircraft in production with fewer seats and less range such as the 737-900ER and A321, or upsize to the larger, longer-range 787 Dreamliner and A330-200 wide-body jets. The Tupolev Tu-204, a narrow-body twinjet introduced in 1989 with a design similar to the 757's, is offered in a 200-seat version and has seen limited production for mainly Russian customers. Within Boeing, the 215-seat, 3,200-nautical-mile (5,930 km; 3,680 mi) range 737-900ER has been regarded as the closest aircraft in production to the 757-200.
### Replacement aircraft
In February 2015, Boeing marketing Vice President Randy Tinseth stated that re-engining the 757 had been studied but there was no business case to support it. At the March 2015 ISTAT conference, Air Lease Corporation's Steven Udvar-Hazy predicted the 757 replacement would be a more capable, clean-sheet 767-like twin-aisle airplane capable of taking off from 7,000-foot (2,130 m) runways like New York LaGuardia, and Tinseth was focused on 20% more range and more capacity than the 757-200.
In May 2020, due to the ongoing 737 MAX issues and the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Boeing set aside the clean-sheet design for the New Midsize Airplane (NMA) and began to look into a re-engined 757, dubbed the 757-Plus, which would compete with the Airbus A321XLR. The 757-Plus would need new engines, better efficiency, greater range, and more passenger capacity in order to satisfy the market that the NMA would have filled.
## Design
### Overview
The 757 is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a conventional tail unit featuring a single fin and rudder. Each wing features a supercritical cross-section and is equipped with five-panel leading edge slats, single- and double-slotted flaps, an outboard aileron, and six spoilers. The wings are largely identical across all 757 variants, swept at 25 degrees, and optimized for a cruising speed of Mach 0.8 (533 mph or 858 km/h). The reduced wing sweep eliminates the need for inboard ailerons, yet incurs little drag penalty on short and medium length routes, during which most of the flight is spent climbing or descending. The airframe further incorporates carbon-fiber reinforced plastic wing surfaces, Kevlar fairings and access panels, plus improved aluminum alloys, which together reduce overall weight by 2,100 pounds (950 kg).
To distribute the aircraft's weight on the ground, the 757 has a retractable tricycle landing gear with four wheels on each main gear and two for the nose gear. The landing gear was purposely designed to be taller than the company's previous narrow-body aircraft to provide ground clearance for stretched models. In 1982, the 757-200 became the first subsonic jetliner to offer longer lasting carbon brakes as a factory option, supplied by Dunlop. The stretched 757-300 features a retractable tailskid on its aft fuselage to prevent damage if the tail section contacts the runway surface during takeoff.
Besides common avionics and computer systems, the 757 shares its auxiliary power unit, electric power systems, flight deck, and hydraulic parts with the 767. Through operational commonality, 757 pilots can obtain a common type rating to fly the 767 and share the same seniority roster with pilots of either aircraft. This reduces costs for airlines that operate both twinjets.
### Flight systems
The 757's flight deck uses six Rockwell Collins CRT screens to display flight instrumentation, as well as an electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) and an engine indication and crew alerting system (EICAS). These systems allow the pilots to handle monitoring tasks previously performed by the flight engineer. An enhanced flight management system, improved over versions used on early 747s, automates navigation and other functions, while an automatic landing system facilitates CAT IIIb instrument landings in 490 feet (150 m) low visibility conditions. The inertial reference system (IRS) which debuted with the 757-200 was the first to feature laser-light gyros. On the 757-300, the upgraded flight deck features a Honeywell Pegasus flight management computer, enhanced EICAS, and updated software systems.
To accommodate the same flight deck design as the 767, the 757 has a more rounded nose section than previous narrow-body aircraft. The resulting space has unobstructed panel visibility and room for an observer seat. Similar pilot viewing angles as the 767 result from a downward sloped cockpit floor and the same forward cockpit windows.
Three independent hydraulic systems are installed on the 757, one powered by each engine, and the third using electric pumps. A ram air turbine is fitted to provide power for essential controls in the event of an emergency. A basic form of fly-by-wire facilitates spoiler operation, utilizing electric signaling instead of traditional control cables. The fly-by-wire system, shared with the 767, reduces weight and provides for the independent operation of individual spoilers. When equipped for extended-range operations, the 757 features a backup hydraulic motor generator and an additional cooling fan in the aircraft's electronics bay.
### Interior
The 757 interior allows seat arrangements of up to six per row with a single center aisle. Originally optimized for flights averaging two hours, the 757 features interior lighting and cabin architecture designs aimed at a more spacious impression. As on the 767, garment-bag-length overhead bins and a rear economy-class galley are standard equipment. The bins have twice the capacity as those on the preceding 727. To save weight, honeycomb sandwich is used for interior paneling and bins. Unlike previous evacuation slide designs which are not equipped for water landings, the 757's main exits feature combination slide rafts similar to those found on the 747. In the 1980s, Boeing altered the interior designs of its other narrow-body aircraft to be similar to that of the 757.
In 1998, the 757-300 debuted a redesigned interior derived from the Next Generation 737 and 777, including sculptured ceiling panels, indirect lighting, and larger overhead bins with an optional continuous handrail built into their base for the entire cabin length. Centerline storage containers mounted in the aisle ceiling for additional escape rafts and other emergency equipment were also added. The 757-300's interior later became an option on all new 757-200s. In 2000, with wheeled carry-on baggage becoming more popular, Delta Air Lines began installing overhead bin extensions on their 757-200s to provide additional storage space, and American Airlines did the same in 2001. The larger bins are part of aftermarket interior upgrades which include updated ceiling panels and lighting. Since 2011, Boeing 757s can also update interior to Boeing Sky Interior that introduced on 787 and later installed on newer 737 Next Generation, 777, and 737 MAX.
## Variants
The 757 was produced in standard and stretched lengths. The original 757-200 debuted as a passenger model, and was subsequently developed into the 757-200PF and 757-200SF cargo models, as well as the convertible 757-200M variant. The stretched 757-300 was only available as a passenger model. When referring to different versions, Boeing, and airlines are known to collapse the model number (757) and the variant designator (e.g. -200 or -300) into a truncated form (e.g. "752" or "753"). The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) classifies all variants based on the 757-200 under the code "B752", and the 757-300 is referred to as "B753" for air traffic control purposes.
### 757-200
The 757-200, the original version of the aircraft, entered service with Eastern Air Lines in 1983. The type was produced with two different exit configurations, both with three standard cabin doors per side: the baseline version has a fourth, smaller cabin door on each side aft of the wings, and is certified for a maximum capacity of 239, while the alternate version has a pair of over-the-wing emergency exits on each side, and can seat a maximum of 224. The 757-200 was offered with a MTOW of up to 255,000 lb (116,000 kg); some airlines and publications have referred to higher gross weight versions with ETOPS certification as "757-200ERs", but this designation is not used by the manufacturer. Similarly, versions with winglets are sometimes called "757-200W" or "757-200WL". The first engine to power the 757-200, the Rolls-Royce RB211-535C, was succeeded by the upgraded RB211-535E4 in October 1984. Other engines used include the Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4B, along with the Pratt & Whitney PW2037 and PW2040. Its range with full payload is 3,850 nautical miles (7,130 km; 4,430 mi).
Although designed for short and medium length routes, the 757-200 has since been used in a variety of roles ranging from high-frequency shuttle services to transatlantic routes. In 1992, after gaining ETOPS approval, American Trans Air launched 757-200 transpacific services between Tucson and Honolulu. Since the turn of the century, mainline U.S. carriers have increasingly deployed the type on transatlantic routes to Europe, and particularly to smaller cities where passenger volumes are insufficient for wide-body aircraft. Production for the 757-200 totaled 913 aircraft, making the type by far the most popular 757 model. At over 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi), as of February 2015, the longest commercial route served by a 757 is United Airlines' Newark to Berlin flight; the aircraft assigned to this route cannot fly with full payload. United's 757s assigned to transatlantic routes are fitted with 169 seats. In July 2018, 611 of the 757-200 versions were in service.
### 757-200PF
The 757-200PF, the production cargo version of the 757-200, entered service with UPS Airlines in 1987. Targeted at the overnight package delivery market, the freighter can carry up to 15 ULD containers or pallets on its main deck, for a volume of up to 6,600 cu ft (190 m<sup>3</sup>), while its two lower holds can carry up to 1,830 cu ft (52 m<sup>3</sup>) of bulk cargo. The maximum revenue payload capability is 87,700 lb (39,800 kg) including container weight. The 757-200PF is specified with a MTOW of 255,000 lb (116,000 kg) for maximal range performance; when fully loaded, the aircraft can fly up to 3,150 nautical miles (5,830 km; 3,620 mi). Because the freighter does not carry any passengers, it can operate transatlantic flights free of ETOPS restrictions. Power is provided by RB211-535E4B engines from Rolls-Royce, or PW2037 and PW2040 engines from Pratt & Whitney.
The freighter features a large, upward-opening main deck cargo door on its forward port-side fuselage. Next to this large cargo door is an exit door used by the pilots. All other emergency exits are omitted, and cabin windows and passenger amenities are not available. The main-deck cargo hold has a smooth fiberglass lining, and a fixed rigid barrier with a sliding access door serves as a restraint wall next to the flight deck. Both lower holds can be equipped with a telescoping baggage system to load custom-fitted cargo modules. When equipped for extended-range transatlantic operations, UPS's 757-200PFs feature an upgraded auxiliary power unit, additional cargo bay fire suppression equipment, enhanced avionics, and an optional supplemental fuel tank in the aft lower hold. Total production for the 757-200PF totaled 80 aircraft.
### 757-200M/CB
The 757-200M, a convertible version capable of carrying cargo and passengers on its main deck, entered service with Royal Nepal Airlines in 1988. Also known as the 757-200CB (Combi), the type retains the passenger windows and cabin doors of the 757-200, while adding a forward port-side cargo door in the manner of the 757-200PF. Kathmandu-based Royal Nepal Airlines, later renamed Nepal Airlines, included the convertible model as part of an order for two 757s in 1986.
Nepal Airlines ordered the 757-200M to fulfill a requirement for an aircraft that could carry mixed passenger and freight loads, and operate out of Tribhuvan International Airport, with its 4,400 ft (1,300 m) elevation, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Patterned after convertible variants of the 737 and 747, the 757-200M can carry two to four cargo pallets on its main deck, along with 123 to 148 passengers in the remaining cabin space. Nepal Airlines' 757-200M, which features Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4 engines and an increased MTOW of 240,000 lb (110,000 kg), was the only production example ordered. When cargo is carried on the main deck, the crew must include an additional dedicated, trained cargo firefighter.
In October 2010, Pemco World Air Services and Precision Conversions launched aftermarket conversion programs to modify 757-200s into 757 Combi aircraft. Vision Technologies Systems launched a similar program in December 2011. All three aftermarket conversions modify the forward portion of the aircraft to provide room for up to ten cargo pallets, while leaving the remaining space to fit around 45 to 58 passenger seats. This configuration is targeted at commercial charter flights which transport heavy equipment and personnel simultaneously. Customers for converted 757 Combi aircraft include the Air Transport Services Group, National Airlines, and North American Airlines.
In 2018, Nepal Airlines retired their sole Boeing 757-200M. They tried to sell it for a price of \$7 million, then \$5.4 million, then \$4.2 million. The deal fell through and Nepal Airlines planned to keep it in service to maintain its value.
### 757-200SF/PCF
The 757-200SF is a passenger to freighter conversion developed by Boeing following an order for 34 aircraft plus 10 options by DHL. It entered service in 2001 with the initial ex-British Airways aircraft converted at Boeing's Wichita site and subsequent blocks of aircraft converted by Israel Aerospace Industries and ST Aerospace Services. Modifications included the removal of passenger amenities, main deck structural reinforcement, addition of cargo handling flooring and the installation of a 757-200PF port-side cargo door in the forward fuselage. The forward two entry doors and lobby area of the passenger aircraft are retained resulting in a main deck cargo capacity of 14 full sized pallets and one smaller LD3. Environmental controls can be fitted for animal cargo such as racehorses, and rear exits and window pairs are retained on some aircraft to facilitate animal handlers. ST Aerospace continue to offer 14, 14.5 and 15 Unit load device variants of the SF in 2020.
In September 2006, FedEx Express announced a US\$2.6 billion plan to acquire over 80 converted 757 freighters to replace its 727 fleet citing a 25% reduction in operating cost along with noise benefits.
The 757-200PCF is a passenger to freighter conversion, developed by Precision Conversions and certificated in 2005. Reported in 2019 to cost \$5 million per aircraft and similar to the SF it has 15 pallet positions. External differences include the removal of the forward passenger style doors and their replacement with a -200PF style small crew door. Internally the main cargo door is not integrated with the base aircraft hydraulic and warning systems and instead operates from a self-contained hydraulic system though powered by the aircraft electrics. By early 2020 a total of 120 757-200PCFs had been delivered.
### 757-300
The 757-300, the stretched version of the aircraft, entered service with Condor in 1999. With a length of 178.7 ft (54.5 m), the type is the longest single-aisle twinjet ever built, coming in just shorter than the 57.1 m (187 ft) quad-jet DC-8-61/63. Designed to serve the charter airline market and provide a low-cost replacement for the 767-200, the 757-300 shares the basic design of the original 757, while extending the fuselage forward and aft of the wings. Six standard cabin doors, two smaller cabin doors behind the wings, plus a pair of over-the-wing emergency exits on each side, enable the 757-300 to have a maximum certified capacity of 295 passengers. A higher MTOW of 272,500 lb (123,600 kg) is specified, while fuel capacity remains unchanged; as a result, the stretched variant offers a maximum range of 3,395 nautical miles (6,288 km; 3,907 mi). Engines used on the type include the RB211-535E4B from Rolls-Royce and the PW2043 from Pratt & Whitney. Due to its greater length, the 757-300 features a retractable tailskid on its aft fuselage to avoid tailstrikes.
Condor ordered the stretched 757 to replace its McDonnell Douglas DC-10s and serve as low-cost, high-density transportation to holiday destinations such as the Canary Islands. Because tests showed that boarding the 757-300 could take up to eight minutes longer than the 757-200, Boeing and Condor developed zone-based boarding procedures to expedite loading and unloading times for the lengthened aircraft. The 757-300 has been operated by mainline carriers Continental Airlines (now part of United Airlines), Northwest Airlines (now part of Delta Air Lines), and Icelandair; other operators have included American Trans Air (the first North American operator), Arkia Israel Airlines, along with charter carriers Condor and Thomas Cook Airlines as of 2014. Production for the 757-300 totaled 55 aircraft. All 55 were in service in July 2018.
### Government, military, and corporate
Government, military, and private customers have acquired the 757 for uses ranging from aeronautical testing and research to cargo and VIP transport. The 757-200, the most widely ordered version of the aircraft, has formed the basis for these applications. The first government operator of the 757 was the Mexican Air Force, which took delivery of a VIP-configured 757-200 in November 1987.
- Airborne Research Integrated Experiments System (ARIES) – A NASA platform for air safety and operational research, was created in 1999 using the second production 757. The aircraft originally flew in the 757 flight test program before entering service with Eastern Air Lines. After NASA purchased the aircraft in 1994 to replace its 737-100 testbed, it was initially used to evaluate a hybrid laminar flow control system, avionics systems for the proposed Northrop YF-23 jet fighter, and the 777's fly-by-wire control system. Equipped with a flight deck research station, on-board laboratories, and two experimental flight decks, ARIES was used for evaluating weather information and landing approach systems, as well as runway friction tests. ARIES went into storage in 2006.
- C-32 – The United States Air Force operates six 757-200s under the designation C-32. Four are VIP-configured C-32A variants, whose mission is primarily transport of the Vice President of the United States, First Lady, and Secretary of State. The C-32As are powered by the Pratt & Whitney PW2000, and outfitted with a communication center, conference room, seating area, and private living quarters. The USAF also operates two 45-seat Rolls-Royce powered 757-200 aircraft, designated C-32B Gatekeeper, which provides airlift to special operations units and global emergency response teams. The C-32Bs are outfitted for any contingency, with an advanced communications suite, aerial refueling capabilities, extended fuel tanks, and an internal airstair. The C-32As are painted in the Raymond Loewy-designed blue and white livery used on most Special Air Mission aircraft, while the C-32Bs are painted gloss white with minimal identification markings. The first C-32s were acquired in 1998 and replaced C-137 Stratoliner transports.
- F-22 Flying Testbed – The first 757 built was used in 1998 as a testbed for Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor avionics and sensor integration. The Boeing-owned aircraft was fitted with a canard above its cockpit to simulate the jet fighter's wing sensor layout, along with a forward F-22 fuselage section with radar and other systems, and a 30-seat laboratory with communication, electronic warfare, identification, and navigation sensors.
- Krueger flap and Natural Laminar Flow Insect Mitigation Test Program – As part of their ecoDemonstrator program, Boeing commenced a series of test flights on March 17, 2015 with a modified Boeing 757, incorporating new wing-leading-edge sections and an actively blown vertical tail. The left wing was modified to include a 6.7 m-span glove section supporting a variable-camber Krueger flap to be deployed during landing which protrudes just ahead of the leading edge. Although Krueger flaps have been tried before as insect-mitigation screens, previous designs caused additional drag; the newer design is variable-camber and designed to retract as seamlessly as possible into the lower wing surface. Increasing the use of natural laminar flow (NLF) on an aircraft wing has the potential to improve fuel burn by as much as 15%, but even small contaminants from insect remains will trip the flow from laminar to turbulent, destroying the performance benefit. The test flights have been supported by the European airline group TUI AG and conducted jointly with NASA as part of the agency's Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) program. While the left wing tests the Krueger flaps, the right wing is being used to test coatings that prevent insects from adhering to the wing.
- Active Flow Control System – On one aircraft Boeing has mounted 31 active flow jets mounted ahead of the rudder's leading edge. They receive air from the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). Their purpose is to recover air flow that has separated from the rudder and redirect it to the rudder so that the rudder regains effectiveness, even at high deflection angles. The air exiting the APU is very hot, at 380 °F (193 °C), and is cooled by a heat exchanger mounted under the aft fuselage, which is connected to the ducts running along the front and back of the stabilizer's spars. This ensures an even air supply at all times.
- Royal New Zealand Air Force 757 Combi – The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) operates two 757s converted to 757-200M standard by ST Aerospace Services for delivering equipment, medical evacuation, troop movements, and VIP transport. A cargo door, upgraded auxiliary power unit, enhanced communications systems, and retractable airstairs are fitted. The two aircraft, which replaced two 727-100QCs, have carried the Prime Minister of New Zealand, and flown to the ice-covered Pegasus Field near New Zealand's Scott Base in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.
- VIP transport – The 757-200 serves as VIP transports for the President of Argentina under the Presidential Air Group serial Tango 01 and for the President of Mexico under the Mexican Air Force call sign TP01 or Transporte Presidencial 1. A Royal Brunei Airlines 757-200 was used by the Sultan of Brunei in the 1980s before being sold to the Government of Kazakhstan in 1995. The royal family of Saudi Arabia uses a 757-200 as a flying hospital. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen used a private 757 from 2005 until 2011; the aircraft was then sold to Donald Trump and became known as "Trump Force One" during his 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
- Excalibur – A testbed for the British BAE Systems Tempest's avionics and sensors. The aircraft is to be converted from a civilian airliner by 2Excel.
### Proposed
- 757-100 – A 150-seat, short fuselage version intended to offer similar capacity to a 727-200 but with greater range. Both the 757-100 and -200 were announced at the product launch on 31 August 1978, however the large wing and landing gear common with the 757-200 were found to be excessively heavy for an aircraft of that capacity. Planning for the 757-100 was discontinued in March 1979.
## Operators
The largest 757 operators are Delta Air Lines, FedEx Express and United Airlines; Delta Air Lines is the largest overall, with a 757 fleet of 127 aircraft as of 2018. American Airlines' 757 fleet of 142 aircraft was the largest until 2007, when the carrier retired Pratt & Whitney PW2000-powered models originating from its TWA acquisition to have an all Rolls-Royce RB211-powered 757 fleet. Delta subsequently acquired 17 former TWA/American Airlines 757s, and in October 2008, gained 45 more 757s from its acquisition of Northwest Airlines.
The cargo carrier with the most 757s is FedEx Express, which operated a 757-200F fleet of 111 aircraft in July 2018. UPS Airlines operate a further 75 of the type, with DHL Aviation and its affiliated companies, DHL Air UK, DHL Latin America, European Air Transport Leipzig, and Blue Dart Aviation, combined operating 35 cargo 757s of various types in 2018.
Joint launch customer British Airways operated the 757-200 for 27 years before retiring the type in November 2010. To celebrate the fleet's retirement, the airline unveiled one of its last three 757-200s in a retro style livery on October 4, 2010, matching the color scheme that it introduced the aircraft into service with in 1983. Subsequently, the type remained in operation with the company's subsidiary, OpenSkies.
Over the duration of the program, 1,050 Boeing 757s were built with 1,049 aircraft delivered. The prototype 757 remained with the manufacturer for testing purposes. In August 2020, a total of 642 Boeing 757 aircraft of all variants were in commercial service with operators Delta Air Lines (127), FedEx Express (107), UPS Airlines (75), United Airlines (72), Icelandair (27) and others with fewer aircraft of the type.
### Orders and deliveries
Boeing 757 orders and deliveries (cumulative, by year):
- Data from Boeing, through the end of production
### Model summary
- Data from Boeing, through the end of production
## Accidents and incidents
As of April 2022, the 757 has been involved in 40 aviation occurrences, including 12 hull-loss accidents. Nine incidents and 12 hijackings have resulted in a total of 575 occupant fatalities. The first fatal event involving the aircraft occurred on October 2, 1990, when a hijacked Xiamen Airlines 737 collided with a China Southern Airlines 757 on the runways of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, China, killing 46 of the 122 people on board. Two 757-200s were hijacked on September 11, 2001 during a coordinated terrorist attack in the United States; hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, killing all 64 on board and 125 on the ground, and United Airlines Flight 93 was also hijacked, and crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 on board.
Accidents involving pilot error include American Airlines Flight 965, which crashed into a mountain in Buga, Colombia, on December 20, 1995, killing 151 passengers and eight crew members with four survivors, and the mid-air collision of DHL Flight 611 near Überlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, on July 1, 2002, with the loss of the two people on board plus 69 on a Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154. The American Airlines Flight 965 crash was blamed on navigational errors by the crew, while the collision of DHL Flight 611 involved air traffic control errors, but was mainly blamed on the Tupolev's crew not following a TCAS resolution advisory. Accidents attributed to spatial disorientation due to improperly maintained instruments include Birgenair Flight 301 on February 6, 1996, which crashed into the ocean near Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, with the loss of all 189 passengers and crew, and Aeroperú Flight 603 on October 2, 1996, which crashed into the ocean off the coast of Pasamayo, Peru, with the loss of all 70 on board. In the Birgenair accident, investigators found that the aircraft had been stored without the necessary covers for its pitot tube sensors, thus allowing insects and debris to collect within, while in the Aeroperú accident, protective tape covering static vent sensors had not been removed.
Two private aircraft crashes were blamed on wake turbulence emanating from 757s. On December 18, 1992, a Cessna Citation crashed near Billings Logan International Airport in Montana, killing all six aboard, and on December 15, 1993, an IAI Westwind crashed near John Wayne Airport in California, killing all five aboard. Both airplanes had been flying less than 3 nautical miles (6 km; 3 mi) behind a 757. The FAA subsequently increased the required separation between small aircraft and 757s from 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) to 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi).
On September 14, 1999, Britannia Airways Flight 226A crash landed near Girona-Costa Brava Airport, Spain, during a thunderstorm; the 757's fuselage broke into several pieces. The 245 occupants evacuated successfully, with 40 requiring hospital treatment. On October 25, 2010, American Airlines Flight 1640, a 757 flying between Miami and Boston, safely returned to Miami after suffering the loss of a 2 ft (60 cm) fuselage section at an altitude of approximately 31,000 feet (9,000 m). After investigating the incident, the FAA ordered all 757 operators in the U.S. to regularly inspect upper fuselage sections of their aircraft for structural fatigue.
On April 7, 2022, a DHL Boeing 757 aircraft operating Flight 7216 crash landed at San Jose, Costa Rica after attempting an emergency landing due to a hydraulic failure. Both crew members survived without injuries, the incident is under investigation.
## Aircraft on display
A Delta Air Lines 757-200, registered as N608DA, is on display at the Delta Flight Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. The aircraft was the sixty-fourth example built. Prior to being moved to its permanent location, the aircraft was repainted into Delta's 'Widget' livery, the livery it wore when it was originally delivered; it is now on static display at the museum entrance.
## Specifications
## See also
|
392,871 |
Neal Dow
| 1,158,968,863 |
American Prohibition advocate and politician
|
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"1804 births",
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"19th-century American military personnel",
"19th-century American politicians",
"19th-century Quakers",
"American Civil War prisoners of war",
"American Quakers",
"American abolitionists",
"American autobiographers",
"American fire chiefs",
"American firefighters",
"American temperance activists",
"Burials at Evergreen Cemetery (Portland, Maine)",
"Candidates in the 1880 United States presidential election",
"Maine Prohibitionists",
"Maine Republicans",
"Maine Whigs",
"Mayors of Portland, Maine",
"Members of the Maine House of Representatives",
"Neal Dow",
"People of Maine in the American Civil War",
"Prohibition Party (United States) presidential nominees",
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Neal Dow (March 20, 1804 – October 2, 1897) was an American Prohibition advocate and politician. Nicknamed the "Napoleon of Temperance" and the "Father of Prohibition", Dow was born to a Quaker family in Portland, Maine. From a young age, he believed alcohol to be the cause of many of society's problems and wanted to ban it through legislation. In 1850, Dow was elected president of the Maine Temperance Union, and the next year he was elected mayor of Portland. Soon after, largely due to Dow's efforts, the state legislature banned the sale and production of alcohol in what became known as the Maine law. Serving twice as mayor of Portland, Dow enforced the law with vigor and called for increasingly harsh penalties for violators. In 1855, his opponents rioted and he ordered the state militia to fire on the crowd. One man was killed and several wounded, and when public reaction to the violence turned against Dow, he chose not to seek reelection.
Dow was later elected to two terms in the Maine House of Representatives, but retired after a financial scandal. He joined the Union Army shortly after the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, eventually attaining the rank of brigadier general. He was wounded at the siege of Port Hudson and later captured. After being exchanged for another officer in 1864, Dow resigned from the military and devoted himself once more to prohibition. He spoke across the United States, Canada, and Great Britain in support of the cause. In 1880, Dow headed the Prohibition Party ticket for President of the United States. After losing the election, he continued to write and speak on behalf of the prohibition movement for the rest of his life until his death in Portland at the age of 93.
## Early life and family
Dow was born in Portland, Maine on March 20, 1804, the son of Josiah Dow and his wife, Dorcas Allen Dow. Josiah Dow was a member of the Society of Friends (commonly known as Quakers) and a farmer originally from New Hampshire. Dorcas Allen was also a Quaker, and a member of a prosperous Maine family headed by her prominent grandfather, Hate-Evil Hall. They had three children, of whom Neal was the middle child and only son. After his marriage, Dow's father opened a tannery in Portland, which soon became a successful business. After attending a Friends school in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and further schooling at Edward Payson's Portland Academy, Dow followed his father into the tanning trade in 1826. He embraced technology, becoming one of the first in the city to incorporate steam power in the tanning process.
Dow struggled to conform to the tenets of his parents' Quaker faith; he was hot-tempered and enjoyed brawling from a young age. As he became wealthy later in life, he enjoyed wearing fine clothes, contrary to the Quakers' preference for plain dress. Some of his family's other virtues, such as thrift and abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, he adopted early in life. When he turned eighteen, Dow sought to avoid the required militia musters, more out of distaste for the drunkenness that they often involved than out of Quaker belief in pacifism. Instead, he joined the volunteer fire department, whose members were exempted from the muster. In 1827, Dow lobbied the Maine legislature to reform the fire companies to increase their efficiency. That same year, he argued against his fire company serving alcohol at its anniversary celebration; the members compromised, and served only wine, not hard liquor. At times Dow let his politics interfere with his duties; after being promoted to fire chief, he allowed a liquor store to burn to the ground.
The next year, Dow met his future wife, Maria Cornelia Maynard, the daughter of a Massachusetts merchant. They married on January 20, 1830. Over the next twenty years, they had nine children, five of whom (two sons and three daughters) survived infancy. Maria Cornelia was a Congregationalist, and Dow attended services with her at Second Parish Church regularly, although he never became a member. Their home, built at 714 Congress Street in Portland in 1829, was converted into a museum after Dow's death and is administered by the local chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union as the Neal Dow House.
## Temperance advocate
### Early Prohibition efforts
In the 19th century, a typical American male consumed on average more than three times the alcohol of his modern-day counterpart. In his memoirs, Dow noted that in Portland a significant portion of a working man's pay was in the form of daily rum rations: "it was ... the rule to quit work at eleven in the forenoon and four in the afternoon to drink ... In every grocer's shop were casks [of] ... rum punch constantly prepared in a tub, sometimes on the sidewalk, just as lemonade is to be seen now on the Fourth of July." He saw alcohol as responsible for the downfall of individuals, families, and fortunes, often pointing out ramshackle homes or businesses to his family and saying "Rum did that." His quest to reform people by reforming their environment grew out of the religious movements of the Second Great Awakening and, as historian Judith N. McArthur later wrote, "temperance reformers urged their listeners to cast Demon Rum out of their lives just as evangelical ministers exhorted them to cast the Devil out of their hearts."
Many of Portland's middle- and upper-class citizens, including Dow, believed drunkenness was a great threat to the city's moral and financial well-being. In 1827, he became a founding member of the Maine Temperance Society. The group initially focused its efforts on the evils of distilled beverages, but by 1829, Dow declared he would abstain from all alcoholic beverages. At the same time, he associated himself with anti-Masonic and anti-slavery causes and became more involved with politics generally. In the 1832 presidential election, unsatisfied with both Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, Dow backed William Wirt, a minor-party candidate.
In 1837, the Maine Temperance Society split over whether they should seek to ban wine as well as spirits; Dow sided with the anti-wine forces, who formed their own organization, the Maine Temperance Union. That year James Appleton, a Whig representative in the state legislature, proposed a prohibition law, and Dow spoke often and forcefully in favor of the effort, which was unsuccessful. Appleton proposed a similar law in 1838 and 1839, but despite his and Dow's best efforts, he continued to be defeated.
Dow worked fervently on behalf of Whig candidates and came to detest Democrats as the tools of the alcohol industry. Maine's Whig governor, Edward Kent, granted Dow a colonel's commission in the state militia in 1841 as a reward for his efforts, despite his lack of military experience. Nevertheless, Dow did not consider himself "a party man in the politician's understanding of the term," and had no qualms about encouraging his supporters to vote against any Whig whom he considered insufficiently anti-alcohol.
Dow spent the early 1840s attending to his tanning business, but also found time to encourage individual drinkers to take up abstinence. In 1842, he and his allies succeeded in getting the city government in Portland to require licenses for liquor dealers and to prosecute unlicensed sellers; a referendum on the question was decided in the prohibitionists' favor later that year. The next year saw the Democrats win election to city government, replacing the more prohibition-friendly Whigs, and many liquor-sellers resumed their trade as prosecutions were deferred indefinitely. Dow kept up his speaking efforts around the state, despite once being assaulted by a man hired by a liquor dealer.
In 1846, Dow spoke before the legislature in favor of statewide prohibition. The bill passed but lacked the enforcement mechanisms necessary to give it effect. The following year, he ran for the state legislature in a special election but was narrowly defeated. In 1850, now a member of the new Free Soil Party, he encouraged like-minded legislators to pass a stronger prohibition law. They did so but saw it vetoed by Democratic governor John W. Dana. The legislature fell one vote short of overriding the veto.
### Mayor of Portland
In 1850, Dow was elected president of the Maine Temperance Union. The next year, he ran for mayor of Portland on the Whig ticket, and was elected by a vote of 1332 to 986. Within a month of taking office, he lobbied the state legislature to pass a statewide prohibition law. It did so, and Dow met with the new Governor, John Hubbard, who signed the bill into law on June 2. Maine was the first state to ban alcohol, and statewide prohibition became known around the country as "the Maine law". The law's passage propelled Dow to national fame. He was called the "Napoleon of Temperance", and was the featured speaker in August at a National Temperance Convention in New York City.
After the Maine law came into force, Dow allowed liquor dealers a two-week grace period to sell their stock out of state, then began confiscations. His enforcement efforts quickly drove respectable drinking establishments out of business, but less fancy saloons, especially those frequented by Portland's poor and immigrant residents, simply moved their operations to secret locations. Even so, Dow proclaimed in an address to the city council that he had eliminated all but a "few secret grog-shops", whose persistence he blamed on "foreigners".
Despite his growing national fame, Dow continued to face opposition at home. Both Dow and his opponents engaged in anonymous newspaper campaigns against the other, often making personal attacks alongside political arguments. For the 1852 municipal election, the Democrats nominated Albion Parris, a former governor and United States Senator, to run against Dow. While the Democrats rallied behind their candidate, Dow's vigorous enforcement of prohibition divided his party, and in two wards the Whigs ran an anti-Dow ticket instead. On election day, Dow slightly increased his vote total from the year before, with 1496, but Parris outpolled him, bringing in 1900 votes. Although the Whigs controlled voter registration at the time, Dow blamed his loss on illegal voting by Irish immigrants.
After his defeat, Dow continued to promote prohibition around the country, and was gratified to see it spread to eleven states. He also made efforts to refute the charge made by his enemies (including his cousin John Neal) that the Maine law was ineffective and that drinking had actually increased in Portland during Dow's term in office. In 1854, Dow ran for mayor again unsuccessfully; as the Whig Party began to break apart, Dow attracted support from the Free Soilers and the Know Nothings, a nativist party. By the next year, those two parties began to join anti-slavery Whigs in a new party, the Republicans. They soon controlled the state legislature and, with Dow's encouragement, strengthened the enforcement provisions of the Maine law. Dow ran again for mayor in 1855 and was narrowly re-elected to the office he had left three years earlier.
### Portland Rum Riot
Two months into his term, Dow inadvertently ran afoul of his own prohibition laws. After setting up a committee to dispense alcohol for medicinal and industrial use (the only uses permitted), Dow ordered \$1600 worth of alcohol and stored it at City Hall. Dow neglected to appoint an official agent to hold it there; because the invoice was in his name, this placed Dow in technical violation of the law. Dow's enemies seized on the mistake and demanded that the police search the municipal building for illegal liquor. Because the recent additions to the Maine law had removed judicial discretion, the judge had no choice but to issue the warrant. Police seized the alcohol, but did not arrest Dow.
That evening, June 2, a crowd of anti-prohibitionists gathered to demand that the law be enforced, shouting threats to spill "Neal Dow's liquor". Dow ordered the state militia to block the protesters and had the sheriff read the crowd the Riot Act. As darkness fell, Dow ordered the crowd to disperse; when they refused, he ordered the militia to fire. One man was killed and seven were wounded, and the crowd fled. On learning of the fatality, Dow maintained that the shooting was justified.
The violence turned public opinion against Dow, and he was denounced in newspapers across the nation. He was tried for violation of the prohibition law; the prosecutor was former U.S. Attorney General Nathan Clifford, a longtime Dow opponent, and the defense attorney was a fellow founder of the Maine Temperance Society, future senator William P. Fessenden. Dow was acquitted, but his opponents convinced the coroner to impanel a jury that pronounced the protester's death a homicide. He was ultimately acquitted of that charge, but his popularity had suffered and he declined to run for re-election as mayor.
### State legislator
Republicans lost the governorship that fall, and in 1856 the Democrats combined with the remaining Whigs in the state legislature to repeal the Maine law entirely. Some of the other states that had passed Maine laws followed suit as they learned that the promised benefits were not forthcoming and enforcement was difficult, if not impossible. Dow continued to travel the country (and the United Kingdom) speaking in support of prohibition, but to little legislative effect. Maine passed a new, much milder Maine law in 1858, which Dow disliked but defended as better than nothing.
In 1858, Dow won a special election to the Maine House of Representatives as a Republican when one of the members elected declined to serve. He won reelection to a full term in 1859, and continued to agitate for stricter prohibition laws, but was unsuccessful. He also became entangled in scandal when the State Treasurer, Benjamin D. Peck, lent out state funds to private citizens (including Dow) contravening state law. Peck lent large sums to himself, which were lost when his business ventures failed. Dow had guaranteed some of Peck's borrowing, and faced ruin as it became clear that Peck could not repay the state treasury. Dow was able to settle the debts and conceal much of his role in the affair, but enough of the scandal became known that some of his many enemies attacked him in local newspapers. Even some of his prohibitionist allies became less openly supportive of him. In September 1860, he did not run for re-election.
## Civil War
Dow continued to promote prohibition after leaving office, but also added his voice to the growing chorus advocating the abolition of slavery. Several slaveholding states seceded after the election of Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, and formed the Confederate States of America; even before the outbreak of the Civil War, Dow called for the rebellion to be crushed and slavery abolished. He was 57 years old at the outbreak of the war, and determined to stay home and tend to his business and care for his aging father. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, however, Dow felt compelled to join the Union cause. Governor Israel Washburn appointed him Colonel of the 13th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment on November 23, 1861. Many of the officers Dow recruited to the cause were his associates from the prohibition movement.
### New Orleans
After a winter of training in Maine, Dow and the 13th Maine were dispatched to the Gulf of Mexico in February 1862. Even before departing, Dow quarreled with his superiors when he learned his unit would be placed under the command of Major General Benjamin F. Butler, a Democrat whom Dow regarded as soft on slavery and "pro-rum". Dow's protests were ineffective, but they earned Butler's enmity. After joining Butler at Fort Monroe, Virginia, the regiment sailed south and was forced to land in North Carolina after a storm; Dow's performance in the emergency won Butler's praise, but the two still cordially loathed each other. After the damaged ships were repaired, Butler's army continued south to Ship Island, Mississippi.
Butler's army, aided by Flag Officer David Farragut's fleet, captured New Orleans on April 29, 1862. Dow and the 13th Maine did not join in the attack, remaining behind to guard Ship Island. A day earlier, Congress had approved Dow's promotion to brigadier general. He blamed Butler for excluding him from the battle, believing that Butler was threatened by his promotion and calling him a "bully and a beast". He spent much of the time quarreling with his second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Francis S. Hesseltine, while the regiment occupied forts around New Orleans. While there, Dow encouraged black slaves to run away from captivity and take shelter with the Union Army. He also confiscated property from nearby planters, including those who supported the Union, and tried unsuccessfully to claim personal salvage rights over Confederate military property abandoned in the river.
In October 1862, Dow was given command over the District of Pensacola, and moved to join other units there. He immediately earned the troops' disfavor by placing Pensacola under prohibition. He also (without authorization from Washington) began to recruit black troops from the local slave population while continuing his confiscation of rebel property. Butler soon countermanded the confiscation order, which Dow believed was done in revenge for his banning of alcohol.
### Port Hudson and capture
In December 1862, Nathaniel P. Banks replaced Butler in command at New Orleans. Banks, a Massachusetts Republican with prohibitionist sympathies, had known Dow before the war, but he initially displeased Dow by refusing to repeal Butler's order against confiscation of rebel property. He did, however, allow Dow to return to New Orleans to take part in the planned spring offensive. As the Union armies looked to complete their control over the Mississippi River, only Vicksburg, Mississippi and Port Hudson, Louisiana held out against federal control. Major General Ulysses S. Grant moved on Vicksburg from the north while Banks advanced to Port Hudson from the south. By May 21, the town was surrounded.
Banks was determined to break the siege by a direct assault on the Confederate lines. Dow believed the attack to be a mistake, and delayed his units' participation until later in the day. In the assault, which was unsuccessful, Dow was wounded in the right arm and left thigh and sent to a nearby plantation to convalesce. While in the hospital, he lobbied for a transfer to a theater where his chances of promotion would be greater. On June 30, having healed enough to mount a horse again, Dow visited his troops. As he returned to the hospital after dark, he was captured by Confederate cavalry operating behind Union lines.
Dow was taken by wagon and train to Jackson, Mississippi, then to Montgomery, Alabama, before finally being confined to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, the Confederacy's capital. In August, he was transferred to Mobile, Alabama, where Confederate officials investigated whether Dow had armed slaves to fight against the rebels, which the Confederate Congress had made a capital offense. Dow had done so, but his prosecutors could find no evidence of such an action after the law was passed, so the charges were dropped and Dow was returned to Libby Prison in October. He remained there until February 1864, when he was exchanged for captive Confederate General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, son of General Robert E. Lee. His health was damaged by his prison experience, and after spending several months convalescing in Portland, he resigned from the Army in November 1864.
## Postwar politics
After the war, Dow returned to his leadership of the prohibition movement, co-founding the National Temperance Society and Publishing House with James Black in 1865. He spent the rest of the 1860s and 1870s giving speeches in support of temperance across the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. His efforts produced little success, as the public turned against prohibition and the alcohol industry was better organized to resist. Dow expended a great deal of effort organizing and giving speeches in support of the Liberal Party before the British elections of 1874, as their leader, William Ewart Gladstone, was sympathetic to prohibition; the Liberals lost decisively, a result Gladstone and Dow blamed on liquor interests. Dow continued to promote prohibition in Britain until May 1875 when, exhausted, he returned home.
Against calls for personal temperance instead of government restraint, Dow remained steadfast, saying that the only way to fight drunkenness was "more jail for the rascals." In 1876, he supported the election of Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican and teetotaler. The following year, Dow saw some success for prohibition as Maine's legislature strengthened the weak prohibition law there by banning distilling in the state. Despite that minor victory, Dow began to sour on the Republican party, believing them insufficiently committed to his cause and disappointed at their failure to protect the rights of Southern blacks as Reconstruction came to an end. Other temperance advocates felt the same way, and some had organized a new Prohibition Party in 1869. The Prohibitionists focused their efforts on banning alcohol to the exclusion of all other issues. Most party members came from pietist churches, and most, like Dow, were former Republicans. They had won very few votes in the 1872 and 1876 presidential elections, but as temperance advocates grew disenchanted with the Republican Party, they hoped to win converts in 1880.
### Presidential election of 1880
In 1880, Maine Republicans refused to pass more anti-alcohol legislation, and Dow quit the party to join the Prohibitionists; he instantly became the party's most prominent member. His friend and ally James Black requested that Dow's name be placed in nomination for the presidency at the 1880 convention, to which Dow agreed. The convention that met in Cleveland that June welcomed delegates from twelve states, but attracted almost no attention from the press. Dow himself did not attend, staying home with his ailing wife (candidates for a party's nomination often did not attend conventions in person at that time). He was nominated, heading a ticket with vice-presidential nominee Henry Adams Thompson of Ohio.
Dow mostly ignored the national contest that summer, focusing on campaigning for pro-temperance candidates in local Maine elections. Republicans,especially James G. Blaine, pressured Dow to withdraw, fearing that he would claim enough votes to cost their nominee, James A. Garfield, the election. Dow declined to do so, but his vote totals were too small to harm Garfield in any case. The Prohibition ticket polled just 10,305 votes, 0.1% of the total. Garfield narrowly won the popular vote over Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock, but in the electoral college, he carried a clear majority. Dow was not displeased with the result, happy that the Republicans had triumphed over the "ex-slavedriving rebel element".
### Later years
After the election, Dow began to work with Republicans again in Maine to advance prohibition issues, and in 1884 he endorsed fellow Mainer and Republican candidate for president James G. Blaine. Blaine narrowly lost the election, the first Republican loss in 28 years, and many Republicans blamed the Prohibition Party, whose votes would have tipped New York (and with it the electoral college majority) to Blaine. Resentful Republicans in Maine refused to advance any more prohibition laws, and as a result Dow made his final break with the Republican Party in 1885. In the 1886 state election, he spoke fervently against his former party and in support of the Prohibitionist candidate for governor. In 1888, at the age of 84, Dow accepted the Prohibition Party nomination for mayor of Portland, an office he had held more than thirty years earlier. The Democrats were unable to decide on a candidate, so they endorsed their former enemy, Dow, in an effort to unseat the Republican incumbent. Many regular Democrats refused to support the fusion ticket, and Dow lost the election by 1934 votes to 3504. Later that year, Dow attended the 1888 Prohibition Party National Convention in Indianapolis. In a break from his erstwhile contempt for the former Confederacy, Dow called for sectional unity and "no more waving of the bloody shirt". He also spoke against the political expediency of the party backing women's suffrage, although he personally endorsed the idea.
Cornelia Dow had died in 1883, but Dow's unmarried daughter, also named Cornelia, lived with him and assisted in temperance causes. In 1891, his son Frederick and his family moved in as well. Frederick remained active in his father's former Republican Party and was the editor of the Portland Evening Express. Despite a fall from a horse in 1890, Dow continued in good health, reading and writing about his signature issue, but travelling less. On his ninetieth birthday in 1894, a large crowd gathered to celebrate him and his life's work. In 1895, he gave his final public speech, criticizing the city government for not enforcing the prohibition laws. He began to write his memoirs, The Reminiscences of Neal Dow: Recollections of Eighty Years, but died on October 2, 1897, before completing the book. Dow's body lay in state at the Second Parish Church in Portland before being buried in that city's Evergreen Cemetery. He had seen the rise of the prohibition movement and, as biographer Frank L. Byrne notes, proselytized the cause "more than any man of the 19th century".
|
26,697,426 |
James E. Boyd (scientist)
| 1,171,272,276 |
American physicist and administrator (1906–1998)
|
[
"1906 births",
"1998 deaths",
"20th-century American academics",
"Duke University alumni",
"Georgia Tech Research Institute people",
"Georgia Tech faculty",
"People from Carrollton, Georgia",
"People from Wilkes County, Georgia",
"Presidents of Georgia Tech",
"Presidents of the University of West Georgia",
"Scientific Atlanta",
"University of Georgia alumni",
"University of Georgia faculty",
"Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni"
] |
James Emory Boyd (July 18, 1906 – February 18, 1998) was an American physicist, mathematician, and academic administrator. He was director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 1957 to 1961, president of West Georgia College (now the University of West Georgia) from 1961 to 1971, and acting president of the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1971 to 1972.
A graduate of the University of Georgia, Duke University, and Yale University, Boyd began in academia as an instructor of physics at the University of Georgia, then head of the Mathematics and Science Department at West Georgia College. Subsequently, he became a professor at Georgia Tech and a prominent researcher at the Engineering Experiment Station, now known as the Georgia Tech Research Institute. At the Engineering Experiment Station, Boyd helped spur the organization's mainstay: federally funded electronics research and development. Along with fellow Georgia Tech researchers Gerald Rosselot and Glen P. Robinson, Boyd was influential in the founding of Scientific Atlanta, where he was a board member for 25 years. As director of the Engineering Experiment Station, Boyd focused on the recruitment of talented engineers and an increase in physical space available to the organization, including the establishment of nuclear research at Georgia Tech with a radioisotopes laboratory and the construction of the Frank H. Neely Research Reactor.
While he was the third president of West Georgia College, Boyd increased the numbers of faculty members, degrees awarded, programs offered, and enrolled undergraduate and graduate students. Boyd racially integrated the campus in 1963, and oversaw immense construction projects that dramatically expanded the campus to support the increased (and future) enrollment. Hired away to serve as the University System of Georgia's Vice Chancellor for Academic Development in 1970, he was almost immediately reassigned to be Georgia Tech's interim president. During his tenure at Georgia Tech from 1971 to 1972, Boyd resolved difficult issues in the attempted takeover of the Engineering Experiment Station by previous Georgia Tech president Arthur G. Hansen and the poor performance of (and corresponding alumni calls to remove) head football coach Bud Carson.
## Early career
### Education
Boyd was born to Emory Fortson and Rosa Lee (née Wright) Boyd on July 18, 1906 in Tignall, Georgia, a small town near the eastern border of the state of Georgia. He had two brothers, John and Ellis, and a sister, Sophia. In 1927, he received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from the University of Georgia, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. In 1928, he received a Master of Arts in mathematics from Duke University. From 1928 to 1930, Boyd was an instructor of physics at the University of Georgia. He entered graduate school at Yale University in 1930, and was a graduate assistant there from 1930 to 1931 and a Loomis Fellow from 1931 to 1933. He received his PhD in physics from Yale in 1933, with a thesis entitled Scattering of X-Rays by Cold-Worked and by Annealed Beryllium. In his thesis, Boyd described the effects of reflecting radiation through samples of powdered, cold-worked and annealed beryllium with differing particle sizes. The experiment showed that beryllium crystals are "rather imperfect", that annealing caused "no appreciable change" in beryllium's lattice structure, and that the mass absorption coefficient of beryllium found in the experiment was reasonably close to the theoretical value calculated using Compton's empirical formula.
Boyd was appointed as head of the Mathematics and Science Department at West Georgia College in 1933. In 1935, he joined the faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor of physics. Boyd married Elizabeth Reynolds Cobb, daughter of Betty Reynolds Cobb and Hiram Felix Cobb, on June 2, 1934. James and Elizabeth went on to have two children: a daughter, Betty Cobb Boyd (born August 26, 1939) and a son, James Fortson Boyd (born October 9, 1942). With World War II under way, Boyd joined the United States Navy in 1942, serving as a lieutenant and later lieutenant commander in the Bureau of Ordnance, performing research on radar. From 1945 to 1946, he was a commander in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations where he worked on radar and electronics.
### Researcher and entrepreneur
In 1946, Boyd returned to Georgia Tech's physics department and its Engineering Experiment Station, where he worked as Assistant Project Director under Frank Lawrence (and, after Lawrence's departure, as Project Director) on an Army Air Corps-sponsored project studying microwave propagation. As part of the project, he conducted long-range line-of-sight experiments between Georgia Tech and Mount Oglethorpe in North Georgia. In 1947, Boyd co-authored a study entitled Propagation Studies of Electromagnetic Waves, which resulted in a series of related research contracts, including a large one obtained from the Navy Bureau of Ordnance on radar-directed fire control. Boyd was promoted to professor of physics in 1948. Around 1950, under the authority of his rank of commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Boyd created a U.S. Navy Research Reserve Unit at Georgia Tech that included officers from both Georgia Tech and the Atlanta metropolitan area. In the 1950s, Boyd was promoted to captain and ran this unit until his departure from Georgia Tech.
In 1950, Boyd was named the first head of the newly created Physics Division of the Engineering Experiment Station (now known as the Georgia Tech Research Institute). Boyd recruited his former student Glen P. Robinson to the station. In late 1951, Robinson, station director Gerald Rosselot and Boyd helped start Scientific Associates (now Scientific Atlanta, part of Cisco) with \$700 in seed money to produce and market antenna products that were developed at the station, as the station's leadership did not think Georgia Tech should be involved in the manufacturing business. Georgia Tech vice president Cherry Emerson believed that EES employees' affiliation with Scientific Atlanta constituted a conflict of interest and asked Boyd, Rosselot, and Robinson to choose between the two organizations. Boyd resigned from his post at Scientific Atlanta and remained with Georgia Tech, but chose to retain his position on Scientific Atlanta's Board of Directors. According to Robinson, "Dr. Boyd is really considered the founder of Scientific Atlanta."
## Administrator
### Experiment Station director
Boyd was promoted to Assistant Director of Research at the Engineering Experiment Station in 1954. He served as director of the station from July 1, 1957, until 1961. While at Georgia Tech, Boyd wrote an influential article about the role of research centers at institutes of technology, which argued that research should be integrated with education; Boyd applied this by involving undergraduates in his day-to-day research. Boyd was known for his recruitment of faculty capable of both teaching and performing notable research. He was influential enough to be able to override the wishes of Joseph Howey, director of the School of Physics, on occasion: for example, Boyd successfully hired physicist Earl W. McDaniel in 1954 over Howey's determined opposition.
Under Boyd's purview, the Engineering Experiment Station was awarded many electronics-related contracts, to the extent that an Electronics Division was created in 1959; it focused on radar and communications. In 1955, Georgia Tech president Blake R. Van Leer appointed Boyd to Georgia Tech's Nuclear Science Committee. The committee recommended the creation of a Radioisotopes Laboratory Facility and the construction of a large research reactor. The former was built and dedicated on January 7, 1959, and could receive, store, and process radioactive materials. The Frank H. Neely Research Reactor was completed in 1963 and was operational until 1996, when the fuel was removed because of safety concerns related to the nearby 1996 Summer Olympics events. In 1961, Boyd was succeeded in the directorship by Robert E. Stiemke, who had previously been the director of Georgia Tech's School of Civil Engineering.
### West Georgia College president
Boyd became the third president of West Georgia College in 1961 after William H. Row died of a heart attack. Boyd is most known for his peaceful racial integration of the campus (without waiting for a court order) in 1963 by inviting a young black woman, Lillian Williams, to attend the college; she eventually earned two degrees in education and in 1985 received the college's highest honor, the Founder's Award. In May 1964, Boyd invited Robert F. Kennedy to the dedication of the campus chapel as the Kennedy Chapel, which was named after Robert's brother, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated in November 1963. During his visit, Robert Kennedy promoted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was then under debate in the United States Senate.
Boyd dramatically expanded the college during his tenure, both in terms of headcount and academic diversity. Enrolment grew from 1,089 students upon his arrival in 1961 to 5,503 students on his departure in 1971. In 1959, there were two degrees and five programs available; in 1969–70 there were seven degrees and 45 programs. There were 94 graduate students in 1961; the first master's programs were offered in 1967, and by 1969 the number of graduate students had risen to 741. In 1969 alone, 80 new faculty members were hired, a number larger than the total number of faculty members a decade earlier. Several new buildings were constructed, including nine dormitories and five academic buildings. Policy changes occurred as well: in 1966, the curfew for junior and senior women was abolished, and fraternities and sororities were allowed on campus. In 1970, Boyd was named the University System of Georgia's first vice chancellor for academic development, effective once his successor (Emory graduate Ward B. Pafford) was appointed in 1971.
## Georgia Tech president
In a little under a month after Boyd had assumed the vice chancellorship, then-Georgia Tech president Arthur G. Hansen resigned. Chancellor George L. Simpson appointed Boyd as Acting President of the Georgia Institute of Technology, a post he held from May 1971 to March 1972.
### Engineering Experiment Station
Simpson's selection of Boyd as interim president was influenced by Boyd's previous experience as an academic administrator, his experience as director of the Engineering Experiment Station, and Boyd's ongoing position on the station's board of directors. The chancellor hoped this combination would help resolve a brewing controversy over whether the Engineering Experiment Station should be integrated into Georgia Tech's academic units to improve both entities' competitiveness for federal money. The station had sizable and growing support from the state of Georgia and its Industrial Development Council, which developed products and methods and provided technical assistance for Georgia industry. However, due in part to efforts made by Boyd and previous station director Gerald Rosselot, the station increasingly relied on electronics research funding from the federal government. In 1971, funding to both Georgia Tech's academic units and the Experiment Station began to suffer due to a combination of a sharp decline in state funds and cuts to federal science, research, and education funding after the end of the Space Race funding boom. Similar institutions, such as the Battelle Memorial Institute, Stanford Research Institute, and the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute had weathered this storm by becoming exceedingly good at obtaining research contracts.
Boyd's predecessor Arthur G. Hansen's "bold and controversial" solution to both entities' problems was to completely integrate the station into Georgia Tech's academic units. On paper, this would dramatically increase Georgia Tech's stated research funding (as all of it would be performed through the academic units), and it would increase options and financial aid for graduate students. Another, less publicized, reason was that Georgia Tech would gain access to the contract organization's reserve fund, which was said to be over \$1 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). Thomas E. Stelson, Dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, was named to "reorganize" the station. Publicly, Stelson's task was simply to recommend a plan for reorganization, but the administration clearly intended for Georgia Tech and the Engineering Experiment Station to be closely integrated. Maurice W. Long, who was director of the station at the time, viewed the move as a violation of the EES's charter as legislatively established by the Georgia General Assembly in 1919, and asserted that Georgia Tech did not have the authority to merge the two institutions. EES employees and business executives involved with the station appealed to the Georgia Board of Regents and to Governor of Georgia (and future United States President) Jimmy Carter (himself a Georgia Tech alumnus); the controversy received coverage in both The Technique and the Atlanta Constitution.
This was the climate into which Boyd entered as interim institute president after Hansen had announced, on April 27, 1971, that he would be departing Georgia Tech to become president of Purdue University on July 1 of that year. Boyd stopped the plan for absolute absorption of the station, but did allow plans for closer control and more aggressive contract solicitation to proceed. Among these measures were increased resource-sharing, including increased sharing of physical assets and research staff. The latter was evidenced by the increase in joint faculty appointments between the EES and Georgia Tech. The move paid off, and the fiscal year 1970–1971 saw EES win new contracts and grants, totaling a record \$5.2 million (equivalent to \$ million in ).
### Athletic Association
Boyd had to deal with intense public pressure to fire the then Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football coach, Bud Carson. Georgia Tech alumni – accustomed to success under football legends John Heisman (whose career wins–losses–draws statistics were ), William A. Alexander () and Bobby Dodd () – made repeated calls for Carson's dismissal. The complaints were based on a long list of infractions, including "mistreating and humiliating students" and "unsportsmanlike conduct", but the most important issue was his record. The last straw was his season in 1971, which included both a loss to Georgia Tech's longtime rival, the Georgia Bulldogs, and to the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the 1971 Peach Bowl. As institute president, Boyd chaired the board of directors of the Georgia Tech Athletic Association, which had been suffering both in win percentage and in finances.
Traditional sources of Athletic Association income, primarily ticket sales, had declined as a result of both the Yellow Jackets' poor record and the relatively recent establishment of professional football in Atlanta, namely the Atlanta Falcons. Bobby Dodd, then athletic director, had warned for years that Georgia Tech's rising academic standards and its limited curriculum would affect the athletic program. At a meeting on January 8, 1972, the Athletic Association board, led by Boyd, ignored a 42-page list of "charges" drafted by an alumnus, but nevertheless voted to not renew Carson's contract, making him the first Georgia Tech coach to be fired. The board also voted to not accept Bobby Dodd's resignation, which had been offered at the meeting. Carson went on to have a successful career, particularly with the Pittsburgh Steelers. On January 21, 1972, Boyd announced that Bill Fulcher had been selected as the new football head coach. This would not change the Georgia Tech Athletic Association's fortunes, however; after Carson's departure, the on-field and financial problems remained.
## Retirement and legacy
Joseph M. Pettit was selected as the next president of Georgia Tech in March 1972, after which Boyd returned to his position as vice chancellor for academic development for the University System of Georgia. Boyd retired from professional life in 1974. Upon retirement, he was named an honorary member of Georgia Tech's ANAK Society.
In 1997, the Georgia Board of Regents approved the naming and dedication of the math and physics building at the University of West Georgia as the "James E. Boyd Building". Two scholarships were created in his honor at the University of West Georgia; one for the top geology student, and one for a graduate of Bremen High School. Boyd died at the age of 91 on February 18, 1998, at his home in Carrollton, Georgia. The funeral was on February 20, 1998, at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Carrollton, and he was interred at Carrollton City Cemetery.
## See also
- History of the Georgia Tech Research Institute
- History of Georgia Tech
|
18,210,594 |
1964 European Nations' Cup final
| 1,161,554,153 |
International football match
|
[
"1960s in Madrid",
"1964 European Nations' Cup",
"Football in Madrid",
"June 1964 sports events in Europe",
"Soviet Union at the 1964 European Nations' Cup",
"Soviet Union national football team matches",
"Soviet Union–Spain relations",
"Spain at the 1964 European Nations' Cup",
"Spain national football team matches",
"Sports competitions in Madrid",
"UEFA European Championship finals"
] |
The 1964 European Nations' Cup Final was a football match at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid, on 21 June 1964, to determine the winner of the 1964 European Nations' Cup. It was the second final of what is now called the UEFA European Football Championship, UEFA's quadrennial football competition for national teams. The match was contested by Spain and the previous tournament winners, the Soviet Union. En route to the final, Spain defeated Romania, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over two-legged ties before beating Hungary in the semi-final. The Soviet Union received a bye in the qualifying round before beating Italy, Sweden and Denmark en route to the final.
The referee for the final, played in front of an attendance of 79,115 spectators, was Arthur Holland from England. In the sixth minute, Marcelino dispossessed Valentin Ivanov and crossed for Chus Pereda, who scored to give Spain a 1–0 lead. Two minutes later, Viktor Anichkin passed to Galimzyan Khusainov, who equalised. With six minutes of the match remaining, Pereda beat Anichkin and played in a cross which Viktor Shustikov failed to clear, before Marcelino headed the winning goal inside the near post. Spain won the match 2–1 to win their first European Championship title.
Both finalists were unable to qualify for the 1964 Summer Olympics tournament, each side losing in the final qualifying round. Spain failed to progress past the group stage of the 1966 FIFA World Cup. The Soviet Union beat all three of their opponents in the group stage but, after defeating Hungary, they lost to West Germany in the semi-final, and to Portugal in the third-place play-off.
## Background
The 1964 European Nations' Cup was the second edition of what is now called the UEFA European Football Championship, UEFA's quadrennial football competition for national teams. Qualifying rounds were played on a home-and-away basis between November 1962 and May 1964. The semi-finals and final took place in Spain between 17 and 21 June 1964. A third-place play-off match took place the day before the final, in which Hungary defeated Denmark 3–1 after extra time.
The Soviet Union had won the inaugural final four years prior, defeating Yugoslavia 2–1 after extra time. Spain had refused to play against the Soviet Union in the quarter-final and withdrew from the 1960 tournament, allowing their opponents a walkover. In the 1962 FIFA World Cup, Spain had failed to progress beyond the group stage, losing to both Czechoslovakia and Brazil. The Soviet Union went out of the competition at the quarter-final stage after suffering a 2–1 defeat by Chile. The 1964 European Nations' Cup Final was the first match played between the Soviet Union and Spain.
Spain's manager was José Villalonga Llorente who had been in charge at Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid before taking the national position in 1962. His opposite number for the Soviet Union was Konstantin Beskov who had played in the 1940s and 1950s for Dynamo Moscow, before moving into club management. He was appointed national manager in 1963.
## Road to the final
### Spain
Spain started their 1964 European Nations' Cup campaign in the preliminary round in which they faced Romania in a two-legged tie. The first match was held at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid on 1 November 1962 and was the first competitive fixture between Spain and Romania. In front of 51,608 supporters, Spain were 4–0 ahead inside the first twenty minutes of the match, with two goals from Vicente Guillot and one each from José Luis Veloso and Enrique Collar. Guillot completed his hat-trick with 20 minutes of the match remaining before an own goal from Ion Nunweiller sealed a 6–0 victory for Spain. The second leg was played later that month at the Stadionul 23 August in Bucharest, in front of 72,762 spectators. The home side took an early 2–0 with goals from Nicolae Tătaru and Cicerone Manolache within the opening eight minutes. Gheorghe Constantin made it 3–0 midway through the second half before Veloso scored for Spain. Despite Romania winning the match 3–1, Spain progressed to the round of 16 with a 7–3 aggregate victory. They faced Northern Ireland, the first leg taking place at the San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao on 30 May 1963 in what author Daniel O'Brien describes as "one of the great forgotten performances in Northern Ireland's history". The Northern Ireland goalkeeper, Bobby Irvine, twice denied Amancio Amaro before Amaro opened the scoring on the hour-mark after an error from Alex Elder. Willie Irvine levelled the score with less than a quarter of an hour remaining and then missed an open goal minutes later, shooting over the Spain crossbar. The return leg was played at Windsor Park in front of 45,809 spectators on 30 October 1963. The first half ended goalless and with twenty minutes of the second half remaining, Spain took the lead. A long-range strike from Paco Gento gave them a 1–0 victory in the match and a 2–1 aggregate win.
Spain's opponents for the quarter-final were the Republic of Ireland with the first leg being held at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville on 11 March 1964. The Republic of Ireland's team selection was compromised when Manchester United refused to allow Noel Cantwell and Tony Dunne leave to play, and with Charlie Hurley playing his third game in five days. In rainy conditions, Amancio capitalised on a mistake from Hurley to give Spain a 12th-minute lead. Josep Maria Fusté doubled his side's lead two minutes later with a 25 yards (23 m) strike. Andy McEvoy reduced the deficit for the Republic of Ireland midway through the first half, but Amancio restored the two-goal lead on 30 minutes after he scored from Marcelino's cross. Three minutes later, Marcelino himself scored from close range, and after McEvoy was withdrawn through injury leaving the Republic of Ireland with ten players, Spain dominated the second half. With two minutes remaining, Marcelino scored his side's fifth goal after the ball took a deflection off Hurley, to give Spain a 5–1 first leg victory. Although Cantwell and Dunne were included for the return leg at Dalymount Park in Dublin, it made no difference. Spain dominated possession and though Alan Kelly made several saves, debutant Pedro Zaballa scored in both halves: a header from Carlos Lapetra's cross midway through the first half was followed by a strike from 10 yards (9 m) with three minutes of the match remaining. This secured a 2–0 win for Spain, a 7–1 aggregate victory, and qualification for the final tournament which they themselves would host.
Spain's semi-final opposition were Hungary, whom they faced at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on 17 June 1964 in front of a crowd of 75,000. For Spain, Luis del Sol, the prominent Juventus winger, was unavailable while Gento was excluded after a disagreement with manager Villalonga. Hungary were without Gyula Rákosi, János Göröcs and Károly Sándor through injury. In the 35th minute, Luis Suárez crossed the ball for Chus Pereda who headed it into the top corner with Hungary's goalkeeper Antal Szentmihályi static, to give the host nation the lead. With six minutes of the match remaining, István Nagy's shot was fumbled by Spain's goalkeeper José Ángel Iribar and Ferenc Bene scored to level the match and send it into extra time. Szentmihályi saved a shot from Amancio before Marcelino headed Lapetra's corner goal-bound and Amancio diverted the ball into the Hungary goal in the 112th minute to give Spain a 2–1 victory and progression to the tournament final.
### Soviet Union
The Soviet Union's European Nations' Cup campaign saw them receive a bye in the preliminary round so their first match was their round-of-16 tie against Italy. The match took place at the Central Lenin Stadium in Moscow on 13 October 1963 in front of a crowd of more than 102,000 and was the first competitive between the sides. Midway through the first half, Viktor Ponedelnik gave the Soviet Union the lead and three minutes before half-time, Igor Chislenko scored to make it 2–0. The second leg was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome a month later with an attendance of almost 70,000. Gennadi Gusarov gave the Soviet Union a first-half lead before Lev Yashin saved a penalty from Sandro Mazzola. Gianni Rivera equalised for Italy in the 89th minute but the match ended 1–1 with the Soviet Union winning 3–1 on aggregate to qualify for the quarter-finals. They faced Sweden with the first leg being played at the Råsunda Stadium in Stockholm on 13 May 1964. After a goalless first half, the dominance of the Soviet Union finally resulted in a goal when Valentin Ivanov scored in the 62nd minute. Failing to capitalise on other chances to score, the Soviet Union conceded the equalising goal with two minutes of the match remaining when Kurt Hamrin struck the ball past Yashin to secure a 1–1 draw. The sides met two weeks later at the Central Lenin Stadium in front of almost 100,000 spectators and Yashin received the 1963 Ballon d'Or award on the pitch before the match. Ponedelnik opened the scoring for the Soviet Union when he ran with the ball before shooting between Arne Arvidsson's legs to make it 1–0 after 32 minutes, before doubling his and his side's tally 11 minutes into the second half with a 25-yard (23 m) strike. Hamrin scored past Yashin in the 78th minute before Valery Voronin shot the ball through Arvidsson's legs following a pass from Ponedelnik. The match ended 3–1 and 4–2 on aggregate to the Soviet Union who progressed to the semi-finals in Spain.
They faced Denmark at the Camp Nou in Barcelona on 17 June 1964 in front of 38,556 spectators. Denmark had enforced an "amateur-only" policy to their side which meant that Erik Sørensen, Kai Johansen and Harald Nielsen were no longer available having signed professional contracts, while Jens Peterson and John Madsen were also otherwise engaged. The Soviet Union dominated the early stages, Voronin opening the scoring midway through the first half from a corner before Ponedelnik beat Leif Nielsen in the Denmark goal with a strike five minutes before half-time. Late in the second half, Ivanov beat three Denmark defenders before scoring his side's third, and the Soviet Union won 3–0 to progress to their second consecutive European Nations' Cup final.
## Match
### Pre-match
The referee for the match was Arthur Holland, who became the second Englishman to officiate a European Nations' Cup Final after Arthur Ellis had fulfilled the role in the previous tournament. Before the match, Francisco Franco led future king of Spain Juan Carlos I onto the pitch while Yashin met his childhood hero Ricardo Zamora prior to kick-off. The Soviet Union had won the pre-match coin toss and as such were playing in their usual red-and-white kit while Spain wore dark blue shirts.
### Summary
The final was played at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid on 21 June 1964 in front of 79,115 spectators. Spain's Suárez struck an early free kick over the Spain crossbar before his pass to Marcelino was cut out by Yashin. In the sixth minute, Marcelino dispossessed Ivanov, took the ball past Eduard Mudrik and after making a one-two with Lapetra, crossed for Pereda who scored to give Spain a 1–0 lead. Two minutes later, Viktor Anichkin passed to Galimzyan Khusainov down the left side of the pitch and his weak shot was mishandled by the Spain goalkeeper Iribar to allow the equaliser. Despite the two early goals, the remainder of the half saw both sides competing in the midfield with several misplaced passes and fouls, although Yashin saved shots from both Pereda and Fusté before Iribar kept Chislenko's attempt out.
In the early stages of the second half, Spain began to dominate and missed several chances to score. Amancio struck the ball into the side netting before he then ran clear of the Soviet Union defence and passed to Marcelino whose shot was tipped over the Soviet Union crossbar by Yashin. Chislenko then beat three Spain defenders before being brought down by Ignacio Zoco but the referee allowed play to continue. Voronin then clashed with Suárez who appeared to be injured in the exchange, before the Soviet Union player saw his low shot pushed behind by Iribar. On the hour mark, Iribar saved a shot from Ponedelnik and twelves minutes later, Pereda was brought down by Anichkin. Despite Spain's strong appeals for a penalty, the referee awarded a free-kick on the edge of the Soviet Union penalty area which came to nothing. With six minutes of the match remaining, Feliciano Rivilla passed to Pereda who beat Anichkin and played in a cross which Viktor Shustikov did not clear, before Marcelino headed the winning goal inside the near post. Spain won the match 2–1 to win their first European Championship title.
### Details
## Post-match
All but three of UEFA's team of the tournament had featured in the final, including six Spain and two Soviet Union players. Beskov was dismissed upon his return to Moscow following a meeting with Nikita Khrushchev who had been "incensed" that images of celebrating Franco had been broadcast live in the Soviet Union. Spain's Iribar said "When we won, we were full of joy, we were so into it. Then a few days passed and we realised that if we'd lost, the situation would have been so different. It was a game we had to win at all costs, otherwise there would have been a hunt for culprits. Some players would never have been picked again. We would've gone from heroes to zeros." After the match, Franco received the winning side at the Royal Palace of El Pardo.
The Soviet Union were knocked out in the second qualifying round of the 1964 Summer Olympics by East Germany: a tiebreaker was required after both legs of the match ended 1–1 and East Germany progressed with a 4–1 victory. Spain also failed to qualify for the final tournament in Tokyo, losing 5–1 on aggregate to Hungary.
Villalonga was dismissed from his post two years later after suffering defeats against West Germany and Argentina during Spain's failure to progress past the group stage of the 1966 FIFA World Cup. The Soviet Union beat North Korea, Italy and Chile in their group stage. After defeating Hungary, they lost to West Germany in the semi-final and were defeated by Portugal in the third-place play-off.
## See also
- Soviet Union at the UEFA European Championship
- Spain at the UEFA European Championship
|
11,595,307 |
Amarte Es un Placer (album)
| 1,152,686,225 | null |
[
"1999 albums",
"Albums produced by Luis Miguel",
"Latin Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album",
"Latin Grammy Award winners for Album of the Year",
"Luis Miguel albums",
"Spanish-language albums",
"Warner Music Latina albums"
] |
Amarte Es un Placer (transl. Loving You Is a Pleasure) is the thirteenth studio album by Mexican singer Luis Miguel. It was released by WEA Latina on 13 September 1999. Produced by Miguel, it is a pop album with R&B and jazz influences. Miguel was more involved with the songwriting on this record than on earlier albums and was assisted by composers including Arturo Pérez, Armando Manzanero, and Juan Carlos Calderón. Despite the popularity of his contemporaries Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias who crossed over to the English-language market, Miguel preferred to sing and record in Spanish at the time.
Four singles were released to promote the album: "Sol, Arena y Mar", "O Tú o Ninguna", "Dormir Contigo", and the title track "Amarte Es un Placer". Miguel embarked on a world tour which lasted from September 1999 into May 2000. He performed in Spain, South America, Mexico, and the United States. It became the highest-grossing tour by a Spanish-speaking recording artist.
Amarte Es un Placer debuted at number one in Spain and on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart in the United States. It was certified gold in the United States and achieved multi-platinum status in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Spain. The album has sold 3.5 million copies worldwide. On its release, the record received mixed reviews from music critics; several praised the production as well as Miguel's vocals and the compositions, but others felt it did not differ from his earlier recordings and found the music outdated. Miguel received several accolades, including the Latin Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album and a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Performance.
## Background
In 1997, Luis Miguel released his twelfth studio album Romances. It is the third record in his Romance series where he performed covers of classic Latin American boleros. It sold more than 4.5 million copies and won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance in 1998. To promote Romances, he embarked on a tour of the United States, Latin America, and Spain which lasted more than a year. By 1998, Miguel was among the most successful Latin artists internationally with album sales of more than 35 million copies worldwide. In October 1998, Mexican composer Armando Manzanero, who worked with Miguel on the Romance albums, confirmed to a reporter from Notimex that he was assisting Miguel with a new project. After a two-year absence from the music scene, Miguel announced on 19 July 1999 that he would release a new album by September. He indicated the forthcoming album would be a return to pop recordings as opposed to the bolero cover versions he had recorded on the Romance series. The album's title, Amarte Es un Placer (transl. Loving You Is a Pleasure), was announced on 17 August 1999.
Miguel held a press conference at the Casino de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, on the album's launch date of 13 September 1999. He confirmed it was the first album where he was more involved in the tracks' composition: "Here something special was done, probably because I had more time to write a few things," he added. When asked why he opted to not record an English-language album, like other Latin acts such as Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin had successfully done, Miguel replied: "I think that Spanish is a good language. I like my language and I really feel proud of it. I'm not saying that I won't do it in the future, sing in English, I mean. But it's just that it's not the right time for me. Why should I do it, just because everybody else is doing it?" He was also asked about the lack of a duet with his then-girlfriend, American singer Mariah Carey, to which he responded he does not like to mix his personal life with his career. He added that the music he performs is based on his feelings at the time, and hinted that the album's title was influenced by his relationship with Carey.
As well as co-writing several of the record's tracks, Miguel was assisted by other composers including Manzanero, Juan Carlos Calderón, and Arturo Pérez. Recording took place at the A&M Studios, Cello Studios, Ocean Way Recording, Watersound, and the Record Plant in Hollywood, California; Miguel handled the productions himself.
## Composition
Amarte Es un Placer is a pop album composed of twelve love songs. It consists mainly of orchestrated romantic ballads and several uptempo numbers. Unlike his earlier pop record Nada Es Igual... (1996), which featured dance music and hip-hop influences, Amarte Es un Placer's emphasis is on adult contemporary music. The opening track, "Tu Mirada" is a rock ballad with a guitar solo. Manzanero composed three ballads for the album: "Soy Yo", "Dormir Contigo", and "Ese Momento". The latter deals with a "narrative account of the instance when two bodies merge in fiery passion". On "Dormir Contigo", the protagonist talks about the joy of sleeping with his love interest. "Sol, Arena y Mar" is a horn-driven uptempo track with jazz influences, which describes the "pain of separation" of a love that "disappeared as quickly as the foam at the seashore".
"Quiero" is an R&B "groove" track which incorporates strings on its crescendo, a saxophone solo, and brass instruments. "Tú, Sólo Tú" is a disco-influenced, mid-tempo "groove" song. "Dímelo en un Beso" is a pop ballad which also incorporates disco music. "O Tú o Ninguna" is a bolero composed by Calderón, while "No Me Fío" is reminiscent of a 1980s power ballad. "Te Propongo Esta Noche", the album's only dance number, begins as a "smooth" R&B track until it changes to percussion-driven club music halfway through the song. The album closes with the title track which features "dramatic orchestral sweeps" throughout the tune. The song caused controversy when Mexican composer Marcos Lifshitz accused Calderón and Miguel of plagiarizing his composition "Siento nuestro aliento" which he wrote in 1997. A court ruled in favor of Lifshitz and ordered Miguel and his record label to pay 40 percent of the song's royalties as compensation.
## Singles
"Sol, Arena y Mar" was released as the first single from Amarte Es un Placer on 19 July 1999. It peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart in the United States. A remix of the song by American DJ Danny Saber was released as a single; it peaked at number two in Spain. "O Tú o Ninguna" was released as the album's second single on 6 September 1999. It reached the top of the Hot Latin Songs chart in the US for one week. Rebecca Blake filmed the music video for the track in San Francisco. The third single, "Dormir Contigo", was released in January 2000 and peaked at number 11 on the Hot Latin Songs chart. In the same month, the music video for the fourth single, "Amarte Es un Placer", was directed by Alberto Tolot and filmed in Bel-Air, California. The title track peaked at number six on the Hot Latin Songs chart.
## Promotion
To promote the album, Luis Miguel began his Amarte Es Un Placer Tour on 9 September 1999 in Gijón, Spain. In Madrid, he performed three sold-out shows, and spent a month touring Spain. His performances in Barcelona, Marbella, and Tenerife were among the country's highest grossing shows of 1999. Miguel then toured South America where he performed in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In Argentina, he drew more than 50,000 attendees to his concerts. His eight shows in Chile attracted more than 101,800 spectators, the largest audiences of the year for an artist there. The first leg of the tour ended on 11 December 1999 in Maracaibo, Venezuela. A concert was planned for the San Jose Arena in California on New Year's Eve but was canceled because the gross income would not meet Miguel's requirements.
Miguel began the second leg of his tour at the Centennial Garden in Bakersfield, California, on 1 February 2000. Two days later, he performed at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California, for five consecutive nights drawing more than 24,000 spectators. In the same month, he performed four shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and grossed \$1.4 million. He also appeared in Minneapolis on 12 February and in Fairfax on 14 February. Following his concerts at Radio City Music Hall, Miguel performed 21 consecutive shows at the National Auditorium in Mexico City beginning on 24 February. Beating the previous record of 20 set by Mexican group Timbiriche, Miguel also set the record for most attendees with an overall count of 255,000 patrons.
Miguel returned to tour in the United States on 24 March 2000, performing in several cities including Miami, Chicago, Atlantic City, and Houston. He later presented five shows in Monterrey, Mexico, from 13 to 17 April 2000. After a few more performances in the US, he ended the tour in San Diego, California on 6 May 2000. Miguel had the 23rd highest-grossing tour in the US that year, earning more than \$15.7 million from his 44 shows in the country. The tour was recognized by the William Morris Agency as the highest-grossing tour by a Spanish-speaking artist.
Miguel was accompanied by a 13-piece band during his tour which included horns, keyboards, guitars, and three female backup singers. His hour-and-a-half show consisted mainly of pop songs and ballads from Amarte Es un Placer and his earlier career, as well as medleys of boleros from the Romance-themed albums. During his concerts in Monterrey, he was joined by Cutbert Pérez's band Mariachi 2000 and performed live covers of Mario De Jesús Báez's "Y" and Rubén Fuentes "La Bikina". The shows included a large live-screen behind the stage and featured fireworks and confetti.
Of Miguel's performances in Los Angeles, The Orange County Register editor Daniel Chang commented that he "delivered a classy show that was as much fun to watch as it was to hear". He noted that Miguel "emotes a contagious energy through dramatic facial expressions, fetal-position-like contortions and physical outbursts in time with the music," and complimented his dance moves and the visual sets. Of his concert in Houston, Michael D. Clark of the Houston Chronicle wrote that Miguel "proved, once again, that it isn't necessary to change languages to reach U.S. audiences". He observed that Miguel seemed "determined to balance the upbeat with the overwrought" in contrast with his previous concerts, which were dominated by ballads. Clark was disappointed that the boleros were sung in medleys which did not allow any of them to stand out.
Jon Bream commented in the Star Tribune that Miguel's presentation in Minneapolis was "one of the most ambitious concert spectacles ever presented at the theater" and that the singer had a "captivating presence," but added his music was "not particularly distinctive". He likened Miguel's uptempo songs to Earth, Wind & Fire albeit without the "rhythmic and jazzy sophistication," considered his ballads to be "conservative pop, bathed in synthesized strings with Chicago-like horn filigree," and felt let down by Miguel's choice to perform his boleros in medleys.
On 24 October 2000, WEA released the Vivo live album and video from Miguel's concerts in Monterrey. AllMusic editor Perry Seibert gave the video album two-out-of-five stars. He criticized its lack of subtitles, closed captions, and supplemental materials, but stated it should not "dissuade fans of Latino music from checking out this entertaining DVD from Warner Bros."
## Critical reception
On its release, Amarte Es un Placer was met with mixed reviews from music critics. AllMusic editor Jose F. Promis gave it two-and-a-half out of five stars, noting that from the title "one can deduce that the material consists of romantic music, mostly in the form of ballads". He felt that the horn sections on "Sol, Arena y Mar" and "Quiero" gave the songs a "jazzy, sophisticated, adult-leaning feel" and called "Te Propongo Esta Noche" "one of the album's most interesting songs". He criticized the inclusion of "overblown ballads", citing "No Me Fío" as an example. Promis called the production "flawless" and concluded that ballads are "what the fans have come to expect" from Miguel. John Lannert of Billboard magazine was unimpressed with the record; he panned "Sol, Arena y Mar" as a "vapid, uptempo dance number". While Lannert regarded "Soy Yo" and "Dormir Contigo" as a "pair of moving romantic ballads" that could help the disc stay on top of the Billboard Latin charts, he opined it was time for Miguel to record an English-language disc and have Carey and her producers assist with such an album. Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant said that when the ballads "pile on", the album felt like "Telemundo soap-opera overkill". Nonetheless, he praised Miguel's "timing" on the uptempo songs and said his vocals make the dance tunes more "exciting".
The Houston Chronicle's Joey Guerra gave the album two-and-a-half stars out of four, saying that he was underwhelmed with the production for sounding too similar to Miguel's previous recordings. He recognized Miguel was capable of handling love songs because of his "rich, deep voice" on songs like "Tu Mirada", "Soy Yo", and "O Tú o Ninguna", but felt he "runs into trouble" on the dance tracks as he did on his prior albums. He chided "Sol, Arena y Mar" for its "tepid mix of blaring horns and uninspired lyrics" and said the other uptempo songs "don't fare any better"; he criticized the over usage of horns on every fast-paced track as "dated" and "repetitive". Mario Tarradell of The Dallas Morning News wrote a more positive review of the album, complimenting "Te Propongo Esta Noche" and lauding ballads like "Dormir Contigo" and "Ese Momento" as "sensual and solemn". Tarradell ended his review by describing Amartes Es un Placer an "enjoyable balance between high-brow ballads and hardwood workouts". Miami Herald editor Leila Cobo was disappointed with the record. She wrote that while Miguel's vocals are still "dazzling", the production sounded "dated". She found "Tú, Sólo Tú" and "Dímelo en un Beso" to be "discoish duds that lack the oomph to get you on the dance floor". Cobo also commented the tracks suffered from a lack of "strong hooks or melodies" despite Miguel having the ability to "elevate pretty much any style". Even so, Cobo praised "Dormir Contigo" for its "few memorable lyrics" and "No Me Fío" for its arrangements.
Fred Shuster of the Los Angeles Daily News rated the record three out of four stars and complimented the arrangements which he found to be "gorgeous". He felt the best tracks were the ones that Miguel co-wrote and highlighted "Sol Arena y Mar" and "O Tú o Ninguna" as standouts. The Los Angeles Times critic Ernesto Lechner gave the album two-and-a-half out of four stars, lamenting it "continues Latin pop's disheartening search for the glossiest production imaginable". He found the ballads to be "drenched in orchestral accompaniment," although he commended Manzanero's compositions. Regardless, Lechner opined the uptempo tracks "lack the sophistication that defines most pop today". Richard Torres, who wrote a more favorable review of the album for Newsday, said that Amarte Es un Placer continues Miguel's talent of infusing "lushly orchestrated torch songs with genuine passion". He praised his vocals for conveying the "giddy rush of romance followed by the ache of love lost". He also admired the dance tunes for their musical styles and proclaimed the songs penned by Manaznero the best tracks.
Daniel Chang of the Orange County Register rated the album three-and-a-half out of five stars and touted the delivery of Miguel's voice as well as the songs which help him convey his message. Chang noted that, "Even on weaker numbers, Miguel makes it work". The San Diego Union-Tribune's editor Ernesto Portillo, Jr. gave the disc three out of four stars. While he regarded "Sol, Arena y Mar" as a "jaunty pop tune that sounds vaguely like previous Miguel horn-driven numbers," he felt that Miguel excelled best on the ballads citing "Soy Yo" as an example. He called the record the best outside of the Romance series. Eliseo Cardona, writing for El Nuevo Herald, noted that even though Miguel's musical style does not evolve, he still retains the finesse required to produce an album, and remarked that the jazz elements and the symphony work well on the album.
## Accolades
At the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000, Amarte Es un Placer received a nomination for Best Latin Pop Performance, which went to Tiempos by Rubén Blades. At the inaugural Latin Grammy Awards in the same year, Miguel won the Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (for "Tu Mirada"). Miguel did not attend the award ceremony and declined an invitation to perform. At the 12th Annual Lo Nuestro Awards, it was nominated for Pop Album of the Year but lost to Supernatural by Santana.
The album won the award for Pop Album of the Year by a Male Artist at the 2000 Billboard Latin Music Awards. Miguel received two nominations at the 2000 El Premio de la Gente in the categories of Male Pop Artist or Group and Album of the Year; he lost both awards to MTV Unplugged by Maná. In Argentina, he was nominated for Best Male Latin Artist and Best Latin Album for Amarte Es un Placer at the 2000 Premios Gardel and awarded Best Latin Album at the 1999 Premios Amigo in Spain. The record was nominated in the category of Best Pop Album by a Male Artist at the 1999 Premios Globos which was awarded to Ricky Martin's self-titled album.
## Commercial performance
Amarte Es un Placer was released commercially on 13 September 1999. In the United States, the record debuted on top of the Billboard Top Latin Albums the week of 2 October 1999, succeeding Bailamos Greatest Hits by Enrique Iglesias. The disc spent nine weeks in this position and was later replaced by Desde un Principio: From the Beginning by Marc Anthony. It peaked at number 36 on the Billboard 200 chart, his highest debut position outside of the Romance albums, and sold more than 35,000 copies within its first week. It ended 1999 as the fifteenth bestselling Latin album in the US and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping 500,000 copies.
In Spain, the disc debuted on top of the Spanish albums chart and was certified 7× platinum by the Productores de Música de España for shipping 700,000 copies. In Argentina, Amarte Es un Placer peaked at number six on the Argentina albums chart and was certified 5× platinum for shipping 300,000 copies. In Chile, it was certified quadruple platinum and was the second bestselling album of 1999 in the country. In Mexico, it was certified 5× platinum by the Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Elsewhere in Latin America, the record received a platinum certification in Venezuela and gold certifications in Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Amarte Es un Placer had sold 3.5 million copies worldwide.
## Track listing
All tracks produced by Luis Miguel.
## Personnel
Adapted from the Amarte Es un Placer liner notes:
### Performance credits
Brass
- Jerry Hey
- Gary Grant
- Dan Higgins
- Bill Reichenbach
- Chuck Findley
Chorus
- Carlos Murguia
- Natisse Jones
- Kenny O'Brien-Paez
- Giselda Vatcky
- Will Wheaton
- Terry Wood
- Maria del Rey
Concert masters
- Bruce Dukov
- Ralph Morrison
Drums
- Vinnie Colaiuta ("Quiero", "Tú, Sólo Tú", "No Me Fío")
- Victor Loyo ("Dímelo en un Beso", "Ese Momento", "Sol, Arena y Mar", "Te Propongo Esta Noche", "Tu Mirada", "Dormir Contigo", "O Tú o Ninguna", "Soy Yo")
Guitars
- Paul Jackson, Jr. ("Quiero", "Tú, Sólo Tú", "Dímelo en un Beso", "Sol Arena y Mar", "Te Propongo Esta Noche")
- Michael Landau ("Tu Mirada", "Dormir Contigo", No Me Fío", "O Tú o Ninguna")
Keyboards
- Robbie Buchanan ("Dormir Contigo", "Soy Yo", No Me Fío", "O Tú o Ninguna", "Amarte Es un Placer")
- Michel Colombier ("Ese Momento")
- Francisco Loyo ("Quiero", "Tú, Sólo Tú", "Dímelo en un Beso", "Sol, Arena y Mar", "Te Propongo Esta Noche", "Tu Mirada")
Orchestra director
- Pablo Aguirre ("No Me Fío", "O Tú o Ninguna")
- Michel Colombier ("Ese Momento", "Amarte Es un Placer")
- Larry Rench
- Bill Ross ("Dormir Contigo", "Soy Yo")
Percussion
- Tom Aros ("Tú, Sólo Tú", "Dímelo en un Beso", "Te Propongo Esta Noche")
- Luis Conte ("Quiero", "Sol Arena y Mar")
Viola
- Bob Becker
- Denyse Buffum
- Carole Castillo
- Brian Dembow
- Suzanna Giordano
- Mimi Granat
- John Hayhurst
- Carrie Holzman
- Vicky Miskolczy
- Jorge Moraga
- Janet Lakatos
- Carole Mukogawa
- Dan Neufeld
- Maria Newman
- Simon Oswell
- John Scanlon
- Harry Shirinian
- David Stenske
- Ron Strauss
- Mihail Zinovyev
Violin
- Richard Altenbach
- Jenny Bellusci
- Becky Bunnell
- Darius Campo
- Mario DeLeon
- Joel Deroiuin
- Bruce Dukov
- Dave Ewart
- Mike Ferrill
- Kirstin Fife
- Berj Garabedian
- Carmen Garabedian
- Pam Gates
- Julie Gigante
- Endre Granat
- Alan Grunfeld
- Clayton Haslop
- Gwenn Heller
- Lilly Ho Chen
- Pat Johnson
- Karen Jones
- Peter Kent
- Ezra Kliger
- Razdan Kuyumjian
- Natalie Leggett
- Brian Leonard
- Constance Meyer
- Horia Moroaica
- Sid Page
- Katia Popov
- Barbra Porter
- Debbie Price
- Rachel Purkin
- Kathleen Robertson
- Gil Romero
- Jay Rosen
- Marc Sazer
- Kwihee Shamban
- Daniel Shindaryov
- Leonardo Suarz-Paz
- Lesa Terry
- Olivia Tsui
- Mari Tsumura
- Margaret Wooten
- Ken Yereke
- Tiffany Yi Hu
Cello
- Bob Adcock
- Vage Ayrikyan
- Jodi Burnett
- Larry Corbett
- Steve Erdody
- Chris Ermacoff
- Stephanie Fife
- Dennis Karmazyn
- Suzie Katayama
- Armen Ksajikian
- Tim Landauer
- Dane Little
- Miguel Martinez
- Steve Richards
- Dan Smith
- Tina Soule
Bass
- Nico Abondola
- Ann Atkinson
- Drew Dembowski
- Chris Kollgaard
- Ed Meares
- Bruce Morgenthaler
- Paul Morin
- Dave Stone
Wind section
- Phil Ayling
- Emily Bernstein
- Gary Bovyer
- Tom Boyd
- Luise DiTullio
- Mike Grego
- Greg Huckins
- Jim Kanter
- Sheridon Stokes
- Dave Shostac
- Jim Walker
French horns
- Steve Becknell
- David Duke
- Steve Durnin
- Joe Meyer
- Brian O'Connor
- John Reynolds
- Kurt Snyder
- Jim Thatcher
Harp
- Gayle Levant
- Amy Wilkins
Additional musicians
- Alejandro Caballo – synth bass
- Lalo Carillo – bass
- Francisco Loyo – synthesizer, acoustic piano
- Jeff Nathanson – saxophone
- Dean Parks – acoustic guitar
- Peter Limonick – Timpani
- Chester Thompson – Hammond B3 Organ
- David Shamban – violoncello
### Technical credits
- Luis Miguel – producer
- Alejandro Asensi – executive producer
- Armando Manzanero – music assistance
- Rafa Sardina – engineer and mixer
- John Sorenson – audio engineer and mixing ("Dímelo en un Beso", "Tú, Sólo Tú")
- Carlos Castro – additional recording
- Francisco Loyo – production assistant
- Al Schmitt – string recording engineer
- Shair Sutcliffe – production coordinator
- Alberto Tolot – photography
- Jeri and John Heiden – graphic design
- D. Ashton – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
- B. Cook – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
- G. Collins – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
- M. Huff – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
- B. Kinsley – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
- A. Olmsted – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
- C. Poledouris – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
- B. Smith – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
- Katie Teasdale – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
- Ron McMaster – mastering engineer
### Recording and mixing locations
- A&M Studios, Hollywood, CA – recording
- Cello Studios, Hollywood, CA – recording
- Ocean Way Recording, Hollywood, CA – recording
- Watersound, Studio City, CA – recording
- Lion Recording, Hollywood, CA – recording
- Record Plant, Hollywood, CA – recording, mixing
- Pacifique Studios, North Hollywood, CA – mixing ("Sol, Arena y Mar")
- Capitol Mastering, Hollywood, CA - mastering
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications and sales
## See also
- 1999 in Latin music
- List of best-selling albums in Argentina
- List of best-selling albums in Chile
- List of best-selling albums in Mexico
- List of best-selling albums in Spain
- List of best-selling Latin albums
- List of number-one albums of 1999 (Spain)
- List of number-one Billboard Top Latin Albums from the 1990s
- List of number-one Billboard Latin Pop Albums from the 1990s
- List of number-one Billboard Latin Pop Albums from the 2000s
- List of number-one debuts on Billboard Top Latin Albums
|
11,294,284 |
22nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
| 1,166,291,052 |
American Civil War regiment of the Union Army
|
[
"1861 establishments in Massachusetts",
"Military units and formations disestablished in 1864",
"Military units and formations established in 1861",
"Units and formations of the Union Army from Massachusetts"
] |
The 22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union army during the American Civil War. The 22nd Massachusetts was organized by Senator Henry Wilson (future Vice-President during the Ulysses Grant administration) and was therefore known as "Henry Wilson's Regiment." It was formed in Boston, Massachusetts, and established on September 28, 1861, for a term of three years.
Arriving in Washington in October 1861, the regiment spent the following winter in camp at Hall's Hill, near Arlington in Virginia. It became part of the Army of the Potomac, with which it would be associated for its entire term of service. The regiment saw its first action during the siege of Yorktown in April 1862. It was involved in the Peninsular campaign, particularly the Battle of Gaines' Mill during which it suffered its worst casualties (numerically) of the war. Their worst casualties in terms of percentages took place during the Battle of Gettysburg (60 percent). The 22nd Massachusetts was present for virtually all of the major battles in which the Army of the Potomac fought, including the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg and Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant's Overland campaign. The 22nd was especially proficient in skirmish drill and was frequently deployed in that capacity throughout the war.
During the siege of Petersburg in October 1864, the 22nd Massachusetts was removed from the lines and sent home to Massachusetts. Of the 1,100 who initially belonged to the unit, only 125 returned at the end of their three years of service. Of these losses, roughly 300 were killed in action or died from wounds received in action, approximately 500 were discharged due to wounds or disease, and approximately 175 were lost or discharged due to capture, resignation, or desertion.
## Organization and early duty
Henry Wilson, a Senator from Massachusetts and chairman of the Senate's Committee on Military Affairs, witnessed the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. The disastrous defeat of the Union army convinced Wilson, and the federal government in general, of the urgent need for more troops. Immediately after the battle, Wilson promised both President Abraham Lincoln and Massachusetts Governor John Andrew that he would raise a full brigade including units of infantry, artillery, cavalry and sharpshooters.
Wilson's prestige encouraged the almost immediate formation of more than a dozen companies of infantry in and around Boston. The pressing need to send troops to the front required Wilson to abandon his original intention of raising multiple regiments of infantry and he instead selected the 10 companies closest to readiness, thus creating the 22nd Massachusetts Regiment. To this regiment were attached the 3rd Massachusetts Light Artillery and the 2nd Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters. Thus, the 22nd Massachusetts became one of the few infantry units in the Civil War with attached artillery and sharpshooters.
Many of the officers of the 22nd, and some of the enlisted men, had just completed an enlistment with early war regiments (the so-called "ninety day regiments"), including the 5th Massachusetts and the 6th Massachusetts. Five of the 10 companies were recruited in Boston. The remaining five came from Taunton, Roxbury, Woburn, Cambridge and Haverhill.
The regiment was signed into existence by Gov. Andrew on September 28, 1861. Wilson was appointed its first colonel. The recruits of the 22nd Massachusetts trained at a camp in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, during September and left for the front, numbering 1,117, on October 8, 1861. Traveling by railroad, the regiment paused in New York City, marching down Fifth Avenue, and was received with a formal ceremony and the presentation of a national battle flag made by a committee of the ladies of New York.
The 22nd arrived in Washington on October 11, and on October 13, marched across the Potomac to go into winter camp at Halls Hill, just outside Arlington, Virginia. Here the Army of the Potomac was organized during the winter of 1861–1862. The 22nd became part of Brig. Gen. John H. Martindale's brigade and was initially attached to the III Corps.
On October 28, 1861, Col. Wilson resigned his command, turning the regiment over to Col. Jesse Gove. Gove, a Regular Army officer, had seen service in the Mexican–American War. He was a strict disciplinarian and, according to John Parker (the regimental historian) Gove soon became the "idol of the regiment". During its first winter of service, the 22nd remained at Hall's Hill and became proficient in military drill.
## Peninsular campaign
Major General George B. McClellan, commanding the Army of the Potomac, determined to take the Confederate capital of Richmond via the Virginia Peninsula. This unexpected move would, in theory, allow McClellan's army to move quickly up the peninsula rather than fighting through Northern Virginia. During March 1862, the Army of the Potomac was gradually transferred by water to Fortress Monroe at the end of the Virginia Peninsula. On March 10, 1862, the 22nd left their winter camp and were shipped to Fortress Monroe. By April 4, the regiment began to advance, along with many other elements of the Army of the Potomac, up the peninsula.
### Siege of Yorktown
As Union forces approached Yorktown, Virginia they encountered defensive lines established by Confederate Major General John B. Magruder. Initially, Magruder's forces numbered only 11,000 with McClellan's numbering 53,000. McClellan also had the rest of the Army of the Potomac en route and Union troops outside of Yorktown would soon number more than 100,000. Despite this, McClellan believed he faced a much larger force and settled in for a month-long siege of Yorktown.
The 22nd Massachusetts saw their first action of the war near Yorktown on April 5, 1862, as the regiment was ordered to probe the Confederate lines. During the action, a portion of the regiment deployed as skirmishers under fire with great precision. The 22nd's reputation for expertise at skirmish drill would continue throughout the war and the regiment would frequently be used in this capacity. Over the course of the month-long siege, the 22nd was encamped near Wormley Creek approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Yorktown, frequently forming up at a moment's notice in expectation of an attack. On May 4, the Confederates evacuated their lines, retreating towards Richmond. The 22nd was on picket duty when rumors of the evacuation began to circulate. Colonel Gove determined to investigate and advanced the 22nd towards the Confederate trenches. According to the regimental historian, Gove was the first Union soldier to mount the Confederate works and the 22nd's flag was the first planted on the ramparts outside of Yorktown.
Over the next three weeks, McClellan pushed his army northwest up the Peninsula towards Richmond. The 22nd traveled by steamship and by foot, eventually reaching Gaines' Mill, Virginia where they set up camp on May 26, 1862, about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Richmond. During this movement, the V Corps of the Union army was formed and the 22nd became part of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps. The regiment would remain a part of the V Corps for the duration of their service.
### Battle of Gaines' Mill
After seeing minor action in the Battle of Hanover Court House on May 27, the 22nd remained in camp at Gaines' Mill for nearly a month as McClellan positioned his army for an assault on Richmond. The men of the 22nd could see the steeples of Richmond from their camp. By this time, the regiment had been reduced to roughly 750 men due to sickness over the course of the campaign and minor casualties in action.
On June 25, 1862, McClellan ordered an ineffective offensive triggering the Seven Days Battles. On June 26, General Robert E. Lee, who had recently taken command of the Army of Northern Virginia, launched a daring counter-offensive intended to drive McClellan's army away from Richmond. For the 22nd, the third day of the Seven Days Battles, the Battle of Gaines' Mill, proved to be devastating as they suffered their worst casualties of the war.
`On June 27, 1862, the V Corps, including the 22nd, pulled back to Gaines' Mill after successfully repulsing the Confederate counter-offensive at Mechanicsville. Although McClellan regarded Mechanicsville as a victory, he had lost the initiative to Lee and was already pulling his army away from Richmond despite holding the advantage of numbers. During the Battle of Gaines' Mill, the 22nd was held in reserve, behind the other regiments of their brigade. Over the course of the day, the Union regiments in their front successfully repulsed several Confederate charges. But at 6 p.m., the Union lines broke and the 22nd was suddenly exposed to the brunt of the Confederate attack. With the 22nd flanked on both sides, Colonel Gove soon gave the order to retire. Then, reluctant to yield the ground, he ordered the 22nd to about face and stand fast. Colonel Gove was killed almost immediately after delivering this order. His body was never recovered. Captain John Dunning, commanding Company D, was also killed. In the subsequent fighting the 22nd lost 71 killed, 86 wounded and 177 captured. Maj. William S. Tilton was captured and later paroled. With Lieutenant Colonel Charles Griswold on sick leave, command fell to Captain Walter S. Sampson. The 22nd eventually fell back to a ridge where they were able to make a stand with the 3rd Massachusetts Battery.`
The regimental historian wrote, "It was a sad night for the Twenty-second. Not a man but had lost a comrade, for one-half of those who marched in the morning were no longer in the ranks. Colonel Gove was killed and that was, without a doubt, one of the greatest disasters of the day." The 22nd Massachusetts and the 83rd Pennsylvania suffered roughly the same casualty rate and the two regiments lost more men killed in action than any other units on the field that day. Both regiments lost their colonels.
### Battle of Malvern Hill
The 22nd played little role in the next three days of fighting, with the exception of brief action during the Battle of Glendale during which the regiment supported the 3rd Massachusetts Battery and was credited with saving the battery from capture. By June 30, the regiment was encamped near Malvern Hill with the rest of the V Corps. The Army of the Potomac had retreated roughly 15 miles (24 km) during a running fight over the past six days and was suffering low morale. However, by July 1, the Union army was in a strong position and, that day, during the Battle of Malvern Hill, the Army of the Potomac finally stopped Lee's offensive. The 22nd, during this action, was ordered to support the 5th United States Battery. While firing in line with the battery, the men of the 22nd sang "John Brown's Body" and exhausted their 60 rounds of ammunition. After they were pulled off the line, the 22nd marched through the night to Harrison's Landing. The regiment lost nine killed, 41 wounded and eight prisoners during the Battle of Malvern Hill, roughly 20 percent.
## Northern Virginia campaign
On July 15, 1862, while the 22nd was still in camp at Harrison's Landing, Lieutenant Colonel Griswold returned from sick leave, was promoted to colonel and took command of the regiment. On August 14, the regiment broke camp and marched with the V Corps to Newport News, Virginia. McClellan had abandoned his Peninsular campaign and had been ordered to move the Army of the Potomac back to Northern Virginia to support the advance of a newly organized Union army, the Army of Virginia, under the command of Major General John Pope. The 22nd was transported by steamship to Aquia Creek, Virginia, by railroad to Fredericksburg, and by August 28 they had marched with the V Corps to Gainesville, Virginia. In the course of this march, the 22nd was detached from their brigade and assigned to picket duty. As a result, the regiment played no role in the subsequent Second Battle of Bull Run on August 30, 1862, in which the rest of their brigade was heavily engaged.
Following the disastrous defeat of Pope's army at the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Army of the Potomac, with McClellan still in command, was quickly reorganized outside of Washington during the first week of September 1862. The 22nd returned to their old camp at Halls Hill, Virginia, which they had occupied the previous winter. Sen. Wilson visited the 22nd at Halls Hill. Finding just 200 war-torn men in contrast to the 1,100 he had recruited, Wilson, with tears in his eyes, asked, "Is this my old regiment?"
## Maryland campaign
`The 22nd did not stay long at Halls Hill. With the Army of the Potomac in disarray and the Confederates on the offensive, an attack on Washington was expected at any moment. The 22nd was shifted to several different defensive entrenchments outside of Arlington, Virginia during the first week of September. Lee, however, set out to invade Western Maryland, the lead elements of his army crossing the Potomac on September 4, 1862. McClellan was slow to react to this development, but began moving elements of the Army of the Potomac northwest from Washington on September 6. On September 10, Lieutenant Colonel Tilton, having been released from Libby Prison through an officer exchange, returned to the 22nd and took command. The 22nd left Arlington on September 12. The march through Maryland was remembered by the 22nd as wearisome and profoundly dusty.`
### Battle of Antietam
As the Union army approached, Lee chose to make a stand at Sharpsburg, Maryland along Antietam Creek. On September 17, 1862, the armies engaged in the Battle of Antietam. The V Corps was held in reserve in the center of Union lines during the battle. The 22nd had a clear view of both flanks of the Union army and watched the assaults that took place over the course of the day. The V Corps, however, took no part in these assaults. Historians have criticized McClellan for his uncoordinated attacks at Antietam and for not committing the V Corps which might have broken Lee's army.
### Battle of Shepherdstown
Lee evacuated Sharpsburg on September 18, retreating towards Virginia. The 22nd, with other regiments of its corps, moved through the town the next day. As the Confederate army crossed over the Potomac, two divisions of the V Corps, including the 22nd Massachusetts, were ordered to cross into Virginia via Blackford's Ford at Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia). The movement was an ineffective attempt on McClellan's part to prevent the escape of Lee's army. The pursuing Union forces were hit with a decisive Confederate counterattack at the Battle of Shepherdstown on September 20, 1862, causing the Union divisions to quickly retreat in disorder back across the Potomac. The 22nd struggled across the river and reached the Maryland shore "half drowned". The engagement ended any efforts by McClellan to pursue Lee's army.
## Fredericksburg campaign
The 22nd Massachusetts remained in camp on the Maryland side of the Potomac for more than a month. On October 30, 1862, the 22nd broke camp and began marching south into Virginia. On November 5, Lincoln removed McClellan from command of the Army of the Potomac and replaced him with Major General Ambrose Burnside. The army moved to Falmouth, Virginia, where Burnside spent weeks orchestrating his attack on Fredericksburg just across the Rappahannock River.
### Battle of Fredericksburg
The Army of the Potomac, having constructed pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock, commenced the Battle of Fredericksburg on the morning of December 13, 1862. The Confederate army occupied the city of Fredericksburg and a high ridge behind the city known as Marye's Heights. By late morning, Union forces had taken the city and began the assault on Marye's Heights. At approximately 3:30 in the afternoon the 22nd Massachusetts, with the rest of Colonel James Barnes's brigade, crossed one of the pontoon bridges and moved through a railroad cut to the outskirts of the city. The regiment numbered about 200 men. Barnes's brigade was ordered to relieve a brigade of the IX Corps which had made a charge on the stone wall along Marye's Heights and become pinned down by Confederate fire. By the time they formed up battle lines on the open slope in front of Marye's Heights, the 22nd was under intense artillery fire from the Confederates. According to the regimental historian, "the men instinctively turned their sides to the storm" of bullets, shot and shell as they advanced and casualties were heavy. Their brigade reached Nagle's brigade and the 22nd relieved the 12th Rhode Island, taking shelter on ground covered by that regiment's casualties. Here the 22nd fired in prone position, exhausting their ammunition, yelling and cheering to keep up their courage.
Around nightfall, the 22nd was relieved by the 20th Maine. Falling back to a sunken road on the outskirts of Fredericksburg, the 22nd was still exposed to Confederate artillery and took cover as best they could. Many of the regiment had thrown away their haversacks in an effort to lighten their burden before the charge and were subsequently without food. During the night, they resorted to searching the haversacks of fallen soldiers for rations.
Just before dawn on December 14, ammunition was issued and the 22nd moved forward slightly, to about the position on the open slope that they had occupied the day before. Here they spent another day pinned to the ground, unable to advance or retire due to the constant fire of Confederate riflemen. Nightfall finally brought relief as another unit took their place on the field and the 22nd retired to the city of Fredericksburg.
The 22nd spent the next day, December 15, in the city of Fredericksburg, hearing rumors that Burnside intended to personally lead another assault on the heights. But no attack materialized, night came, and the V Corps crossed the pontoon bridges back to Falmouth, with the 22nd acting as rear guard. During the battle of Fredericksburg, the 22nd lost 12 killed and 42 wounded, roughly 28 percent casualties.
## Camp Gove
The 22nd set up winter camp on the outskirts of Falmouth, Virginia on December 22, 1862. The camp was located about 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of Stoneman's Station, now known as Leeland Station. The men built crude log huts with improvised chimneys made of mud and sticks. Here the regiment would remain for approximately six months during the first half of 1863. The camp was named "Camp Gove" in honor of their fallen colonel.
While at Camp Gove, the 22nd Massachusetts, with the rest of the V Corps, was frequently deployed on expeditions of varying importance. On January 20, 1863, the regiment took part in the infamous Mud March during which Burnside attempted to attack the flank of the Confederate army which was still encamped at Fredericksburg. The roads were so impassable that the Union army bogged down and the entire effort was aborted. The 22nd returned to Camp Gove five days after they left.
The 22nd also participated, in a minor capacity, in the Battle of Chancellorsville. On April 27, Brig. Gen. Charles Griffin's division, including the 22nd, was ordered to secure the fords along the Rapidan River. It was a long, rapid, forced march for the division. The Confederate army launched a daring and successful flank attack against the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, during which the 22nd saw little action. The Union army, badly defeated, retreated back across the Rappahannock and the 22nd returned to Camp Gove on May 8.
In late May, Colonel Tilton of the 22nd was promoted to the command of the brigade and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Sherwin assumed command of the 22nd.
## Gettysburg campaign
On May 28, 1863, the 22nd Massachusetts packed up and left Camp Gove. Their corps was deployed along the Rappahannock, upriver of Fredericksburg, as an observation force to determine what movements were being made by Lee's army. In this, they were unsuccessful. Lee's army slipped away from Fredericksburg on June 3 and began a long march that would lead to an invasion of Pennsylvania. The 22nd learned of Lee's movements on June 13 when the V Corps was ordered to march northward. By this time, the entire Army of the Potomac was on the move. The two armies would eventually meet, almost three weeks later, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
### Battle of Gettysburg
By June 30, 1863, the 22nd had reached Union Mills, Maryland after weeks of hard marching. On July 1, they marched 10 miles (16 km) to Hanover, Pennsylvania, completely unaware that elements of the Army of the Potomac had engaged the Confederates some 15 miles (24 km) away in the first day of fighting during the Battle of Gettysburg. Not long after they settled down for the evening, orders came for them to march. The 22nd, and the rest of the V Corps, marched through the night to Gettysburg, reaching the battle around dawn on July 2. The V Corps was stationed well behind the center of the Union lines, awaiting deployment to one flank or the other. The men of the 22nd fell to the ground and caught a few hours sleep even as the second morning of battle raged not far from their position. At Gettysburg, the regiment had only 67 men.
At about 4 p.m., the V Corps was ordered to advance in support of the III Corps. Barnes's division passed north of Little Round Top and deployed just south of the Wheatfield along a small, stony hill within sight of the Rose farmhouse which was directly in their front. Once deployed, the soldiers of the 22nd began to pile paper cartridges on the ground in front of them, sensing they would be holding that ground for some time.
As the III Corps retreated, Tilton's brigade was directly exposed to the oncoming Confederates. The 22nd was soon engaged by Kershaw's brigade of South Carolinians. Apparently unnerved by the sudden Confederate advance and perceiving that his right flank was exposed, Brig. Gen. Barnes, the 22nd's division commander, ordered the withdrawal of his division. The men of the 22nd picked up their cartridges and yielded the ground. This withdrawal back across the Wheatfield to Trostle's Farm left a gap in the Union line. Barnes and Tilton were both subject to much criticism from other officers on the field for this withdrawal, which Barnes apparently ordered without consulting his superiors. The gap left by Barnes's division was eventually filled by brigades of the II Corps after hard fighting. The 22nd fought from their new position along a stone wall on Trostle's Farm and was eventually pulled back to the north side of Little Round Top by about 6 p.m.
On the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the 22nd was posted in the ravine between Little Round Top and Big Round Top. The ground was heavily wooded and rocky. Here they piled up stones and took shelter from the Confederate sharpshooters in Devil's Den about 500 yards (460 m) to their front. The regiment remained in this position while Pickett's Charge, Lee's unsuccessful attempt to break Union lines, took place well north of the 22nd's position.
During the Battle of Gettysburg, the regiment suffered 15 killed and 25 wounded or 60 percent. In terms of percentages, this represented the regiment's highest number of casualties in an individual battle.
## Camp Barnes
On September 9, 1863, the 22nd was reinforced by 200 draftees, once again fielding respectable numbers. During the latter half of 1863, the 22nd was involved in some minor engagements along the Rappahannock River including the Second Battle of Rappahannock Station and the Battle of Mine Run. No significant progress was made by the Army of the Potomac that fall, and the 22nd settled into a camp near Brandy Station, Virginia which they named "Camp Barnes" after their division commander who had been wounded at Gettysburg. In March 1864, Col. Tilton was relieved of command of his brigade and returned to the command of the 22nd Massachusetts.
## Overland campaign and the siege of Petersburg
On April 30, 1864, the 22nd broke camp and marched southeast from Rappahannock Station. Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant had now assumed command of Union forces as general-in-chief and although Major General George Meade remained in command of the Army of the Potomac, Grant was determined to follow the army in the field, directing its movements. The resulting campaign during the spring of 1864 was known as the Overland campaign and saw relentless attacks on the part of the Union army under Grant. The reinforced 22nd began the campaign with about 300 men. By the close of the campaign, the regiment would be reduced to about 100.
During the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5–6, 1864, the regiment lost 15 killed and 36 wounded. The regiment was heavily engaged in the Battle of Spotsylvania on May 9–10. On May 10, the 22nd was ordered to take a line of rifle pits that had been abandoned by Union troops and taken by the Confederates. The 22nd deployed as skirmishers under the command of Major Mason Burt and advanced under heavy fire. The regiment was successful in taking the Confederate position, but at a heavy cost of 17 killed and 57 wounded, nearly 50 percent. During the Battles of North Anna and Totopotomoy Creek, the 22nd acted again as skirmishers, winning praise for their maneuvers in advance of their division.
By this time, Grant had pushed Lee's army south to within 10 miles (16 km) of Richmond. The final assault of the Overland campaign came with the Battle of Cold Harbor—a number of futile attempts by Grant over the course of June 1–3 to break the heavily entrenched Confederate lines. The 22nd was active during all three days of the battle, particularly on June 3 when they were again deployed as skirmishers in front of their brigade, now commanded by Col. Jacob B. Sweitzer, in the vicinity of Bethesda Church. Sweitzer's brigade, with the 22nd in the advance, made a charge across open ground, pushing back the Confederate forces in their front. During the Battle of Cold Harbor, the 22nd lost 11 killed and 11 wounded, now numbering less than 100.
Lee's army now dug in around Petersburg, Virginia and the long siege of Petersburg commenced with several frontal assaults on the Confederate position. The 22nd took part in the assault on June 18, 1864. Again the regiment was deployed as skirmishers in front of their brigade. They were ordered to take a ravine alongside the Norfolk Railroad. Advancing at a run in the face of heavy canister fire, the 22nd reached the ravine. However, in that position they were subjected to severe musket and artillery fire from the Confederates, and so they pushed forward to the Norfolk Railroad cut, forcing the Confederates back to their entrenchments. In the assault on Petersburg, the 22nd lost seven killed and 14 wounded.
During the latter part of June 1864, the 22nd was marched to several different positions along the siege lines outside of Petersburg, expecting to participate in another assault. Finally, around June 30, 1864, the regiment was stationed in the trenches and remained there for six weeks.
## Mustering out
On August 8, 1864, the 22nd was pulled from the trenches and posted on guard duty at City Point, Virginia, the main supply depot of the Union army. Maj. Gen. Meade had specifically requested a depleted unit whose term of service was nearly up for this duty. They remained there until October 3, their three years of service having expired. Those of the regiment who had chosen to re-enlist, along with the remaining draftees who had joined the unit in 1863, were consolidated with the 32nd Massachusetts. The remaining men of the 22nd who had served their three years and did not wish to re-enlist, 125 in number, returned to Boston by railroad, arriving on October 10. After ceremonies in Boston, the regiment was officially mustered out on October 17, 1864.
## Legacy
### Notable members
After the war, several former members of the 22nd Massachusetts went on to achieve notable accomplishments in various fields.
Senator Henry Wilson, founder of the unit, was well known during the war for his antislavery political stance. After the war, he became one of the leading Radical Republicans in Congress, pressing for civil rights for former slaves and harsh treatment of former Confederates. In 1872, the same year he was elected Vice-President under Ulysses Grant, Wilson published the first volume of his History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, a severe criticism of slave owners and their primary role, according to Wilson, in bringing about the Civil War.
Nelson A. Miles joined the 22nd Massachusetts as a first lieutenant but was soon transferred. In 1862, he became colonel of the 61st New York Infantry. After the war, Miles became a colonel in the Regular Army and steadily rose through the ranks, ultimately becoming the Commanding General of the United States Army in 1895.
Arthur Soden served as a hospital steward with the 22nd Massachusetts. After the war, he went on to become an influential figure during the formative years of Major League Baseball as president of the Boston Red Stockings and, briefly, as the president of the National League.
Marshall S. Pike was a well-known singer, poet and songwriter before the war. He served as drum major for the 22nd regimental band and was taken captive at the battle of Gaines' Mill. After his release in December 1862, he was discharged and resumed his career as an entertainer and songwriter.
### Regimental Association
As the remains of the regiment were en route back to Boston in October 1864, the officers met to form a regimental association to organize annual reunions of the officers. These reunions were eventually opened to enlisted men and the reunions became large events. In 1870, the regimental association was more formally organized with the election of officers and the establishment of by-laws. Its purpose was "to preserve the history and perpetuate [the 22nd's] deeds and their men". The reunions were typically held at the Parker House in Boston. The association organized a number of projects in honor of the 22nd's former members including placing a bust of Henry Wilson in the Massachusetts State House and the construction, in 1885, of the 22nd Massachusetts regimental monument near the Wheatfield on the Gettysburg battlefield.
### Reenactment group
The 22nd Massachusetts is memorialized by a group of Civil War re-enactors, the 22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Inc., who portray Company D of the regiment at various civic events, educational programs, and Civil War re-enactments. The group is based on the South Shore of Massachusetts.
## See also
- Massachusetts in the Civil War
- List of Massachusetts Civil War units
|
465,846 |
Battle of Cape Ecnomus
| 1,168,535,465 |
Naval battle of the First Punic War; one of the largest naval battles ever
|
[
"250s BC conflicts",
"256 BC",
"3rd century BC in the Roman Republic",
"Military history of Sicily",
"Naval battles of the First Punic War"
] |
The Battle of Cape Ecnomus or Eknomos (Ancient Greek: Ἔκνομος) was a naval battle, fought off southern Sicily, in 256 BC, between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic, during the First Punic War (264–241 BC). It was the largest battle of the war and one of the largest naval battles in history. The Carthaginian fleet was commanded by Hanno and Hamilcar; the Roman fleet jointly by the consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus. It resulted in a clear victory for the Romans.
The Roman fleet of 330 warships plus an unknown number of transports had sailed from Ostia, the port of Rome, and had embarked approximately 26,000 picked legionaries shortly before the battle. They planned to cross to Africa and invade the Carthaginian homeland, in what is now Tunisia. The Carthaginians were aware of the Romans' intentions and mustered all available warships, 350, off the south coast of Sicily to intercept them. With a combined total of about 680 warships carrying up to 290,000 crew and marines, the battle was possibly the largest naval battle in history by the number of combatants involved.
When the fleets met, the Carthaginians took the initiative and the battle devolved into three separate conflicts, where the Carthaginians hoped that their superior ship-handling skills would win the day. After a prolonged and confusing day of fighting, the Carthaginians were decisively defeated, losing 30 ships sunk and 64 captured to Roman losses of 24 ships sunk.
## 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; Rome had recently unified mainland Italy south of the Po under its 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. By 256 BC, the war had grown into a struggle in which the Romans were attempting to defeat decisively 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. The Romans were essentially a land-based power and had gained control of most of Sicily. The war there had reached a stalemate, as the Carthaginians focused on defending their well-fortified towns and cities; these were mostly on the coast and so could be supplied and reinforced without the Romans being able to use their superior army to interfere. The focus of the war shifted to the sea, where the Romans had little experience; on the few occasions they had previously felt the need for a naval presence they had relied on small squadrons provided by their allies.
### Ships
During this period the standard warship of the Carthaginian navy 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; 98 long tons). The galley expert John Coates has suggested that they could maintain 7 knots (8.1 mph; 13 km/h) for extended periods. The quinquereme was superior as a warship to the previous mainstay of Mediterranean navies, the trireme, and, being heavier, performed better than the triremes in bad weather. The modern replica galley Olympias has achieved speeds of 8.5 knots (9.8 mph; 15.7 km/h) and cruised at 4 knots (4.6 mph; 7.4 km/h) for hours on end.
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. At least one man on each oar would need to have had some experience if the ship was to be handled effectively. Vessels were built as cataphract, or "protected", ships, with a closed hull to protect the rowers, and a full deck able to carry marines and catapults. Carthaginian quinqueremes used a separate "oar box" which contained the rowers and was attached to the main hull. This development meant the rowers would be located above or at deck level, which allowed the hull to be strengthened, and increased carrying capacity; as well as improving the ventilation conditions of the rowers, an important factor in maintaining their stamina, and thereby improving the ship's maintainable speed.
In 260 BC Romans set out to construct a fleet of 100 quinqueremes and 20 triremes. They 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 so 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 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.
### Naval operations
Getting the oarsmen to row as a unit, let alone to execute the more complex battle manoeuvres, required long and arduous training. As a result, the Romans were initially at a disadvantage against the more experienced Carthaginians. To counter Carthaginian superiority, the Romans introduced the corvus, a bridge 1.2 m (4 ft) wide and 11 m (36 ft) long, with a heavy spike on the underside, which was designed to pierce and anchor into an enemy ship's deck. This allowed Roman legionaries acting as marines to board enemy ships and capture them, rather than employing the previously traditional tactic of ramming. All warships were equipped with rams, a triple set of 60-centimetre-wide (2 ft) bronze blades weighing up to 270 kilograms (600 lb) positioned at the waterline. They were made individually by the lost-wax method to fit immovably to a galley's prow. In the century prior to the Punic Wars, boarding had become increasingly common and ramming had declined, as the larger and heavier vessels adopted in this period lacked the speed and manoeuvrability necessary to ram, while their sturdier construction reduced the ram's effect even in case of a successful attack. The Roman adaptation of the corvus was a progression of this trend and compensated for their initial disadvantage in ship manoeuvring skills. However, the added weight in the prow compromised the ship's manoeuvrability, and in rough sea conditions the corvus became useless.
Largely because of the Romans' use of the corvus, the Carthaginians were defeated in large naval battles at Mylae in 260 BC and Sulci in 257 BC. These victories, and their frustration at the continuing stalemate in Sicily, led the Romans to focus on a sea-based strategy and to develop a plan to invade the Carthaginian heartland in North Africa and threaten their capital, Carthage (close to what is now Tunis), in the hope of a war-winning outcome. Both sides were determined to establish naval supremacy and invested large amounts of money and manpower in maintaining and increasing the size of their navies.
## Prelude
The Carthaginian fleet mustered at Carthage in the late spring of 256 BC, before sailing for Lilybaeum (modern Marsala), their major base in Sicily, to resupply and to embark soldiers to use as marines. It then sailed east along the coast of Sicily to Heraclea Minoa, the easternmost of the Sicilian towns the Carthaginians still held and was joined by those ships already operating from Sicily, at least 62 and probably more. These brought the Carthaginian fleet up to 350 ships, nearly all quinqueremes, commanded by Hanno, who had been defeated at Agrigentum six years earlier, and Hamilcar, the victor of the Battle of Thermae (not to be confused with Hamilcar Barca).
The Romans mustered at about the same time, probably at Ostia, the port of Rome. The Roman fleet consisted of 330 warships, the large majority quinqueremes. They were accompanied by an unknown number of transports, mostly carrying the horses of the invasion force. The two consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus, were given command of the fleet; each sailed in a hexareme, the only larger ships noted as participating in the battle. The Roman fleet sailed south along the coast of Italy, crossed to Sicily at Messana, and sailed south and then west to the roadstead at Phintias (modern Licata) where they rendezvoused with the Roman army on Sicily. The Roman fleet embarked 80 picked legionaries on each warship, intending to either land them in Africa in pursuit of their strategic objective or to complement the galleys' marines if the Carthaginian navy challenged them.
In total the Roman fleet had 140,000 men on board: rowers, other crew, marines and soldiers. The number of Carthaginians is less certainly known but was estimated by Polybius at 150,000, and most modern historians broadly support this. If these figures are approximately correct, then the Battle of Ecnomus is possibly the largest naval battle of all time, by the number of combatants involved.
Rather than sail directly from Phintias for North Africa, the Romans sailed west, intending to cross the Strait of Sicily at its narrowest point. This would minimise the time the fleet spent in the open sea; ships of the time, especially the less seaworthy galleys, kept in sight of land whenever possible. The Carthaginians were aware of the Roman intentions and correctly anticipated their route. They intercepted the Roman fleet to the east of Heraclea Minoa, after it had left Licata. The fleets are commonly stated to have met off Cape Ecnomus, immediately after the Romans left Licata. However, this is not supported by Polybius, or any other primary source; it is a modern convention. The medieval historian Joannes Zonaras cites Dio Cassius to locate the battle immediately to the east of Heraclea Minoa.
## Battle
The Roman fleet moved along the Sicilian coast in a compact formation. They were deployed in four squadrons, of unequal size. The first two squadrons (I and II) led the way, each arrayed in echelon, together forming a wedge. The squadron on the right was under Vulso and the squadron on the left under Regulus. The consuls' hexaremes sailed alongside each other, at the "point" of the wedge. The third squadron (III) was immediately behind them, towing the transports. The fourth (IV) was in line abreast, protecting the rear. The Carthaginians sailed east, expecting to encounter the Roman fleet, and were possibly warned of its approach by small scout-ships. They were organised in three unequally-sized squadrons, arranged in a single line abreast with their left, landward, wing (1) advanced. The Carthaginian centre (2) was commanded by Hamilcar and their right (3) by Hanno. The fleets sighted each other and both advanced.
As the two leading Roman squadrons, their first and second, made for the middle of the Carthaginian line, Hamilcar staged a feigned retreat with his centre, the Carthaginian second squadron, probably by rowing in reverse, and the consuls pursued. The Roman third squadron, towing the transports, fell behind and a gap opened between the two leading and the two rear Roman squadrons. Both Carthaginian wings advanced on the two rearmost squadrons, by-passing the Roman centre and attempting to attack from the flanks to avoid the corvus boarding mechanism. The Carthaginian landward squadron, the first, attacked the Roman warships towing transports, the Roman third squadron, which had been exposed by the advance of their centre. The Romans cast off their tows to be able to manoeuvre. Hanno's force, to seaward, the Carthaginian third squadron, was composed of the fastest and most manoeuvrable Carthaginian ships and attacked the Roman squadron at the rear of their fleet, their fourth; which was being impeded by the now-drifting transports. Having separated the Roman centre from the two rearmost squadrons, Hamilcar and his ships of the Carthaginian second squadron turned to fight the pursuing Romans. The battle thus devolved into three separate fights.
Modern and ancient historians have both suggested that Hamilcar's retreat was intended to specifically bring this situation about: to break up the compact Roman formation and allow the Carthaginians to use their greater tactical skill to outmanoeuvre the threat of the corvi and ram the Roman ships in their sides or rears. At the time of Ecnomus neither the speed nor manoeuvrability of the Roman ships, nor the skills of their crews, were up to the standards of the Carthaginians. The Romans had become more skilled over the four years since they first built their navy, while the recent large increase in the size of the Carthaginian navy meant many of their crews had little experience. Consequently, the superiority in their ships' manoeuvrability and their crews' seamanship was less than they thought. Furthermore, the solidly built Roman ships were less susceptible to the effect of a successful ramming attack than the Carthaginians had anticipated. The three fights became shapeless brawls, where superior ship handling counted for little. On the other hand, when the Romans were able to employ their corvi and board, they had the advantage of the experienced and heavily armoured legionaries they had embarked to transport to Africa.
The commanders of the Roman third squadron, which had been towing the transports, felt outmatched and retreated to the shore. Despite having started the battle echeloned forward from their main fleet, their opponents, the ships of the Carthaginian first squadron, were unable to cut them off from the coast. Once there, the Roman third squadron took up a defensive position: they halted in shallow water, facing away from land, so that the Carthaginians could only attack their flanks with difficulty, and had to face the Romans' corvi if they attacked from the front. In spite of this, this fight was the one where the Romans were most hard-pressed. The rearmost Roman squadron was also outfought by the Carthaginian's third squadron. It put up a stout resistance, but its situation became desperate.
The battle was decided in the fight between the two fleets' centres – the Roman first and second squadrons fighting the Carthaginian second squadron. Several Roman ships were rammed and sunk, as were several Carthaginian. More Carthaginian ships were boarded and captured. After a long fight the crews of the surviving ships of the Carthaginian centre lost heart and fled. The Roman centre broke off its pursuit in response to the consuls' signals, and rowed back to assist their two rear squadrons, and to rescue the drifting transports. Vulso's first squadron attacked the Carthaginian first squadron. Regulus' second squadron launched an attack against Hanno's third squadron. He approached the Carthaginians from their disengaged side, threatening to trap them against the Roman fourth squadron which they were already fighting. Hanno withdrew with those ships of the Carthaginian third squadron that were able to extricate themselves. Regulus and his Roman second squadron then moved to reinforce Vulso's attack with the Roman first squadron on the last Carthaginian squadron still fighting, the first, which was now surrounded. This was when the Carthaginians suffered their heaviest losses; 50 of their ships, trapped against the shore and heavily outnumbered, surrendered. After a prolonged and confused day of fighting the Carthaginians had been decisively defeated, losing 30 ships sunk and 64 captured to Roman losses of 24 ships sunk. The Carthaginians lost between 30,000 and 40,000 men, the majority captured; Roman casualties were approximately 10,000 killed.
## Aftermath
Following the battle, the Romans landed in Sicily for repairs, to rest the crews, and to reorganise their forces. The prows of the captured Carthaginian ships were sent to Rome to adorn the speaker's platform of the Forum, according to the tradition initiated after the Battle of Mylae. The Carthaginian fleet fell back to home waters, where it prepared to fight again. Its commanders were unable to predict the Roman landing point and were on the western side of Cape Bon when the Romans under Regulus successfully landed on the east at Aspis (modern Kelibia) and besieged it. Manlius returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph. Hamilcar and 5,500 Carthaginian troops were withdrawn from Sicily to reinforce the Carthaginian army in Africa.
Regulus' invasion initially went well and in 255 BC the Carthaginians sued for peace. The terms proposed by Regulus were so harsh that the Carthaginians fought on, defeating his army. The Romans sent a fleet to evacuate their survivors and the Carthaginians attempted to oppose it. In the resulting Battle of Cape Hermaeum off Africa the Carthaginians were heavily defeated, losing 114 ships captured. The Roman fleet, in turn, was devastated by a storm while returning to Italy, losing 384 ships and 100,000 men. It is possible that the presence of the corvus made the Roman ships much less seaworthy; there is no record of their being used after this disaster.
The war eventually ended in 241 BC with a Roman victory at the Battle of the Aegates Islands, leading to an agreed peace. Henceforth Rome was the leading military power in the western Mediterranean, and increasingly the Mediterranean region as a whole. The immense effort of building 1,000 galleys during the war laid the foundation for Rome's maritime dominance for 600 years.
## Notes, citations and sources
|
23,257,065 |
Limusaurus
| 1,170,346,586 |
Genus of theropod dinosaur
|
[
"Abelisaurs",
"Fossil taxa described in 2009",
"Fossils of China",
"Jurassic China",
"Late Jurassic dinosaurs of Asia",
"Oxfordian life",
"Paleontology in Xinjiang",
"Taxa named by Catherine Forster",
"Taxa named by Xu Xing"
] |
Limusaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now China during the Late Jurassic, around 161 to 157 million years ago. The type and only species Limusaurus inextricabilis was described in 2009 from specimens found in the Upper Shishugou Formation in the Junggar Basin of China. The genus name consists of the Latin words for "mud" and "lizard", and the species name means "impossible to extricate", both referring to these specimens possibly dying after being mired. Limusaurus was a small, slender animal, about 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) in length and 15 kg (33 lb) in weight, which had a long neck and legs but very small forelimbs (with reduced first and fourth fingers). It underwent a drastic morphological transformation as it aged: while juveniles were toothed, these teeth were completely lost and replaced by a beak with age. Several of these features were convergently similar to the later ornithomimid theropods as well as the earlier non-dinosaurian shuvosaurids.
Limusaurus was the first known member of the group Ceratosauria from Asia. It belonged to the Noasauridae, a family of small and lightly built ceratosaurs, along with its closest relative Elaphrosaurus. The pattern of digit reduction in Limusaurus has been used to support the hypothesis that the three-fingered hand of tetanuran theropods is the result of the loss of the first and fifth digits from the ancestral five-fingered theropod hand, a contested hypothesis which is relevant to the evolution of birds. The change to toothlessness in adults probably corresponded to a dietary shift from omnivory to herbivory, which is confirmed by the presence of gastroliths (stomach stones) in adults. Since many specimens were found together, it is possible Limusaurus lived in groups. Its fossils were discovered in rocks dated to the Oxfordian age. Specimens of Limusaurus (along with other small animals) appear to have been mired in mud pits created by the footprints of giant sauropod dinosaurs.
## Discovery and naming
Between 2001 and 2006, a Chinese-American team of paleontologists examining the Wucaiwan locality in the Shishugou Formation, in the northeastern Junggar Basin of Xinjiang, China, discovered three bone beds (numbered TBB 2001, TBB 2002, and TBB 2005, found by T. Yu and J. Mo). The bone beds were dominated by the remains of small theropod dinosaurs, representing at least three genera, with most belonging to a small ceratosaur, the first member of this group found in Asia. Stacked skeletons from these bone beds were removed from the field in blocks, jacketed by plaster, and encased in crates. A resin cast of block TBB 2001 was made, making it available for study after the specimens had been extracted from the original matrix. Except one, all specimens from this block are mounted in a cast of the block in its semi-prepared state.
In 2009, the small ceratosaur was described by paleontologist Xu Xing and colleagues, who named it Limusaurus inextricabilis. The genus name consists of the words limus, Latin for "mud" or "mire", and saurus, Greek for "lizard", and the species name means "impossible to extricate"; both names refer to how these specimens appear to have died after being mired. The name has also been translated as "mire lizard who could not escape". The description incorporated data from two specimens both stored at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing: the holotype (a subadult cataloged under the specimen number IVPP V 15923) is an almost complete and articulated (still connected) skeleton, missing only the hindmost tail vertebrae, and is preserved next to another specimen (a large juvenile, IVPP V 20098) which is missing the front part of the skeleton. The other (an adult, IVPP V 15304, inaccurately referred to by the number IVPP V 16134 in the original description) is a likewise almost complete and articulated specimen that is missing only the skull, and is larger than the holotype.
Seventeen additional Limusaurus specimens were described by paleontologist Shuo Wang and colleagues in 2017, excavated from the same blocks as those described in 2009. These specimens include six juveniles (one year in age or less), ten subadults (two to six years in age), and one adult (more than six years in age). These specimens are also stored at the IVPP. The toothless adults and toothed juveniles were initially thought to be different kinds of dinosaurs, and were studied separately, until it was realized they represent the same species.
## Description
Limusaurus was a small and slender animal. The holotype (which was originally considered an adult based on the level of fusion of its bones, but later as a subadult when analyzed along with other specimens) is estimated to have been about 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) in length and the weight of the animal has been estimated at 15 kg (33 lb). One adult specimen is estimated to have been 15% larger than the holotype. Several features of the animal, such as the small head with large orbits (eye openings), toothless jaws, and the long neck and legs, were very similar to those of the Cretaceous ornithomimid theropods, as well as the Triassic non-dinosaurian shuvosaurids, representing a significant case of convergent evolution among these three distinct groups of archosaurs. While Limusaurus has sometimes been depicted with feathers and may have had them, there is no direct evidence of such structures.
### Skull
The skull of Limusaurus was relatively tall and short, roughly half the length of the femur (upper thigh bone). The tip of its jaws was covered by a beak, a feature that was previously unknown in non-coelurosaurian theropods like Limusaurus (the coelurosaurs include the most bird-like dinosaurs). As in most dinosaurs, the skull featured five principal fenestrae (openings): the external naris (bony nostril), orbit, antorbital fenestra (between the nostril and eye), as well as the upper and lower temporal fenestra (on the top and on the side of the skull's rear, respectively). As in other ceratosaurians, parts of the bony nostril were formed by the maxilla (upper jaw bone); also, the antorbital fenestra was proportionally small, and the rear part of the nasal bone formed parts of the cavity which contained this opening. The external naris was large and located in a hindwards position, similar to tetanuran theropods. The orbit was large, while the lateral temporal fenestra was not as large as would be expected from more derived (or "advanced") members of the Ceratosauria. Uniquely to Limusaurus, the inner bottom edge of the premaxilla, the frontmost bone of the upper jaw, was convex. The nasal bone was distinct in having a "shelf" on its side, was short, wide, less than one-third of the length of the skull roof, and twice as long as it was wide. The lower part of the lacrimal, the bone that formed the front margin of the eye opening, was unique in being strongly inclined forwards. The jugal bone, which formed the floor of the eye opening, was slender, and its rami (or branches) were rod-like, which is also unique to this genus.
The lower jaw of ceratosaurians was pierced by a generally large mandibular fenestra. In Limusaurus, it was especially large, accounting for 40% of the length of the entire lower jaw, a distinguishing feature of the genus. The dentary (tooth-bearing bone at the front of the lower jaw) was short compared to the rest of the lower jaw, as in other ceratosaurians. The front end of the dentary was down-turned and had a convex inner margin, similar to the related Masiakasaurus. The angular bone of the lower jaw was positioned significantly forwards in relation to the hind end of the mandible, similar to other ceratosaurians. Juveniles had nine teeth in each side of the upper jaw and twelve in each side of the lower; they were gradually lost as they grew, disappearing by adulthood.
### Postcranial skeleton
The cervicals (neck vertebrae) of Limusaurus were elongated as in the closely related Elaphrosaurus, and the neck itself was long. The axis (second neck vertebra) lacked the pleurocoel (excavation) on its front end and the foramina (openings) in its neural arch that are seen in derived ceratosaurians. As in other noasaurids, the neural spines of the cervicals were positioned more towards the front end of their vertebrae than is the case in other theropods.
Distinctively, the scapula (shoulder blade) bore a prominent ridge at its front edge. It also had a comparatively high acromion process. The sternum was fused into a single, large, continuous plate, another feature that evolved independently in coelurosaurs (convergent evolution). Limusaurus also had a furcula, or wishbone, which previously was unknown among ceratosaurians. The head of the humerus (upper arm bone) was bulging, and the deltopectoral crest, a forward-directed bony flange of the humerus that served for muscle attachment, was long and angled; these features were typical for ceratosaurians. In the forearm, the radius was longer than the ulna, and the olecranon process, a bony extension on the upper end of the ulna that served for muscle attachment, was absent in Limusaurus. Both features are considered distinctive features of the genus. As in other ceratosaurians, ossified wrist bones were absent.
As is typical for ceratosaurs, the arms and hands of Limusaurus were considerably reduced, even more so than in Ceratosaurus. Limusaurus had three fingers (the middle three), as compared to the five fingers of more basal relatives; it was unique in that the first finger was missing entirely, and the first metacarpal was shorter than the other metacarpals. The second metacarpal was more robust than the other metacarpals, which is another distinctive feature of the genus. The second finger had three phalanges (finger bones). The third finger also only had three phalanges, as opposed to four in other early theropods. Although the fourth finger is not preserved, the tip of the fourth metacarpal indicates the presence of a joint and therefore the presence of a phalanx; it is likely that this was the only phalanx of the fourth finger. The unguals (claw bones) of the fingers were short, stout, and expanded at their base. They had two grooves on their sides, a feature also found in Masiakasaurus.
Among the pelvic bones, the ilium was small and tilted towards the midline of the body, as was the case in Elaphrosaurus. As in other ceratosaurians, the lower end ("boot") of the pubis was large and expanded. Unique to the genus, it pointed backwards in a hook-like shape and had a ridge on each side. The elongated legs of Limusaurus had proportions that were well-adapted to running, with their lower segments much longer than the femur: the tibiotarsus, the fusion of the tibia (shin bone) and tarsal bones, was 1.2 times the length of the femur, and the foot was 1.3 times the length of the femur. The legs were 1.8 times the length of the torso. The upper half of the femur was triangular in cross section, a feature shared with Masiakasaurus. The metatarsals of the three weight-bearing toes were arranged in an arc, with the fourth metatarsal straight and adhering tightly to the third for its entire length; these features are unique to Limusaurus. The hallux (the first toe or dewclaw) was reduced, being only 17% the length of the third metatarsal, another unique feature. As in other ceratosaurians, the unguals of the foot had two grooves on their sides.
## Classification and evolution
Limusaurus was classified as a basal member of Ceratosauria by Xu and colleagues in 2009 (who also considered the closely related Elaphrosaurus as such). It had several skull features in common with basal theropods such as other ceratosaurs and coelophysoids, but it also shared a number of traits, including the beak and the fused sternum, convergently with the later coelurosaurs. A 2012 study by paleontologists Diego Pol and Oliver Rauhut also found Limusaurus and Elaphrosaurus to be basal ceratosaurians in their phylogenetic analysis, while a 2010 study by paleontologist Martin Ezcurra and colleagues placed them in the more derived group Abelisauroidea within Ceratosauria.
A 2016 study by paleontologists Oliver Rauhut and Matthew Carrano found Limusaurus to be more derived, grouping together with Elaphrosaurus within the abelisauroid family Noasauridae. Together with an as-of-yet unnamed taxon represented by specimen CCG 20011, and not included in other analyses, the two taxa formed the clade Elaphrosaurinae; Elaphrosaurus and CCG 20011 were closer to each other than to Limusaurus within this group. Laevisuchus and Deltadromeus were placed basal to the group of Noasaurinae and Elaphrosaurinae within Noasauridae. The only known specimen of Elaphrosaurus is missing its skull and hands among other elements, and its affinities were long unclear (it was often considered an ornithomimosaur from 1928 well into the 1990s) until the more complete Limusaurus was found. The discovery of Limusaurus allowed the extrapolation of the complete length of Elaphrosaurus, 6.0–6.3 m (19.7–20.7 ft). Wang and colleagues, in 2017, also found Limusaurus and Elaphrosaurus to group in the clade Elaphrosaurinae, within the family Noasauridae. Variants of their analysis also recovered Spinostropheus as a possible additional elaphrosaurine. The Noasauridae was placed in a position outside Neoceratosauria, the group containing Ceratosaurus and Abelisauridae. The Italian paleontologist Cristiano Dal Sasso and colleagues, in 2018, found Limusaurus to be closely related to Spinostropheus, while Elaphrosaurus occupies a more basal position. A 2019 study by paleontologist Max Langer and colleagues, which was based on the same data set used by the 2016 study, also grouped Limusaurus together with Elaphrosaurus and CCG 20011. Argentinian paleontologist Mattia Baiano and colleagues, in 2020, found Limusaurus to form a clade with Elaphrosaurus as well as with the new genus Huinculsaurus.
To test the influence of the extreme anatomical changes with growth in Limusaurus, Wang and colleagues, in their 2017 study, performed separate analyses that were based on only the adult anatomy or on both the adult and juvenile anatomy. In another analysis, each Limusaurus individual was treated as an independent unit. All the juvenile Limusaurus specimens grouped together to the exclusion of adult specimens, showing that their anatomy changed significantly through growth. The inclusion or exclusion of juvenile features had little effect on the placement of Limusaurus in the phylogenetic tree.
The cladogram below shows the position of Limusaurus within Noasauridae according to Baiano and colleagues, 2020:
In addition to being the first definite ceratosaur known from Asia to be discovered, Limusaurus is also one of the earliest known members of the group, living during the Oxfordian stage of the Jurassic period (approximately 161-157 million years ago). According to Xu and colleagues, its discovery shows that the Asian dinosaur fauna was less endemic during the Middle to Late Jurassic period than previously thought, and suggests a possible land connection between Asia and other continents during that period. Biologist Josef Stiegler and colleagues stated in a 2014 conference abstract that Limusaurus is the earliest known toothless theropod, as well as the only non-bird theropod known to have had strong bilateral reduction of its digits (as the outer fingers were reduced in size).
### Digit homology
The most basal theropods had five digits in the hand. Along the lineage that led to birds the number of digits in the hand decreased; by the emergence of the group Tetanurae, which includes birds, two digits had disappeared from the hand, leaving three. Traditionally, it has been hypothesized that the digits lost were the two outermost digits, i.e. digits IV and V, in a process known as Lateral Digit Reduction (LDR). According to this scenario, the three fingers retained by tetanurans were therefore homologous (evolutionary corresponding to) with digit I, II, and III of basal theropods, which would have implications for the evolution of birds.
However, the hypothesis of LDR is in contradiction to some embryological studies on birds which show that, from five developmental sites, the digits that develop are the three middle digits (II, III, IV). This inconsistency has been a matter of debate for almost 200 years, and has been used by paleornithologist Alan Feduccia to support the hypothesis that birds are descended not from theropods but from some other group of archosaurs which had lost the first and fifth digits. The mainstream view of bird origins among paleontologists is that birds are theropod dinosaurs. To explain the discrepancy between morphological and embryological data in the context of bird origins, an alternative scenario to LDR was developed by paleontologists Tony Thulborn and Tim Hamley in 1982. In this scenario, the digits I and V of theropods were reduced in the process of Bilateral Digit Reduction (BDR), with the remaining digits developing to resemble the former digits I-III. Limusaurus was initially considered as evidence for the BDR hypothesis by Xu and colleagues in 2009 due to it—and other ceratosaurians—having a reduced first digit, with these researchers hypothesizing that a similar pattern of reduction occurred among the tetanurans (the sister group of the ceratosaurians).
Several other hypotheses have been proposed to improve upon and reconcile the LDR and BDR hypotheses. One predominantly favored hypothesis, first developed by evolutionary biologist Günter P. Wagner and paleontologist Jacques Gauthier in 1999, involves a "frameshift" of the digits; the first digit fails to grow in the first developmental site due to not receiving the necessary signals, which has the effect of shifting digits I-III to the positions of II-IV. Thus, while digits I-III from the ancestral theropod are retained, they do not grow in the same location. A version of the frameshift hypothesis modified to incorporate both elements of BDR and fossil evidence from Limusaurus and other theropods, the "thumbs down" hypothesis of biologist Daniel Čapek and colleagues from 2014, suggests that this frameshift took place after the reduction of both the first and the fourth digits in the theropod lineage. The main alternative hypothesis, supported by Xu and colleagues, known as the "lateral shift hypothesis", considers a partial, step-wise frameshift in which, from a four-fingered hand with reduced digits I and IV, I fully disappears while IV develops into a fully-fledged finger, with II-IV taking on the morphologies of the former I-III.
In a 2009 response to Xu and colleague's description of Limusaurus, biologist Alexander Vargas, Wagner and Gauthier stated in 2009 that it is plausible that ceratosaurians underwent BDR independent of the tetanurans, and therefore have no bearing on the issue of avian digit homology. Xu and colleagues replied in 2011 that they still found a step-wise shift more plausible than a hidden frameshift. As demonstrated by a teratological analysis by biologist Geoffrey Guinard in 2016, the abbreviation (mesomelia) and loss of digits (hypophalangia) in the forelimb of Limusaurus is likely the result of a developmental anomaly that appeared exclusively in and persisted throughout the evolutionary lineage of ceratosaurians, and is unconnected to the pattern of digital reduction and frameshift that occurred in tetanurans. Carrano and paleontologist Jonah Choiniere suggested in 2016 that this is supported by the hands of the ceratosaurians Ceratosaurus, Berberosaurus, and Eoabelisaurus having plesiomorphic (i.e. more similar to the ancestral condition of theropods than to derived abelisaurs) metacarpal bones comparable to those of the more basal theropod Dilophosaurus. Xu and biologist Susan Mackem stated in 2013 that the divergent developmental pathways of ceratosaurians and tetanurans are associated with a difference in forelimb function; tetanurans utilized their hands for grasping prey, while the hands of ceratosaurians almost certainly played no role in predation. An ancestral states analysis (estimation of the original anatomy of a group) by Dal Sasso and colleagues in 2018 also found that the digit reduction seen in Limusaurus occurred independently from that in tetanurans. According to this analysis, an axis shift from digit position IV to III took place at the basis of Tetanurae after the fourth finger was lost.
## Paleobiology
### Growth
Specimens of Limusaurus show 78 different anatomical changes that occurred as the animals grew. In particular, their heads became proportionally shallower, their middle hand bones lengthened, and the "hook" of their pubis grew longer. The shaft of the quadrate bone in the skull also straightened in adults, and the tips of their lower jaws became more downturned.
The most obvious change that happened during the growth of Limusaurus was the complete loss of teeth from juveniles to adults. Juveniles began with one tooth in each premaxilla, eight in each maxilla, and at least twelve in each half of the lower jaw (at least 42 teeth in total). At the next stage, the first, sixth, and eighth teeth in each maxilla, as well as the sixth in each half of the lower jaw had all been lost, although the sockets were still present, and there was a small replacement tooth in the socket of the sixth lower tooth (leaving at least 34 teeth in total). During this stage, use of teeth and normal tooth replacement likely ceased or became reduced, since none of the still-erupted teeth bear any wear marks or resorption. As the specimens grew, the transformation became more radical. In subadult and adult specimens older than one year, all the teeth were missing. CT scanning shows that only five empty tooth sockets remained in the adult maxilla; all the sockets in the lower jaw were fused into a single, hollow canal, and the rest of the tooth sockets were obliterated.
The loss of teeth with age in Limusaurus is the most extreme case of tooth morphology changing with age recorded among dinosaurs. Limusaurus is one of the few known jawed vertebrates where teeth are completely lost during growth. The other known examples are the red mullet and striped red mullet, several armored catfish, and the platypus. Meanwhile, its complicated pattern of tooth loss, from both the front and the back, is most similar to that of the avialan Jeholornis. The early halt in tooth replacement possibly resulted from the regression of the replacement tooth buds during the first year, as in the veiled chameleon. The replacement of teeth by a beak through the growth of Limusaurus suggests that beaks in other lineages of theropods, and indeed beaked animals in general, may have evolved heterochronically, i.e. with beaks first occurring in adults and then gradually appearing in juveniles as these lineages evolved. This is in accordance with the presence of genetic signal pathways (molecular processes) which control the formation of teeth in birds.
Wang and colleagues analyzed growth rings (visible in bone cross-sections and analogous to the growth rings of trees) of the tibiae from the various developmental stages of Limusaurus in 2017, and found that the animal was skeletally mature at six years of age. The bone tissue was primarily composed of fibrolamellar bone (where the internal fibres are disorganized), indicating that Limusaurus grew quickly; by contrast, the noasaurines Masiakasaurus and Vespersaurus had parallel-fibred bone indicative of slower growth, possibly due to the drier and more resource-poor environments that they would have lived in. In older specimens, the outermost growth rings are very close together (forming what is known as the external fundamental system), indicating that rapid growth had ceased in these individuals.
### Feeding and diet
Anatomical features of Limusaurus such as the small head with toothless jaws and long neck were interpreted as indicating a herbivorous diet by Xu and colleagues in 2009. Paleontologist Lindsay E. Zanno and colleagues found in 2011 that adult specimens of Limusaurus show morphological traits associated with herbivory that are shared with other groups of herbivorous theropods, including the Ornithomimosauria, Therizinosauria, Oviraptorosauria, and Alvarezsauroidea, along with the troodontid Jinfengopteryx. Wang and colleagues pointed out that adult specimens in particular are characterized by the presence of gastroliths (ingested stones retained in the stomach), with older adults having gastroliths that are larger and more numerous than those of younger adults. The size and quantity of these gastroliths are comparable to those of birds in young adults, and those of ornithomimosaurs and oviraptorosaurs in older adults. These groups of theropods all used gastroliths in processing plant matter, suggesting that Limusaurus did the same; the increased number of gastroliths in older adults may be indicative of the gut's ability to process plant matter more finely as they aged. An isotope analysis of the available specimens of Limusaurus likewise showed that adults consistently match the isotope signatures of other herbivorous dinosaurs. In the same analysis, juveniles and subadults were found to vary greatly in their isotopic signatures; this indicates that juveniles were likely omnivorous (feeding on both animals and plants), but switched to strict herbivory as they aged. This is comparable to the diet shift experienced by the aforementioned mullets and armored catfish.
### Social behavior
The paleontologist David A. Eberth and colleagues suggested in 2010 that the large number of Limusaurus specimens in the Shishugou Formation mud pits indicates they were either abundant among the small vertebrate animals in the area, or that the trapped individuals had been drawn there. They found it unlikely that animals were trapped on any basis other than size, and pointed out that it was difficult to explain why herbivores like Limusaurus would be attracted to sites where other animals were mired, so they considered it most likely that the larger number of Limusaurus fossils was due to their abundance. These authors also suggested that the abundance of Limusaurus inferred for the area and the evidence for successive, rapid burials of each individual made it possible that Limusaurus was gregarious, living in groups. There is some evidence for gregariousness in many small theropods and that there may have been social behaviours related to age, but it remains unknown whether the bone beds containing Limusaurus specimens preserve evidence of sociality and segregation related to age. Paleontologist Rafael Delcourt agreed in 2018 that since both Limusaurus and Masiakasaurus have been found in assemblages of multiple specimens each, this suggests these small ceratosaurs lived in groups.
## Paleoenvironment
All known Limusaurus fossils were recovered from the Shishugou Formation, a succession of sedimentary rocks that were deposited at the northeastern margin of the Junggar foreland basin and is about 350–400 m (1,150–1,310 ft) in thickness. The formation is dated to the Late Jurassic, around 161 to 157 million years ago. Limusaurus occurs in the upper part of the formation, which represents a variety of environments, including alluvial fans and alluvial plains, streams, wetlands, and shallow lakes. During the time when Limusaurus lived, the environment would have been relatively warm and dry, judging by the abundance of coal and carbon-rich deposits. The climate was probably highly seasonal due to monsoonal influences, with warm, wet summers and dry winters. The climate enabled the growth of a richly forested environment; the forest would have been dominated by Araucaria trees, with the undergrowth being occupied by Coniopteris, Anglopteris and Osmunda ferns, Equisetites horsetails, and Elatocladus shrubs.
The environment of the Shishugou Formation hosted a diverse assemblage of animals. More than 35 species of vertebrates are known from fossils, including at least 14 dinosaur species. Contemporaries of Limusaurus in the Wucaiwan locality include the theropods Haplocheirus, Zuolong, Guanlong, Aorun, and Shishugounykus; the sauropod Mamenchisaurus; the ornithischians Gongbusaurus, Yinlong, and Hualianceratops; the cynodont Yuanotherium; the mammal Acuodulodon; the crocodyliform Nominosuchus and another unnamed crocodyliform found with the holotype specimen of Limusaurus; and the turtles Xinjiangchelys and Annemys. Small theropod dinosaurs are generally rare in the fossil record. According to Eberth and colleagues, the high incidence of Limusaurus indicates that the abundance of small theropods is underestimated elsewhere as these animals are generally less likely to fossilize.
### Taphonomy
The known fossil material of Limusaurus consists of large assemblages of individuals mired in mud pits, which were also referred to as "dinosaur death pits" in the 2010 article by Eberth and colleagues that examined the taphonomy of the specimens within them (changes that happened during their decay and fossilization), as well as in media reporting. Two of the mud pits containing Limusaurus specimens were found at the same stratigraphic level, while a third was some 6.5 m (21 ft) higher in the stratigraphic column. The mud pits are around 2 m (6 ft 7 in) wide and range in depth from 1 to 2 m (3 ft 3 in to 6 ft 7 in). The mud pits occur within distinctive rock layers that can be followed for hundreds of meters to kilometers. These layers, though not the pits themselves, comprise pale-colored laminated successions of mudstone 0.5 to 2 m (1 ft 8 in to 6 ft 7 in) in thickness. The mudstones probably accumulated either in standing water or a water-saturated substrate; root traces at the top of the layers indicate a marsh-like environment. One of the layers is topped by a crust-like mudstone layer that indicates soil formation and exposure to air. Volcanic minerals found within the mudstone layers indicate volcanic events during deposition. The mud pits themselves show a tan-colored, silty to sandy claystone with abundant plant fragments and root traces. At their margins, the laminae of the surrounding mudstone are deformed or truncated, suggesting that the mudstone was partly fluid, plastic, and brittle at the time when the skeletons were deposited. Fragments of the crust topping one of the mudstone layers were found within the pits, indicating that the crust collapsed downwards into the pits.
The deformation structures and the consistent size of the pits suggest that they represent the footprints of giant sauropods such as Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, which was likewise found in the Shishugou Formation and would have had a mass of over 20 t (22 short tons) and a limb length of over 3 m (9.8 ft). Other possible explanations, including sand volcanoes or sinkholes, can be ruled out because characteristic sedimentological features are lacking. The possibility that the encased dinosaurs could have created the pits themselves can likewise be ruled out given their small size; the largest dinosaur found in the pits, Guanlong, would have been merely 66 cm (26 in) tall. When creating the pits, the footsteps of the sauropods could have led to soil liquefaction, resulting in smaller animals such as Limusaurus becoming stuck. In contrast to other incidences of miring in dinosaurs, where much larger individuals likely became stuck in a highly viscous sediment and got preserved in their original death positions, the mud pits containing Limusaurus were of a more liquid mud in which the carcasses floated before settling at the bottom. The size of these assemblages can be attributed to the tendency of smaller animals to become trapped in mud.
Limusaurus is the most abundant dinosaur found in the mud pits. One of the three pits, TBB2001, contained five Limusaurus individuals while other species are absent. TBB2002, on the other hand, contained five theropod dinosaur skeletons including two Limusaurus, two Guanlong and one individual of a not yet described species. The third pit, TBB2005, contained twelve Limusaurus individuals, including the holotype, but also the tail of a small ornithischian dinosaur as well as two crocodyliforms, two mammals, a turtle and three tritylodontid cynodonts. The completeness of the skeletons is variable; at least half of the theropod skeletons are complete, with missing parts due to recent erosion. Rear parts of the skeletons tend to be more common than front parts. Most individuals were embedded laying on their sides, though some lie on their backs or undersides. In pits TBB2001 and TBB2002 the skeletons lie one above the other. Bones pertaining to the same individual often lie upon each other in direct contact, while there is no direct contact between bones of separate individuals. This indicates that sediment settled within the mud pits between the burial events. These observations led Eberth and colleagues to conclude that the skeletons must have accumulated within the mud pits over an extended time span rather than during a short-term death event.
The completeness and articulation (connectedness) of the skeletons suggest rapid burial, though the presence of isolated body parts also suggests that some carcasses were exposed to the air for days or months. Evidence for scavenging, such as isolated bones, tooth marks on bones, or shed teeth of theropods, is lacking. However, it is possible that scavengers carried whole body parts away, as feeding at the pits might not have been possible. Eberth and colleagues speculated that the two Guanlong specimens preserved at the top of pit TBB2002 could have been scavenging on the mired carcasses before getting mired themselves. The horizontal orientation of the skeletons within the pits suggests that the mud was soft. The neck and tail of one specimen are bent upwards, suggesting that the carcass was pushed down towards the bottom of the pit by trampling of another animal that became trapped at a later time. Specimens typically show flexed hind limbs, indicating that the individuals died in a resting pose within the pits. The typical death poses seen in many other dinosaur skeletons, where the head and tail are drawn above the body, are absent. Eberth and colleagues found it likely that the burial of all individuals occurred in less than a year, based on the seasonality of the local climate and the similarity of the sediments of the three pits.
## See also
- Timeline of ceratosaur research
- 2009 in paleontology
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Fragment of a Crucifixion
| 1,157,419,250 |
1950 painting by Francis Bacon
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[
"1950 paintings",
"Paintings by Francis Bacon",
"Paintings depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus",
"Paintings in the Netherlands"
] |
Fragment of a Crucifixion is an unfinished 1950 painting by the Irish-born figurative painter Francis Bacon. It shows two animals engaged in an existential struggle; the upper figure, which may be a dog or a cat, crouches over a chimera and is at the point of kill. It stoops on the horizontal beam of a T-shaped structure, which may signify Christ's cross. The painting contains thinly sketched passer-by figures, who appear as if oblivious to the central drama.
Typical of Bacon's work, the painting is drawn from a wide variety of sources, including the screaming mouth of the nurse in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 film Battleship Potemkin and iconography from both the Crucifixion of Jesus and the descent from the cross. The chimera's despair forms the centrepiece of the work; its agony can be compared to Bacon's later works focusing on the motif of an open mouth.
Although the title has religious connotations, Bacon's personal outlook was bleak; as an atheist, he did not believe in either divine intervention nor an afterlife. As such, the work seems to represent a nihilistic and hopeless view of the human condition. He later dismissed the painting, considering it too literal and explicit. He abandoned the theme of the crucifixion for the following 12 years, not returning to it until the more loosely based, but equally bleak, triptych Three Studies for a Crucifixion. The painting is housed in the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
## Description
The upper creature may be a dog or a cat. Blood pours out of its mouth onto the head and body of its prey, a chimera rendered as owl-like with human facial characteristics. The prey unsuccessfully struggles to flee from its captor. The lower figure's human aspect is most notable in the details of its mouth and genitalia. Both figures are positioned in the centre foreground of the canvas, and are each mutilated and covered in blood, their physical discomfort contrasted against the flat, neutral background typical of Bacon's paintings. The figures exhibit many elements found in his early work, noticeably the expressive broad strokes set against the tightness of the flat, nondescript background. The link with the biblical Crucifixion is made through the raised arms of the lower creature, and the T-shaped cross.
The canvas is almost entirely stripped of colour. The T-shaped cross is dark blue; the two figures are painted in a mixture of white and black hues, the white tones dominating. Over half of the work is unpainted, essentially bare canvas. According to the theologian and curator Friedhelm Mennekes, the viewer's attention is thus solely focused "on the figure in agony on the cross, or more precisely: on the mouth, gaping and distorted in its cry". The body of the chimera, or hybrid bird, is rendered with light paint, and from it hang narrow red streams of paint, indicating the drips and spatter of blood. Bacon uses pentimenti to emphasise the hopelessness of the animal's death throes.
The painting contains the same white angular rails as the mid-grounds of his 1949 Head II, Head VI, and Study for Portrait of the same year. In this panel, the rails are positioned just below the area where the horizontal and vertical bars of the cross intersect. The rail begins with a diagonal line which intersects the chimera at what appears to be the creature's shoulder. The horizontal angular geometrical shape is sketched in white and grey in the mid-ground, and represents an early form of a spatial device Bacon was to develop and perfect during the 1950s, when it effectively became a cage used to frame the anguished figures portrayed in Bacon's foregrounds. In the mid-ground, the artist has sketched a street scene, which features walking stick figures and cars. The pedestrians appear oblivious to the slaughter before them.
## Imagery and sources
The bleakness of the painting is informed by the artist's harsh nihilism and existentialist view of life. Bacon was raised as a Christian, but according to his friend and biographer Michael Peppiatt, when he found he could no longer believe he was "extremely disappointed and furious, and anybody with a scrap of religious belief ... he would go for them". Peppiatt makes the observation of Bacon that "if somebody has that intensity, it's almost a faith in and of itself".
The painting has been linked both thematically and in its formal construction to Bacon's 1956 work Owls, and to preparatory sketches only brought to the art market in the late 1990s. The art critic Armin Zweite traces the origin of the lower figure to a photograph of an owl that Bacon found in a book on birds in motion; Bacon has replaced the bird's beak with a wide open human mouth.
### Open mouth
Screaming mouths appear in many of Bacon's works from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. The motif was developed from sources including medical textbooks, and images of the nurse in the Odessa Steps sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin. Bacon kept a close-up still of the screaming nurse, at the moment when she has been shot in the eye. He referred to the still in paintings throughout his career.
Bacon tended to draw images in series, and the Odessa nurse become an obsessive motif for him. According to Peppiatt, "it would be no exaggeration to say that, if one could really explain the origins and implications of this scream, one would be far closer to understanding the whole art of Francis Bacon". Gilles Deleuze wrote that, in Bacon's screams, "the entire body escapes through the mouth".
### Crucifixion
The panel is one of a number of Bacon's treatments of the biblical crucifixion scene. He also incorporates Greek legend, notably the tale of Aeschylus and the Eumenides—or Furies—found in the Oresteia, suggested by the broad wings of the chimera. Bacon's imagery became less extreme and more imbued with pathos as he got older, and fewer of his canvases contain the sensational imagery that made him famous in the mid-1940s. He admitted that, "When I was younger, I needed extreme subject-matter. Now I don't." According to John Russell, Bacon found it more effective to reflect violence in his brush strokes and colourisation, rather than "in the thing portrayed".
The title refers to Christian iconography of the Passion of Jesus. Crucifixion scenes appear from Bacon's earliest works, and appeared frequently throughout his career. Russell writes that, to Bacon, the crucifixion was a "generic name for an environment in which bodily harm is done to one or more persons and one or more other persons gather to watch".
The painting was commissioned by Eric Hall, Bacon's patron and, later, his lover, who in 1933 commissioned three crucifixion paintings. Bacon drew influence from the old masters Grünewald, Diego Velázquez and Rembrandt, as well as Picasso's late 1920s and early 1930s biomorphs. Bacon said that he thought of the crucifixion as a "magnificent armature on which you can hang all types of feeling and sensation".
Elements of the canvas refer to Grünewald's c. 1512–16 Isenheim Altarpiece and Peter Paul Rubens's c. 1612–14 Descent from the Cross. According to the art critic Hugh Davies, the open mouth of the victim and the predator leaning over the cross link the painting to Rubens' Descent. The mouth in Rubens' painting is loosely opened, but in Bacon's it is taut. The main figure's legs are folded out of view and the figure's left arm is passive in Rubens' painting, but in the Bacon's painting the chimera's legs and arms are in violent motion, seemingly wildly flailing up and down.
### Cage
Horizontal frames often featured in Bacon's 1950s and 1960s paintings. The motif may have been borrowed from the sculptor Alberto Giacometti, who Bacon greatly admired and often corresponded with. Giacometti had employed the device in The Nose (1947) and The Cage (1950). Bacon's use of frames has suggested imprisonment to many commentators. Writing on their use in Fragment, Zweite mentions that the diagonal lines transform the cross into a guillotine.
## Reputation
The religious imagery belies Bacon's atheist and nihilistic outlook. The painting contains no hope for redemption. Friedhelm Mennekes writes that in the victim's scream, "there is not even a lament of being forsaken by God. A god does not emerge for the figure jerking in mortal anguish in the painting". Sharpe identifies the tiny oblivious stick-figure passersby as the element that mostly removes the work from "a straightforward recapitulation of ancient religious iconography and into postwar modernity".
Bacon was self-critical, and often destroyed or disowned his own work, including pieces held in high regard by critics and buyers. He came to dislike Fragment of a Crucifixion, viewing it as too simplistic and explicit, in the words of Russell, "too near the conventions of narrative-painting". This was an issue with which Bacon struggled throughout his career: he aimed to create imagery that would be instantly recognisable, immediate and directly involving for the viewer, while also staying loyal to his creed of producing "non-illustrative painting".
Bacon returned to the crucifixion theme in his 1962 Three Studies for a Crucifixion. That depiction is a more oblique and less literal utilisation of the iconography of the biblical scene, but a more direct invocation of imagery of the slaughterhouse and slabs of meat.
## See also
- List of paintings by Francis Bacon
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Parthian Empire
| 1,172,868,442 |
Iranian empire (247 BC–224 AD)
|
[
"224 disestablishments",
"240s BC establishments",
"247 BC",
"Ancient Near East",
"Ancient history of Afghanistan",
"Ancient history of Pakistan",
"Ancient history of the Caucasus",
"Arsacid dynasty",
"Classical Anatolia",
"Empires and kingdoms of Iran",
"Former countries in Asia",
"Former empires",
"Former empires in Asia",
"History of Turkmenistan",
"History of West Asia",
"Parthian Empire",
"Seleucid Empire successor states",
"States and territories disestablished in the 3rd century",
"States and territories established in the 3rd century BC"
] |
The Parthian Empire (/ˈpɑːrθiən/), also known as the Arsacid Empire (/ˈɑːrsəsɪd/), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conquering the region of Parthia in Iran's northeast, then a satrapy (province) under Andragoras, who was rebelling against the Seleucid Empire. Mithridates I (r. ?–132 BC) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han dynasty of China, became a center of trade and commerce.
The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and royal insignia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Persian, Hellenistic, and regional cultures. For about the first half of its existence, the Arsacid court adopted elements of Greek culture, though it eventually saw a gradual revival of Iranian traditions. The Arsacid rulers were titled the "King of Kings," as a claim to be the heirs to the Achaemenid Empire; indeed, they accepted many local kings as vassals where the Achaemenids would have had centrally appointed, albeit largely autonomous, satraps. The court did appoint a small number of satraps, largely outside Iran, but these satrapies were smaller and less powerful than the Achaemenid potentates. With the expansion of Arsacid power, the seat of central government shifted from Nisa to Ctesiphon along the Tigris (south of modern Baghdad, Iraq), although several other sites also served as capitals.
The earliest enemies of the Parthians were the Seleucids in the west and the Scythians in the north. However, as Parthia expanded westward, they came into conflict with the Kingdom of Armenia, and eventually the late Roman Republic. Rome and Parthia competed with each other to establish the kings of Armenia as their subordinate clients. The Parthians destroyed the army of Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, and in 40–39 BC, Parthian forces captured the whole of the Levant except Tyre from the Romans; Mark Antony led a Roman counterattack. Several Roman emperors invaded Mesopotamia in the Roman–Parthian Wars of the next few centuries, capturing the cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon on multiple occasions but never being able to hold on to them. Frequent civil wars between Parthian contenders to the throne proved more dangerous to the Empire's stability than foreign invasion, and Parthian power evaporated when Ardashir I, ruler of Istakhr in Persis, revolted against the Arsacids and killed their last ruler, Artabanus IV, in 224 AD. Ardashir established the Sasanian Empire, which ruled Iran and much of the Near East until the Muslim conquests of the 7th century AD, although the Arsacid dynasty lived on through branches of the family that ruled Armenia, Iberia, and Albania in the Caucasus.
Native Parthian sources, written in Parthian, Greek and other languages, are scarce when compared to Sasanian and even earlier Achaemenid sources. Aside from scattered cuneiform tablets, fragmentary ostraca, rock inscriptions, drachma coins, and the chance survival of some parchment documents, much of Parthian history is only known through external sources. These include mainly Greek and Roman histories, but also Chinese histories, prompted by the Han Chinese desire to form alliances against the Xiongnu. Parthian artwork is viewed by historians as a valid source for understanding aspects of society and culture that are otherwise absent in textual sources.
## History
### Origins and establishment
Before Arsaces I founded the Arsacid Dynasty, he was chieftain of the Parni, an ancient Central Asian tribe of Iranian peoples and one of several nomadic tribes within the confederation of the Dahae. The Parni most likely spoke an eastern Iranian language, in contrast to the northwestern Iranian language spoken at the time in Parthia. The latter was a northeastern province, first under the Achaemenid Empire, and then the Seleucid Empire. After conquering the region, the Parni adopted Parthian as the official court language, speaking it alongside Middle Persian, Aramaic, Greek, Babylonian, Sogdian and other languages in the multilingual territories they would conquer.
Why the Arsacid court retroactively chose 247 BC as the first year of the Arsacid era is uncertain. A. D. H. Bivar concludes that this was the year the Seleucids lost control of Parthia to Andragoras, the appointed satrap who rebelled against them. Hence, Arsaces I "backdated his regnal years" to the moment when Seleucid control over Parthia ceased. However, Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis asserts that this was simply the year Arsaces was made chief of the Parni tribe. Homa Katouzian and Gene Ralph Garthwaite claim it was the year Arsaces conquered Parthia and expelled the Seleucid authorities, yet Curtis and Maria Brosius state that Andragoras was not overthrown by the Arsacids until 238 BC.
It is unclear who immediately succeeded Arsaces I. Bivar and Katouzian affirm that it was his brother Tiridates I of Parthia, who in turn was succeeded by his son Arsaces II of Parthia in 211 BC. Yet Curtis and Brosius state that Arsaces II was the immediate successor of Arsaces I, with Curtis claiming the succession took place in 211 BC, and Brosius in 217 BC. Bivar insists that 138 BC, the last regnal year of Mithridates I, is "the first precisely established regnal date of Parthian history." Due to these and other discrepancies, Bivar outlines two distinct royal chronologies accepted by historians. A fictitious claim was later made from the 2nd-century BC onwards by the Parthians, which represented them as descendants of the Achaemenid king of kings, Artaxerxes II of Persia (r. 404 – 358 BC).
For a time, Arsaces consolidated his position in Parthia and Hyrcania by taking advantage of the invasion of Seleucid territory in the west by Ptolemy III Euergetes (r. 246–222 BC) of Egypt. This conflict with Ptolemy, the Third Syrian War (246–241 BC), also allowed Diodotus I to rebel and form the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in Central Asia. The latter's successor, Diodotus II, formed an alliance with Arsaces against the Seleucids, but Arsaces was temporarily driven from Parthia by the forces of Seleucus II Callinicus (r. 246 – 225 BC). After spending some time in exile among the nomadic Apasiacae tribe, Arsaces led a counterattack and recaptured Parthia. Seleucus II's successor, Antiochus III the Great (r. 222 – 187 BC), was unable to immediately retaliate because his troops were engaged in putting down the rebellion of Molon in Media.
Antiochus III launched a massive campaign to retake Parthia and Bactria in 210 or 209 BC. Despite some victories he was unsuccessful, but did negotiate a peace settlement with Arsaces II. The latter was granted the title of king (Greek: basileus) in return for his submission to Antiochus III as his superior. The Seleucids were unable to further intervene in Parthian affairs following increasing encroachment by the Roman Republic and the Seleucid defeat at Magnesia in 190 BC. Priapatius (r. c. 191 – 176 BC) succeeded Arsaces II, and Phraates I (r. c. 176 – 171 BC) eventually ascended the Parthian throne. Phraates I ruled Parthia without further Seleucid interference.
### Expansion and consolidation
Phraates I is recorded as expanding Parthia's control past the Gates of Alexander and occupied Apamea Ragiana. The locations of these are unknown. Yet the greatest expansion of Parthian power and territory took place during the reign of his brother and successor Mithridates I (r. c. 171–132 BC), whom Katouzian compares to Cyrus the Great (d. 530 BC), founder of the Achaemenid Empire.
Relations between Parthia and Greco-Bactria deteriorated after the death of Diodotus II, when Mithridates' forces captured two eparchies of the latter kingdom, then under Eucratides I (r. c. 170–145 BC). Turning his sights on the Seleucid realm, Mithridates invaded Media and occupied Ecbatana in 148 or 147 BC; the region had been destabilized by a recent Seleucid suppression of a rebellion there led by Timarchus. This victory was followed by the Parthian conquest of Babylonia in Mesopotamia, where Mithridates had coins minted at Seleucia in 141 BC and held an official investiture ceremony. While Mithridates retired to Hyrcania, his forces subdued the kingdoms of Elymais and Characene and occupied Susa. By this time, Parthian authority extended as far east as the Indus River.
Whereas Hecatompylos had served as the first Parthian capital, Mithridates established royal residences at Seleucia, Ecbatana, Ctesiphon and his newly founded city, Mithradatkert (Nisa), where the tombs of the Arsacid kings were built and maintained. Ecbatana became the main summertime residence for the Arsacid royalty. Ctesiphon may not have become the official capital until the reign of Gotarzes I (r. c. 90–80 BC). It became the site of the royal coronation ceremony and the representational city of the Arsacids, according to Brosius.
The Seleucids were unable to retaliate immediately as general Diodotus Tryphon led a rebellion at the capital Antioch in 142 BC. However, by 140 BC Demetrius II Nicator was able to launch a counter-invasion against the Parthians in Mesopotamia. Despite early successes, the Seleucids were defeated and Demetrius himself was captured by Parthian forces and taken to Hyrcania. There Mithridates treated his captive with great hospitality; he even married his daughter Rhodogune of Parthia to Demetrius.
Antiochus VII Sidetes (r. 138–129 BC), a brother of Demetrius, assumed the Seleucid throne and married the latter's wife Cleopatra Thea. After defeating Diodotus Tryphon, Antiochus initiated a campaign in 130 BC to retake Mesopotamia, now under the rule of Phraates II (r. c. 132–127 BC). The Parthian general Indates was defeated along the Great Zab, followed by a local uprising where the Parthian governor of Babylonia was killed. Antiochus conquered Babylonia and occupied Susa, where he minted coins. After advancing his army into Media, the Parthians pushed for peace, which Antiochus refused to accept unless the Arsacids relinquished all lands to him except Parthia proper, paid heavy tribute, and released Demetrius from captivity. Arsaces released Demetrius and sent him to Syria, but refused the other demands. By spring 129 BC, the Medes were in open revolt against Antiochus, whose army had exhausted the resources of the countryside during winter. While attempting to put down the revolts, the main Parthian force swept into the region and killed Antiochus at the Battle of Ecbatana in 129 BC. His body was sent back to Syria in a silver coffin; his son Seleucus was made a Parthian hostage and a daughter joined Phraates' harem.
While the Parthians regained the territories lost in the west, another threat arose in the east. In 177–176 BC the nomadic confederation of the Xiongnu dislodged the nomadic Yuezhi from their homelands in what is now Gansu province in Northwest China; the Yuezhi then migrated west into Bactria and displaced the Saka (Scythian) tribes. The Saka were forced to move further west, where they invaded the Parthian Empire's northeastern borders. Mithridates was thus forced to retire to Hyrcania after his conquest of Mesopotamia.
Some of the Saka were enlisted in Phraates' forces against Antiochus. However, they arrived too late to engage in the conflict. When Phraates refused to pay their wages, the Saka revolted, which he tried to put down with the aid of former Seleucid soldiers, yet they too abandoned Phraates and joined sides with the Saka. Phraates II marched against this combined force, but he was killed in battle. The Roman historian Justin reports that his successor Artabanus I (r. c. 128–124 BC) shared a similar fate fighting nomads in the east. He claims Artabanus was killed by the Tokhari (identified as the Yuezhi), although Bivar believes Justin conflated them with the Saka. Mithridates II (r. c. 124–91 BC) later recovered the lands lost to the Saka in Sakastan.
Following the Seleucid withdrawal from Mesopotamia, the Parthian governor of Babylonia, Himerus, was ordered by the Arsacid court to conquer Characene, then ruled by Hyspaosines from Charax Spasinu. When this failed, Hyspaosines invaded Babylonia in 127 BC and occupied Seleucia. Yet by 122 BC, Mithridates II forced Hyspaosines out of Babylonia and made the kings of Characene vassals under Parthian suzerainty. After Mithridates extended Parthian control further west, occupying Dura-Europos in 113 BC, he became embroiled in a conflict with the Kingdom of Armenia. His forces defeated and deposed Artavasdes I of Armenia in 97 BC, taking his son Tigranes hostage, who would later become Tigranes II "the Great" of Armenia (r. c. 95–55 BC).
The Indo-Parthian Kingdom, located in modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan made an alliance with the Parthian Empire in the 1st century BC. Bivar claims that these two states considered each other political equals. After the Greek philosopher Apollonius of Tyana visited the court of Vardanes I (r. c. 40–47 AD) in 42 AD, Vardanes provided him with the protection of a caravan as he traveled to Indo-Parthia. When Apollonius reached Indo-Parthia's capital Taxila, his caravan leader read Vardanes' official letter, perhaps written in Parthian, to an Indian official who treated Apollonius with great hospitality.
Following the diplomatic venture of Zhang Qian into Central Asia during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC), the Han Empire of China sent a delegation to Mithridates II's court in 121 BC. The Han embassy opened official trade relations with Parthia via the Silk Road yet did not achieve a desired military alliance against the confederation of the Xiongnu. The Parthian Empire was enriched by taxing the Eurasian caravan trade in silk, the most highly priced luxury good imported by the Romans. Pearls were also a highly valued import from China, while the Chinese purchased Parthian spices, perfumes, and fruits. Exotic animals were also given as gifts from the Arsacid to Han courts; in 87 AD Pacorus II of Parthia sent lions and Persian gazelles to Emperor Zhang of Han (r. 75–88 AD). Besides silk, Parthian goods purchased by Roman merchants included iron from India, spices, and fine leather. Caravans traveling through the Parthian Empire brought West Asian and sometimes Roman luxury glasswares to China. The merchants of Sogdia, speaking an Eastern Iranian language, served as the primary middlemen of this vital silk trade between Parthia and Han China.
### Rome and Armenia
The Yuezhi Kushan Empire in northern India largely guaranteed the security of Parthia's eastern border. Thus, from the mid-1st century BC onwards, the Arsacid court focused on securing the western border, primarily against Rome. A year following Mithridates II's subjugation of Armenia, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Roman proconsul of Cilicia, convened with the Parthian diplomat Orobazus at the Euphrates river. The two agreed that the river would serve as the border between Parthia and Rome, although several historians have argued that Sulla only had authority to communicate these terms back to Rome.
Despite this agreement, in 93 or 92 BC Parthia fought a war in Syria against the tribal leader Laodice and her Seleucid ally Antiochus X Eusebes (r. 95–92? BC), killing the latter. When one of the last Seleucid monarchs, Demetrius III Eucaerus, attempted to besiege Beroea (modern Aleppo), Parthia sent military aid to the inhabitants and Demetrius was defeated.
Following the rule of Mithridates II, his son Gotarzes I succeeded him. He reigned during a period coined in scholarship as the "Parthian Dark Age," due to the lack of clear information on the events of this period in the empire, except a series of, apparently overlapping, reigns. It is only with the beginning of the reign of Orodes II in c. 57 BC, that the line of Parthian rulers can again be reliably traced. This system of split monarchy weakened Parthia, allowing Tigranes II of Armenia to annex Parthian territory in western Mesopotamia. This land would not be restored to Parthia until the reign of Sinatruces (r. c. 78–69 BC).
Following the outbreak of the Third Mithridatic War, Mithridates VI of Pontus (r. 119–63 BC), an ally of Tigranes II of Armenia, requested aid from Parthia against Rome, but Sinatruces refused help. When the Roman commander Lucullus marched against the Armenian capital Tigranocerta in 69 BC, Mithridates VI and Tigranes II requested the aid of Phraates III (r. c. 71–58). Phraates did not send aid to either, and after the fall of Tigranocerta he reaffirmed with Lucullus the Euphrates as the boundary between Parthia and Rome.
Tigranes the Younger, son of Tigranes II of Armenia, failed to usurp the Armenian throne from his father. He fled to Phraates III and convinced him to march against Armenia's new capital at Artaxarta. When this siege failed, Tigranes the Younger once again fled, this time to the Roman commander Pompey. He promised Pompey that he would act as a guide through Armenia, but, when Tigranes II submitted to Rome as a client king, Tigranes the Younger was brought to Rome as a hostage. Phraates demanded Pompey return Tigranes the Younger to him, but Pompey refused. In retaliation, Phraates launched an invasion into Corduene (southeastern Turkey) where, according to two conflicting Roman accounts, the Roman consul Lucius Afranius forced the Parthians out by either military or diplomatic means.
Phraates III was assassinated by his sons Orodes II of Parthia and Mithridates IV of Parthia, after which Orodes turned on Mithridates, forcing him to flee from Media to Roman Syria. Aulus Gabinius, the Roman proconsul of Syria, marched in support of Mithridates to the Euphrates, but had to turn back to aid Ptolemy XII Auletes (r. 80–58; 55–51 BC) against a rebellion in Egypt. Despite losing his Roman support, Mithridates managed to conquer Babylonia, and minted coins at Seleucia until 54 BC. In that year, Orodes' general, known only as Surena after his noble family's clan name, recaptured Seleucia, and Mithridates was executed.
Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of the triumvirs, who was now proconsul of Syria, invaded Parthia in 53 BC in belated support of Mithridates. As his army marched to Carrhae (modern Harran, southeastern Turkey), Orodes II invaded Armenia, cutting off support from Rome's ally Artavasdes II of Armenia (r. 53–34 BC). Orodes persuaded Artavasdes to a marriage alliance between the crown prince Pacorus I of Parthia (d. 38 BC) and Artavasdes' sister.
Surena, with an army entirely on horseback, rode to meet Crassus. Surena's 1,000 cataphracts (armed with lances) and 9,000 horse archers were outnumbered roughly four to one by Crassus' army, comprising seven Roman legions and auxiliaries including mounted Gauls and light infantry. Using a baggage train of about 1,000 camels, the Parthian army provided the horse archers with a constant supply of arrows. The horse archers employed the "Parthian shot" tactic: feigning retreat to draw enemy out, then turning and shooting at them when exposed. This tactic, executed with heavy composite bows on the flat plain, devastated Crassus' infantry.
With some 20,000 Romans dead, approximately 10,000 captured, and roughly another 10,000 escaping west, Crassus fled into the Armenian countryside. At the head of his army, Surena approached Crassus, offering a parley, which Crassus accepted. However, he was killed when one of his junior officers, suspecting a trap, attempted to stop him from riding into Surena's camp. Crassus' defeat at Carrhae was one of the worst military defeats of Roman history. Parthia's victory cemented its reputation as a formidable if not equal power with Rome. With his camp followers, war captives, and precious Roman booty, Surena traveled some 700 km (430 mi) back to Seleucia where his victory was celebrated. However, fearing his ambitions even for the Arsacid throne, Orodes had Surena executed shortly thereafter.
Emboldened by the victory over Crassus, the Parthians attempted to capture Roman-held territories in Western Asia. Crown prince Pacorus I and his commander Osaces raided Syria as far as Antioch in 51 BC, but were repulsed by Gaius Cassius Longinus, who ambushed and killed Osaces. The Arsacids sided with Pompey in the civil war against Julius Caesar and even sent troops to support the anti-Caesarian forces at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC.
Quintus Labienus, a general loyal to Cassius and Brutus, sided with Parthia against the Second Triumvirate in 40 BC; the following year he invaded Syria alongside Pacorus I. The triumvir Mark Antony was unable to lead the Roman defense against Parthia due to his departure to Italy, where he amassed his forces to confront his rival Octavian and eventually conducted negotiations with him at Brundisium.
After Syria was occupied by Pacorus' army, Labienus split from the main Parthian force to invade Anatolia while Pacorus and his commander Barzapharnes invaded the Roman Levant. They subdued all settlements along the Mediterranean coast as far south as Ptolemais (modern Acre, Israel), with the lone exception of Tyre. In Judea, the pro-Roman Jewish forces of high priest Hyrcanus II, Phasael, and Herod were defeated by the Parthians and their Jewish ally Antigonus II Mattathias (r. 40–37 BC); the latter was made king of Judea while Herod fled to his fort at Masada.
Despite these successes, the Parthians were soon driven out of the Levant by a Roman counteroffensive. Publius Ventidius Bassus, an officer under Mark Antony, defeated and then executed Labienus at the Battle of the Cilician Gates (in modern Mersin Province, Turkey) in 39 BC. Shortly afterward, a Parthian force in Syria led by general Pharnapates was defeated by Ventidius at the Battle of Amanus Pass.
As a result, Pacorus I temporarily withdrew from Syria. When he returned in the spring of 38 BC, he faced Ventidius at the Battle of Mount Gindarus, northeast of Antioch. Pacorus was killed during the battle, and his forces retreated across the Euphrates. His death spurred a succession crisis in which Orodes II chose Phraates IV (r. c. 38–2 BC) as his new heir.
Upon assuming the throne, Phraates IV eliminated rival claimants by killing and exiling his own brothers. One of them, Monaeses, fled to Antony and persuaded him to invade Parthia. Antony defeated Parthia's Judaean ally Antigonus in 37 BC, installing Herod as a client king in his place.
The following year, when Antony marched to Theodosiopolis, Artavasdes II of Armenia once again switched alliances by sending Antony additional troops. Antony invaded Media Atropatene (modern Iranian Azerbaijan), then ruled by Parthia's ally Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene, with the intention of seizing the capital Praaspa, the location of which is now unknown. However, Phraates IV ambushed Antony's rear detachment, destroying a giant battering ram meant for the siege of Praaspa; after this, Artavasdes II abandoned Antony's forces.
The Parthians pursued and harassed Antony's army as it fled to Armenia. Eventually, the greatly weakened force reached Syria. Antony lured Artavasdes II into a trap with the promise of a marriage alliance. He was taken captive in 34 BC, paraded in Antony's mock Roman triumph in Alexandria, Egypt, and eventually executed by Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemaic Kingdom.
Antony attempted to strike an alliance with Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene, whose relations with Phraates IV had recently soured. This was abandoned when Antony and his forces withdrew from Armenia in 33 BC; they escaped a Parthian invasion while Antony's rival Octavian attacked his forces to the west. After the defeat and suicides of Antony and Cleopatra in 30 BC, Parthian ally Artaxias II reassumed the throne of Armenia.
### Peace with Rome, court intrigue and contact with Chinese generals
Following the defeat and deaths of Antony and Cleopatra of Ptolemaic Egypt after the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian consolidated his political power and in 27 BC was named Augustus by the Roman Senate, becoming the first Roman emperor. Around this time, Tiridates II of Parthia briefly overthrew Phraates IV, who was able to quickly reestablish his rule with the aid of Scythian nomads. Tiridates fled to the Romans, taking one of Phraates' sons with him. In negotiations conducted in 20 BC, Phraates arranged for the release of his kidnapped son. In return, the Romans received the lost legionary standards taken at Carrhae in 53 BC, as well as any surviving prisoners of war. The Parthians viewed this exchange as a small price to pay to regain the prince. Augustus hailed the return of the standards as a political victory over Parthia; this propaganda was celebrated in the minting of new coins, the building of a new temple to house the standards, and even in fine art such as the breastplate scene on his statue Augustus of Prima Porta.
Along with the prince, Augustus also gave Phraates IV an Italian slave-girl, who later became Queen Musa of Parthia. To ensure that her child Phraataces would inherit the throne without incident, Musa convinced Phraates IV to give his other sons to Augustus as hostages. Again, Augustus used this as propaganda depicting the submission of Parthia to Rome, listing it as a great accomplishment in his Res Gestae Divi Augusti. When Phraataces took the throne as Phraates V (r. c. 2 BC – 4 AD), Musa ruled alongside him, and according to Josephus, married him. The Parthian nobility, disapproving of the notion of a king with non-Arsacid blood, forced the pair into exile in Roman territory. Phraates' successor Orodes III of Parthia lasted just two years on the throne, and was followed by Vonones I, who had adopted many Roman mannerisms during time in Rome. The Parthian nobility, angered by Vonones' sympathies for the Romans, backed a rival claimant, Artabanus II of Parthia (r. c. 10–38 AD), who eventually defeated Vonones and drove him into exile in Roman Syria.
During the reign of Artabanus II, two Jewish commoners and brothers, Anilai and Asinai from Nehardea (near modern Fallujah, Iraq), led a revolt against the Parthian governor of Babylonia. After defeating the latter, the two were granted the right to govern the region by Artabanus II, who feared further rebellion elsewhere. Anilai's Parthian wife poisoned Asinai out of fear he would attack Anilai over his marriage to a gentile. Following this, Anilai became embroiled in an armed conflict with a son-in-law of Artabanus, who eventually defeated him. With the Jewish regime removed, the native Babylonians began to harass the local Jewish community, forcing them to emigrate to Seleucia. When that city rebelled against Parthian rule in 35–36 AD, the Jews were expelled again, this time by the local Greeks and Aramaeans. The exiled Jews fled to Ctesiphon, Nehardea, and Nisibis.
Although at peace with Parthia, Rome still interfered in its affairs. The Roman emperor Tiberius (r. 14–37 AD) became involved in a plot by Pharasmanes I of Iberia to place his brother Mithridates on the throne of Armenia by assassinating the Parthian ally King Arsaces of Armenia. Artabanus II tried and failed to restore Parthian control of Armenia, prompting an aristocratic revolt that forced him to flee to Scythia. The Romans released a hostage prince, Tiridates III of Parthia, to rule the region as an ally of Rome. Shortly before his death, Artabanus managed to force Tiridates from the throne using troops from Hyrcania. After Artabanus' death in 38 AD, a long civil war ensued between the rightful successor Vardanes I and his brother Gotarzes II. After Vardanes was assassinated during a hunting expedition, the Parthian nobility appealed to Roman emperor Claudius (r. 41–54 AD) in 49 AD to release the hostage prince Meherdates to challenge Gotarzes. This backfired when Meherdates was betrayed by the governor of Edessa and Izates bar Monobaz of Adiabene; he was captured and sent to Gotarzes, where he was allowed to live after having his ears mutilated, an act that disqualified him from inheriting the throne.
In 97 AD, the Chinese general Ban Chao, the Protector-General of the Western Regions, sent his emissary Gan Ying on a diplomatic mission to reach the Roman Empire. Gan visited the court of Pacorus II at Hecatompylos before departing towards Rome. He traveled as far west as the Persian Gulf, where Parthian authorities convinced him that an arduous sea voyage around the Arabian Peninsula was the only means to reach Rome. Discouraged by this, Gan Ying returned to the Han court and provided Emperor He of Han (r. 88–105 AD) with a detailed report on the Roman Empire based on oral accounts of his Parthian hosts. William Watson speculates that the Parthians would have been relieved at the failed efforts by the Han Empire to open diplomatic relations with Rome, especially after Ban Chao's military victories against the Xiongnu in eastern Central Asia. However, Chinese records maintain that a Roman embassy, perhaps only a group of Roman merchants, arrived at the Han capital Luoyang by way of Jiaozhi (northern Vietnam) in 166 AD, during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 AD) and Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168 AD). Although it could be coincidental, Antonine Roman golden medallions dated to the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and his predecessor Antoninus Pius have been discovered at Oc Eo, Vietnam (among other Roman artefacts in the Mekong Delta), a site that is one of the suggested locations for the port city of "Cattigara" along the Magnus Sinus (i.e. Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea) in Ptolemy's Geography.
### Continuation of Roman hostilities and Parthian decline
After the Iberian king Pharasmanes I had his son Rhadamistus (r. 51–55 AD) invade Armenia to depose the Roman client king Mithridates, Vologases I of Parthia (r. c. 51–77 AD) planned to invade and place his brother, the later Tiridates I of Armenia, on the throne. Rhadamistus was eventually driven from power, and, beginning with the reign of Tiridates, Parthia would retain firm control over Armenia—with brief interruptions—through the Arsacid Dynasty of Armenia. Even after the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Arsacid line lived on through the Armenian kings. However, not only did the Arsacid line continue through the Armenians, it as well continued through the Georgian kings with the Arsacid dynasty of Iberia, and for many centuries afterwards in Caucasian Albania through the Arsacid Dynasty of Caucasian Albania.
When Vardanes II of Parthia rebelled against his father Vologases I in 55 AD, Vologases withdrew his forces from Armenia. Rome quickly attempted to fill the political vacuum left behind. In the Roman–Parthian War of 58–63 AD, the commander Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo achieved some military successes against the Parthians while installing Tigranes VI of Armenia as a Roman client. However, Corbulo's successor Lucius Caesennius Paetus was soundly defeated by Parthian forces and fled Armenia. Following a peace treaty, Tiridates I traveled to Naples and Rome in 63 AD. At both sites the Roman emperor Nero (r. 54–68 AD) ceremoniously crowned him king of Armenia by placing the royal diadem on his head.
A long period of peace between Parthia and Rome ensued, with only the invasion of Alans into Parthia's eastern territories around 72 AD mentioned by Roman historians. Whereas Augustus and Nero had chosen a cautious military policy when confronting Parthia, later Roman emperors invaded and attempted to conquer the eastern Fertile Crescent, the heart of the Parthian Empire along the Tigris and Euphrates. The heightened aggression can be explained in part by Rome's military reforms. To match Parthia's strength in missile troops and mounted warriors, the Romans at first used foreign allies (especially Nabataeans), but later established a permanent auxilia force to complement their heavy legionary infantry. The Romans eventually maintained regiments of horse archers (sagittarii) and even mail-armored cataphracts in their eastern provinces. Yet the Romans had no discernible grand strategy in dealing with Parthia and gained very little territory from these invasions. The primary motivations for war were the advancement of the personal glory and political position of the emperor, as well as defending Roman honor against perceived slights such as Parthian interference in the affairs of Rome's client states.
Hostilities between Rome and Parthia were renewed when Osroes I of Parthia (r. c. 109–128 AD) deposed the Armenian king Sanatruk and replaced him with Axidares, son of Pacorus II, without consulting Rome. The Roman emperor Trajan (r. 98–117 AD) had the next Parthian nominee for the throne, Parthamasiris, killed in 114 AD, instead making Armenia a Roman province. His forces, led by Lusius Quietus, also captured Nisibis; its occupation was essential to securing all the major routes across the northern Mesopotamian plain. The following year, Trajan invaded Mesopotamia and met little resistance from only Meharaspes of Adiabene, since Osroes was engaged in a civil war to the east with Vologases III of Parthia. Trajan spent the winter of 115–116 at Antioch, but resumed his campaign in the spring. Marching down the Euphrates, he captured Dura-Europos, the capital Ctesiphon and Seleucia, and even subjugated Characene, where he watched ships depart to India from the Persian Gulf.
In the last months of 116 AD, Trajan captured the Persian city of Susa. When Sanatruces II of Parthia gathered forces in eastern Parthia to challenge the Romans, his cousin Parthamaspates of Parthia betrayed and killed him: Trajan crowned him the new king of Parthia. Never again would the Roman Empire advance so far to the east. On Trajan's return north, the Babylonian settlements revolted against the Roman garrisons. Trajan was forced to retreat from Mesopotamia in 117 AD, overseeing a failed siege of Hatra during his withdrawal. His retreat was—in his intentions—temporary, because he wanted to renew the attack on Parthia in 118 AD and "make the subjection of the Parthians a reality," but Trajan died suddenly in August 117 AD. During his campaign, Trajan was granted the title Parthicus by the Senate and coins were minted proclaiming the conquest of Parthia. However, only the 4th-century AD historians Eutropius and Festus allege that he attempted to establish a Roman province in lower Mesopotamia.
Trajan's successor Hadrian (r. 117–138 AD) reaffirmed the Roman-Parthian border at the Euphrates, choosing not to invade Mesopotamia due to Rome's now limited military resources. Parthamaspates fled after the Parthians revolted against him, yet the Romans made him king of Osroene. Osroes I died during his conflict with Vologases III, the latter succeeded by Vologases IV of Parthia (r. c. 147–191 AD) who ushered in a period of peace and stability. However, the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166 AD began when Vologases invaded Armenia and Syria, retaking Edessa. Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 AD) had co-ruler Lucius Verus (r. 161–169 AD) guard Syria while Marcus Statius Priscus invaded Armenia in 163 AD, followed by the invasion of Mesopotamia by Avidius Cassius in 164 AD. The Romans captured and burnt Seleucia and Ctesiphon to the ground, yet they were forced to retreat once the Roman soldiers contracted a deadly disease (possibly smallpox) that soon ravaged the Roman world. Although they withdrew, from this point forward the city of Dura-Europos remained in Roman hands. When Roman emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193–211 AD) invaded Mesopotamia in 197 AD during the reign of Vologases V of Parthia (r. c. 191–208 AD), the Romans once again marched down the Euphrates and captured Seleucia and Ctesiphon. After assuming the title Parthicus Maximus, he retreated in late 198 AD, failing as Trajan once did to capture Hatra during a siege.
Around 212 AD, soon after Vologases VI of Parthia (r. c. 208–222 AD) took the throne, his brother Artabanus IV of Parthia (d. 224 AD) rebelled against him and gained control over a greater part of the empire. Meanwhile, the Roman emperor Caracalla (r. 211–217 AD) deposed the kings of Osroene and Armenia to make them Roman provinces once more. He marched into Mesopotamia under the pretext of marrying one of Artabanus' daughters, but the marriage was not allowed. Consequently Caracalla made war on Parthia, conquering Arbil and sacking the Parthian tombs there. Caracalla was assassinated the next year on the road to Carrhae by his soldiers. At the Battle of Nisibis, the Parthians were able to defeat the Romans, but both sides suffered heavy losses. After this debacle, the Parthians made a settlement with Macrinus (r. 217–218) where the Romans paid Parthia over two-hundred million denarii with additional gifts.
The Parthian Empire, weakened by internal strife and wars with Rome, was soon to be followed by the Sasanian Empire. Indeed, shortly afterward, Ardashir I, the local Iranian ruler of Persis (modern Fars Province, Iran) from Istakhr began subjugating the surrounding territories in defiance of Arsacid rule. He confronted Artabanus IV at the Battle of Hormozdgān on 28 April 224 AD, perhaps at a site near Isfahan, defeating him and establishing the Sasanian Empire. There is evidence, however, that suggests Vologases VI continued to mint coins at Seleucia as late as 228 AD.
The Sassanians would not only assume Parthia's legacy as Rome's Persian nemesis, but they would also attempt to restore the boundaries of the Achaemenid Empire by briefly conquering the Levant, Anatolia, and Egypt from the Eastern Roman Empire during the reign of Khosrau II (r. 590–628 AD). However, they would lose these territories to Heraclius—the last Roman emperor before the Arab conquests. Nevertheless, for a period of more than 400 years, they succeeded the Parthian realm as Rome's principal rival.
### Native and external sources
Local and foreign written accounts, as well as non-textual artifacts, have been used to reconstruct Parthian history. Although the Parthian court maintained records, the Parthians had no formal study of history; the earliest universal history of Iran, the Khwaday-Namag, was not compiled until the reign of the last Sasanian ruler Yazdegerd III (r. 632–651 AD). Indigenous sources on Parthian history remain scarce, with fewer of them available than for any other period of Iranian history. Most contemporary written records on Parthia contain Greek as well as Parthian and Aramaic inscriptions. The Parthian language was written in a distinct script derived from the Imperial Aramaic chancellery script of the Achaemenids, and later developed into the Pahlavi writing system.
The most valuable indigenous sources for reconstructing an accurate chronology of Arsacid rulers are the metal drachma coins issued by each ruler. These represent a "transition from non-textual to textual remains," according to historian Geo Widengren. Other Parthian sources used for reconstructing chronology include cuneiform astronomical tablets and colophons discovered in Babylonia. Indigenous textual sources also include stone inscriptions, parchment and papyri documents, and pottery ostraca. For example, at the early Parthian capital of Mithradatkert/Nisa in Turkmenistan, large caches of pottery ostraca have been found yielding information on the sale and storage of items like wine. Along with parchment documents found at sites like Dura-Europos, these also provide valuable information on Parthian governmental administration, covering issues such as taxation, military titles, and provincial organization.
The Greek and Latin histories, which represent the majority of materials covering Parthian history, are not considered entirely reliable since they were written from the perspective of rivals and wartime enemies. These external sources generally concern major military and political events, and often ignore social and cultural aspects of Parthian history. The Romans usually depicted the Parthians as fierce warriors but also as a culturally refined people; recipes for Parthian dishes in the cookbook Apicius exemplifies their admiration for Parthian cuisine. Apollodorus of Artemita and Arrian wrote histories focusing on Parthia, which are now lost and survive only as quoted extracts in other histories. Isidore of Charax, who lived during the reign of Augustus, provides an account of Parthian territories, perhaps from a Parthian government survey. To a lesser extent, people and events of Parthian history were also included in the histories of Justin, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, Cassius Dio, Appian, Josephus, Pliny the Elder, and Herodian.
Parthian history can also be reconstructed via the Chinese historical records of events. In contrast to Greek and Roman histories, the early Chinese histories maintained a more neutral view when describing Parthia, although the habit of Chinese chroniclers to copy material for their accounts from older works (of undetermined origin) makes it difficult to establish a chronological order of events. The Chinese called Parthia Ānxī (Chinese: 安 息, Old Chinese pronunciation: 'ansjək), perhaps after the Greek name for the Parthian city Antiochia in Margiana (Greek: Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ). However, this could also have been a transliteration of "Arsaces", after the dynasty's eponymous founder. The works and historical authors include the Shiji (also known as the Records of the Grand Historian) by Sima Qian, the Han shu (Book of Han) by Ban Biao, Ban Gu, and Ban Zhao, and the Hou Han shu (Book of Later Han) by Fan Ye. They provide information on the nomadic migrations leading up to the early Saka invasion of Parthia and valuable political and geographical information. For example, the Shiji (ch. 123) describes diplomatic exchanges, exotic gifts given by Mithridates II to the Han court, types of agricultural crops grown in Parthia, production of wine using grapes, itinerant merchants, and the size and location of Parthian territory. The Shiji also mentions that the Parthians kept records by "writing horizontally on strips of leather," that is, parchment.
## Government and administration
### Central authority and semi-autonomous kings
Compared with the earlier Achaemenid Empire, the Parthian government was notably decentralized. An indigenous historical source reveals that territories overseen by the central government were organized in a similar manner to the Seleucid Empire. They both had a threefold division for their provincial hierarchies: the Parthian marzbān, xšatrap, and dizpat, similar to the Seleucid satrapy, eparchy, and hyparchy. The Parthian Empire also contained several subordinate semi-autonomous kingdoms, including the states of Caucasian Iberia, Armenia, Atropatene, Gordyene, Adiabene, Edessa, Hatra, Mesene, Elymais, and Persis. The state rulers governed their own territories and minted their own coinage distinct from the royal coinage produced at the imperial mints. This was not unlike the earlier Achaemenid Empire, which also had some city-states, and even distant satrapies who were semi-independent but "recognised the supremacy of the king, paid tribute and provided military support", according to Brosius. However, the satraps of Parthian times governed smaller territories, and perhaps had less prestige and influence than their Achaemenid predecessors. During the Seleucid period, the trend of local ruling dynasties with semi-autonomous rule, and sometimes outright rebellious rule, became commonplace, a fact reflected in the later Parthian style of governance.
### Nobility
The King of Kings headed the Parthian government. He maintained polygamous relations, and was usually succeeded by his first-born son. Like the Ptolemies of Egypt, there is also record of Arsacid kings marrying their nieces and perhaps even half-sisters; Queen Musa is said by Josephus to have married her own son, though this would be an extreme and isolated case. Brosius provides an extract from a letter written in Greek by King Artabanus II in 21 AD, which addresses the governor (titled "archon") and citizens of the city of Susa. Specific government offices of Preferred Friend, Bodyguard and Treasurer are mentioned and the document also proves that "while there were local jurisdictions and proceedings to appointment to high office, the king could intervene on behalf of an individual, review a case and amend the local ruling if he considered it appropriate."
The hereditary titles of the hierarchic nobility recorded during the reign of the first Sasanian monarch Ardashir I most likely reflect the titles already in use during the Parthian era. There were three distinct tiers of nobility, the highest being the regional kings directly below the King of Kings, the second being those related to the King of Kings only through marriage, and the lowest order being heads of local clans and small territories.
By the 1st century AD, the Parthian nobility had assumed great power and influence in the succession and deposition of Arsacid kings. Some of the nobility functioned as court advisers to the king, as well as holy priests. Strabo, in his Geographica, preserved a claim by the Greek philosopher and historian Poseidonius that the Council of Parthia consisted of noble kinsmen and magi, two groups from which "the kings were appointed." Of the great noble Parthian families listed at the beginning of the Sassanian period, only two are explicitly mentioned in earlier Parthian documents: the House of Suren and the House of Karen. The historian Plutarch noted that members of the Suren family, the first among the nobility, were given the privilege of crowning each new Arsacid King of Kings during their coronations.
### Military
The Parthian Empire had no standing army, yet were able to quickly recruit troops in the event of local crises. There was a permanent armed guard attached to the person of the king, comprising nobles, serfs and mercenaries, but this royal retinue was small. Garrisons were also permanently maintained at border forts; Parthian inscriptions reveal some of the military titles granted to the commanders of these locations. Military forces could also be used in diplomatic gestures. For example, when Chinese envoys visited Parthia in the late 2nd century BC, the Shiji maintains that 20,000 horsemen were sent to the eastern borders to serve as escorts for the embassy, although this figure is perhaps an exaggeration.
The main striking force of the Parthian army was its cataphracts, heavy cavalry with man and horse decked in mailed armor. The cataphracts were equipped with a lance for charging into enemy lines, but were not equipped with bows and arrows which were restricted to horse archers. Due to the cost of their equipment and armor, cataphracts were recruited from among the aristocratic class who, in return for their services, demanded a measure of autonomy at the local level from the Arsacid kings. The light cavalry was recruited from among the commoner class and acted as horse archers; they wore a simple tunic and trousers into battle. They used composite bows and were able to shoot at enemies while riding and facing away from them; this technique, known as the Parthian shot, was a highly effective tactic. It appears that most of the Parthian army was cavalry, for tactical and strategic reasons. The light cavalry is thought to have carried a sword into battle as well, while cataphracts likely were also armed with short swords or knives. The Parthians also made use of the camel in armed combat. The heavy and light cavalry of Parthia proved to be a decisive factor in the Battle of Carrhae where a Parthian force defeated a much larger Roman army under Crassus. Light infantry units, composed of levied commoners and mercenaries, were used to disperse enemy troops after cavalry charges.
The Parthians do not appear to have ever used war chariots in battle. However, royal Parthian women accompanied the king on military campaigns and were known to have ridden on chariots and wagons. Similarly, the Parthians appeared to have used war elephants infrequently. There is one mention, by Tacitus and Cassius Dio, of the use of one war elephant by Vologases I during the Roman–Parthian War of 58–63.
The size of the Parthian army is unknown, as is the size of the empire's overall population. However, archaeological excavations in former Parthian urban centers reveal settlements which could have sustained large populations and hence a great resource in manpower. Dense population centers in regions like Babylonia were no doubt attractive to the Romans, whose armies could afford to live off the land. The largest army raised by the Parthians appears to have been 50,000.
### Currency
Usually made of silver, the Greek drachma coin, including the tetradrachm, was the standard currency used throughout the Parthian Empire. The Arsacids maintained royal mints at the cities of Hecatompylos, Seleucia, and Ecbatana. They most likely operated a mint at Mithridatkert/Nisa as well. From the empire's inception until its collapse, drachmas produced throughout the Parthian period rarely weighed less than 3.5 g or more than 4.2 g. The first Parthian tetradrachms, weighing in principle around 16 g with some variation, appear after Mithridates I conquered Mesopotamia and were minted exclusively at Seleucia.
## Society and culture
### Hellenism and the Iranian revival
Although Greek culture of the Seleucids was widely adopted by peoples of the Near East during the Hellenistic period, the Parthian era witnessed an Iranian cultural revival in religion, the arts, and even clothing fashions. Conscious of both the Hellenistic and Persian cultural roots of their kingship, the Arsacid rulers styled themselves after the Persian King of Kings and affirmed that they were also philhellenes ("friends of the Greeks"). The word "philhellene" was inscribed on Parthian coins until the reign of Artabanus II. The discontinuation of this phrase signified the revival of Iranian culture in Parthia. Vologases I was the first Arsacid ruler to have the Parthian script and language appear on his minted coins alongside the now almost illegible Greek. However, the use of Greek-alphabet legends on Parthian coins remained until the collapse of the empire.
Greek cultural influence did not disappear from the Parthian Empire, however, and there is evidence that the Arsacids enjoyed Greek theatre. When the head of Crassus was brought to Orodes II, he, alongside Armenian king Artavasdes II, were busy watching a performance of The Bacchae by the playwright Euripides (c. 480–406 BC). The producer of the play decided to use Crassus' actual severed head in place of the stage-prop head of Pentheus.
On his coins, Arsaces I is depicted in apparel similar to Achaemenid satraps. According to A. Shahbazi, Arsaces "deliberately diverges from Seleucid coins to emphasize his nationalistic and royal aspirations, and he calls himself Kārny/Karny (Greek: Autocrator), a title already borne by Achaemenid supreme generals, such as Cyrus the Younger." In line with Achaemenid traditions, rock-relief images of Arsacid rulers were carved at Mount Behistun, where Darius I of Persia (r. 522–486 BC) made royal inscriptions. Moreover, the Arsacids claimed familial descent from Artaxerxes II of Persia (r. 404–358 BC) as a means to bolster their legitimacy in ruling over former Achaemenid territories, i.e. as being "legitimate successors of glorious kings" of ancient Iran. Artabanus II named one of his sons Darius and laid claim to Cyrus' heritage. The Arsacid kings chose typical Zoroastrian names for themselves and some from the "heroic background" of the Avesta, according to V.G. Lukonin. The Parthians also adopted the use of the Babylonian calendar with names from the Achaemenid Iranian calendar, replacing the Macedonian calendar of the Seleucids.
### Religion
The Parthian Empire, being culturally and politically heterogeneous, had a variety of religious systems and beliefs, the most widespread being those dedicated to Greek and Iranian cults. Aside from a minority of Jews and early Christians, most Parthians were polytheistic. Greek and Iranian deities were often blended together as one. For example, Zeus was often equated with Ahura Mazda, Hades with Angra Mainyu, Aphrodite and Hera with Anahita, Apollo with Mithra, and Hermes with Shamash. Aside from the main gods and goddesses, each ethnic group and city had their own designated deities. As with Seleucid rulers, Parthian art indicates that the Arsacid kings viewed themselves as gods; this cult of the ruler was perhaps the most widespread.
The extent of Arsacid patronage of Zoroastrianism is debated in modern scholarship. The followers of Zoroaster would have found the bloody sacrifices of some Parthian-era Iranian cults to be unacceptable. However, there is evidence that Vologases I encouraged the presence of Zoroastrian magi priests at court and sponsored the compilation of sacred Zoroastrian texts which later formed the Avesta. The Sasanian court would later adopt Zoroastrianism as the official state religion of the empire.
Although Mani (216–276 AD), the founding prophet of Manichaeism, did not proclaim his first religious revelation until 228/229 AD, Bivar asserts that his new faith contained "elements of Mandaean belief, Iranian cosmogony, and even echoes of Christianity ... [it] may be regarded as a typical reflection of the mixed religious doctrines of the late Arsacid period, which the Zoroastrian orthodoxy of the Sasanians was soon to sweep away."
There is scant archaeological evidence for the spread of Buddhism from the Kushan Empire into Iran proper. However, it is known from Chinese sources that An Shigao (fl. 2nd century AD), a Parthian nobleman and Buddhist monk, traveled to Luoyang in Han China as a Buddhist missionary and translated several Buddhist canons into Chinese.
### Art and architecture
Parthian art can be divided into three geo-historical phases: the art of Parthia proper; the art of the Iranian plateau; and the art of Parthian Mesopotamia. The first genuine Parthian art, found at Mithridatkert/Nisa, combined elements of Greek and Iranian art in line with Achaemenid and Seleucid traditions. In the second phase, Parthian art found inspiration in Achaemenid art, as exemplified by the investiture relief of Mithridates II at Mount Behistun. The third phase occurred gradually after the Parthian conquest of Mesopotamia.
Common motifs of the Parthian period include scenes of royal hunting expeditions and the investiture of Arsacid kings. Use of these motifs extended to include portrayals of local rulers. Common art mediums were rock-reliefs, frescos, and even graffiti. Geometric and stylized plant patterns were also used on stucco and plaster walls. The common motif of the Sasanian period showing two horsemen engaged in combat with lances first appeared in the Parthian reliefs at Mount Behistun.
In portraiture the Parthians favored and emphasized frontality, meaning the person depicted by painting, sculpture, or raised-relief on coins faced the viewer directly instead of showing his or her profile. Although frontality in portraiture was already an old artistic technique by the Parthian period, Daniel Schlumberger explains the innovation of Parthian frontality:
> 'Parthian frontality', as we are now accustomed to call it, deeply differs both from ancient Near Eastern and from Greek frontality, though it is, no doubt, an offspring of the latter. For both in Oriental art and in Greek art, frontality was an exceptional treatment: in Oriental art it was a treatment strictly reserved for a small number of traditional characters of cult and myth; in Greek art it was an option resorted to only for definite reasons, when demanded by the subject, and, on the whole, seldom made use of. With Parthian art, on the contrary, frontality becomes the normal treatment of the figure. For the Parthians frontality is really nothing but the habit of showing, in relief and in painting, all figures full-face, even at the expense (as it seems to us moderns) of clearness and intelligibility. So systematic is this use that it amounts to a complete banishment de facto of the side-view and of all intermediate attitudes. This singular state of things seems to have become established in the course of the 1st century A.D.
Parthian art, with its distinct use of frontality in portraiture, was lost and abandoned with the profound cultural and political changes brought by the Sasanian Empire. However, even after the Roman occupation of Dura-Europos in 165 AD, the use of Parthian frontality in portraiture continued to flourish there. This is exemplified by the early 3rd-century AD wall murals of the Dura-Europos synagogue, a temple in the same city dedicated to Palmyrene gods, and the local Mithraeum.
Parthian architecture adopted elements of Achaemenid and Greek architecture, but remained distinct from the two. The style is first attested at Mithridatkert/Nisa. The Round Hall of Nisa is similar to Hellenistic palaces, but different in that it forms a circle and vault inside a square space. However, the artwork of Nisa, including marble statues and the carved scenes on ivory rhyton vessels, is unquestionably influenced by Greek art.
A signature feature of Parthian architecture was the iwan, an audience hall supported by arches or barrel vaults and open on one side. Use of the barrel vault replaced the Hellenic use of columns to support roofs. Although the iwan was known during the Achaemenid period and earlier in smaller and subterranean structures, it was the Parthians who first built them on a monumental scale. The earliest Parthian iwans are found at Seleucia, built in the early 1st century AD. Monumental iwans are also commonly found in the ancient temples of Hatra and perhaps modeled on the Parthian style. The largest Parthian iwans at that site have a span of 15 m (50 ft).
### Clothing and apparel
The typical Parthian riding outfit is exemplified by the famous bronze statue of a Parthian nobleman found at Shami, Elymais. Standing 1.9 m (6 ft), the figure wears a V-shaped jacket, a V-shaped tunic fastened in place with a belt, loose-fitting and many-folded trousers held by garters, and a diadem or band over his coiffed, bobbed hair. His outfit is commonly seen in relief images of Parthian coins by the mid-1st century BC.
Examples of clothing in Parthian inspired sculptures have been found in excavations at Hatra, in northwestern Iraq. Statues erected there feature the typical Parthian shirt (qamis), combined with trousers and made with fine, ornamented materials. The aristocratic elite of Hatra adopted the bobbed hairstyles, headdresses, and belted tunics worn by the nobility belonging to the central Arsacid court. The trouser-suit was even worn by the Arsacid kings, as shown on the reverse images of coins. The Parthian trouser-suit was also adopted in Palmyra, Syria, along with the use of Parthian frontality in art.
Parthian sculptures depict wealthy women wearing long-sleeved robes over a dress, with necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and headdresses bedecked in jewelry. Their many-folded dresses were fastened by a brooch at one shoulder. Their headdresses also featured a veil which was draped backwards.
As seen in Parthian coinage, the headdresses worn by the Parthian kings changed over time. The earliest Arsacid coins show rulers wearing the soft cap with cheek flaps, known as the bashlyk (Greek: kyrbasia). This may have derived from an Achaemenid-era satrapal headdress and the pointy hats depicted in the Achaemenid reliefs at Behistun and Persepolis. The earliest coins of Mithridates I show him wearing the soft cap, yet coins from the latter part of his reign show him for the first time wearing the royal Hellenistic diadem. Mithridates II was the first to be shown wearing the Parthian tiara, embroidered with pearls and jewels, a headdress commonly worn in the late Parthian period and by Sasanian monarchs.
### Language
As culturally and religiously tolerant as the Parthians were, they adopted Greek as their official language, while Aramaic remained the lingua franca in the empire. The native Parthian language, Middle Persian, and Akkadian were also used.
### Literature and music
It is known that during the Parthian period the court minstrel (gōsān) recited poetic oral literature accompanied by music. However, their stories, composed in verse form, were not written down until the subsequent Sassanian period. In fact, there is no known Parthian-language literature that survives in original form; all of the surviving texts were written down in the following centuries. It is believed that such stories as the romantic tale Vis and Rāmin and epic cycle of the Kayanian dynasty were part of the corpus of oral literature from Parthian times, although compiled much later. Although literature of the Parthian language was not committed to written form, there is evidence that the Arsacids acknowledged and respected written Greek literature.
### Women in the Parthian Empire
There are very few written and archeological sources about the position of women in the Parthian Empire, and the fragmentary information that does exist is only about royal women, whose position shows many similarities to their predecessors in the Achaemenid Empire and their successors in the Sasanian Empire.
The Parthian kings were polygamous and had several wives with the title "queen" (referred to with the Babylonian spelling šarratu or the Greek basilisse), as well as concubines. It is known that kings often married their sisters, but it is unknown if they were the kings' full sisters or half sisters. According to Roman sources, Parthian kings had harems full of female slaves and hetairas secluded from contact with men, and royal women were not allowed to participate in the royal banquets. Whether the royal women lived in seclusion from men is unknown, as no evidence of that has been found, but it is known that women at least participated in the royal banquets as entertainers, as women are shown in archeological images entertaining at such occasions with music and dance.
It is assumed that royal Parthian women could own and manage their own property, land and manufactures, as could their predecessors in the Achaemenid and Seleucid Empire and their successors in the Sasanian Empire. It is fully attested that royal women, as well as noblewomen, accompanied their husbands in battle with their own entourage. This was the reason why female members of the royal family could sometimes be taken captive by enemies and had to be ransomed, such as the famous occasion when the daughter of King Osroes was held captive by emperor Trajan from the occupation of Ctesiphon in 116 until 129, but also the reason why kings sometimes killed the women of his company after a defeat to prevent them from being taken prisoners.
Royal women appear to have been less included in royal representation. Artwork depicts royal women dressed similarly to those of the Achaemenid period: in long-sleeved, many-folded dresses tied by a belt, with a tiara or a veil hanging down their back. While their names and titles did appear in official documents, Parthian women were rarely depicted in art. Only two royal women were ever depicted on Parthian coins: queen Musa of Parthia and queen Anzaze of Elymais. Only two women are known to have ruled the Parthian Empire, one as monarch and one as regent. Musa of Parthia is the only woman confirmed to have ruled as queen regnant of the Parthian Empire, while Rinnu, mother of underage king Phraates II, is the only other woman believed to have been a ruler, in her case as a queen regent instead of a queen regnant.
## See also
- Pahla
- Parthians
- Assyria (Roman province)
- Baghdad Battery
- Battle of Nisibis (217)
- Romans in Persia
- History of Iran
- Inscription of Parthian imperial power
- List of Zoroastrian states and dynasties
- Augustus' Eastern policy
## References or sources
|
1,402,267 |
1941 Atlantic hurricane season
| 1,156,238,045 |
Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean
|
[
"1940s Atlantic hurricane seasons",
"1941 meteorology",
"1941 natural disasters",
"Articles which contain graphical timelines"
] |
The 1941 Atlantic hurricane season was the period during 1941 in which tropical cyclones formed in the Atlantic Basin. It was a relatively inactive hurricane season, with only six known storms. It officially began on June 16, 1941, and lasted until November 1, 1941. These dates delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones tend to form in the Atlantic basin. Of the six cyclones, four attained hurricane status, and three became major hurricanes. The active season had an abnormally late start; the first system formed on September 11, nearly three months after the official beginning date. The season was also short-lived, as all six storms developed in rapid succession. On September 23, three hurricanes existed simultaneously in the Atlantic basin.
In total, the season resulted in about 63 fatalities and over \$10 million in damages. The first and last storms of the season were largely insignificant, although the second, fourth, and fifth storms had considerable effects. Two hurricanes struck the United States: a major hurricane that struck Texas and Louisiana in late September, disrupting the Louisiana Maneuvers, and Hurricane Five, which made two landfalls in Florida, the first of which was near Miami at Category 2 intensity, inflicting widespread damage. Another major storm—Hurricane Four—traversed the Caribbean before striking the Nicaragua–Honduras border at Category 4 intensity, leaving 47 men dead at sea.
The season's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) rating of 52 units, below the 1931–1943 average of 91.2. ACE is a metric used to express the energy used by a tropical cyclone during its lifetime. Therefore, a storm with a longer duration will have high values of ACE. It is only calculated at six-hour increments in which specific tropical and subtropical systems are either at or above sustained wind speeds of 39 mph (63 km/h), which is the threshold for tropical storm intensity. Thus, tropical depressions are not included here.
## Timeline
## Systems
### Tropical Storm One
The first storm of the 1941 season formed on September 11 in the northern Gulf of Mexico. This was an abnormally late start to an Atlantic hurricane season: only on two other occasions between 1887 and 1941 had no storms developed prior to September 11. The storm moved slowly in a generally westward direction for the next few days, peaking as a moderate tropical storm with winds of 45 mph (75 km/h). It then weakened until it made landfall along the northern Texas coast between Galveston and Port Arthur as a tropical depression, where it caused only minor damage. Near 0600 UTC on September 16, the storm deteriorated into a depression, and dissipated a few hours later. The storm briefly disrupted aerial activities in the Louisiana Maneuvers, but was of limited consequence as it weakened before moving inland.
### Hurricane Two
The Texas Hurricane of 1941
Little more than a day after the first storm of the season dissipated, a tropical depression formed on September 17 in the central Gulf of Mexico about 120 mi (190 km) north of the Yucatán Peninsula. Upon forming, the system began moving generally northward. Early on September 18, the system developed into a tropical storm more than 300 mi (480 km) to the south-southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana. Over the next three days, the intensifying storm executed a gradual clockwise loop, moving to the south-southeast before turning back to the west. After intensifying to a Category 1 hurricane on September 21, the storm began assuming a more northwestward course, toward the Texas Gulf Coast. It continued to strengthen into a major hurricane, peaking at 125 mph (201 km/h) late on September 23. About four hours later, at about 22 UTC, the storm went ashore east of Bay City, Texas, on September 23. The estimated minimum central pressure fell to as low as 942 millibars (27.8 inHg). It curved towards the northeast, passing just east of Houston, and accelerated as it continued to move inland. The cyclone transitioned into an extratropical storm on September 25, and was last recorded at 00 UTC on September 27 over northeastern Quebec, near the Torngat Mountains National Park.
Warnings and advisories declared in response to the storm were widely distributed, and approximately 25,000 people in the area evacuated their homes. Officials completed various precautionary measures. Wind gusts along the coast reached up to 100 mph (160 km/h), and high storm tides were recorded. The hurricane inflicted severe damage; destruction to property was worth an estimated \$2 million, with an additional \$5 million in damage to crops, notably rice and cotton. Overall, the cyclone killed four people. The hurricane affected the southern Louisiana region one week before the Louisiana Maneuvers, a prelude to World War II. Heavy rainfall triggered flooding and swelled rivers, and army vehicles became stuck in the mud as a result. The inclement weather forced hundreds of military aircraft to move inland for shelter.
### Hurricane Three
Early on September 18, squally weather was reported throughout the Atlantic coast of Florida, with indications that a circulation center was present 150 mi (240 km) offshore. It is estimated that a tropical storm had formed at around this time. The cyclone began to intensify as it briefly moved northeastward, before abruptly executing an eastward turn. It attained Category 1 hurricane status on September 19, and completed a clockwise loop the next day. It then tracked northwestward toward North Carolina, but began to recurve away from land late on September 22. It weakened into a tropical storm shortly afterward. The system dissipated on September 25 to the south of Nova Scotia. The storm had little or no effect on land, but caused significant delays for North Atlantic shipping. One vessel en route from Curaçao to New York encountered the storm on two separate occasions, recording Force 8 winds on the Beaufort scale both times.
### Hurricane Four
The Nicaragua Hurricane of 1941
On September 23, a minor area of disturbed weather was observed about 75 mi (121 km) to the northwest of Barbados. It is estimated that it developed into a tropical storm shortly thereafter. Tracking westward, it passed just south of St. Lucia and emerged into the Caribbean Sea. By September 25, the storm had reached hurricane strength. Still intensifying, the storm continued generally westward and reached its peak at Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. By late September 27, the hurricane was situated near Cape Gracias a Dios, Honduras, and accelerated as it moved across the northernmost stretch of the country. It maintained hurricane intensity despite moving over mountainous terrain. After briefly entering the Gulf of Honduras, it moved ashore again in Belize, with winds of up to 85 mph (137 km/h). Gradually weakening, the storm continued inland and weakened to a tropical storm by September 29. The storm emerged over the Bay of Campeche as a tropical depression and dissipated on September 30 while over water.
Approximately 47 people died at sea due to the hurricane. The SS Ethel Sakel displayed a "sinking" message on September 25, about 125 mi (201 km) north of Aruba; she later went down with 20 of her 33 crew members. Two other ships sent out distress signals, one of which capsized, all hands lost. Damage on land was also extensive, and three people drowned at Cape Gracias, which was largely destroyed by the storm. Coastal flooding in the town was severe. Inland, a ship encountered the calm eye of the cyclone, and the barometric pressure aboard fell to 957 mb (28.3 inHg); the actual pressure at the coast was believed to have been far lower. In Belize, forests sustained major damage. For example, in the Melinda region, high winds brought down about 10% of the large pines.
### Hurricane Five
The Florida Hurricane of 1941
Tropical Storm Five was first observed to the north of the Virgin Islands on October 3. The storm tracked generally westward on October 4, strengthening to its peak intensity of 120 mph (195 km/h) at 12 UTC the next day. Now a Category 3 hurricane on the modern-day Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, the storm struck Cat Island, causing major damage. However, the rapidly moving storm soon weakened as its track bent more to the northwest. At 00 UTC on October 6, the eye of the storm passed south of Nassau. Ten hours later, the small hurricane struck the north end of Elliott Key, Florida, and then made a second landfall within the hour on the mainland at Goulds, near Homestead. Winds at landfall reached 100 mph (155 km/h), and the calm eye was reported over Goulds. After moving across southern Florida, the storm had weakened to a strong tropical storm, but then restrengthened as it curved northwestward over the Gulf of Mexico. At about 09 UTC on October 7, the storm made another landfall along the Florida Panhandle near Carrabelle with winds of 90 mph (140 km/h). Turning toward the north and northeast, it crossed Georgia and South Carolina, and entered the Atlantic Ocean on October 8. The storm fully dissipated several days later.
Preparations for the storm were extensive; residents boarded up homes and businesses, while evacuations were recommended in some coastal areas. In the Bahamas, where winds reached 104 mph (167 km/h), the storm killed three people. The city of Nassau was struck particularly hard, though damage elsewhere in the islands was also severe, with many homes reported destroyed. In Florida, damage was relatively severe, and included the deaths of several people. High winds brought down trees and power lines, and wind-driven salt water damaged vegetation well inland across Dade County, though the storm was characterized by unusually light rainfall. Storm surge in the Everglades region flooded local streets, particularly at Everglades City. As the storm progressed northward, the city of Tallahassee suffered widespread power outages and damage to numerous vehicles. Throughout the state, the hurricane inflicted \$675,000 (1941 USD) in damages. The cyclone later killed one person in Georgia.
### Tropical Storm Six
A tropical storm formed on October 15, and passed through the southern Bahamas. It crossed the Florida Straits, and reached its peak intensity with winds of 50 mph (85 km/h) on October 20, after entering the eastern Gulf of Mexico and turning towards the north. It curved northeastward and made landfall at Cedar Key, Florida. After pushing inland, the storm stalled and weakened to a tropical depression on October 21 before dissipating fully the next day.
The storm's slow forward motion over the state of Florida led to heavy widespread precipitation, locally amounting to 35 in (890 mm) in Trenton, Florida, between October 17 and October 22. Gale-force winds were also reported. Some flood damage occurred throughout the affected locations. An infant was killed following the destruction of a house, possibly related to a tornado spawned by the tropical storm; the baby's parents also sustained injuries.
## See also
- 1941 Pacific hurricane season
- 1941 Pacific typhoon season
- 1900–1950 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone seasons
- 1940s Australian region cyclone seasons
- 1940s South Pacific cyclone seasons
|
11,967,508 |
Chicado V
| 1,120,022,606 |
Quarter Horse champion race mare
|
[
"1950 racehorse births",
"1972 racehorse deaths",
"AQHA Hall of Fame (horses)",
"American Quarter Horse broodmares",
"American Quarter Horse racehorses",
"Racehorses bred in California",
"Racehorses trained in the United States"
] |
Chicado V (1950 – February 1972) was a Champion Quarter Horse race horse foaled (born) in 1950, and considered one of the outstanding broodmares of her breed. She was bred by Frank Vessels of Los Alamitos, California, and trained by Earl Holmes.
Chicado V started only six times because knee problems cut short her racing career. However, she won her first two starts while breaking or equaling track records, and was given the title of co-Champion Quarter Running Two-Year-Old Filly by the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) in 1952. The next year she ran her last four races, winning once and setting one more speed record. After her last race, in December 1953, she was retired from the track to become a broodmare, and had nine foals. Two of her offspring were named Champion Quarter Running Horses, and all her foals had a total of seven stakes race wins. One of her daughters, Table Tennis, went on to become a noted broodmare herself, as did Table Tennis' daughter Rapid Volley and granddaughter Perks. However, three of Chicado V's sons—Triple Chick, Three Chicks, and The Ole Man—were her best known offspring; all three became leading sires and are the main cause of her fame. She was inducted into the AQHA's American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2006.
## Early life
Chicado V was bred by Frank Vessels of Los Alamitos, California and foaled in 1950. She was a member of the Quarter Horse breed, and the AQHA registered her in their stud book as number 29,689. She was a daughter of Chicaro Bill out of the broodmare Do Good, herself a member of the AQHA Hall of Fame. Chicado V was a full sister to Senor Bill, an outstanding racehorse and breeding stallion, as well as a half-sister to Clabber II and Do Win, two other outstanding racehorses. Chicaro Bill's dam, or mother, was a mare named Verna Grace, who was known as Fair Chance when she raced. Through Chicaro Bill, Chicado V was a descendant of the AQHA Hall of Fame member Traveler as well as the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame member Peter Pan. On her dam's side, she traced to Louisiana Quarter Horse bloodlines as well as to the AQHA Hall of Famer Peter McCue.
When mature, Chicado V stood tall. She was a brown mare, with a connected star, stripe, and snip on her face as her only markings, or identifying marks. Earl Holmes, a longtime trainer who started his racing career as a groom for Vessels, had the care of Chicado V after she was born, and said of her that she "was gentle, real gentle—in everything. She was born broke[n]." When she stood in a starting gate for a race, Holmes said she looked like a rabbit, because "she had big ears and that's all you could see, she was so little". She also had a body defect, or conformation fault, in that she had calf-knees.
## Racing career
Chicado V was sent out for race training as a two-year-old, at first to her owner's trainer, Farrell Jones, who liked neither her calf-knees nor her habit of running poorly in training. She consistently hung behind the other horses in group training runs, and Jones sent her back to Vessels, who then sent her to trainer Eddie Moreno. Moreno finished her training and sent her to the track for her first race, a 350-yard (320 m) contest that she won while setting a new track record for a two-year-old of 18.1 seconds. Her performance persuaded Jones to relent, and he took her back to his training barn. Her knees would not allow her to be raced often, and she only started once more as a two-year-old, a 220-yard (200 m) race at Bay Meadows Racetrack that she won while equaling the track record of 17.2 seconds for the distance.
After an 11-month break, Chicado V returned to the track as a three-year-old, but her legs continued to create problems. She started four times during her three-year-old year, winning once, with one second and one third place. In her win at Pomona, the site of her first win, she lowered the track record for the 350-yard (320 m) distance from 18.1 to 17.9 seconds. Her knees continued to be a problem, and although she never broke down, or became unable to run, she was retired in December 1953.
As a racehorse, Chicado V ran up a record of three wins, one second, and one third, in six starts over two years. She earned a Race Register of Merit in 1952 from the AQHA, the lowest level racing award given by the AQHA, as well as the highest possible speed rating of AAAT, a measure of how fast she was able to run. She was a stakes race winner, or winner of a race run by the higher quality horses, and was given the title of co-Champion Quarter Running Two-Year-Old Filly by the AQHA in 1952. Her race earnings were \$5,215 (), although the official race record from the AQHA does not list any stakes wins. Many of the early racing records did not make it into the AQHA's computers, so the lack of stakes wins on the record does not mean that other records recording them are incorrect.
## Broodmare career
As a broodmare, Chicado V gave birth to nine foals, or babies, between 1955 and 1968, seven stallions and two mares. Seven earned their Race Register of Merit with the AQHA. Four of her foals—Triple Chick, Three Chicks, The Ole Man, and Chicado Chick—were sired by Three Bars (TB), a member of the AQHA Hall of Fame. Her other five foals were sired by five different stallions, respectively War Bam, Spotted Bull, Anchor Watch, Double Bid, and fellow Hall of Famer Go Man Go. In a 1959 interview, Vessels felt that Chicado V was the best broodmare he owned. Vessels further stated that he "wouldn't part with her" and that he "would be crazy to sell her".
Chicado V's first foal was Triple Chick, who was fathered by Three Bars, a 1955 brown stallion. Triple Chick was unraced, but he remains number 48 on the AQHA's All Time Leading Broodmares Sire List By Winners, a listing of maternal grandsires of race horses arranged by the number of wins their grandget, or grandchildren, have won as of the end of 2007. Her next foal was War Chic, a 1956 sorrel stallion, who was rated AAAT on the racetrack. He was also a stakes winner, and won 12 out of 21 starts with earnings of \$35,453 (). War Chic was named Champion Two-Year Old Colt in 1958. Chicado V's next foal was a mare, named Table Tennis, who won two stakes races, as well as eight other races, out of 35 starts, with an AAAT rating and \$35,197 (). She was named Champion Three Year Old Filly in 1960. Chicado V's fourth foal was Three Chicks, a 1959 brown stallion, and a full sibling to Triple Chick. Three Chicks won two stakes races, along with one other race in ten starts. He was rated AAAT on the track as well as earning an AQHA Champion award in the show ring after his racing career was over. His total race earnings were \$22,625 (). Three Chicks remains number 42 on the AQHA's All Time Leading Broodmare Sires By Winners.
In 1960, Chicado V foaled Chicado Chick, a bay stallion, another full sibling to Three Chicks and Triple Chick. Chicado Chick started 11 times on the track, winning twice for \$1,752 () in race earnings along with an AAA speed rating, the second highest speed rating possible at the time. He also earned a Performance Register of Merit and an AQHA Championship from the AQHA as a show horse after his racing career was over. The 1961 foal was Anchor Chic, a bay stallion. Anchor Chic started 16 times, with three wins for total earnings of \$2,126 () and an AAAT speed rating. Chicado V had no foal in 1962, but in 1963, she foaled The Ole Man, a sorrel stallion and another full sibling to Triple Chick, Three Chicks and Chicado Chick. The Ole Man won two stakes races as well as 6 other races in 33 starts. He earned an AAAT speed rating and \$20,657 () total race winnings. The Ole Man remains number 55 on the All Time Leading Broodmare Sires By Winners. Chicado V's penultimate foal was Successor, a bay stallion who started seven times, but never won a race; he was rated AA on the track. Chicado V's last foal, Alisal, was a 1968 bay mare who never raced.
Chicado V's foals won seven stakes races for a total prize money of \$118,107 (), and two earned AQHA Championships. Table Tennis went on to become an outstanding broodmare herself, foaling Rapid Volley by Three Bars (TB), among others. Rapid Volley produced Perks by Easy Jet. Perks was another outstanding broodmare who continued the maternal family success, but it was as a dam of stallions that Chicado V is best known; three of her sons—Triple Chick, Three Chicks, and The Ole Man—became leading race sires. Triple Chick not only sired race horses, but show horses as well, including Boston Mac and Triple's Image. Three Chicks sired the All American Futurity winner Three Oh's and the racehorse stallion Azure Three. The Ole Man sired 1,876 foals, including 15 stakes winners and 10 AQHA Champions.
## Death and legacy
Chicado V died in February 1972, while in foal to Alamitos Bar. A stakes race at Los Alamitos Race Course was named in her honor, starting in 1960. In 2006 she was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame.
## Pedigree
|
311,144 |
Margaret Fuller
| 1,169,027,795 |
American writer and women's activist (1810–1850)
|
[
"1810 births",
"1850 deaths",
"19th-century American essayists",
"19th-century American journalists",
"19th-century American women journalists",
"19th-century American women writers",
"Accidental deaths in New York (state)",
"American Unitarians",
"American abolitionists",
"American expatriates in Italy",
"American feminist writers",
"American women essayists",
"Deaths due to shipwreck at sea",
"Members of the Transcendental Club",
"New-York Tribune personnel",
"People from Groton, Massachusetts",
"People of the Italian unification",
"Writers from Boston",
"Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts"
] |
Sarah Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first American female war correspondent and full-time book reviewer in journalism. Her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the first major feminist work in the United States.
Born Sarah Margaret Fuller in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she was given a substantial early education by her father, Timothy Fuller, a lawyer who died in 1835 due to cholera. She later had more formal schooling and became a teacher before, in 1839, she began overseeing her Conversations series: classes for women meant to compensate for their lack of access to higher education. She became the first editor of the transcendentalist journal The Dial in 1840, which was the year her writing career started to succeed, before joining the staff of the New-York Tribune under Horace Greeley in 1844. By the time she was in her 30s, Fuller had earned a reputation as the best-read person in New England, male or female, and became the first woman allowed to use the library at Harvard College. Her seminal work, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, was published in 1845. A year later, she was sent to Europe for the Tribune as its first female correspondent. She soon became involved with the revolutions in Italy and allied herself with Giuseppe Mazzini. She had a relationship with Giovanni Ossoli, with whom she had a child. All three members of the family died in a shipwreck off Fire Island, New York, as they were traveling to the United States in 1850. Fuller's body was never recovered.
Fuller was an advocate of women's rights and, in particular, women's education and the right to employment. Fuller, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, wanted to stay free of what she called the "strong mental odor" of female teachers. She also encouraged many other reforms in society, including prison reform and the emancipation of slaves in the United States. Many other advocates for women's rights and feminism, including Susan B. Anthony, cite Fuller as a source of inspiration. Many of her contemporaries, however, were not supportive, including her former friend Harriet Martineau. She said that Fuller was a talker rather than an activist. Shortly after Fuller's death, her importance faded; the editors who prepared her letters to be published, believing her fame would be short-lived, censored or altered much of her work before publication.
## Biography
### Early life and family
Sarah Margaret Fuller was born on May 23, 1810, in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, the first child of Congressman Timothy Fuller and Margaret Crane Fuller. She was named after her paternal grandmother and her mother, but by age nine she dropped "Sarah" and insisted on being called "Margaret." The Margaret Fuller House, in which she was born, is still standing. Her father taught her to read and write at the age of three and a half, shortly after the couple's second daughter, Julia Adelaide, died at 14 months old. He offered her an education as rigorous as any boy's at the time and forbade her to read the typical feminine fare of the time, such as etiquette books and sentimental novels. He incorporated Latin into his teaching shortly after the birth of the couple's son Eugene in May 1815, and soon Margaret was translating simple passages from Virgil.
Later in life, Margaret blamed her father's exacting love and his valuation of accuracy and precision for her childhood nightmares and sleepwalking. During the day, Margaret spent time with her mother, who taught her household chores and sewing. In 1817, her brother William Henry Fuller was born, and her father was elected as a representative to the United States Congress. For the next eight years, he spent four to six months a year in Washington, D.C. At age ten, Fuller wrote a cryptic note which her father saved: "On 23 May 1810, was born one foredoomed to sorrow and pain, and like others to have misfortunes."
Fuller began her formal education at the Port School in Cambridgeport in 1819 before attending the Boston Lyceum for Young Ladies from 1821 to 1822. In 1824, she was sent to the School for Young Ladies in Groton, on the advice of aunts and uncles, though she resisted the idea at first. While she was there, Timothy Fuller did not run for re-election, in order to help John Quincy Adams with his presidential campaign in 1824; he hoped Adams would return the favor with a governmental appointment. On June 17, 1825, Fuller attended the ceremony at which the American Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette laid the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument 50 years after the battle. The 15-year-old Fuller introduced herself to Lafayette in a letter which concluded: "Should we both live, and it is possible to a female, to whom the avenues of glory are seldom accessible, I will recal my name to your recollection." Early on, Fuller sensed herself to be a significant person and thinker. Fuller left the Groton school after two years and returned home at 16. At home, she studied the classics and trained herself in several modern languages and read world literature.
By this time, she realized she did not fit in with other young women her age. She wrote, "I have felt that I was not born to the common womanly lot." Eliza Farrar, wife of Harvard professor John Farrar and author of The Young Lady's Friend (1836), attempted to train her in feminine etiquette until the age of 20, but was never wholly successful.
### Early career
Fuller was an avid reader, known for translating German literature and bringing German Romanticism to the United States. By the time she was in her 30s, she had earned a reputation as the best-read person, male or female, in New England. She used her knowledge to give private lessons based on the teaching style of Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Fuller hoped to earn her living through journalism and translation; her first published work, a response to historian George Bancroft, appeared in November 1834 in the North American Review.
When she was 23, her father's law practice failed and he moved the family to a farm in Groton. On February 20, 1835, Frederic Henry Hedge and James Freeman Clarke asked her to contribute to each of their periodicals. Clarke helped her publish her first literary review in the Western Messenger in June: criticisms of recent biographies on George Crabbe and Hannah More. In the fall of that year, she developed a terrible migraine with a fever that lasted nine days. Fuller continued to experience such headaches throughout her life. While she was still recovering, her father died of cholera on October 2, 1835. She was deeply affected by his death: "My father's image follows me constantly", she wrote. She vowed to step in as the head of the family and take care of her widowed mother and younger siblings. Her father had not left a will, and two of her uncles gained control of his property and finances, later assessed at \$18,098.15, and the family had to rely on them for support. Humiliated by the way her uncles were treating the family, Fuller wrote that she regretted being "of the softer sex, and never more than now".
Around this time, Fuller was hoping to prepare a biography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but felt that she could work on it only if she traveled to Europe. Her father's death and her sudden responsibility for her family caused her to abandon this idea. In 1836, Fuller was given a job teaching at Bronson Alcott's Temple School in Boston, where she remained for a year. She then accepted an invitation to teach under Hiram Fuller (no relation) at the Greene Street School in Providence, Rhode Island, in April 1837 with the unusually high salary of \$1,000 per year. Her family sold the Groton farm and Fuller moved with them to Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. On November 6, 1839, Fuller held the first of her Conversations, discussions among local women who met in the Boston home of the Peabodys. Fuller intended to compensate for the lack of women's education with discussions and debates focused on subjects including the fine arts, history, mythology, literature, and nature.
Serving as the "nucleus of conversation", Fuller also intended to answer the "great questions" facing women and encourage women "to question, to define, to state and examine their opinions". She asked her participants, "What were we born to do? How shall we do it? Which so few ever propose to themselves 'till their best years are gone by". In Conversations, Fuller was finally finding equal intellectual companions among her female contemporaries. A number of significant figures in the women's rights movement attended these gatherings, including Sophia Dana Ripley, Caroline Sturgis, and Maria White Lowell.
### The Dial
In October 1839, Ralph Waldo Emerson was seeking an editor for his transcendentalist journal The Dial. After several declined the position, he offered it to Fuller, referring to her as "my vivacious friend." Emerson had met Fuller in Cambridge in 1835; of that meeting, he admitted: "she made me laugh more than I liked." The next summer, Fuller spent two weeks at Emerson's home in Concord. Fuller accepted Emerson's offer to edit The Dial on October 20, 1839, and began work in the first week of 1840. She edited the journal from 1840 to 1842, though her promised annual salary of \$200 was never paid. Because of her role, she was soon recognized as one of the most important figures of the transcendental movement and was invited to George Ripley's Brook Farm, a communal experiment. Fuller never officially joined the community but was a frequent visitor, often spending New Year's Eve there. In the summer of 1843, she traveled to Chicago, Milwaukee, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo, New York; while there, she interacted with several Native Americans, including members of the Ottawa and the Chippewa tribes. She reported her experiences in a book called Summer on the Lakes, which she completed writing on her 34th birthday in 1844. The critic Evert Augustus Duyckinck called it "the only genuine book, I can think of, this season." Fuller used the library at Harvard College to do research on the Great Lakes region, and became the first woman allowed to use Harvard's library.
Fuller's "The Great Lawsuit" was written in serial form for The Dial. She originally intended to name the work The Great Lawsuit: Man 'versus' Men, Woman 'versus' Women; when it was expanded and published independently in 1845, it was entitled Woman in the Nineteenth Century. After completing it, she wrote to a friend: "I had put a good deal of my true self in it, as if, I suppose I went away now, the measure of my footprint would be left on earth." The work discussed the role that women played in American democracy and Fuller's opinion on possibilities for improvement. It has since become one of the major documents in American feminism. It is considered the first of its kind in the United States. Soon after the American publication of Woman in the Nineteenth Century, it was pirated and published by H.G. Clarke in England. Despite never receiving commissions due to a lack of international copyright laws, Fuller was "very glad to find it will be read by women" around the world.
### New-York Tribune
Fuller left The Dial in 1844 in part because of ill health but also because of her disappointment with the publication's dwindling subscription list. She moved to New York that autumn and joined Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune as a literary critic, becoming the first full-time book reviewer in American journalism and, by 1846, the publication's first female editor. Her first article, a review of a collection of essays by Emerson, appeared in the December 1, 1844, issue. At this time, the Tribune had some 50,000 subscribers and Fuller earned \$500 a year for her work. In addition to American books, she reviewed foreign literature, concerts, lectures, and art exhibits. During her four years with the publication, she published more than 250 columns, most signed with a "\*" as a byline. In these columns, Fuller discussed topics ranging from art and literature to political and social issues such as the plight of slaves and women's rights. She also published poetry; her poems, styled after the work of Emerson, do not have the same intellectual vigor as her criticism.
Around this time, she was also involved in a scandal involving fellow literary critic Edgar Allan Poe, who had been carrying on a public flirtation with the married poet Frances Sargent Osgood. Another poet, Elizabeth F. Ellet, had become enamored of Poe and jealous of Osgood and suggested the relationship between Poe and Osgood was more than an innocent flirtation. Osgood then sent Fuller and Anne Lynch Botta to Poe's cottage on her behalf to request that he return the personal letters she had sent him. Angered by their interference, Poe called them "Busy-bodies". A public scandal erupted and continued until Osgood's estranged husband, Samuel Stillman Osgood, stepped in and threatened to sue Ellet.
### Assignment in Europe
In 1846, the New-York Tribune sent Fuller to Europe, specifically England and Italy, as its first female foreign correspondent. She traveled from Boston to Liverpool in August on the Cambria, a vessel that used both sail and steam to make the journey in ten days and sixteen hours. Over the next four years she provided the Tribune with thirty-seven dispatches. She interviewed many prominent writers including George Sand and Thomas Carlyle—whom she found disappointing because of his reactionary politics, among other things. George Sand had previously been an idol of hers, but Fuller was disappointed when Sand chose not to run for the French National Assembly, saying that women were not ready to vote or to hold political office. Fuller was also given a letter of introduction to Elizabeth Barrett by Cornelius Mathews, but did not meet her at that time, because Barrett had just eloped with Robert Browning.
In England in the spring of 1846, she met Giuseppe Mazzini, who had been in exile there from Italy since 1837. Fuller also met the Roman patriot Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, a marquis belonging to a noble family not particularly rich (but not poor) who worked as an employee at an uncle's commercial office and at the same time volunteered in the Civic Guard corps (then National Guard). Fuller and Ossoli moved in together in Florence, Italy, likely before they were married; whether they ever married is uncertain.
Fuller was originally opposed to marrying him, in part because she was Protestant and he was Catholic. Emerson speculated that the couple was "married perhaps in Oct. Nov. or Dec" of 1847, though he did not explain his reasoning. Biographers have speculated that the couple married on April 4, 1848, to celebrate the anniversary of their first meeting but one biographer provided evidence they first met on April 1 during the ceremony called "Lavanda degli Altari" (Altars Lavage). By the time the couple moved to Florence, they were referred to as husband and wife, though it is unclear if any formal ceremony took place. It seems certain that at the time their child was born, they were not married. Around New Year's Day 1848, she suspected she was pregnant but kept it from Ossoli for several weeks. Their child, Angelo Eugene Philip Ossoli, was born in early September 1848 and nicknamed Angelino. The couple was very secretive about their relationship but, after Angelino suffered an unnamed illness, they became less so. Fuller informed her mother about Ossoli and Angelino in August 1849 in a letter that explained that she had kept silent so as not to upset her "but it has become necessary, on account of the child, for us to live publicly and permanently together." Her mother's response suggests that she was aware that the couple was not legally married. She was nevertheless happy for her daughter, writing: "I send my first kiss with my fervent blessing to my grandson."
The couple supported Giuseppe Mazzini's movement for the establishment of a Roman Republic proclaimed on February 9, 1849, after it had been voted by the Constituent Assembly, elected by male universal suffrage in January 1849. The fundamental decree of the Roman Republic stated: "Art. 1. - The Pope has lapsed in fact and in law from the temporal government of the Roman State. Art. 2. —- The Roman Pontiff will have all the necessary guarantees for independence in the exercise of his spiritual power. Art. 3 - The form of the government of the Roman state will be pure democracy, and will take on the glorious name of Roman Republic. Art. 4. - The Roman Republic will have with the rest of Italy the relations required by the common nationality."
The Pope resisted this statement and asked for international intervention to be restored in his temporal power. Catholic mobilization on behalf of papal sovereignty was thus sparked. French zouaves were the first to respond to his appeal and besieged Rome. Ossoli fought on the ramparts of the Vatican walls while Fuller volunteered at two supporting hospitals. When the patriots they supported met defeat, the couple believed it safer to flee Rome and decided to move to Florence and, in 1850, to the United States. In Florence they finally met Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Fuller used her experience in Italy to begin a book about the history of the Roman Republic—a work she may have begun as early as 1847— and hoped to find an American publisher after a British one rejected it. She believed the work would be her most important, referring to it in a March 1849 letter to her brother Richard as, "something good which may survive my troubled existence."
### Death
In the beginning of 1850, Fuller wrote to a friend: "It has long seemed that in the year 1850 I should stand on some important plateau in the ascent of life ... I feel however no marked and important change as yet." Also that year, Fuller wrote: "I am absurdly fearful and various omens have combined to give me a dark feeling ... It seems to me that my future upon earth will soon close ... I have a vague expectation of some crisis—I know not what". A few days after writing this, Fuller, Ossoli, and their child began a five-week return voyage to the United States aboard the ship Elizabeth, an American merchant freighter carrying cargo that included mostly marble from Carrara. They set sail on May 17. At sea, the ship's captain, Seth Hasty, died of smallpox. Angelino contracted the disease and recovered.
Possibly because of the inexperienced first mate, now serving as captain, the ship slammed into a sandbar less than 100 yards from Fire Island, New York, on July 19, 1850, around 3:30 a.m. Many of the other passengers and crew members abandoned ship. The first mate, Mr. Bangs, urged Fuller and Ossoli to try to save themselves and their child as he himself jumped overboard, later claiming he believed Fuller had wanted to be left behind to die. On the beach, people arrived with carts hoping to salvage any cargo washed ashore. None made any effort to rescue the crew or passengers of the Elizabeth, though they were only 50 yards from shore. Most of those aboard attempted to swim to shore, leaving Fuller and Ossoli and Angelino some of the last on the ship. Ossoli was thrown overboard by a massive wave and, after the wave had passed, a crewman who witnessed the event said Fuller could not be seen.
Henry David Thoreau traveled to New York City, at the urging of Emerson, to search the shore but neither Fuller's body nor that of her husband was ever recovered. Angelino's had washed ashore. Few of their possessions were found other than some of the child's clothes and a few letters. Fuller's manuscript on the rise and fall of the 1849 Roman Republic, which she described as, "what is most valuable to me if I live of any thing", was also lost. A memorial to Fuller was erected on the beach at Fire Island in 1901 through the efforts of Julia Ward Howe. A cenotaph to Fuller and Ossoli, under which Angelino is buried, is in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The inscription reads, in part:
> > By birth a child of New England By adoption a citizen of Rome By genius belonging to the world
Within a week after her death, Horace Greeley suggested to Emerson that a biography of Fuller, to be called Margaret and Her Friends, be prepared quickly "before the interest excited by her sad decease has passed away". Many of her writings were soon collected together by her brother Arthur as At Home and Abroad (1856) and Life Without and Life Within (1858). He also edited a new version of Woman in the Nineteenth Century in 1855. In February 1852, The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli was published, edited by Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, and William Henry Channing, though much of the work was censored or reworded. It left out details about her love affair with Ossoli and an earlier relationship with a man named James Nathan. The three editors, believing the public interest in Fuller would be short-lived and that she would not survive as a historical figure, were not concerned about accuracy. For a time, it was the best-selling biography of the decade and went through thirteen editions before the end of the century. The book focused on her personality rather than her work. Detractors of the book ignored her status as a critic and instead criticized her personal life and her "unwomanly" arrogance.
Since her death, the majority of Fuller's extant papers are kept at Houghton Library and Boston Public Library. She was also voted sixth in a mass magazine poll to select twenty American women for the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at University Heights in New York City in 1902.
## Beliefs
Fuller was an early proponent of feminism and especially believed in providing education to women. Once equal educational rights were afforded women, she believed, women could push for equal political rights as well. She advocated that women seek any employment they wish, rather than catering to the stereotypical "feminine" roles of the time, such as teaching. She once said, "If you ask me what office women should fill, I reply—any ... let them be sea captains if you will. I do not doubt that there are women well fitted for such an office". She had great confidence in all women but doubted that a woman would produce a lasting work of art or literature in her time and disliked the popular female poets of her time. Fuller also warned women to be careful about marriage and not to become dependent on their husbands. As she wrote, "I wish woman to live, first for God's sake. Then she will not make an imperfect man for her god and thus sink to idolatry. Then she will not take what is not fit for her from a sense of weakness and poverty". By 1832, she had made a personal commitment to stay single. Fuller also questioned a definitive line between male and female: "There is no wholly masculine man ... no purely feminine" but that both were present in any individual. She suggested also that within a female were two parts: the intellectual side (which she called the Minerva) and the "lyrical" or "Femality" side (the Muse). She admired the work of Emanuel Swedenborg, who believed men and women shared "an angelic ministry", as she wrote, as well as Charles Fourier, who placed "Woman on an entire equality with Man". Unlike several contemporary women writers, including "Mrs. Sigourney" and "Mrs. Stowe", she was familiarly referred to in a less formal manner as "Margaret".
Fuller also advocated reform at all levels of society, including prison. In October 1844, she visited Sing Sing and interviewed the women prisoners, even staying overnight in the facility. Sing Sing was developing a more humane system for its women inmates, many of whom were prostitutes. Fuller was also concerned about the homeless and those living in dire poverty, especially in New York. She also admitted that, though she was raised to believe "that the Indian obstinately refused to be civilized", her travels in the American West made her realize that the white man unfairly treated the Native Americans; she considered Native Americans an important part of American heritage. She also supported the rights of African-Americans, referring to "this cancer of slavery", and suggested that those who were interested in the abolition movement follow the same reasoning when considering the rights of women: "As the friend of the Negro assumes that one man cannot by right hold another in bondage, so should the Friend of Woman assume that Man cannot by right lay even well-meant restrictions on Woman." She suggested that those who spoke against the emancipation of slaves were similar to those who did not support the emancipation of Italy.
Fuller agreed with the transcendental concern for the psychological well-being of the individual, though she was never comfortable being labeled a transcendentalist. Even so, she wrote, if being labeled a transcendentalist means "that I have an active mind frequently busy with large topics I hope it is so". She criticized people such as Emerson, however, for focusing too much on individual improvement and not enough on social reform. Like other members of the so-called Transcendental Club, she rebelled against the past and believed in the possibility of change. However, unlike others in the movement, her rebellion was not based on religion. Though Fuller occasionally attended Unitarian congregations, she did not entirely identify with that religion. As biographer Charles Capper has noted, she "was happy to remain on the Unitarian margins."
Fuller has been cited as a vegetarian because she criticized the slaughter of animals for food in her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century. However, biographer Margaret Vanderhaar Allen wrote that Fuller did not fully endorse vegetarianism as she was repelled by the fanaticism and moral rigorism of vegetarians.
## Legacy and criticism
Margaret Fuller was especially known in her time for her personality and, in particular, for being overly self-confident and having a bad temper. This personality was the inspiration for the character Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, specifically her radical thinking about "the whole race of womanhood". She may also be the basis for the character Zenobia in another of Hawthorne's works, The Blithedale Romance. Hawthorne and his then-fiancée Sophia had first met Fuller in October 1839.
She was also an inspiration to poet Walt Whitman, who believed in her call for the forging of a new national identity and a truly American literature. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was also a strong admirer, but believed that Fuller's unconventional views were unappreciated in the United States and, therefore, she was better off dead. She also said that Fuller's history of the Roman Republic would have been her greatest work: "The work she was preparing upon Italy would probably have been more equal to her faculty than anything previously produced by her pen (her other writings being curiously inferior to the impressions her conversation gave you)". An 1860 essay collection, Historical Pictures Retouched, by Caroline Healey Dall, called Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century "doubtless the most brilliant, complete, and scholarly statement ever made on the subject". Despite his personal issues with Fuller, the typically harsh literary critic Edgar Allan Poe wrote of the work as "a book which few women in the country could have written, and no woman in the country would have published, with the exception of Miss Fuller", noting its "independence" and "unmitigated radicalism". Thoreau also thought highly of the book, suggesting that its strength came in part from Fuller's conversational ability. As he called it, it was "rich extempore writing, talking with pen in hand".
Another admirer of Fuller was Susan B. Anthony, a pioneer of women's rights, who wrote that Fuller "possessed more influence on the thought of American women than any woman previous to her time". Fuller's work may have partially inspired the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Anthony, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote in their History of Woman Suffrage that Fuller "was the precursor of the Women's Rights agitation". Modern scholars have suggested Woman in the Nineteenth Century was the first major women's rights work since Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), though an early comparison between the two women came from George Eliot in 1855. It is unclear if Fuller was familiar with Wollstonecraft's works; in her childhood, her father prevented her from reading them. In 1995, Fuller was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Fuller, however, was not without her critics. A one-time friend, the English writer Harriet Martineau was one of her harshest detractors after Fuller's death. Martineau said that Fuller was a talker rather than an activist, that she had "shallow conceits" and often "looked down upon persons who acted instead of talking finely ... and despised those who, like myself, could not adopt her scale of valuation". The influential editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold, who believed she went against his notion of feminine modesty, referred to Woman in the Nineteenth Century as "an eloquent expression of her discontent at having been created female". New York writer Charles Frederick Briggs said that she was "wasting the time of her readers", especially because she was an unmarried woman and therefore could not "truly represent the female character". English writer and critic Matthew Arnold scoffed at Fuller's conversations as well, saying, "My G–d, [sic] what rot did she and the other female dogs of Boston talk about Greek mythology!" Sophia Hawthorne, who had previously been a supporter of Fuller, was critical of her after Woman of the Nineteenth Century was published:
> The impression it left was disagreeable. I did not like the tone of it—& did not agree with her at all about the change in woman's outward circumstances ... Neither do I believe in such a character of man as she gives. It is altogether too ignoble ... I think Margaret speaks of many things that should not be spoken of.
Fuller had angered fellow poet and critic James Russell Lowell when she reviewed his work, calling him "absolutely wanting in the true spirit and tone of poesy ... his verse is stereotyped, his thought sounds no depth; and posterity will not remember him." In response, Lowell took revenge in his satirical A Fable for Critics, first published in October 1848. At first, he considered excluding her entirely but ultimately gave her what was called the "most wholly negative characterization" in the work. Referring to her as Miranda, Lowell wrote that she stole old ideas and presented them as her own, she was genuine only in her spite and "when acting as censor, she privately blows a censer of vanity 'neath her own nose".
Shortly after Fuller's death, her importance faded. Her obituary in the newspaper she had once edited, the Daily Tribune, said that her works had a few great sentiments, "but as a whole they must commend themselves mainly by their vigor of thought and habitual fearlessness rather than freedom of utterance". As biographer Abby Slater wrote, "Margaret had been demoted from a position of importance in her own right to one in which her only importance was in the company she kept". Years later, Hawthorne's son Julian wrote, "The majority of readers will, I think, not be inconsolable that poor Margaret Fuller has at last taken her place with the numberless other dismal frauds who fill the limbo of human pretension and failure." In the twentieth century, American writer Elizabeth Hardwick wrote an essay called "The Genius of Margaret Fuller" (1986). She compared her own move from Boston to New York to Fuller's, saying that Boston was not a good place for intellectuals, despite the assumption that it was the best place for intellectuals.
In 1995, Fuller was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
On June 21, 2016, a historical marker in honor of Fuller was placed in Polhill Park in Beacon, NY, to commemorate her staying at Van Vliet boarding house. For the dedication ceremony, Fuller's poem, "Truth and Form," was set to music by Debra Kaye and performed by singer Kelly Ellenwood.
## Selected works
- Summer on the Lakes (1844)
- Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)
- Papers on Literature and Art (1846)
Posthumous editions
- Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1852)
- At Home and Abroad (1856)
- Life Without and Life Within (1858)
## See also
- History of feminism
- Buckminster Fuller, her grandnephew
- George Livermore, a childhood classmate
- Boston Women's Heritage Trail
- Ossoli Circle
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Radcliffe, Greater Manchester
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Town in Greater Manchester, England
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[
"Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury",
"Irwell Valley",
"Radcliffe, Greater Manchester",
"Towns in Greater Manchester",
"Unparished areas in Greater Manchester"
] |
Radcliffe is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It lies in the Irwell Valley 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Manchester and 3 miles (5 km) southwest of Bury and is contiguous with Whitefield to the south. The disused Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal bisects the town.
Evidence of Mesolithic, Roman and Norman activity has been found in Radcliffe and its surroundings. A Roman road passes through the area, along the border between Radcliffe and Bury. Radcliffe appears in an entry of the Domesday Book as "Radeclive" and in the High Middle Ages formed a small parish and township centred on the Church of St Mary and the manorial Radcliffe Tower, both of which are Grade I listed buildings.
Plentiful coal in the area facilitated the Industrial Revolution, providing fuel for the cotton spinning and papermaking industries. By the mid-19th century, Radcliffe was an important mill town with cotton mills, bleachworks and a road, canal and railway network.
At the 2011 Census, Radcliffe had a population of 29,950. Radcliffe is predominantly a residential area whose few remaining cotton mill buildings are now occupied by small businesses.
## History
### Toponymy
The name Radcliffe is derived from the Old English words read and clif, meaning "the red cliff or bank", on the River Irwell in the Irwell Valley. The Domesday Book records the name as "Radeclive". Other archaic spellings include "Radclive" (recorded in 1227), and "Radeclif" (recorded in 1309 and 1360). The Radcliffe family took its name from the town.
### Early history
The first human settlements in the area, albeit seasonal, are thought to have been as far back as 6,000BC during the Mesolithic period. Archaeological excavations in 1949 at Radcliffe Ees (a level plain along the north bank of the Irwell, formed by retreating glacial deposits during the previous ice age) found evidence of pre-historic activity, suggesting a lake village site, but dating techniques of the time were unreliable. Further investigations in 1961 revealed rows of sharpened posts and worked timbers, but no further dating evidence was collected. In 1911, while repairs to the bridge at Radcliffe Bridge were underway, a stone axe-hammer was found in the river bed. The 8.5-inch (22 cm) large tool artefact weighs 4 pounds (1.8 kg) and is made from polished Quartzite, with a bore to take a shaft.
South of the present-day Withins reservoir is a possible location for a Hengi-form Tumulus. During the Roman period, a Roman road passed through the area on a south-east to north-west axis; tracing an alignment with the modern border between Radcliffe and Bury. The route linked the Roman forts of Mamucium (Manchester) and Bremetennacum (Ribchester). The approximate route was through Higher Lane in nearby Whitefield, through Dales Lane and across the Irwell over Radcliffe Ees through the site of the former East Lancashire Paper Mill. The route passes up Croft Lane, over Cross Lane and over the route of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal under the 103⁄4 milestone. It then crosses Bury and Bolton Road, and heads through Higher Spen Moor.
Other than placenames, little information about the area survives from the Dark Ages. Radcliffe was likely moorland and swamps.
Following the 11th century Norman conquest of England, Radcliffe became a parish and township in the hundred of Salford, and county of Lancashire. One of only four parishes from the hundred mentioned in the Domesday Book and held by Edward the Confessor as a Royal Manor, it initially consisted of two hamlets; Radcliffe, near to the border with Bury and centred on the Medieval Church of St Mary and the manorial Radcliffe Tower, and further to the west Radcliffe Bridge, at a crossing of the Irwell. As a Royal Manor, the hide may originally have been up to four times the size it was when it was recorded in 1212 as being held by William de Radeclive, of the "Radclyffes of the Tower" family.
In the 15th century the Pilkington family, who during the Wars of the Roses supported the House of York, owned much of the land around the parish. Thomas Pilkington was at this time lord of many estates in Lancashire. In 1485 Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth. The Duke of Richmond, representing the House of Lancaster, was crowned Henry VII. Sir William Stanley may have placed the crown upon his head. As a reward for the support of his family, on 27 October 1485 Henry made Thomas Stanley the Earl of Derby. Thomas Pilkington was attainted, and in February 1489 Earl Thomas was given many confiscated estates including those of Pilkington, which included the township of Pilkington, and Bury. During the English Civil War Radcliffe, along with nearby Bolton, fought on the side of the Parliamentarians against the Royalist Bury.
In 1561, after about 400 years rule by the Radclyffes, Robert Assheton (Lord of the Manor of Middleton) bought the manor of Radcliffe for 2,000 Marks. From 1765 the Assheton estates were divided between the two daughters of the late Ralph Assheton, one of whom married Thomas Egerton, 1st Earl of Wilton. The manor of Radcliffe appears to have been included in her share, and thereafter was included in the Wilton estates.
### Textiles and the Industrial Revolution
The first documented reference to industry in Radcliffe is after 1680, in the Radcliffe parish registers, which make increasing mention of occupations such as woollen webster (weaving), linen webster, and whitster (bleacher). These were cottage industries which worked alongside local agriculture. In 1780 Robert Peel built the first factory in the town, several hundred yards upstream from Radcliffe Bridge (at the end of Peel Street). With a weir and goit providing motive power for a water wheel, the factory was built for throstle spinning and the weaving of cotton—a relatively new introduction to Britain. The water wheel proved to be insufficient, and so around 1804 the goit was extended. The weir (known as Rectory Weir) was made from timber. Conditions were poor; the mill employed child labour bought from workhouses in Birmingham and London. Children were boarded on an upper floor of the building, and bound until they reached the age of 21. They were unpaid, and were kept locked up each night. Shifts were typically 10–10.5 hours in length, and children returning from a day shift would sleep in the same bed as children leaving for a night shift. Peel himself admitted that conditions at the mill were "very bad". In 1784 an outbreak of typhoid prompted Lord Grey de Wilton to inform the magistrates of the Salford Hundred; keen to prevent the spread of the disease to neighbouring towns and villages, they sent doctors to assess the situation. Their recommendations included leaving the windows of the mill open at night, fumigation of rooms with tobacco (as this was thought to discourage disease), regular cleaning of rooms and toilets and occasional bathing of children. The report forced the magistrates, led by Thomas Butterworth Bayley, to abandon the practice of binding parish apprentices to any mill not adhering to these conditions. The report also prompted Peel to introduce an Act of Parliament to improve factory hygiene, which later became the Factory Act of 1802. Over time, conditions at the mill improved; in the mid-1790s the physician John Aikin, a critic of the factory system, praised working conditions at the mill, and in 1823 inspections by local magistrates of conditions in mills across the county revealed that unlike many others, the factory at Radcliffe was adhering to all requirements of the Factory Acts.
The underlying coal measures throughout the parish were a valuable source of fuel. Radcliffe already had an established textile industry before the arrival of steam power. The first recorded instance of coal getting in the North West of England was in 1246, when Adam de Radeclyve was fined for digging de minera on common land in the Radcliffe area. Coal outcroppings were not uncommon; as recently as 1936 members of the public were seen carrying away large pieces of coal from a seam revealed by the landslip caused when the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal breached at Ladyshore. Mining was initially limited to bell pits until the arrival of steam engines, which along with improved ventilation, made possible much deeper pits. The earliest known local use of such an engine was in 1792 at Black Cat Colliery. The parish of Radcliffe was once home to as many as 50 pits, but with the exceptions of Outwood Colliery and Ladyshore Colliery, all were either exhausted or closed by the end of the 19th century. During the 1926 General Strike many striking miners illegally took coal from exposed seams around the Coney Green area of the town, to sell to local housewives. In the 1950s to the north of the town the National Coal Board did some open cast mining near Radcliffe Moor Road, but the last legal instance of coal mining in Radcliffe was between 1931 and 1949, close to Bury and Bolton Road.
The transformation of the area from an industry based upon water power, to one based upon steam power, may not have been without problems. A story in W. Nicholl's History and Traditions of Radcliffe (1900) tells of a "great crowd" of protesters from Bury who marched on Bealey's Works, demanding that work be halted. James Booth ordered the gates closed, gave the ringleaders £5, and promised to halt work the next day. The crowd then marched on other businesses within the town before heading along the canal to Bolton, at which point they were apparently turned back by news of approaching soldiers.
There were many smaller textile concerns in the parish. Thomas Howarth owned a cottage in Stand Lane from where he sent yarn to be dyed and sized. He made his own warps which were weaved in the town. He would then travel to Preston and Kendal where drapers would purchase his products. His nephews founded A. & J. Hoyle's Mill in Irwell Street, which employed power weaving to produce their specialities in Ginghams and shirting. The mill closed in 1968. Messrs Stott & Pickstone's Top Shop on Stand Lane was the first company to employ powered looms and spinning around 1844. Many of their employees would eventually leave to start their own businesses, such as Spider Mill, built by Robert and William Fletcher, and John Pickstone. This mill closed around 1930.
Radcliffe was at one time home to around 60 textile mills and 15 spinning mills, along with 18 bleachworks of which the Bealey family were prominent owners. However, the textile industry was not the town's major employer; other industries such as mining and paper making were also important sources of employment.
Mount Sion Mill along Sion Street was founded in the early 19th century and during the First World War manufactured guncotton. A weir was constructed along with a goit, used to turn a water wheel which powered a beam engine to pump water to the reservoirs above.
Radcliffe became well known for its paper industry; its mills included the East Lancashire Paper Mill and Radcliffe Paper Mill. The former was founded by the Seddon family on 29 March 1860, along the banks of the Irwell. Its construction provided much-needed employment: in the 1860s living standards within the town were poor, and local mills often operated on "short time". A reduction in the demand for coal had placed many colliers out of work, and the Lancashire Cotton Famine was starving Lancashire of raw materials, especially cotton. Soup kitchens were opened by local benefactors, and many local residents were on poor relief. The mill began producing low grade paper and newsprint, moving on to other products including high quality printing and writing papers. Radcliffe Paper Mill was formed during the First World War, when it took over from a paper mill and a pipe plant. It originally produced paper suitable for roofing felt, to cater for a national shortage. After World War II the mill employed over 600 people and produced 70,000 tons of paper annually. British Plaster Board Industries (BPB) took over the company in 1961.
Other industries in the town included brick making and chimney pot manufacture. Raw materials were sourced from local collieries. In Mill Street carts, waggons, and bicycles were manufactured from 1855, and elsewhere motor vehicles were also produced until the late 1950s. John Cockerill moved to the town from Haslingden before leaving for continental Europe to become the founder of Cockerill-Sambre. James Cockerill, employed Radcliffe man William Yates as his manager. Several foundries and machine manufacturers were located around the town, including Dobson and Barlow at Bradley Fold, and Wolstenholme's along Bridgewater Street. Munitions, aircraft and tank components were manufactured during the Second World War. Chemicals were manufactured by companies such as Bealey's and J. & W. Whewell.
### Post-industrial history
From the 1950s Radcliffe's textile industry went into terminal decline, and although its paper industry survived to the end of the 20th century, both the town's largest paper mills have now been closed and demolished. One of the larger mills in Radcliffe was the Pioneer Mill, built between 1905 and 1906, and which ceased weaving in July 1980—the last mill in Radcliffe to use cotton. The building is now occupied by several different businesses.
Although the town retains much of its existing Victorian and Edwardian housing stock, new estates have been built on former brownfield land including that of the Radcliffe Paper Mill Company. Since deindustrialisation the local population has continued to grow. Radcliffe's housing stock of 23,790 properties is a mixture of mainly semi-detached and terraced housing, with smaller percentages of detached housing and flats. In 1974 the town became a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, and as a result has been described as losing its independence, and to some extent its identity.
## Governance
Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, Radcliffe formed part of the Bury Poor Law Union, an inter-parish unit established to provide social security. Radcliffe's first local authority was an early form of local government in England. In July 1866 the Radcliffe Local Board of Health was established. With reference to the Local Government Act 1858, it was a regulatory body consisting of 12 members, responsible for standards of hygiene and sanitation in the township. Richard Bealey J.P. was chairman of the local board until April 1876 In the same year, the parish was extended to include parts of the former township of Pilkington, formerly in the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham.
Radcliffe became a part of the Municipal Borough of Bury in 1876, but following the Local Government Act 1894 it left the district (by then the County Borough of Bury), becoming an urban district within the administrative county of Lancashire. The district boundary was extended to include the Stand Lane district The extension made the area covered by Radcliffe Urban District 3,084 acres (12.48 km<sup>2</sup>; 4.819 sq mi). Radcliffe Urban District was governed by a council of 24 members, made from six councillors from each of the four wards, Radcliffe Hall, Radcliffe Bridge, Black Lane, and Stand Lane. Alker Allen J.P. was the first chairman of the new council. Radcliffe Town Hall was built in 1911, replacing an earlier building on the junction of Water Street and Spring Lane. It formed the public administrative centre for the district with a large council chamber on the first floor, with public gallery, and four committee rooms.
The Lancashire (Southern Areas) Review Order of 1933 extended the district to include the township of Ainsworth, and a portion of the township of Outwood. This increased the area covered by Radcliffe District to 4,915 acres (19.89 km<sup>2</sup>). A new ward was created for Ainsworth, comprising the former township and a portion of the Black Lane ward. Three councillors were added to the council, and the total number of electors became 15,009. On 21 September 1935 the urban district received a charter as a municipal borough, which gave it borough status, and elevated it to the Municipal Borough of Radcliffe.
Under the Local Government Act 1972 the town's urban district status was abolished, and Radcliffe has, since 1 April 1974, formed an unparished area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, a local government district of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.
For electoral purposes, Radcliffe is now divided into three wards; Radcliffe North, Radcliffe East, and Radcliffe West. It is in the Bury South constituency and was represented in the House of Commons by Labour Party member Ivan Lewis; however he was suspended from the party in 2017 and sat as an independent until the dissolution of Parliament ahead of the 2019 general election. Since December 2019, the constituency has been represented by Labour Party member Christian Wakeford; Wakeford was elected a Conservative, but defected to Labour in January 2022.
## Geography
At (53.5615°, −2.3268°) and 170 miles (274 km) northwest of central London, Radcliffe lies in the Irwell Valley on the course of the River Irwell. The towns of Bury and Bolton lie to the northeast and northwest. For the purposes of the Office for National Statistics, Radcliffe forms a northerly part of the Greater Manchester Urban Area, with Manchester city centre 6.5 miles (10.5 km) to the south-southeast.
Radcliffe's position on the River Irwell has proved important in its history and development as the river provided a source of water for local industry. Radcliffe E'es, a level plain formed along the north bank of the Irwell during the previous ice age, is now derelict and the planned location of a new school. From a highpoint of 500 feet (152 m) above sea level in the northwest of Radcliffe, the surface gradually descends, particularly in the south and east, being the lowest along the River Irwell. The geology is represented by coal measure.
Radcliffe is surrounded by open space and rural land, much of which is visible from the town centre. To the east of the town the River Roch flows under Blackford Bridge, and joins the Irwell shortly thereafter, along which several weirs and goits were built as it passes through the town. Flowing from east to west the river divides the town on the north and south sides of the valley respectively. The town centre sits on the north side of the valley. Two road bridges cross the river: one in the former hamlet of Radcliffe Bridge, and another newer bridge built as part of the A665 Pilkington Bypass. Another bridge crosses the river along the eastern border with Bury. Various smaller pedestrian footbridges and two railway viaducts (one disused) also exist.
## Demography
According to the Office for National Statistics, at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001, Radcliffe had a population of 34,239. The population density in 2001 was 9,132 inhabitants per square mile (3,526/km<sup>2</sup>), with a 100 to 94.9 female–male ratio. Of those over 16 years old, 28.6% were single (never married) and 42.8% married. Radcliffe's 14,036 households included 28.1% one-person, 39.0% married couples living together, 9.2% were co-habiting couples, and 12.3% single parents with their children. The figures for married couples households was below the borough (48.5%) and national average (47.3%), and single parent households were slightly above the average for the whole of Bury (11.6%) and England (10.5%). Of those aged 16–74, 31.1% had no academic qualifications, slightly higher than averages of Bury (29.2%) and England (28.9%).
The residential areas of Radcliffe both to the north and the south of the town centre operate as suburbs of Bury and Manchester, such that their populations are not necessarily linked to the town. The socio-demographic characteristics of the town's population includes a mix of working and suburban middle classes, the layout of which are both linked to neighbouring towns.
Radcliffe is within the Manchester larger urban zone, and within the Manchester travel to work area.
## Economy
Radcliffe's first market was built by the Earl of Wilton and opened in 1851. The town was home to twelve Co-op stores, the largest of which was on Stand Lane. The four-storey structure, built in 1877, had shops and offices on the ground floor, and a large area for public meetings on the second floor. The building was truncated to two stories in June 1971, and eventually demolished. Two more Co-op stores were located on Bury Street and Cross Lane. The current market hall, built in 1937 on a different site to the old market, suffered a devastating fire in 1980 but was later restored. Radcliffe was once served by several banks including the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank, the Union Bank of Manchester, and Parr's Bank ltd. As of 4 May 2019 the Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax bank have closed or are in the process of closing in the town. The Halifax branch on Blackburn street is to close on 28 May 2019. These closures will leave only the TSB on the Market Place (M26 1PN) as the only bank in the town
Radcliffe has two weekly newspapers, the Radcliffe Times, based at the Bury Times offices, in Bury, and the Salford-based The Advertiser, which also covers the neighbouring areas of Prestwich and Whitefield. The main gates to the East Lancashire Paper mill (mill closed in 2001) were, in May 2018, installed in the centre of Radcliffe's Festival Gardens off Church Street.
The construction in the 1980s of the A665 Pilkington Way Bypass relieved traffic congestion along the traditional route through the town, Blackburn Street. A new bridge across the Irwell was constructed for the road, and part of Blackburn Street was pedestrianised. The road has attracted developments along former industrial land to the west of the town, including a large Asda superstore and petrol filling station which opened in May 1997, when Asda moved out of their town centre store in Green Street, although it has exacerbated the decline of the retail outlets in the town centre. The bypass has created problems for cyclists and pedestrians who appear reluctant to cross the road and visit the town centre. One solution presently under consideration would involve a partial reopening of the pedestrianised section of Blackburn Street to traffic.
The closure of the East Lancashire and Radcliffe Paper Mills, both of which employed thousands of people, has left a large gap in the town's local economy. Along with the decline of local industry the town's shopping centre has suffered a severe loss of trade and is now barely viable as a retail outlet. Radcliffe's market hall compares poorly with the neighbouring Bury Market. Amongst other shops, the town's central shopping precinct retains a Boots. A Dunelm Group, formerly known as Dunelm Mill, home and soft furnishings store now occupies the former site of the town's Asda supermarket on Green Street. In February 2018 a new Lidl store opened its doors on the site of the old bus station employing around forty people.
"Re-inventing Radcliffe" is the name given on a report of a proposed improvement scheme. The report envisages several initiatives, and includes the creation of new housing both to the north and south of the town. Existing industry to the west of the town and along Milltown Street would be retained and improved, along with sections of the former Radcliffe Paper Mill and Pioneer Mill. The market would be redeveloped along with the Kwik Save site and bus station, and the town could become a centre for the arts. To improve transport links, new crossings of the Irwell and canal are proposed. Plans for a new secondary school in Radcliffe are now in doubt, however a new build at Castlebrook High School Parr Lane, Bury BL9 8LP began in January. Finally, the report suggests improving the image of Radcliffe within the Bury area. On 27 June 2018, due to very hot weather, a fire started on the exterior of the complex of shops adjoining the precinct as roofing tar caught alight.
"Newlands" is a regeneration programme run by the Forestry Commission. One site under consideration for regeneration is the former waste tip of Radcliffe E'es.
### Population and employment change
In 1921 2,394 men and 3,680 women were employed in the textile industry. By 1951 these figures had fallen respectively to 981 and 1,852. A more drastic fall is evident in the numbers of people employed in the mining and quarrying industries; in 1921 591 people were employed in both, but in 1951 this had dropped to only 57, reflecting the number of mines in and around Radcliffe that had by that time been completely exhausted.
By 2001, from a working population of 15,972 between the ages of 16–74 only six people were employed in mining. 3,011 people were employed in manufacturing, 103 in public utilities, and 985 in construction. 3,371 people worked in wholesale and retailing; repair of motor vehicles, 682 in hotels and catering, and 1,185 in transport; storage and communication. 642 people worked in financial intermediation, 1,711 in real estate, 694 in public administration and defence, 987 in education, 1,876 in health and social work, and 657 in other work.
## Landmarks
Radcliffe Tower is all that remains of an early 15th-century stone-built manor house. The structure is a Grade I listed building and protected as a Scheduled Monument. The construction of a nearby tithe barn is not documented, but it was probably built between 1600 and 1720. It was used for storage of the local tithes (a tenth of a farm's produce). Along with Radcliffe Tower, the Parish Church of St Mary is a Grade I listed building. The town also has two Grade II\* listed buildings; Dearden Fold Farmhouse, completed during the 16th century, and Radcliffe Cenotaph, built in 1922 to commemorate the First World War. Outwood Viaduct, and Radcliffe's most visible landmark, St Thomas' Church, are Grade II listed buildings. St Thomas' took nine years to complete. The first stone was laid by Viscount Grey de Wilton (grandson of the Countess Grosvenor) on 21 July 1862, and it was consecrated in 1864 by the first Bishop of Manchester, James Prince Lee. Construction of the tower began in 1870 and the building was completed in 1871. The building cost £7,273, (£ today) and the tower cost £1,800 (£ today). The first vicar was the Reverend Robert Fletcher.
Radcliffe's first public ornament was a drinking fountain located at the bottom of Radcliffe New Road. It was presented to the town by a Mrs Noah Rostron in memory of her husband, and erected in August 1896. The fountain no longer exists at this location.
Built in 1911 the town hall was on the junction of Water Street and Spring Lane. For many years after the town lost its urban district status, the building was unoccupied. It was converted to private accommodation in 1999.
## Transport
The Manchester to Blackburn packhorse route passed through the town (hence the name Blackburn Street). The bridge across the Irwell was likely first erected during the late Medieval period at the site of a ford. An Act of Parliament in 1754 authorised the first turnpike through the hamlet of Radcliffe Bridge, and included Manchester to Bury via Crumpsall, and from Prestwich to Radcliffe. An Act of 1821 created a turnpike from Bury to Radcliffe, Stoneclough and Bolton. An Act of 1836 created a turnpike from Starling Lane to Ainsworth, and Radcliffe to Bury and Manchester Road (near Fletcher Fold). A turnpike from Whitefield to Radcliffe Bridge via Stand Lane was created in 1857 with toll houses at Besses o' th' Barn, Stand Lane, the junction of Dumers Lane and Manchester Road, on Bolton Road near Countess Lane, and on Radcliffe Moor Road at Bradley Fold. Radcliffe New Road was created in an Act of 1860 which enabled the construction of a toll road between Radcliffe and Whitefield. To prevent damage to the road surfaces, weighing machines were used at various strategic positions including at the bridge end of Dumers Lane, at Sandiford turning, and on Ainsworth Road.
During the Industrial Revolution, as local cottage industries were gradually supplanted by the factory system the roads became inadequate for use. A convoy of horse-drawn lorries carrying salt between Bealey's Bleach Works and Northwich would take up to two weeks to make a return journey. These problems gave rise to the construction of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal, which reached the town in 1796 and which was navigable throughout in 1808. For 38 years the canal was the town's main route for trade and transport, with a wharf near Hampson Street. The proprietors later converted into a railway company and built a line between Salford and Bolton, which opened in 1838. A branch from this line was to have been built to Bury, along the line of the canal, but due to technical constraints this did not happen. Radcliffe's closest railway connection therefore remained several miles distant at Stoneclough.
The opening of the Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway (later known as the East Lancashire Railway (ELR)) in 1846 brought the town a direct connection to Manchester and Bury. Two stations served the town, Radcliffe Bridge station, and Withins Lane station (although this closed in 1851 after only a few years of operation). Ringley Road station was located to the south of the parish, close to the civil parish of Pilkington. The line crossed the Irwell over Outwood Viaduct, an impressive structure which remains to this day.
The Liverpool and Bury Railway (L&BR) opened on 28 November 1848, with a station to the north of the town, called Black Lane station. On 18 July 1872 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR), which had amalgamated with the ELR some years previously, gained an Act of Parliament to construct a railway between Manchester and Bury, via Whitefield and Prestwich. This opened in 1879 with a new station, known as Radcliffe New Station, with a link to the L&BR line at Bradley Fold (near the present day Chatsworth Road), and a new station along Ainsworth Road, Ainsworth Road Halt. The new L&YR route joined the existing ELR route near Withins Lane (North Junction), whereon they shared the connection to Bury. The L&YR gained a further Act of 1877 to construct a link between North Junction and Coney Green Farm (West Junction). The LY&R line was electrified in 1916 for which a substation was constructed, between the canal and the West Fork.
The town also had an extensive tram network. The first tram ran from Black Lane (latterly Ainsworth Road) in 1905, with a terminus next to St Andrew's Church on Black Lane Bridge. In 1907 a branch was built to connect to the Bury to Bolton part of the network. A large bus station is located between Dale Street and the river. Officially abandoned in 1961, the canal is currently undergoing restoration on the Salford arm, although a rebuilt bridge along Water Street presents a barrier to its full restoration.
Public transport in Radcliffe is now coordinated by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), a county-wide public body with direct operational responsibilities such as supporting (and in some cases running) local bus services, and managing integrated ticketing in Greater Manchester.
The town is now served only by a single light rail system and regular bus services. The Metrolink opened on 6 April 1992 along the L&YR line between Manchester and Bury/Bury and Altrincham (Manchester also serves as a change point for the rest of the Metrolink system as it expands to cover a greater portion of the region, including Oldham). Trams leave from the town's station every six minutes between 7:15 am and 6:30 pm, and every 12 minutes at other times of the day. Radcliffe Bridge station closed on 5 July 1958, and has since been replaced by the path of the A665 Pilkington Way (the new road has been built below the level of the old station). The path of the ELR line is still quite visible from aerial photography, with Outwood Viaduct fully restored, and the route of the line southwest of the town converted for use as a nature trail forming part of the Irwell Sculpture Trail.
National Cycle Route 6 runs through the town, along the route of the former ELR line, through the town centre and continuing toward Bury along the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal. New combined pedestrian and cycle crossings have been constructed to facilitate the route. A new cycleway has also been built along the line of the former Liverpool to Bury Railway, to the north of the town.
## Education
One of the earliest schools in the parish was the Close Wesleyan Day School, a Dame school opened around 1840. St Thomas's day school was opened on 4 March 1861, and housed over 500 children. Due to overcrowding and the risk of subsidence caused by local mining activity, the school was rebuilt on a new site along School Street, provided by the Earl of Wilton. It was opened in October 1877 by Lady Wilton. On the opposite side of the town St John's school started life in 1860 as an institute along Irwell Street, and by 1864 contained 120 children. The buildings were enlarged in 1869. In 1897 eight teachers and a monitor taught 358 children. In 1899 the school leaving age was twelve, and many of the senior class were "half-timers" who would spend half the day at school, and the other half at work. This system was abolished in 1919. Regular epidemics of scarlet fever, chicken pox, mumps, and especially measles, meant that in 1897 and 1903 the school was temporarily closed. St John's School and the nearby church were demolished in the 1970s. Radcliffe also had a technical school on Whittaker Street. Formally opened by Lord Stanley on 7 November 1896, it adjoined the public baths on Whittaker Street. The building is now used as council offices.
Radcliffe County Secondary School was founded in 1933 on the former Peel Park Ground near School Street, but Radcliffe's first secondary school (apart from an endowed grammar school in nearby Stand) was held at the New Jerusalem schoolroom from the early 1860s. Radcliffe East, latterly known as Coney Green County Comprehensive School, was built in 1975 on the site of the former railway goods yard alongside Radcliffe East Fork. Part of the school, known as "Phase One", opened in September 1975, with 150 first-year pupils, and 70 second-year pupils (from Radcliffe County Secondary School). The remainder, known as "Phase Two", opened two years later.
Radcliffe has ten primary schools, but no secondary schools. A new school was proposed to replace the former Coney Green and Radcliffe High schools, but recent developments make the construction of this school uncertain.
## Religious sites
In Romano–British times, Radcliffe was in the Diocese of York; in Saxon times in the Diocese of Lindesfarne, then of York; in Norman times in the Diocese of Lichfield; after 1540 in the Diocese of Chester and since 1847 in the Diocese of Manchester.
Based on the subdivisions of the dioceses, before 1535 Radcliffe ancient parish was in Manchester and Blackburn Rural Deanery. Between this date and 1850 the ancient parish was placed in Manchester Rural Deanery. From 1850 to 1851 it was placed in Bury Rural Deanery; from 1851 to 1872 it was in Prestwich Rural Deanery; from 1872 to 1912, it was placed in Prestwich and Middleton Rural Deanery; and since 1872 it has been in Radcliffe and Prestwich Rural Deanery.
### Church of England
Radcliffe was an ancient parish which in its early history had duties which combined both ecclesiastical and civil matters. In 1821 Radcliffe St. Thomas ecclesiastical parish was created from the ancient parish, and it was re-founded in 1839. In 1873 further parts of the ancient parish were taken to form Bury St. Peter's ecclesiastical parish. In 1878 parts of the ancient parish as well as part of Radcliffe St. Thomas were taken to form Radcliffe St. Andrew, Black Lane ecclesiastical parish. The Parish Church of St Mary was built during the 14th century, and the tower added in the 15th century. In 1966 it was designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage under its former name of the Church of St Mary and St Bartholomew. In 1991 some local parishes were merged, and the church adopted its present name.
Radcliffe is also served by the Parish of St Thomas and St John. St Thomas' is visible on the horizon for many miles. The original church was built in 1819 by Countess Grosvenor and is visible above in the image of Radcliffe Bridge. The building was later considered too small, and in 1862 was demolished and replaced with the present structure (see landmarks). The Church of St John was consecrated on 19 February 1866 at the bottom of Radcliffe New Road. Built at a cost of about £4,000 (£ today) the site was donated to the church by the Earl of Derby, who in 1897 also made a grant of land for the site of the Mission Church at Chapelfield. The parishes of St John and St Philip were merged with St Thomas' in 1975–76. Radcliffe is also home to the Church of St Andrew on Ainsworth Road, which was consecrated in 1877.
### Other faiths
Radcliffe was also home to many smaller churches. The main Roman Catholic church, St. Mary & St. Philip Neri, on Spring Lane, was built in 1894. In 2009 a new Catholic Church of the same name was opened (29 May 2009) in a brand new purpose built building on Belgrave street in Radcliffe. The old St Mary's Church on Spring Lane has since been demolished. Other churches included Stand Independent, a Quaker meeting house on Foundry Street, Water Lane Congregational, and several Wesleyan churches, including one on Bridgefield Street, which in March 2008 was destroyed by fire. The church was built in 1892. The United Reformed Church has two congregations within the town, one on Lord Street, and the other on Stand Lane. The church was originally formed from a Congregational school in 1848. A Methodist New Connexion church has existed along Smyrna Street since 1844. Other faiths are also catered for, with a mosque on Bridgefield Street, and a centre and a church for Swedenborgianism on Radcliffe New Road and Stand Lane respectively.
## Sports
Radcliffe has a rich history of sport, including football, rugby, cricket and swimming, but entertainment in Radcliffe once included bear-baiting, bull-baiting, and cock-fighting. Cock fights were prevalent in the town and took place in local "hush-shops", generally viewed by invitation only. Bull and bear baiting was held in the Radcliffe Bridge area of the parish. In Nicholls' History and Traditions of Radcliffe (1900) the author describes the contents of the diary of a Lord Kenyon, who wrote "W.M. Robt. James, and Thomas Radcliffe, were fined for causing a Bayre to be bayted upon Saturday being the 18th of March 1587–8, at the Bull-Ringe neere the conduite in Manchester." Trained dogs were used to attack a bull, which was donated by the Earl of Wilton. Such entertainment took place where the bridge now stands, along the banks of the river near the ford. Such spectacles were eventually outlawed by Act of Parliament, and the last bull bait in the town was held on 26 September 1838. Horse racing replaced the sport the following year, with a course alongside the river. During the first year of racing the main spectator stand collapsed, injuring many spectators. In 1876 events were moved to a new course approximately one mile in circumference at Radcliffe Moor, upon which site the town's cricket club now stands.
The town is home to Central Lancashire Cricket League side Radcliffe Cricket Club. For many years Sir Frank Worrell played for the club, and a street near the cricket ground was named in his honour. Sir Garfield Sobers joined the club in 1958 at the age of 21. The town also has two Football teams, Radcliffe Town, and Radcliffe F.C. (formerly Radcliffe Borough). The football club Bury A.F.C. groundshare with Radcliffe F.C. at Stainton Park. Former players include Paul Gascoigne and Matt Derbyshire.
Radcliffe was also home to Nellie Halstead, who in her time was known as "Britain's greatest woman athlete". A multiple world record holder, she represented Great Britain at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
## Public services
### History
The Rivers Pollution Prevention Act 1876 posed a problem for the local authorities; disposal of sewage was generally an expensive proposition, and efforts to resolve the practical problems involved were often unsatisfactory. After initial experiments, in 1894 contracts were let for work. Chairman of the Local Board Samuel Walker Esq cut the first sod on 23 April 1894, and the works were completed in the following year.
The town was provided with electricity by a coal-fired power station along the south bank of the river, to the west of the town. Authorised by the Radcliffe Electric Lighting Order of 1894, and inaugurated on 5 October 1904, Radcliffe Power Station was opened by the Earl of Derby on 9 October 1905. It originally had two 1,500 kW turbo sets made by British Thomson-Houston, and was the first power station in the country to transmit electricity over bare electrical conductors.
In 1921 the Radcliffe and Little Lever Joint Gas Board purchased the Radcliffe & Pilkington Gas Company. Constituted in 1921 by an Act of Parliament, the board consisted of six members of the Radcliffe Council and one member of the Little Lever Council. The area supplied included all the districts of Radcliffe and Little Lever, and also Prestwich, Whitefield, Unsworth, Outwood, and Ainsworth. In 1935 the company supplied 263,000,000 cubic feet (7,400,000 m<sup>3</sup>) of gas to 16,748 consumers, and provided gas for public street lighting. Water supplies were provided both by upland watersheds and by the Bury & District Joint Water Board, of which Radcliffe was a constituent authority.
By 1935 a fire brigade and ambulances were available to protect the town during emergencies. The Gamewell system of fire alarms was used and consisted of 16 alarm boxes spread throughout the district. Three motor ambulances and a motorised utility van were kept at the fire station, operated by permanent staff.
### Modern services
The North West Ambulance Service provides emergency patient transport, and the statutory emergency fire and rescue service is now provided by the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.
Home Office policing in Radcliffe is provided by the Greater Manchester Police. The Radcliffe police station that was situated along Railway street was closed due to cost saving measures announced by Greater Manchester Police in November 2015. In July 2016 the building was sold by auction to an anonymous buyer for £150,000. Waste management is coordinated by the local authority via the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. Radcliffe's distribution network operator for electricity is United Utilities.
## Notable people
Born in Radcliffe, the First World War veteran Private James Hutchinson was a recipient of the Victoria Cross. Radcliffe was also the birthplace of Canadian author Donald Jack and the home of Olympic Medal-winning cyclist Harry Hill who took bronze at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Nellie Halstead was a runner who represented Great Britain in both the 1932 Summer Olympics and 1936 Summer Olympics. Radcliffe was the birthplace of Oscar-winning film director Danny Boyle and the three times World Champion snooker player John Spencer.
## Culture
Radcliffe's wealth as a mill town gave rise to many outlets for the entertainment of its population. These included cinemas and public houses. Several cinemas were built in the town, including the Picturedrome in Water Street, and an Odeon cinema, built in 1937 along Dale Street. Whittaker Street public baths were built in 1898 and demolished in 1971. The swimming pool on Green Street which replaced the old Whittaker Street baths was itself closed down after storm damaged the main facilities in 2013 disclosing high levels of asbestos in the building super-structure. As a replacement a new £945,000 25-metre length modular above-ground swimming pool was erected in 2015 at the recently closed Riverside High School on Spring Lane (formally Coney Green High School). The pool complex also includes a fully equipped public gymnasium. A public library was opened in 1907 on a site donated by Andrew Carnegie, who also contributed £5,000 (£ today) towards the cost of the building. Two branch libraries were opened in Ainsworth between 1933 and 1935. A museum was located in the upper rooms of Close House before it was demolished in March 1969.
Radcliffe Brass Band has performed in the town since 1914, when it accompanied one of the Whit Walks that used to take place on Whit Friday. Popular as these were, support later dwindled to a point where they were abandoned around 1977. Rushcart processions were once popular, held on the first Saturday of September, finishing on the following Sunday at the Parish Church.
The town has several parks, including Coronation Park near Radcliffe Bridge and Close Park near Radcliffe Tower. Much of the land for Coronation Park was in 1900 donated by the Earl of Derby. Close House and the grounds around it were formerly the home of the Bealey family, and were donated by the Bleachers' Association. The town is also along the route of the Irwell Sculpture Trail.
## See also
- Listed buildings in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester
- List of collieries in Lancashire 1854–present
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Quebec Agreement
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1943 US–UK nuclear weapons agreement
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[
"1940s in Quebec",
"1943 in Canada",
"1943 in the United Kingdom",
"1943 in the United States",
"20th century in Quebec City",
"August 1943 events",
"Canada–United Kingdom relations",
"Canada–United States relations",
"History of the Manhattan Project",
"Nuclear history of the United Kingdom",
"Nuclear weapons policy",
"Secret treaties",
"Treaties concluded in 1943",
"United Kingdom in World War II",
"United Kingdom–United States treaties",
"World War II treaties"
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The Quebec Agreement was a secret agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States outlining the terms for the coordinated development of the science and engineering related to nuclear energy and specifically nuclear weapons. It was signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt on 19 August 1943, during World War II, at the First Quebec Conference in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
The Quebec Agreement stipulated that the US and UK would pool their resources to develop nuclear weapons, and that neither country would use them against the other, or against other countries without mutual consent, or pass information about them to other countries. It also gave the United States a veto over post-war British commercial or industrial uses of nuclear energy. The agreement merged the British Tube Alloys project with the American Manhattan Project, and created the Combined Policy Committee to control the joint project. Although Canada was not a signatory, the Agreement provided for a Canadian representative on the Combined Policy Committee in view of Canada's contribution to the effort.
British scientists performed important work as part of the British contribution to the Manhattan Project, and in July 1945 British permission required by the agreement was given for the use of nuclear weapons against Japan. The September 1944 Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire extended Anglo-American co-operation into the post-war period, but after the war ended, American enthusiasm for the alliance with Britain waned. The McMahon Act (1946) ended technical co-operation through its control of "restricted data". On 7 January 1948, the Quebec Agreement was superseded by a modus vivendi, an agreement which allowed for limited sharing of technical information between the United States, Britain and Canada.
## Background
### Tube Alloys
The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in February 1932. In April 1932, his Cavendish colleagues John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split lithium atoms with accelerated protons. Then, in December 1938, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann at Hahn's laboratory in Berlin-Dahlem bombarded uranium with slowed neutrons, and discovered that barium had been produced. Hahn wrote to his colleague Lise Meitner, who, with her nephew Otto Frisch, explained that the uranium nucleus had been split. By analogy with the division of biological cells, they named the process "fission".
The discovery of fission raised the possibility that an extremely powerful atomic bomb could be created. The term was already familiar to the British public through the writings of H. G. Wells, in his 1913 novel The World Set Free. Sir Henry Tizard's Committee on the Scientific Survey of Air Defence was originally formed to study the needs of anti-aircraft warfare, but branched out to study air warfare generally. In May 1939, a few months before the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe in September 1939, it was directed to conduct research into the feasibility of atomic bombs. Tizard tasked George Paget Thomson, the professor of physics at Imperial College London, and Mark Oliphant, an Australian physicist at the University of Birmingham, with carrying out a series of experiments on uranium. By February 1940, Thomson's team had failed to create a chain reaction in natural uranium, and he had decided that it was not worth pursuing.
Oliphant's team reached a strikingly different conclusion. He had delegated the task to two German refugee scientists, Rudolf Peierls and Frisch, who could not work on the university's secret projects like radar because they were enemy aliens, and therefore lacked the necessary security clearance. They calculated the critical mass of a metallic sphere of pure uranium-235, and found that instead of tons, as everyone had assumed, as little as 1 to 10 kilograms (2.2 to 22.0 lb) would suffice, and would explode with the power of thousands of tons of dynamite.
Oliphant took the Frisch–Peierls memorandum to Tizard. As a result, the MAUD Committee was established to investigate further. It directed an intensive research effort. Four universities provided the locations where the experiments were taking place. The University of Birmingham undertook theoretical work, such as determining what size of critical mass was needed for an explosion. This group was run by Peierls, with the help of fellow German refugee scientist Klaus Fuchs. The laboratories at the University of Liverpool and the University of Oxford experimented with different types of isotope separation. Chadwick's group at Liverpool dealt with thermal diffusion, a phenomenon observed in mixtures of mobile particles where the different particle types exhibit different responses to the force of a temperature gradient. Francis Simon's group at Oxford investigated the gaseous diffusion, which works on the principle that at differing pressures uranium 235 would diffuse through a barrier faster than uranium 238. This was determined to be the most promising method. Egon Bretscher and Norman Feather's group at Cambridge investigated whether another element, now called plutonium, could be used as a fissile material. Because of the presence of a team of refugee French scientists led by Hans von Halban, Oxford also had the world's main supply of heavy water, which helped them theorise how uranium could be used for power.
In July 1941, the MAUD Committee produced two comprehensive reports that concluded that an atomic bomb was not only technically feasible, but could be produced before the war ended, perhaps in as little as two years. The MAUD Committee unanimously recommended pursuing its development as a matter of urgency, although it recognised that the resources required might be beyond those available to Britain. But even before its report was completed, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had been briefed on its findings by his scientific advisor, Frederick Lindemann, and had decided on a course of action. A new directorate known by the deliberately misleading name of Tube Alloys was created to co-ordinate this effort. Sir John Anderson, the Lord President of the Council, became the minister responsible, and Wallace Akers from Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was appointed its director.
### Early American efforts
The prospect of Germany developing an atomic bomb was also of great concern to scientists in the United States, particularly those who were refugees from Nazi Germany and other fascist countries. In July 1939, Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein had written a letter warning the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, of the danger. In response, Roosevelt created an Advisory Committee on Uranium in October 1939, chaired by Lyman Briggs of the National Bureau of Standards. Research concentrated on slow fission for power production, but with a growing interest in isotope separation. On 12 June 1940, Vannevar Bush, the president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Harry Hopkins, a key advisor to the president, went to the president with a proposal to create a National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) to co-ordinate defence-related research. The NDRC was formally created on 27 June 1940, with Bush as its chairman. It absorbed the Advisory Committee on Uranium which had gone beyond its original role and was now directing research. It became the Uranium Committee of the NDRC.
One of Bush's first actions as the chairman of the NDRC was to arrange a clandestine meeting with Air Commodore George Pirie, the British air attaché in Washington, and Brigadier Charles Lindemann, the British Army attaché (and Frederick Lindemann's brother), to discuss a British offer of a full exchange of technical information. Bush was strongly in favour of this proposal, and at their meeting on 8 July 1940, he offered advice on how it should be presented. It was endorsed at a Cabinet meeting on 11 July, and an official acceptance was conveyed to Lord Lothian, the British Ambassador to the United States, on 29 July.
Among the wealth of information that the Tizard Mission, a scientific mission sent to the United States to promote the exchange of military science and technology, brought to America were details about the MAUD Committee's deliberations and activities. Some information from the MAUD Committee had already been conveyed to the United States by Ralph H. Fowler, the British scientific attaché to Canada. Cockcroft, a member of the Tizard Mission, brought more. Cockcroft and Fowler met with the Uranium Committee, but the information flow was largely one-way. Cockcroft reported that the American atomic bomb project lagged behind the British, and was not proceeding as fast. Work conducted in America included research by Szilard and Enrico Fermi at Columbia University into the possibility of a controlled nuclear chain reaction; preliminary investigations into isotope separation using centrifugation, gaseous diffusion and thermal diffusion processes; and efforts to produce plutonium in the cyclotron at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California.
Kenneth Bainbridge from Harvard University attended a MAUD Committee meeting on 9 April 1941, and was surprised to discover that the British were convinced that an atomic bomb was technically feasible. The Uranium Committee met at Harvard on 5 May, and Bainbridge presented his report. Bush engaged a group headed by Arthur Compton, a Nobel laureate in physics and chairman of the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago, to investigate further. Compton's report, issued on 17 May 1941, did not address the design or manufacture of a bomb in detail. Instead it endorsed a post-war project concentrating on atomic energy for power production. On 28 June 1941, Roosevelt created the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), with Bush as its director, personally responsible to the president. The new organisation subsumed the NDRC, now chaired by James B. Conant, the President of Harvard University. The Uranium Committee became the Uranium Section of the OSRD, but was soon renamed the S-1 Section for security reasons.
Britain was at war, but the US was not. Oliphant flew to the United States in late August 1941, ostensibly to discuss the radar programme, but actually to find out why the United States was ignoring the MAUD Committee's findings. He discovered to his dismay that the reports and other documents sent directly to Briggs had not been shared with all members of the committee; Briggs had locked them in a safe. Oliphant then met with William D. Coolidge, who was acting in Compton's place while the latter was in South America; Samuel K. Allison, a colleague of Compton's at the University of Chicago; Ernest O. Lawrence, the director of the Radiation Laboratory; Fermi and Conant to explain the urgency. In these meetings he spoke of an atomic bomb with forcefulness and certainty. Allison recalled that when Oliphant met with the S-1 Section, he "came to a meeting, and said 'bomb' in no uncertain terms. He told us we must concentrate every effort on the bomb and said we had no right to work on power plants or anything but the bomb. The bomb would cost \$25 million, he said, and Britain did not have the money or the manpower, so it was up to us."
Bush and Conant received the final MAUD Report from Thomson on 3 October 1941. With this in hand, Bush met with Roosevelt and Vice-President Henry A. Wallace at the White House on 9 October 1941, and obtained a commitment to an expanded and expedited American atomic bomb project. Two days later, Roosevelt sent a letter to Churchill in which he proposed that they exchange views "in order that any extended efforts may be coordinated or even jointly conducted."
## Collaboration
Roosevelt regarded this offer of a joint project as sufficiently important to have the letter personally delivered by Frederick L. Hovde, the head of the NDRC mission in London, but Churchill did not respond until December. He assured Roosevelt of his willingness to collaborate, and informed him that Hovde had discussed the matter with Sir John Anderson and Lord Cherwell, as Frederick Lindemann was now known. The MAUD Committee had considered the issue of collaboration with the United States, and had concluded that while pilot isotope separation plants could be established in the United Kingdom, full-scale production facilities would have to be built in the United States. The British expressed concerns about the security of the American project. Ironically, it was the British project that had already been penetrated by atomic spies. John Cairncross had given the Soviet Union a copy of the MAUD Committee report. Although not conveyed to the Americans, the British had other concerns about what might happen after the war if the Americans embraced isolationism, as had occurred after the First World War, and Britain had to fight the Soviet Union alone. The opportunity for a joint project was therefore missed. British and American exchange of information continued but their programmes remained separate.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 led to the United States' entry into the war. Funding now became available in amounts undreamt of the year before. OSRD contracts were due to expire at the end of June 1942, and there was intense wartime competition for raw materials. It was agreed that in 1942–1943, the United States Army would fund \$53 million of an \$85 million programme. On 18 June 1942, Colonel James C. Marshall was ordered to organise the Army component. He established his headquarters on the 18th floor of 270 Broadway in New York City, with the innocuous name of the Manhattan Engineer District, following the usual practice of naming engineer districts after the city in which its headquarters was located. The project soon adopted the name "Manhattan" as well. By September 1942, Bush and Conant felt that the time had come for the Army to take over, something already approved by the president on 17 June 1942, and Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr. became the director of the Manhattan Project on 23 September 1942. Groves attempted to tighten security through a policy of strict compartmentalisation similar to the one that the British had imposed on radar.
The American effort soon overtook the British. British scientists who visited the United States in 1942 were astounded at the progress and momentum the Manhattan Project had assumed. On 30 July 1942, Anderson advised Churchill that: "We must face the fact that ... [our] pioneering work ... is a dwindling asset and that, unless we capitalise it quickly, we shall be outstripped. We now have a real contribution to make to a 'merger'. Soon we shall have little or none". But Bush and Conant had already decided that British help was no longer needed. In October 1942, they convinced Roosevelt that the United States should independently develop the atomic bomb, despite the agreement of unrestricted scientific interchange between the US and Britain.
The positions of the two countries were the reverse of what they had been in 1941. American officials were concerned that Akers and other people from ICI involved in the Tube Alloys project were trying to exploit American nuclear scientific knowledge to create a profitable post-war industry. The Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, felt that since the United States was doing "ninety percent of the work" on the bomb, it would be "better for us to go along for the present without sharing anything more than we could help". In December 1942, Roosevelt agreed to restricting the flow of information to what Britain could use during the war, even if doing so impeded the American project. The Americans stopped sharing any information on heavy water production, the method of electromagnetic separation, the physical or chemical properties of plutonium, the details of atomic bomb design, or the facts about fast neutron reactions. This adversely impacted the work of the Montreal Laboratory, the joint British and Canadian project that was investigating nuclear reactor design. In retaliation, the British stopped sending scientists to America, slowing the pace of work there, which had relied on British scientists. The Americans then ceased all information sharing.
The Tube Alloys Directorate considered whether Britain could produce a bomb without American help. A gaseous diffusion plant to produce 1 kg of weapons-grade uranium per day was estimated to cost up to £3 million in research and development, and anything up to £50 million to build in wartime Britain. A nuclear reactor to produce 1 kg of plutonium per day would have to be built in Canada. It would take up to five years to build and cost £5 million. The project would also require facilities for producing the required heavy water for the reactor costing between £5 million and £10 million, and for producing uranium metal, which would cost another £1.5 million. The project would need overwhelming priority, as it was estimated to require 20,000 workers, many of them highly skilled, 500,000 tons of steel, and 500,000 kW of electricity. Disruption to other wartime projects would be inevitable, and it was unlikely to be ready in time to affect the outcome of the war in Europe. The unanimous response was that before embarking on this, another effort should be made to obtain American co-operation.
By March 1943 Bush and Conant had decided that British help would benefit some areas of the Manhattan Project. In particular, it could benefit enough from assistance from Chadwick and one or two other British scientists to warrant the risk of revealing weapon design secrets. Bush, Conant and Groves wanted Chadwick and Peierls to discuss bomb design with Robert Oppenheimer, and the construction company Kellogg wanted British comments on the design of the gaseous diffusion plant it was building.
## Negotiations
Churchill took up the matter with Roosevelt when they met at the Washington Conference on 25 May 1943. A meeting was arranged that afternoon between Cherwell and Bush in Hopkins's office in the White House, with Hopkins looking on. Both stated their respective positions, and Cherwell explained that Britain's post-war interest was in nuclear weapons, and not commercial opportunities. Hopkins reported back to Roosevelt, and Churchill and Roosevelt agreed that information interchange should be reviewed, and that the atomic bomb project should be a joint one. Hopkins sent Churchill a telegram confirming this on 17 June, but American policy did not change, largely because Roosevelt did not inform Bush when they next met on 24 June. When Churchill pressed for action in a telegram on 9 July, Hopkins counselled Roosevelt that "you made a firm commitment to Churchill in regard to this when he was here and there is nothing to do but go through with it."
Bush was in London on 15 July 1943 to attend a meeting of the British War Cabinet's Anti-U-boat Committee. Sir Stafford Cripps took him to see Churchill who told Bush that the President had given him his word of honour on full co-operation, and that he was incensed at obstruction by American bureaucrats. Bush suggested that he take up the matter with Stimson, who was also in London. Churchill did so on 17 July, and Stimson promised to submit the matter to Roosevelt. On 20 July, Roosevelt wrote to Bush with instructions to "renew, in an inclusive manner, the full exchange with the British Government regarding Tube Alloys", but since Bush was in London, he did not see this letter for another ten days. Stimson, Bush and Stimson's special assistant, Harvey Bundy, met Churchill, Cherwell and Anderson at 10 Downing Street in London on 22 July. None of them was aware that Roosevelt had already made his decision.
Stimson had just finished a series of arguments with the British about the need for an invasion of France. He was reluctant to appear to disagree with them about everything, and, unlike Bush, was sensitive to insinuations that Britain was being unfairly treated. He spoke in conciliatory terms about the need for good post-war relations between the two countries. For his part, Churchill disavowed interest in the commercial applications of nuclear technology. The reason for British concern about the post-war co-operation, they explained, was not commercial concerns, but so that Britain would have nuclear weapons after the war. Bush then proposed a five-point plan, which Stimson promised to put before the president for approval.
Anderson drafted an agreement for full interchange, which Churchill re-worded "in more majestic language". Anderson feared that Groves might tell Stimson and Bush that "like all Americans who come to our misty island, they have been taken in by our hypocritical cunning and carried away by our brilliant Prime Minister". When Conant found out about the agreement, he expressed the opinion that he would feel more at home on the staff of the Chicago Tribune, a newspaper renowned for its anti-British views. Anderson arrived in Washington with the draft on 5 August, and went over it with Conant and Bush. From the American point of view, nothing made it into the final draft that contradicted the existing policy on interchange of information. Anderson extracted one important concession: the creation of the Combined Policy Committee to oversee the joint project with representation from the United States, Britain and Canada. Conant's objections to Anderson's proposed arrangements for information interchange were met by assigning the task to the Combined Policy Committee. Stimson, General George Marshall and Rear Admiral William R. Purnell reviewed the document and made minor changes, and it was then sent to the British Embassy for approval.
## Agreement
A speedy drafting process was required because Roosevelt, Churchill and their political and military advisors converged for the Quadrant Conference at the Citadelle of Quebec on 17 August, hosted by the Prime Minister of Canada, Mackenzie King. Most of the discussions were about the invasion of France. Although the Quebec Agreement was a bilateral one to which Canada was not a signatory, the British felt that Canada's contribution to Tube Alloys was significant enough that high-level representation was appropriate. King was therefore asked to nominate a Canadian member of the Combined Policy Committee, and he selected C. D. Howe, the Canadian Minister of Munitions and Supply. Stimson, Bush and Conant would be the American members, while Field Marshal Sir John Dill and Colonel J. J. Llewellin would be the British members.
On 19 August Roosevelt and Churchill signed the Quebec Agreement, which was typed on four pages of Citadelle notepaper, and formally titled "Articles of Agreement governing collaboration between the authorities of the USA and UK in the matter of Tube Alloys". The United Kingdom and the United States agreed that "it is vital to our common safety in the present War to bring the Tube Alloys project to fruition at the earliest moment", and that this was best accomplished by pooling their resources. The Quebec Agreement stipulated that:
1. The US and UK would pool their resources to develop nuclear weapons with a free exchange of information;
2. Neither country would use them against the other;
3. Neither country would use them against other countries without consent;
4. Neither country would pass information about them to other countries without consent;
5. That "in view of the heavy burden of production falling, upon the United States", the President might limit post-war British commercial or industrial uses of atomic energy.
The only part of the Quebec Agreement that troubled Stimson was the requirement for mutual consent before atomic bombs could be used. Had Congress known about it, they would never have supported it. The American veto over post-war British commercial and industrial uses made it clear that Britain was the junior partner in the Grand Alliance. Churchill in particular considered the Quebec Agreement to be the best deal he could have struck under the circumstances, and the restrictions were the price he had to pay to obtain the technical information needed for a successful post-war nuclear weapons project. Margaret Gowing noted that the "idea of the independent deterrent was already well entrenched."
The Quebec Agreement was a secret agreement. Its terms were known to but a few insiders, and its very existence was not revealed to the United States Congress. The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy was given an oral summary on 12 May 1947. On 12 February 1951, Churchill wrote to President Harry S. Truman for permission to publish it, but Truman declined. Churchill therefore omitted it from his memoir, Closing the Ring (1951). It remained a secret until Churchill read it out in the House of Commons on 5 April 1954. However, on 4 September 1943 the Soviet atomic spy Ursula Kuczynski ("Sonia") reported details of the agreement to the GRU in Moscow, which she had probably obtained from Fuchs.
## Implementation
Even before the Quebec Agreement was signed, Akers had already cabled London with instructions that Chadwick, Peierls, Oliphant and Simon should leave immediately for North America. They arrived on 19 August, the day it was signed, expecting to be able to talk to American scientists, but were unable to do so. Two weeks passed before American officials learned of the contents of the Quebec Agreement. Bush told Akers that his action was premature, and that the Combined Policy Committee would first have to agree on the rules governing the employment of British scientists. With nothing to do, the scientists returned to the UK. Groves briefed the OSRD S-1 Executive Committee, which had replaced the S-1 Committee on 19 June 1942, at a special meeting on 10 September 1943. The text of the Quebec Agreement was vague in places, with loopholes that Groves could exploit to enforce compartmentalisation. Negotiations on the terms of technical interchange dragged on until December 1943. The new procedures went into effect on 14 December with the approval of the Military Policy Committee (which governed the Manhattan Project) and the Combined Policy Committee. By this time British scientists had already commenced working in the United States.
Over the next two years, the Combined Policy Committee met only eight times. The first occasion was on the afternoon of 8 September 1943; Stimson discovered that he was the chairman only that morning. This first meeting established a Technical Subcommittee chaired by American Major General Wilhelm D. Styer. The Americans did not want Akers on the Technical Subcommittee due to his ICI background, so Llewellin nominated Chadwick, whom he also wanted to be Head of the British Mission to the Manhattan Project. The other members of the Technical Committee were Richard C. Tolman, who was Groves's scientific advisor, and C. J. Mackenzie, the president of the Canadian National Research Council. It was agreed that the Technical Committee could act without consulting the Combined Policy Committee whenever its decision was unanimous. It held its first meeting at The Pentagon on 10 September 1943.
There remained the issue of co-operation between the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago and the Montreal Laboratory. At the Combined Policy Committee meeting on 17 February 1944, Chadwick pressed for resources to build a nuclear reactor at what is now known as the Chalk River Laboratories. Britain and Canada agreed to pay the cost of this project, but the United States had to supply the heavy water. Because it was unlikely to have any impact on the war, Conant in particular was cool about the proposal, but heavy water reactors were still of great interest. Groves was willing to support the effort and supply the heavy water required, but with certain restrictions. The Montreal Laboratory would have access to data from the Metallurgical Laboratory's research reactors at Argonne and the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge, but not from the production reactors at the Hanford Site; nor would they be given any information about the chemistry of plutonium, or of methods for separating it from other elements. This arrangement was formally approved by the Combined Policy Committee meeting on 19 September 1944.
Chadwick supported the British contribution to the Manhattan Project to the fullest extent, abandoning any hopes of a British project during the war. With Churchill's backing, he attempted to ensure that every request from Groves for assistance was honoured. While the pace of research eased as the war entered its final phase, scientists were still in great demand, and it fell to Anderson, Cherwell and Sir Edward Appleton, the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which was responsible for Tube Alloys, to prise them away from the wartime projects in which they were invariably engaged. A British Mission led by Akers assisted in the development of gaseous diffusion technology in New York. Another, led by Oliphant, who acted as deputy director at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, assisted with the electromagnetic separation process. As head of the British Mission to the Los Alamos Laboratory, Chadwick, and later Peierls, led a multinational team of distinguished scientists that included Sir Geoffrey Taylor, James Tuck, Niels Bohr, William Penney, Frisch, and Fuchs. Four members of the British Mission became group leaders at Los Alamos. Penney observed the bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 and participated in the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in 1946.
A major strain on the Agreement came up in 1944, when it was revealed to the United States that the United Kingdom had made a secret agreement with Hans von Halban to share nuclear information with France after the war in exchange for free use of patents related to nuclear reactors filed by French physicist Frédéric Joliot-Curie and his Collège de France team. Upon this revelation, the United States and Canada objected, stating that the Halban agreement violated the terms of the Quebec Agreement, namely the section about third-party information-sharing without prior mutual consent. The United Kingdom broke its obligations to France in order to satisfy the United States. Anderson was extremely concerned about alienating the French, and he and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Anthony Eden, suggested that the French be offered an undertaking that France would subsequently be included in the Manhattan Project, but Churchill did not agree, and remained adamantly opposed to any disclosures to France or the Soviet Union. After the war, the French government repudiated the Halban agreement.
The issue of patent rights was a complex one, and attempts to negotiate deals between Britain and the United States in 1942, and between Britain and Canada in 1943, had failed. After the Quebec Agreement was signed, British and American experts sat down together again and hammered out an agreement, which was endorsed by the Combined Policy Committee in September 1944. This agreement, which also covered Canada, was retrospective to the signing of the Quebec Agreement in August 1943, but owing to necessary secrecy, was not finalised until 1956, and covered all patents held in November 1955. Each of the three countries agreed to transfer to the others any rights it held in the others' countries, and waive any claims for compensation against them.
Llewellin returned to the United Kingdom at the end of 1943 and was replaced on the committee by Sir Ronald Ian Campbell, the deputy head of the British Mission to the United States, who in turn was replaced by the British Ambassador to the United States, Lord Halifax, in early 1945. Dill died in Washington on 4 November 1944, and was replaced both as Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission and as a member of the Combined Policy Committee by Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson. It was therefore Wilson who, on 4 July 1945, under the clause of the Quebec Agreement that specified that nuclear weapons would not be used against another country without mutual consent, agreed that the use of nuclear weapons against Japan would be recorded as a decision of the Combined Policy Committee.
## Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire
In September 1944, a second wartime conference was held in Quebec known as the Octagon Conference. In the wake of a string of Allied victories, thoughts turned to post-war planning. Afterwards, Roosevelt and Churchill spent some time together at Roosevelt's Springwood estate in Hyde Park, New York. They discussed post-war collaboration on nuclear weapons, and on 19 September signed the Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire, detailing the agreement resulting from what they discussed. Most of this dealt with Bohr's thoughts on international control, but it also provided that "[f]ull collaboration between the United States and the British Government in developing Tube Alloys for military and commercial purposes should continue after the defeat of Japan unless and until terminated by joint agreement."
Of Roosevelt's advisors, only Hopkins and Admiral William D. Leahy knew of this secret wartime agreement, and Leahy, possibly because he never believed that the atomic bomb would work, and was therefore perhaps not paying much attention, had only a muddled recollection of what had been said. When Wilson raised the Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire in a Combined Policy Committee meeting in June 1945, the American copy could not be found. The British sent Stimson a photocopy on 18 July. Even then, Groves questioned the document's authenticity until the American copy was located many years later in the papers of Vice Admiral Wilson Brown, Jr., Roosevelt's naval aide, apparently misfiled in Roosevelt's Hyde Park papers by someone unaware of what Tube Alloys was, and who thought it had something to do with naval guns or boiler tubes.
## End of the Quebec Agreement
Truman, who had succeeded Roosevelt on the latter's death on 12 April 1945, Clement Attlee, who had replaced Churchill as prime minister in July 1945, Anderson and United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes conferred while on a boat cruise on the Potomac River, and agreed to revise the Quebec Agreement, with a view to replacing it with a looser form of co-operation on nuclear matters between the three governments. Groves, Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and Patterson's advisor George L. Harrison met with a British delegation consisting of Anderson, Wilson, Malcolm MacDonald, the High Commissioner to Canada, Roger Makins from the British Embassy in Washington, and Denis Rickett, Anderson's assistant, on 15 November 1945 to draw up a communiqué. They agreed to retain the Combined Policy Committee. The Quebec Agreement's requirement for "mutual consent" before using nuclear weapons was replaced with one for "prior consultation", and there was to be "full and effective cooperation in the field of atomic energy", but in the longer Memorandum of Intention, signed by Groves and Anderson, this was only "in the field of basic scientific research". Patterson took the communiqué to the White House, where Truman and Attlee signed it on 16 November 1945. A draft agreement was approved by the Combined Policy Committee on 4 December 1945 as the basis for the revocation of the Quebec Agreement.
The next meeting of the Combined Policy Committee on 15 April 1946 produced no accord on collaboration, and resulted in an exchange of cables between Truman and Attlee. Truman cabled on 20 April that he did not see the communiqué he had signed as obligating the United States to assist Britain in designing, constructing and operating an atomic energy plant. Attlee's response on 6 June 1946 "did not mince words nor conceal his displeasure behind the nuances of diplomatic language." At issue was not just technical co-operation, which was fast disappearing, but the allocation of uranium ore. During the war this was of little concern, as Britain had not needed any ore, so all the production of the Congo mines and all the ore seized by the Alsos Mission had gone to the United States, but now it was also required by the British atomic project. Chadwick and Groves reached an agreement by which ore would be shared equally.
The defection of Igor Gouzenko and the resulting espionage conviction of Alan Nunn May, a British physicist who had worked at the Montreal Laboratory, made it politically impossible for US officials to exchange information with the UK. Congress, unaware of the Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire because of the loss of the American copy, enacted the McMahon Act. Signed by Truman on 1 August 1946, and in effect from midnight on 1 January 1947, this law ended technical co-operation. Its control of "restricted data" prevented the United States' allies from receiving any information. The remaining scientists were denied access to papers that they had written just days before. The McMahon Act fuelled resentment from British scientists and officials alike, and led directly to the British decision in January 1947 to develop its own nuclear weapons. In the United States, there was a furore over the British veto over the use of nuclear weapons when the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy was informed of the Quebec Agreement (but not the November 1945 agreement) on 12 May 1947, resulting in intense pressure on Truman to drop the provision. On 7 January 1948, Bush, James Fisk, Cockcroft and Mackenzie concluded an agreement known as the modus vivendi, that allowed for limited sharing of technical information between the United States, Britain and Canada, which officially repealed the Quebec Agreement. Like the Quebec Agreement it replaced, the modus vivendi was classified "Top Secret".
As the Cold War set in, enthusiasm in the United States for an alliance with Britain cooled as well. A September 1949 poll found that 72 per cent of Americans agreed that the United States should not "share our atomic energy secrets with England". The reputation of the British was further tarnished by the 1950 revelation that Fuchs was a Soviet atomic spy. British wartime participation in the Manhattan Project provided a substantial body of expertise that was crucial to the success of High Explosive Research, the United Kingdom's post-war nuclear weapons programme, although it was not without important gaps, such as in the field of plutonium metallurgy. The development of the independent British nuclear deterrent led to the McMahon Act being amended in 1958, and to a resumption of the nuclear Special Relationship between America and Britain under the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement.
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44,848 |
Edward II of England
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King of England and Duke of Aquitaine from 1307 until 1327
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Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir to the throne following the death of his older brother Alphonso. Beginning in 1300, Edward accompanied his father on campaigns to pacify Scotland, and in 1307 he was knighted in a grand ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Edward succeeded to the throne later that year, following his father's death. In 1308, he married Isabella of France, the daughter of the powerful King Philip IV, as part of a long-running effort to resolve the tensions between the English and French crowns.
Edward had a close and controversial relationship with Piers Gaveston, who had joined his household in 1300. The precise nature of Edward and Gaveston's relationship is uncertain; they may have been friends, lovers, or sworn brothers. Gaveston's arrogance and power as Edward's favourite provoked discontent both among the barons and the French royal family, and Edward was forced to exile him. On Gaveston's return, the barons pressured the King into agreeing to wide-ranging reforms called the Ordinances of 1311. The newly empowered barons banished Gaveston, to which Edward responded by revoking the reforms and recalling his favourite. Led by Edward's cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, a group of the barons seized and executed Gaveston in 1312, beginning several years of armed confrontation. English forces were pushed back in Scotland, where Edward was decisively defeated by Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Widespread famine followed, and criticism of the King's reign mounted.
The Despenser family, in particular Hugh Despenser the Younger, became close friends and advisers to Edward, but in 1321 Lancaster and many of the barons seized the Despensers' lands and forced the King to exile them. In response, Edward led a short military campaign, capturing and executing Lancaster. Edward and the Despensers strengthened their grip on power, revoking the 1311 reforms, executing their enemies and confiscating estates. Unable to make progress in Scotland, Edward finally signed a truce with Robert. Opposition to the regime grew, and when Isabella was sent to France to negotiate a peace treaty in 1325, she turned against Edward and refused to return. Isabella allied herself with the exiled Roger Mortimer, and invaded England with a small army in 1326. Edward's regime collapsed and he fled into Wales, where he was captured in November. Edward was forced to relinquish his crown in January 1327 in favour of his son, Edward III, and he died in Berkeley Castle on 21 September, probably murdered on the orders of the new regime.
Edward's relationship with Gaveston inspired Christopher Marlowe's 1592 play Edward II, along with other plays, films, novels and media. Many of these have focused on the possible sexual relationship between the two men. Edward's contemporaries criticised his performance as a king, noting his failures in Scotland and the oppressive regime of his later years, although 19th-century academics have argued that the growth of parliamentary institutions during his reign were a positive development for England over the longer term. Debate has continued into the 21st century as to whether Edward was a lazy and incompetent king, or simply a reluctant and ultimately unsuccessful ruler.
## Background
Edward II was the fourth son of Edward I, King of England, Lord of Ireland, and ruler of Gascony in south-western France (which he held as the feudal vassal of the king of France), and Eleanor, Countess of Ponthieu in northern France. Eleanor was from the Castilian royal family. Edward I proved a successful military leader, leading the suppression of the baronial revolts in the 1260s and joining the Ninth Crusade. During the 1280s he conquered North Wales, removing the native Welsh princes from power and, in the 1290s, he intervened in Scotland's civil war, claiming suzerainty over the country. He was considered an extremely successful ruler by his contemporaries, largely able to control the powerful earls that formed the senior ranks of the English nobility. The historian Michael Prestwich describes Edward I as "a king to inspire fear and respect", while John Gillingham characterises him as an "efficient bully".
Despite Edward I's successes, when he died in 1307 he left a range of challenges for his son to resolve. One of the most critical was the problem of English rule in Scotland, where Edward I's long but ultimately inconclusive military campaign was ongoing when he died. His control of Gascony created tension with the French kings. They insisted that the English kings give homage to them for the lands; the English kings saw this demand as insulting to their honour, and the issue remained unresolved. Edward I also faced increasing opposition from his barons over the taxation and requisitions required to resource his wars, and left his son debts of around £200,000 on his death.
## Early life (1284–1307)
### Birth
Edward II was born in Caernarfon Castle in north Wales on 25 April 1284, less than a year after Edward I had conquered the region, and as a result is sometimes called Edward of Caernarfon. The king probably chose the castle deliberately as the location for Edward's birth as it was an important symbolic location for the native Welsh, associated with Roman imperial history, and it formed the centre of the new royal administration of North Wales. Edward's birth brought predictions of greatness from contemporary prophets, who believed that the Last Days of the world were imminent, declaring him a new King Arthur, who would lead England to glory. David Powel, a 16th-century clergyman, suggested that the baby was offered to the Welsh as a prince "that was borne in Wales and could speake never a word of English", but there is no evidence to support this account.
Edward's name was English in origin, linking him to the Anglo-Saxon saint Edward the Confessor, and was chosen by his father instead of the more traditional Norman and Castilian names selected for Edward's brothers: John and Henry, who had died before Edward was born, and Alphonso, who died in August 1284, leaving Edward as the heir to the throne. Although Edward was a relatively healthy child, there were enduring concerns throughout his early years that he too might die and leave his father without a male heir. After his birth, Edward was looked after by a wet nurse called Mariota or Mary Maunsel for a few months until she fell ill, when Alice de Leygrave became his foster mother. He would have barely known his natural mother, Eleanor, who was in Gascony with his father during his earliest years. An official household, complete with staff, was created for the new baby, under the direction of a clerk, Giles of Oudenarde.
### Childhood, personality and appearance
Spending increased on Edward's personal household as he grew older and, in 1293, William of Blyborough took over as its administrator. Edward was probably given a religious education by the Dominican friars, whom his mother invited into his household in 1290. He was assigned one of his grandmother's followers, Guy Ferre, as his magister, who was responsible for his discipline, training him in riding and military skills. It is uncertain how well educated Edward was; there is little evidence for his ability to read and write, although his mother was keen that her other children be well educated, and Ferre was himself a relatively learned man for the period. Edward likely mainly spoke Anglo-Norman French in his daily life, in addition to some English and possibly Latin.
Edward had a normal upbringing for a member of a royal family. He was interested in horses and horsebreeding, and became a good rider; he also liked dogs, in particular greyhounds. In his letters, he shows a quirky sense of humour, joking about sending unsatisfactory animals to his friends, such as horses who disliked carrying their riders, or lazy hunting dogs too slow to catch rabbits. He was not particularly interested in hunting or falconry, both popular activities in the 14th century. He enjoyed music, including Welsh music and the newly invented crwth instrument, as well as musical organs. He did not take part in jousting, either because he lacked the aptitude or because he had been banned from participating for his personal safety, but he was certainly supportive of the sport.
Edward grew up to be tall and muscular, and was considered good-looking by the standards of the period. He had a reputation as a competent public speaker and was known for his generosity to household staff. Unusually, he enjoyed rowing, as well as hedging and ditching, and enjoyed associating with labourers and other lower-class workers. This behaviour was not considered normal for the nobility of the period and attracted criticism from contemporaries.
In 1290, Edward's father had confirmed the Treaty of Birgham, in which he promised to marry his six-year-old son to the young Margaret of Norway, who had a potential claim to the crown of Scotland. Margaret died later that year, bringing an end to the plan. Edward's mother, Eleanor, died shortly afterwards, followed by his grandmother, Eleanor of Provence. Edward I was distraught at his wife's death and held a huge funeral for her; his son inherited the County of Ponthieu from Eleanor. Next, a French marriage was considered for the young Edward, to help secure a lasting peace with France, but war broke out in 1294. The idea was replaced with the proposal of a marriage to a daughter of Guy, Count of Flanders, but this too failed after it was blocked by King Philip IV of France.
### Early campaigns in Scotland
Between 1297 and 1298, Edward was left as regent in charge of England while the king campaigned in Flanders against Philip IV, who had occupied part of the English king's lands in Gascony. On his return, Edward I signed a peace treaty, under which he took Philip's sister, Margaret, as his wife and agreed that Prince Edward would in due course marry Philip's daughter, Isabella, who was then only two years old. In theory, this marriage would mean that the disputed Duchy of Gascony would be inherited by a descendant of both Edward and Philip, providing a possible end to the long-running tensions. The young Edward seems to have got on well with his new stepmother, who gave birth to Edward's two half-brothers, Thomas of Brotherton and Edmund of Woodstock, in 1300 and 1301. As king, Edward later provided his brothers with financial support and titles.
Edward I returned to Scotland once again in 1300, and this time took his son with him, making him the commander of the rearguard at the siege of Caerlaverock Castle. In the spring of 1301, the king declared Edward the Prince of Wales, granting him the earldom of Chester and lands across North Wales; he seems to have hoped that this would help pacify the region, and that it would give his son some financial independence. Edward received homage from his Welsh subjects and then joined his father for the 1301 Scottish campaign; he took an army of around 300 soldiers north with him and captured Turnberry Castle. Prince Edward also took part in the 1303 campaign during which he besieged Brechin Castle, deploying his own siege engine in the operation. In the spring of 1304, Edward conducted negotiations with the rebel Scottish leaders on the king's behalf and, when these failed, he joined his father for the siege of Stirling Castle.
In 1305, Edward and his father quarrelled, probably over the issue of money. The prince had an altercation with Bishop Walter Langton, who served as the royal treasurer, apparently over the amount of financial support Edward received from the Crown. The king defended his treasurer, and banished Prince Edward and his companions from his court, cutting off their financial support. After some negotiations involving family members and friends, the two men were reconciled.
The Scottish conflict flared up once again in 1306, when Robert the Bruce killed his rival John Comyn III of Badenoch, and declared himself King of the Scots. Edward I mobilised a fresh army, but decided that, this time, his son would be formally in charge of the expedition. Prince Edward was made the duke of Aquitaine and then, along with many other young men, he was knighted in a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey called the Feast of the Swans. Amid a huge feast in the neighbouring hall, reminiscent of Arthurian legends and crusading events, the assembly took a collective oath to defeat Bruce. It is unclear what role Prince Edward's forces played in the campaign that summer, which, under the orders of Edward I, saw a punitive, brutal retaliation against Bruce's faction in Scotland. Edward returned to England in September, where diplomatic negotiations to finalise a date for his wedding to Isabella continued.
### Piers Gaveston and sexuality
During this time, Edward became close to Piers Gaveston. Gaveston was the son of one of the king's household knights whose lands lay adjacent to Gascony, and had himself joined Prince Edward's household in 1300, possibly on Edward I's instruction. The two got on well; Gaveston became a squire and was soon being referred to as a close companion of Edward, before being knighted by the king during the Feast of the Swans in 1306. The king then exiled Gaveston to Gascony in 1307 for reasons that remain unclear. According to one chronicler, Edward had asked his father to allow him to give Gaveston the County of Ponthieu, and the king responded furiously, pulling his son's hair out in great handfuls, before exiling Gaveston. The official court records, however, show Gaveston being only temporarily exiled, supported by a comfortable stipend; no reason is given for the order, suggesting that it may have been an act aimed at punishing the prince.
The possibility that Edward had a sexual relationship with Gaveston or his later favourites has been extensively discussed by historians, complicated by the paucity of surviving evidence to determine for certain the details of their relationships. Homosexuality was fiercely condemned by the Church in 14th-century England, which equated it with heresy. Both men had sexual relationships with their wives, who bore them children; Edward also had an illegitimate son, and may have had an affair with his niece, Eleanor de Clare.
The contemporary evidence supporting their homosexual relationship comes primarily from an anonymous chronicler in the 1320s who described how Edward "felt such love" for Gaveston that "he entered into a covenant of constancy, and bound himself with him before all other mortals with a bond of indissoluble love, firmly drawn up and fastened with a knot." The first specific suggestion that Edward engaged in sex with men was recorded in 1334, when Adam Orleton, the Bishop of Winchester, was accused of having stated in 1326 that Edward was a "sodomite", although Orleton defended himself by arguing that he had meant that Edward's advisor, Hugh Despenser the Younger, was a sodomite, rather than the late king. The Meaux Chronicle from the 1390s simply notes that Edward gave himself "too much to the vice of sodomy".
Alternatively, Edward and Gaveston may have simply been friends with a close working relationship. Contemporary chronicler comments are vaguely worded; Orleton's allegations were at least in part politically motivated, and are very similar to the highly politicised sodomy allegations made against Pope Boniface VIII and the Knights Templar in 1303 and 1308, respectively. Later accounts by chroniclers of Edward's activities may trace back to Orleton's original allegations, and were certainly adversely coloured by the events at the end of Edward's reign. Such historians as Michael Prestwich and Seymour Phillips have argued that the public nature of the English royal court would have made it unlikely that any homosexual affairs would have remained discreet; neither the contemporary Church, Edward's father nor his father-in-law appear to have made any adverse comments about Edward's sexual behaviour.
A more recent theory, proposed by the historian Pierre Chaplais, suggests that Edward and Gaveston entered into a bond of adoptive brotherhood. Compacts of adoptive brotherhood, in which the participants pledged to support each other in a form of "brotherhood-in-arms", were not unknown between close male friends in the Middle Ages. Many chroniclers described Edward and Gaveston's relationship as one of brotherhood, and one explicitly noted that Edward had taken Gaveston as his adopted brother. Chaplais argues that the pair may have made a formal compact in either 1300 or 1301, and that they would have seen any later promises they made to separate or to leave each other as having been made under duress, and therefore invalid.
## Early reign (1307–1311)
### Coronation and marriage
Edward I mobilised another army for the Scottish campaign in 1307, which Prince Edward was due to join that summer, but the elderly king had been increasingly unwell and died on 7 July at Burgh by Sands. Edward travelled from London immediately after the news reached him, and on 20 July he was proclaimed king. He continued north into Scotland and on 4 August received homage from his Scottish supporters at Dumfries, before abandoning the campaign and returning south. Edward promptly recalled Piers Gaveston, who was then in exile, and made him Earl of Cornwall, before arranging his marriage to the wealthy Margaret de Clare. Edward also arrested his old adversary Bishop Langton, and dismissed him from his post as treasurer. Edward I's body was kept at Waltham Abbey for several months before being taken for burial to Westminster, where Edward erected a simple marble tomb for his father.
In 1308, Edward's marriage to Isabella of France proceeded. Edward crossed the English Channel to France in January, leaving Gaveston as his custos regni in charge of the kingdom. This arrangement was unusual, and involved unprecedented powers being delegated to Gaveston, backed by a specially engraved Great Seal. Edward probably hoped that the marriage would strengthen his position in Gascony and bring him much needed funds. The final negotiations, however, proved challenging: Edward and Philip IV did not like each other, and the French king drove a hard bargain over the size of Isabella's dower and the details of the administration of Edward's lands in France. As part of the agreement, Edward gave homage to Philip for the Duchy of Aquitaine and agreed to a commission to complete the implementation of the 1303 Treaty of Paris.
The pair were married in Boulogne on 25 January. Edward gave Isabella a psalter as a wedding gift, and her father gave her gifts worth over 21,000 livres and a fragment of the True Cross. The pair returned to England in February, where Edward had ordered Westminster Palace to be lavishly restored in readiness for their coronation and wedding feast, complete with marble tables, forty ovens and a fountain that produced wine and pimento, a spiced medieval drink. After some delays, the ceremony went ahead on 25 February at Westminster Abbey, under the guidance of Henry Woodlock, the Bishop of Winchester. As part of the coronation, Edward swore to uphold "the rightful laws and customs which the community of the realm shall have chosen". It is uncertain what this meant: It might have been intended to force Edward to accept future legislation, it may have been inserted to prevent him from overturning any future vows he might take, or it may have been an attempt by the king to ingratiate himself with the barons. The event was marred by the large crowds of eager spectators who surged into the palace, knocking down a wall and forcing Edward to flee by the back door.
Isabella was only twelve at the time of her wedding, young even by the standards of the period, and Edward probably had sexual relations with mistresses during their first few years together. During this time he fathered an illegitimate son, Adam, who was born possibly as early as 1307. Edward and Isabella's first son, the future Edward III, was born in 1312 amid great celebrations, and three more children followed: John in 1316, Eleanor in 1318 and Joan in 1321.
### Tensions over Gaveston
Gaveston's return from exile in 1307 was initially accepted by the barons, but opposition quickly grew. He appeared to have an excessive influence on royal policy, leading to complaints from one chronicler that there were "two kings reigning in one kingdom, the one in name and the other in deed". Accusations, probably untrue, were levelled at Gaveston that he had stolen royal funds and had purloined Isabella's wedding presents. Gaveston had played a key role at Edward's coronation, provoking fury from both the English and the French contingents about the earl's ceremonial precedence and magnificent clothes, and about Edward's apparent preference for Gaveston's company over that of Isabella at the feast.
Parliament met in February 1308 in a heated atmosphere. Edward was eager to discuss the potential for governmental reform, but the barons were unwilling to begin any such debate until the problem of Gaveston had been resolved. Violence seemed likely, but the situation was resolved through the mediation of the moderate Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, who convinced the barons to back down. A fresh parliament was held in April, where the barons once again criticised Gaveston, demanding his exile, this time supported by Isabella and the French monarchy. Edward resisted, but finally acquiesced, agreeing to send Gaveston to Aquitaine, under threat of excommunication by the Archbishop of Canterbury should he return. At the last moment, Edward changed his mind and instead sent Gaveston to Dublin, appointing him as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Edward called for a fresh military campaign for Scotland, but this idea was quietly abandoned, and instead the king and the barons met in August 1308 to discuss reform. Behind the scenes, Edward started negotiations to convince both Pope Clement V and Philip IV to allow Gaveston to return to England, offering in exchange to suppress the Knights Templar in England, and to release Bishop Langton from prison. Edward called a new meeting of members of the Church and key barons in January 1309, and the leading earls then gathered in March and April, possibly under the leadership of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster. Another parliament followed, which refused to allow Gaveston to return to England, but offered to grant Edward additional taxes if he agreed to a programme of reform.
Edward sent assurances to the Pope that the conflict surrounding Gaveston's role was at an end. On the basis of these promises, and procedural concerns about how the original decision had been taken, the Pope agreed to annul the Archbishop's threat to excommunicate Gaveston, thus opening the possibility of Gaveston's return. Gaveston arrived back in England in June, where he was met by Edward. At the parliament the next month, Edward made a range of concessions to placate those opposed to Gaveston, including agreeing to limit the powers of the royal steward and the marshal of the royal household, to regulate the Crown's unpopular powers of purveyance, and to abandon recently enacted customs legislation; in return, parliament agreed to fresh taxes for the war in Scotland. Temporarily, at least, Edward and the barons appeared to have come to a successful compromise.
### Ordinances of 1311
Following his return, Gaveston's relationship with the major barons became increasingly difficult. He was considered arrogant, and he took to referring to the earls by offensive names, including calling one of their more powerful members the "dog of Warwick". The Earl of Lancaster and Gaveston's enemies refused to attend parliament in 1310 because Gaveston would be present. Edward was facing increasing financial problems, owing £22,000 to his Frescobaldi Italian bankers, and facing protests about how he was using his right of prises to acquire supplies for the war in Scotland. His attempts to raise an army for Scotland collapsed and the earls suspended the collection of the new taxes.
The king and parliament met again in February 1310, and the proposed discussions of Scottish policy were replaced by debate of domestic problems. Edward was petitioned to abandon Gaveston as his counsellor and instead adopt the advice of 21 elected barons, termed Ordainers, who would carry out a widespread reform of both the government and the royal household. Under huge pressure, he agreed to the proposal and the Ordainers were elected, broadly evenly split between reformers and conservatives. While the Ordainers began their plans for reform, Edward and Gaveston took a new army of around 4,700 men to Scotland, where the military situation had continued to deteriorate. Robert the Bruce declined to give battle and the campaign progressed ineffectually over the winter until supplies and money ran out in 1311, forcing Edward to return south.
By now the Ordainers had drawn up their Ordinances for reform and Edward had little political choice but to give way and accept them in October. The Ordinances of 1311 contained clauses limiting the king's right to go to war or to grant land without parliament's approval, giving parliament control over the royal administration, abolishing the system of prises, excluding the Frescobaldi bankers, and introducing a system to monitor the adherence to the Ordinances. In addition, the Ordinances exiled Gaveston once again, this time with instructions that he should not be allowed to live anywhere within Edward's lands, including Gascony and Ireland, and that he should be stripped of his titles. Edward retreated to his estates at Windsor and Kings Langley; Gaveston left England, possibly for northern France or Flanders.
## Mid-reign (1311–1321)
### Death of Gaveston
Tensions between Edward and the barons remained high, and the earls opposed to the king kept their personal armies mobilised late into 1311. By now Edward had become estranged from his cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, who was also the Earl of Leicester, Lincoln, Salisbury and Derby, with an income of around £11,000 a year from his lands, almost double that of the next wealthiest baron. Backed by the earls of Arundel, Gloucester, Hereford, Pembroke and Warwick, Lancaster led a powerful faction in England, but he was not personally interested in practical administration, nor was he a particularly imaginative or effective politician.
Edward responded to the baronial threat by revoking the Ordinances and recalling Gaveston to England, being reunited with him at York in January 1312. The barons were furious and met in London, where Gaveston was excommunicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury and plans were put in place to capture Gaveston and prevent him from fleeing to Scotland. Edward, Isabella and Gaveston left for Newcastle, pursued by Lancaster and his followers. Abandoning many of their belongings, the royal party fled by ship and landed at Scarborough, where Gaveston stayed while Edward and Isabella returned to York. After a short siege, Gaveston surrendered to the earls of Pembroke and Surrey, on the promise that he would not be harmed. He had with him a huge collection of gold, silver and gems, probably part of the royal treasury, which he was later accused of having stolen from Edward.
On the way back from the north, Pembroke stopped in the village of Deddington in the Midlands, putting Gaveston under guard there while he went to visit his wife. The Earl of Warwick took this opportunity to seize Gaveston, taking him to Warwick Castle, where the Earl of Lancaster and the rest of his faction assembled on 18 June. At a brief trial, Gaveston was declared guilty of being a traitor under the terms of the Ordinances; he was beheaded on Blacklow Hill the following day, under the authority of Lancaster. Gaveston's body was not buried until 1315, when his funeral was held in King's Langley Priory.
### Tensions with Lancaster and France
Reactions to the death of Gaveston varied considerably. Edward was furious and deeply upset over what he saw as the murder of Gaveston; he made provisions for Gaveston's family, and intended to take revenge on the barons involved. The earls of Pembroke and Surrey were embarrassed and angry about Warwick's actions, and shifted their support to Edward in the aftermath. To Lancaster and his core of supporters, the execution had been both legal and necessary to preserve the stability of the kingdom. Civil war again appeared likely, but in December, the Earl of Pembroke negotiated a potential peace treaty between the two sides, which would pardon the opposition barons for the killing of Gaveston, in exchange for their support for a fresh campaign in Scotland. Lancaster and Warwick, however, did not give the treaty their immediate approval, and further negotiations continued through most of 1313.
Meanwhile, the Earl of Pembroke had been negotiating with France to resolve the long-standing disagreements over the administration of Gascony, and as part of this Edward and Isabella agreed to travel to Paris in June 1313 to meet with Philip IV. Edward probably hoped both to resolve the problems in the south of France and to win Philip's support in the dispute with the barons; for Philip it was an opportunity to impress his son-in-law with his power and wealth. It proved a spectacular visit, including a grand ceremony in which the two kings knighted Philip's sons and two hundred other men in Notre-Dame de Paris, large banquets along the River Seine, and a public declaration that both kings and their queens would join a crusade to the Levant. Philip gave lenient terms for settling the problems in Gascony, and the event was spoiled only by a serious fire in Edward's quarters.
On his return from France, Edward found his political position greatly strengthened. After intense negotiation, the earls, including Lancaster and Warwick, came to a compromise in October 1313, fundamentally very similar to the draft agreement of the previous December. Edward's finances improved, thanks to parliament agreeing to the raising of taxes, a loan of 160,000 florins (£25,000) from the Pope, £33,000 borrowed from Philip, and further loans organised by Edward's new Italian banker, Antonio Pessagno. For the first time in his reign, Edward's government was well funded.
### Battle of Bannockburn
By 1314, Robert the Bruce had recaptured most of the castles in Scotland once held by Edward, pushing raiding parties into northern England as far as Carlisle. In response, Edward planned a major military campaign with the support of Lancaster and the barons, mustering a large army between 15,000 and 20,000 strong. Meanwhile, Robert had besieged Stirling Castle, a key fortification in Scotland; its English commander had stated that unless Edward arrived by 24 June, he would surrender. News of this reached the king in late May, and he decided to speed up his march north from Berwick-upon-Tweed to relieve the castle. Robert, with between 5,500 and 6,500 troops, predominantly spearmen, prepared to prevent Edward's forces from reaching Stirling.
The battle began on 23 June as the English army attempted to force its way across the high ground of the Bannock Burn, which was surrounded by marshland. Skirmishing between the two sides broke out, resulting in the death of Sir Henry de Bohun, whom Robert killed in personal combat. Edward continued his advance the following day, and encountered the bulk of the Scottish army as they emerged from the woods of New Park. Edward appears not to have expected the Scots to give battle here, and as a result had kept his forces in marching, rather than battle, order, with the archers—who would usually have been used to break up enemy spear formations—at the back of his army, rather than the front. His cavalry found it hard to operate in the cramped terrain and were crushed by Robert's spearmen. The English army was overwhelmed and its leaders were unable to regain control.
Edward stayed behind to fight, but it became obvious to the Earl of Pembroke that the battle was lost and he dragged the king away from the battlefield, hotly pursued by the Scottish forces. Edward only just escaped the heavy fighting, making a vow to found a Carmelite religious house at Oxford if he survived. The historian Roy Haines describes the defeat as a "calamity of stunning proportions" for the English, whose losses in the battle were huge. In the aftermath of the defeat, Edward retreated to Dunbar, then travelled by ship to Berwick, and then back to York; in his absence, Stirling Castle quickly fell.
### Famine and criticism
After the fiasco of Bannockburn, the earls of Lancaster and Warwick saw their political influence increase, and they pressured Edward to re-implement the Ordinances of 1311. Lancaster became the head of the royal council in 1316, promising to take forward the Ordinances through a new reform commission, but he appears to have abandoned this role soon afterwards, partially because of disagreements with the other barons, and possibly because of ill-health. Lancaster refused to meet with Edward in parliament for the next two years, bringing effective governance to a standstill. This stymied any hopes for a fresh campaign into Scotland and raised fears of civil war. After much negotiation, once again involving the Earl of Pembroke, Edward and Lancaster finally agreed to the Treaty of Leake in August 1318, which pardoned Lancaster and his faction and established a new royal council, temporarily averting conflict.
Edward's difficulties were exacerbated by prolonged problems in English agriculture, part of a wider phenomenon in northern Europe known as the Great Famine. It began with torrential rains in late 1314, followed by a very cold winter and heavy rains the following spring that killed many sheep and cattle. The bad weather continued, almost unabated, into 1321, resulting in a string of bad harvests. Revenues from the exports of wool plummeted and the price of food rose, despite attempts by Edward's government to control prices. Edward called for hoarders to release food, and tried to encourage both internal trade and the importation of grain, but with little success. The requisitioning of provisions for the royal court during the famine years only added to tensions.
Meanwhile, Robert the Bruce exploited his victory at Bannockburn to raid northern England, initially attacking Carlisle and Berwick, and then reaching further south into Lancashire and Yorkshire, even threatening York itself. Edward undertook an expensive but unsuccessful campaign to stem the advance in 1319, but the famine made it increasingly difficult to keep his garrisons supplied with food. Meanwhile, a Scottish expedition led by Robert's brother Edward Bruce successfully invaded Ireland in 1315. Edward Bruce declared himself the High King of Ireland. He was finally defeated in 1318 by Edward II's Irish justiciar, Edmund Butler, at the Battle of Faughart, and Edward Bruce's severed head was sent back to Edward II. Revolts also broke out in Lancashire and Bristol in 1315, and in Glamorgan in Wales in 1316, but were suppressed.
The famine and the Scottish policy were felt to be a punishment from God, and complaints about Edward multiplied, one contemporary poem describing the "Evil Times of Edward II". Many criticised Edward's "improper" and ignoble interest in rural pursuits. In 1318, a mentally ill man named John of Powderham appeared in Oxford, claiming that he was the real Edward II, and that Edward was a changeling, swapped at birth. John was duly executed, but his claims resonated with those criticising Edward for his lack of regal behaviour and steady leadership. Opposition also grew around Edward's treatment of his royal favourites.
Edward had managed to retain some of his previous advisers, despite attempts by the Ordainers to remove them, and divided the extensive de Clare inheritance among two of his new favourites, the former household knights Hugh Audley and Roger Damory, instantly making them extremely rich. Many of the moderates who had helped deliver the peaceful compromise in 1318 now began to turn against Edward, making violence ever more likely.
## Later reign (1321–1326)
### The Despenser War
The long-threatened civil war finally broke out in England in 1321, triggered by the tension between many of the barons and the royal favourites, the Despenser family. Hugh Despenser the Elder had served both Edward and his father, while Hugh Despenser the Younger had married into the wealthy de Clare family, became the King's chamberlain, and acquired Glamorgan in the Welsh Marches in 1317. Hugh the Younger subsequently expanded his holdings and power across Wales, mainly at the expense of the other Marcher Lords. The Earl of Lancaster and the Despensers were fierce enemies, and Lancaster's antipathy was shared by most of the Despensers' neighbours, including the Earl of Hereford, the Mortimer family and the recently elevated Hugh Audley and Roger Damory. Edward, however, increasingly relied on the Despensers for advice and support, and he was particularly close to Hugh the Younger, whom one chronicler noted he "loved ... dearly with all his heart and mind".
In early 1321, Lancaster mobilised a coalition of the Despensers' enemies across the Marcher territories. Edward and Hugh the Younger became aware of these plans in March and headed west, hoping that negotiations led by the moderate Earl of Pembroke would defuse the crisis. This time, Pembroke made his excuses and declined to intervene, and war broke out in May. The Despensers' lands were quickly seized by a coalition of the Marcher Lords and the local gentry, and Lancaster held a high-level gathering of the barons and clergy in June which condemned the Despensers for having broken the Ordinances. Edward attempted reconciliation, but in July the opposition occupied London and called for the permanent removal of the Despensers. Fearing that he might be deposed if he refused, Edward agreed to exile the Despensers and pardoned the Marcher Lords for their actions.
Edward began to plan his revenge. With the help of Pembroke, he formed a small coalition of his half-brothers, a few of the earls and some of the senior clergy, and prepared for war. Edward started with Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere, and Isabella was sent to Bartholomew's stronghold, Leeds Castle, to deliberately create a casus belli. Bartholomew's wife, Margaret, took the bait and her men killed several of Isabella's retinue, giving Edward an excuse to intervene. Lancaster refused to help Bartholomew, his personal enemy, and Edward quickly regained control of south-east England. Alarmed, Lancaster now mobilised his own army in the north of England, and Edward mustered his own forces in the south-west. The Despensers returned from exile and were pardoned by the royal council.
In December, Edward led his army across the River Severn and advanced into the Welsh Marches, where the opposition forces had gathered. The coalition of Marcher Lords crumbled and the Mortimers surrendered to Edward, but Damory, Audley, and the Earl of Hereford marched north in January to join Lancaster, who had laid siege the king's castle at Tickhill. Bolstered by fresh reinforcements from the Marcher Lords, Edward pursued them, meeting Lancaster's army on 10 March at Burton-on-Trent. Lancaster, outnumbered, retreated without a fight, fleeing north. Andrew Harclay cornered Lancaster at the Battle of Boroughbridge, and captured the earl. Edward and Hugh the Younger met Lancaster at Pontefract Castle, where, after a summary trial, the earl was found guilty of treason and beheaded.
### Edward and the Despensers
Edward punished Lancaster's supporters through a system of special courts across the country, with the judges instructed in advance how to sentence the accused, who were not allowed to speak in their own defence. Many of these so-called "Contrariants" were simply executed, and others were imprisoned or fined, with their lands seized and their surviving relatives detained. The Earl of Pembroke, whom Edward now mistrusted, was arrested; he was released only after pledging all his possessions as collateral for his own loyalty. Edward was able to reward his loyal supporters, especially the Despenser family, with the confiscated estates and new titles. The fines and confiscations made Edward rich: almost £15,000 was brought in during the first few months, and by 1326, Edward's treasury contained £62,000. A parliament was held at York in March 1322 at which the Ordinances were formally revoked through the Statute of York, and fresh taxes agreed for a new campaign against the Scots.
The English campaign against Scotland was planned on a massive scale, with a force of about 23 thousand men. Edward advanced through Lothian towards Edinburgh, but Robert the Bruce declined to meet him in battle, drawing Edward further into Scotland. Plans to resupply the campaign by sea failed, and the large army rapidly ran out of food. Edward was forced to retreat south of the border, pursued by Scottish raiding parties. Edward's illegitimate son, Adam, died during the campaign, and the raiding parties almost captured Isabella, who was staying at Tynemouth and was forced to flee by sea. Edward planned a fresh campaign, backed by a round of further taxes, but confidence in his Scottish policy was diminishing. Andrew Harclay, instrumental in securing Edward's victories the previous year and recently made the Earl of Carlisle, independently negotiated a peace treaty with Robert the Bruce, proposing that Edward would recognise Robert as the King of Scotland and that, in return, Robert would cease to interfere in England. Edward was furious and immediately executed Harclay, but agreed to a thirteen-year truce with Robert.
Hugh Despenser the Younger lived and ruled in grand style, playing a leading role in Edward's government, and executing policy through a wide network of family retainers. Supported by Chancellor Robert Baldock and Lord Treasurer Walter Stapledon, the Despensers accumulated land and wealth, using their position in government to provide superficial cover for what historian Seymour Phillips describes as "the reality of fraud, threats of violence and abuse of legal procedure". Meanwhile, Edward faced growing opposition. Miracles were reported around the late Earl of Lancaster's tomb, and at the gallows used to execute members of the opposition in Bristol. Law and order began to break down, encouraged by the chaos caused by the seizure of lands. The old opposition consisting of Marcher Lords' associates attempted to free the prisoners Edward held in Wallingford Castle, and Roger Mortimer, one of the most prominent of the imprisoned Marcher Lords, escaped from the Tower of London and fled to France.
### War with France
The disagreements between Edward and the French Crown over the Duchy of Gascony led to the War of Saint-Sardos in 1324. Charles, Edward's brother-in-law, had become King of France in 1322, and was more aggressive than his predecessors. In 1323, he insisted that Edward come to Paris to give homage for Gascony, and demanded that Edward's administrators in Gascony allow French officials there to carry out orders given in Paris. Matters came to a head in October when a group of Edward's soldiers hanged a French sergeant for attempting to build a new fortified town in the Agenais, a contested section of the Gascon border. Edward denied any responsibility for this incident, but relations between Edward and Charles soured. In 1324, Edward dispatched the Earl of Pembroke to Paris to broker a solution, but the earl died suddenly of an illness along the way. Charles mobilised his army and ordered the invasion of Gascony.
Edward's forces in Gascony were around 4,400 strong, but the French army, commanded by Charles of Valois, numbered 7,000. Valois took the Agenais and then advanced further and cut off the main city of Bordeaux. In response, Edward ordered the arrest of any French persons in England and seized Isabella's lands, on the basis that she was of French origin. In November 1324 he met with the earls and the English Church, who recommended that Edward should lead a force of 11,000 men to Gascony. Edward decided not to go personally, sending instead the Earl of Surrey. Meanwhile, Edward opened up fresh negotiations with the French king. Charles advanced various proposals, the most tempting of which was the suggestion that if Isabella and Prince Edward were to travel to Paris, and the prince was to give homage to Charles for Gascony, he would terminate the war and return the Agenais. Edward and his advisers had concerns about sending the prince to France, but agreed to send Isabella on her own as an envoy in March 1325.
## Fall from power (1326–1327)
### Rift with Isabella
Isabella, with Edward's envoys, carried out negotiations with the French in late March. The negotiations proved difficult, and they arrived at a settlement only after Isabella personally intervened with her brother, Charles. The terms favoured the French Crown: In particular, Edward would give homage in person to Charles for Gascony. Concerned about the consequences of war breaking out once again, Edward agreed to the treaty but decided to give Gascony to his son, Edward, and sent the prince to give homage in Paris. The young Prince Edward crossed the English Channel and completed the bargain in September.
Edward now expected Isabella and their son to return to England, but instead she remained in France and showed no intention of making her way back. Until 1322, Edward and Isabella's marriage appears to have been successful, but by the time Isabella left for France in 1325, it had deteriorated. Isabella appears to have disliked Hugh Despenser the Younger intensely, not least because of his abuse of high-status women. Isabella was embarrassed that she had fled from Scottish armies three times during her marriage to Edward, and she blamed Hugh for the final occurrence in 1322. When Edward had negotiated the recent truce with Robert the Bruce, he had severely disadvantaged a range of noble families who owned land in Scotland, including the Beaumonts, close friends of Isabella. She was also angry about the arrest of her household and seizure of her lands in 1324. Finally, Edward had taken away her children and given custody of them to Hugh Despenser's wife.
By February 1326 it was clear that Isabella was involved in a relationship with an exiled Marcher Lord, Roger Mortimer. It is unclear when Isabella first met Mortimer or when their relationship began, but they both wanted to see Edward and the Despensers removed from power. Edward appealed for his son to return, and for Charles to intervene on his behalf, but this had no effect.
Edward's opponents began to gather around Isabella and Mortimer in Paris, and Edward became increasingly anxious about the possibility that Mortimer might invade England. Isabella and Mortimer turned to William I, Count of Hainaut, and proposed a marriage between Prince Edward and William's daughter, Philippa. In return for the advantageous alliance with the English heir to the throne, and a sizeable dower for the bride, William offered 132 transport vessels and eight warships to assist in the invasion of England. Prince Edward and Philippa were betrothed on 27 August, and Isabella and Mortimer prepared for their campaign.
### Invasion
During August and September 1326, Edward mobilised his defences along the coasts of England to protect against the possibility of an invasion either by France or by Roger Mortimer. Fleets were gathered at the ports of Portsmouth in the south and Orwell on the east coast, and a raiding force of 1,600 men was sent across the English Channel into Normandy as a diversionary attack. Edward issued a nationalistic appeal for his subjects to defend the kingdom, but with little impact. The regime's hold on power at the local level was fragile, the Despensers were widely disliked, and many of those Edward entrusted with the defence of the kingdom proved incompetent or promptly turned against the regime. Some 2,000 men were ordered to gather at Orwell to repel any invasion, but only 55 appear to have actually arrived.
Roger Mortimer, Isabella and thirteen-year-old Prince Edward, accompanied by King Edward's half-brother Edmund of Woodstock, landed in Orwell on 24 September with a small force of men and met with no resistance. Instead, enemies of the Despensers moved rapidly to join them, including Edward's other half-brother, Thomas of Brotherton; Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, who had inherited the earldom from his brother Thomas; and a range of senior clergy. Ensconced in the residence halls of the fortified and secure Tower of London, Edward attempted to garner support from within the capital. The city of London rose against his government, and on 2 October he left London, taking the Despensers with him. London descended into anarchy, as mobs attacked Edward's remaining officials and associates, killing his former treasurer Walter Stapledon in St Paul's Cathedral, and taking the Tower and releasing the prisoners inside.
Edward continued west up the Thames Valley, reaching Gloucester between 9 and 12 October; he hoped to reach Wales and from there mobilise an army against the invaders. Mortimer and Isabella were not far behind. Proclamations condemned the Despensers' recent regime. Day by day they gathered new supporters. Edward and the younger Despenser crossed over the border and set sail from Chepstow, probably aiming first for Lundy and then for Ireland, where the king hoped to receive refuge and raise a fresh army. Bad weather drove them back, though, and they landed at Cardiff. Edward retreated to Caerphilly Castle and attempted to rally his remaining forces.
Edward's authority collapsed in England where, in his absence, Isabella's faction took over the administration with the support of the Church. Her forces surrounded Bristol, where Hugh Despenser the Elder had taken shelter; he surrendered and was promptly executed. Edward and Hugh the Younger fled their castle around 2 November, leaving behind jewellery, considerable supplies, and at least £13,000 in cash, possibly once again hoping to reach Ireland, but on 16 November they were betrayed and captured by a search party north of Caerphilly. Edward was escorted first to Monmouth Castle, and from there back into England, where he was held at the Earl of Lancaster's fortress at Kenilworth. Edward's final remaining forces, by now besieged in Caerphilly Castle, surrendered after four months in March 1327.
### Abdication
Isabella and Mortimer rapidly took revenge on the former regime. Hugh Despenser the Younger was put on trial, declared a traitor and sentenced to be disembowelled, castrated and quartered; he was duly executed on 24 November 1326. Edward's former chancellor, Robert Baldock, died in Fleet Prison; the Earl of Arundel was beheaded. Edward's position, however, was problematic; he was still married to Isabella and, in principle, he remained the king, but most of the new administration had much to lose were he to be released and potentially regain power.
There was no established procedure for removing an English king. Adam Orleton, the bishop of Hereford, made a series of public allegations about Edward's conduct as king, and in January 1327 a parliament convened at Westminster at which the question of Edward's future was raised; Edward refused to attend the gathering. Parliament, initially ambivalent, responded to the London crowds that called for the king's son Edward to take the throne. On 12 January the leading barons and clergy agreed that Edward II should be removed and replaced by his son. The following day it was presented to an assembly of the barons, where it was argued that Edward's weak leadership and personal faults had led the kingdom into disaster, and that he was incompetent to lead the country.
Shortly after this, a representative delegation of barons, clergy and knights was sent to Kenilworth to speak to the king. On 20 January 1327, the Earl of Lancaster and the bishops of Winchester and Lincoln met privately with Edward in the castle. They informed Edward that if he were to resign as monarch, his son Edward would succeed him, but if he failed to do so, his son might be disinherited as well, and the crown given to an alternative candidate. In tears, Edward agreed to abdicate, and on 21 January, Sir William Trussell, representing the kingdom as a whole, withdrew his homage and formally ended Edward's reign. A proclamation was sent to London, announcing that Edward, now known as Edward of Caernarvon, had freely resigned his kingdom and that his son Edward would succeed him. The coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 1 February 1327.
## Death (1327)
### Death and aftermath
Those opposed to the new government began to make plans to free Edward, and Roger Mortimer decided to move him to the more secure location of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, where Edward arrived around 5 April 1327. Once at the castle, he was kept in the custody of Mortimer's son-in-law, Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley, and John Maltravers, who were given £5 a day for Edward's maintenance. It is unclear how well cared for Edward was; the records show luxury goods being bought on his behalf, but some chroniclers suggest that he was often mistreated. A poem, the "Lament of Edward II", has been attributed to Edward during his imprisonment by some scholars, but this is disputed.
Concerns continued to be raised over fresh plots to liberate Edward, some involving the Dominican order and former household knights, and one such attempt got at least as far as breaking into the prison within the castle. As a result of these threats, Edward was moved around to other locations in secret for a period, before returning to permanent custody at the castle in late summer 1327. The political situation remained unstable, and new plots appear to have been formed to free him.
On 23 September Edward III was informed that his father had died at Berkeley Castle during the night of 21 September. Most historians agree that Edward II did die at Berkeley on that date, although there is a minority view that he died much later. His death was, as Mark Ormrod notes, "suspiciously timely", as it simplified Mortimer's political problems considerably, and most historians believe that Edward probably was murdered on the orders of the new regime, although it is impossible to be certain. Several of the individuals suspected of involvement in the death, including Sir Thomas Gurney, Maltravers and William Ockley [fr], later fled. If Edward died from natural causes, his death may have been hastened by depression following his imprisonment.
The rule of Isabella and Mortimer did not last long after the announcement of Edward's death. They made peace with the Scots in the Treaty of Northampton, but this move was highly unpopular. Isabella and Mortimer both amassed and spent great wealth, and criticism of them mounted. Relations between Mortimer and Edward III became strained and in 1330 the king conducted a coup d'état at Nottingham Castle. He arrested Mortimer and then executed him on fourteen charges of treason, including the murder of Edward II. Edward III's government sought to blame Mortimer for all the recent problems, effectively politically rehabilitating Edward II. Edward III put his mother under arrest but she was released soon after.
### Burial and cult
Edward's body was embalmed at Berkeley Castle, where it was viewed by local leaders from Bristol and Gloucester. It was then taken to Gloucester Abbey on 21 October, and on 20 December Edward was buried by the high altar, the funeral having probably been delayed to allow Edward III to attend in person. Gloucester was probably chosen because other abbeys had refused or been forbidden to take the king's body, and because it was close to Berkeley. The funeral was a grand affair and cost £351 in total, complete with gilt lions, standards painted with gold leaf and oak barriers to manage the anticipated crowds. Edward III's government probably hoped to put a veneer of normality over the recent political events, increasing the legitimacy of the young king's own reign.
A temporary wooden effigy with a copper crown was made for the funeral; this is the first known use of a funeral effigy in England, and was probably necessary because of the condition of the King's body, as he had been dead for three months. Edward's heart was removed, placed in a silver container, and later buried with Isabella at Newgate Church in London. His tomb includes a very early example of an English alabaster effigy, with a tomb chest and a canopy made of oolite and Purbeck stone. Edward was buried in the shirt, coif and gloves from his coronation, and his effigy depicts him as king, holding a sceptre and orb, and wearing a strawberry-leaf crown. The effigy features a pronounced lower lip, and may be a close likeness of Edward.
Edward II's tomb rapidly became a popular site for visitors, probably encouraged by the local monks, who lacked an existing pilgrimage attraction. Visitors donated extensively to the abbey, allowing the monks to rebuild much of the surrounding church in the 1330s. Miracles reportedly took place at the tomb, and modifications had to be made to enable visitors to walk around it in larger numbers. The chronicler Geoffrey le Baker depicted Edward as a saintly, tortured martyr, and Richard II gave royal support for an unsuccessful bid to have Edward canonised in 1395. The tomb was opened by officials in 1855, uncovering a wooden coffin, still in good condition, and a sealed lead coffin inside it. The tomb remains in what is now Gloucester Cathedral, and was extensively restored in 2007 and 2008 at a cost of over £100,000.
### Controversies
Controversy rapidly surrounded Edward's death. With Mortimer's execution in 1330, rumours began to circulate that Edward had been murdered at Berkeley Castle. Accounts that he had been killed by the insertion of a red-hot iron or poker into his anus slowly began to circulate, possibly as a result of deliberate propaganda; chroniclers in the mid-1330s and 1340s spread this account further, supported in later years by Geoffrey le Baker's colourful account of the killing. It became incorporated into most later histories of Edward, typically being linked to his possible homosexuality. Most historians now dismiss this account of Edward's death, querying the logic in his captors murdering him in such an easily detectable fashion.
Another set of theories surround the possibility that Edward did not really die in 1327. These theories typically involve the "Fieschi Letter", sent to Edward III by an Italian priest called Manuel Fieschi, who claimed that Edward escaped Berkeley Castle in 1327 with the help of a servant and ultimately retired to become a hermit in the Holy Roman Empire. The body buried at Gloucester Cathedral was said to be that of the porter of Berkeley Castle, killed by the assassins and presented by them to Isabella as Edward's corpse to avoid punishment. The letter is often linked to an account of Edward III meeting with a man called William the Welshman in Antwerp in 1338, who claimed to be Edward II. Some parts of the letter's content are considered broadly accurate by historians, although other aspects of its account have been criticised as implausible. A few historians have supported versions of its narrative. Paul C. Doherty questions the veracity of the letter and the identity of William the Welshman, but nonetheless has suspicions that Edward may have survived his imprisonment. The popular historian Alison Weir believes the events in the letter to be essentially true, using the letter to argue that Isabella was innocent of murdering Edward. The historian Ian Mortimer suggests that the story in Fieschi's letter is broadly accurate, but argues that it was in fact Mortimer and Isabella who had Edward secretly released, and who then faked his death, a fiction later maintained by Edward III when he came to power. Ian Mortimer's account was criticised by most scholars when it was first published, in particular by historian David Carpenter.
## Edward as king
### Kingship, government and law
Edward was ultimately a failure as a king; the historian Michael Prestwich observes that he "was lazy and incompetent, liable to outbursts of temper over unimportant issues, yet indecisive when it came to major issues", echoed by Roy Haines' description of Edward as "incompetent and vicious", and as "no man of business". Edward did not just delegate routine government to his subordinates, but also higher level decision making, and Pierre Chaplais argues that he "was not so much an incompetent king as a reluctant one", preferring to rule through a powerful deputy, such as Piers Gaveston or Hugh Despenser the Younger. Edward's willingness to promote his favourites had serious political consequences, although he also attempted to buy the loyalty of a wider grouping of nobles through grants of money and fees. He could take a keen interest in the minutiae of administration, however, and on occasion engaged in the details of a wide range of issues across England and his wider domains.
One of Edward's persistent challenges through most of his reign was a shortage of money; of the debts he inherited from his father, around £60,000 was still owing in the 1320s. Edward worked his way through many treasurers and other financial officials, few of whom stayed long, raising revenues through often unpopular taxes, and requisitioning goods using his right of prise. He also took out many loans, first through the Frescobaldi family, and then through his banker Antonio Pessagno. Edward took a strong interest in financial matters towards the end of his reign, distrusting his own officials and directly cutting back on the expenses of his own household.
Edward was responsible for implementing royal justice through his network of judges and officials. It is uncertain to what extent Edward took a personal interest in dispensing justice, but he appears to have involved himself to some degree during the first part of his reign, and to have increasingly intervened in person after 1322. Edward made extensive use of Roman civil law during his reign when arguing in defence of his causes and favourites, which may have attracted criticism from those who perceived this as abandoning the established principles of English common law. Edward was also criticised by contemporaries for allowing the Despensers to exploit the royal justice system for their own ends; the Despensers certainly appear to have abused the system, although just how widely they did so is unclear. Amid the political turbulence, armed gangs and violence spread across England under Edward's reign, destabilising the position of many of the local gentry; much of Ireland similarly disintegrated into anarchy.
Under Edward's rule, parliament's importance grew as a means of making political decisions and answering petitions, although as the historian Claire Valente notes, the gatherings were "still as much an event as an institution". After 1311, parliament began to include, in addition to the barons, the representatives of the knights and burgesses, who in later years would constitute the "commons". Although parliament often opposed raising fresh taxes, active opposition to Edward came largely from the barons, rather than parliament itself, although the barons did seek to use the parliamentary meetings as a way of giving legitimacy to their long-standing political demands. After resisting it for many years, Edward began intervening in parliament in the second half of his reign to achieve his own political aims. It remains unclear whether he was deposed in 1327 by a formal gathering of parliament or simply a gathering of the political classes alongside an existing parliament.
### Court
Edward's royal court was itinerant, travelling around the country with him. When housed in Westminster Palace, the court occupied a complex of two halls, seven chambers and three chapels, along with other smaller rooms, but, due to the Scottish conflict, the court spent much of its time in Yorkshire and Northumbria. At the heart of the court was Edward's royal household, in turn divided into the "hall" and the "chamber"; the size of the household varied over time, but in 1317 was around five hundred people, including household knights, squires, and kitchen and transport staff. The household was surrounded by a wider group of courtiers, and appears to have also attracted a circle of prostitutes and criminal elements.
Music and minstrels were very popular at Edward's court, but hunting appears to have been a much less important activity, and there was little emphasis on chivalric events. Edward was interested in buildings and paintings, but less so in literary works, which were not extensively sponsored at court. There was an extensive use of gold and silver plates, jewels and enamelling at court, which would have been richly decorated. Edward kept a camel as a pet and, as a young man, took a lion with him on campaign to Scotland. The court could be entertained in exotic ways: by an Italian snake-charmer in 1312, and the following year by 54 nude French dancers.
### Religion
Edward's approach to religion was normal for the period, and the historian Michael Prestwich describes him as "a man of wholly conventional religious attitudes". There were daily chapel services and almsgiving at his court, and Edward blessed the sick, although he did this less often than his predecessors. Edward remained close to the Dominican Order, who had helped to educate him, and followed their advice in asking for papal permission to be anointed with the Holy Oil of St. Thomas of Canterbury in 1319; this request was refused, causing the king some embarrassment. Edward supported the expansion of the universities during his reign, establishing King's Hall in Cambridge to promote training in religious and civil law, Oriel College in Oxford and a short-lived university in Dublin.
Edward enjoyed a good relationship with Pope Clement V, despite the king's repeated intervention in the operation of the English Church, including punishing bishops with whom he disagreed. With Clement's support, Edward attempted to gain the financial support of the English Church for his military campaigns in Scotland, including taxation and borrowing money against the funds gathered for the crusades. The Church did relatively little to influence or moderate Edward's behaviour during his reign, possibly because of the bishops' self-interest and concern for their own protection.
Pope John XXII, elected in 1316, sought Edward's support for a new crusade, and was also inclined to support him politically. In 1317, in exchange for papal support in his war with Scotland, Edward agreed to recommence paying the annual Papal tribute, which had been first agreed to by King John in 1213; Edward soon ceased the payments, however, and never offered his homage, another part of the 1213 agreement. In 1325 Edward asked Pope John to instruct the Irish Church to openly preach in favour of his right to rule the island, and to threaten to excommunicate any contrary voices.
## Legacy
### Historiography
No chronicler for this period is entirely trustworthy or unbiased, often because their accounts were written to support a particular cause, but it is clear that most contemporary chroniclers were highly critical of Edward. The Polychronicon, Vita Edwardi Secundi, Vita et Mors Edwardi Secundi and the Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvon for example all condemned the king's personality, habits and choice of companions. Other records from his reign show criticism by his contemporaries, including the Church and members of his own household. Political songs were written about him, complaining about his failure in war and his oppressive government. Later in the 14th century, some chroniclers, such as Geoffrey le Baker and Thomas Ringstead, rehabilitated Edward, presenting him as a martyr and a potential saint, although this tradition died out in later years.
Historians in the 16th and 17th centuries focused on Edward's relationship with Gaveston, drawing comparisons between Edward's reign and the events surrounding the relationship of Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette, Duke of Épernon, and Henry III of France, and between George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and Charles I of England. In the first half of the 19th century, popular historians such as Charles Dickens and Charles Knight popularised Edward's life with the Victorian public, focusing on the king's relationship with his favourites and, increasingly, alluding to his possible homosexuality. From the 1870s onwards, however, open academic discussion of Edward's sexuality was circumscribed by changing English values. By the start of the 20th century, English schools were being advised by the government to avoid overt discussion of Edward's personal relationships in history lessons. Views on his sexuality have continued to develop over the years.
By the end of the 19th century, more administrative records from the period had become available to historians such as William Stubbs, Thomas Tout and J. C. Davies, who focused on the development of the English constitutional and governmental system during his reign. Although critical of what they regarded as Edward II's inadequacies as a king, they also emphasised the growth of the role of parliament and the reduction in personal royal authority under Edward, which they perceived as positive developments. During the 1970s the historiography of Edward's reign shifted away from this model, supported by the further publishing of records from the period in the last quarter of the 20th century. The work of Jeffrey Denton, Jeffrey Hamilton, John Maddicott and Seymour Phillips re-focused attention on the role of the individual leaders in the conflicts. With the exceptions of Hilda Johnstone's work on Edward's early years and Natalie Fryde's study of Edward's final years, the focus of the major historical studies for several years was on the leading magnates rather than Edward himself, until substantial biographies of the king were published by Roy Haines and Seymour Phillips in 2003 and 2011.
### Cultural references
Several plays have shaped Edward's contemporary image. Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II was first performed around 1592 and focuses on Edward's relationship with Piers Gaveston, reflecting 16th-century concerns about the relationships between monarchs and their favourites. Marlowe presents Edward's death as a murder, drawing parallels between the killing and martyrdom; although Marlowe does not describe the actual nature of Edward's murder in the script, it has usually been performed following the tradition that Edward was killed with a red-hot poker. The character of Edward in the play, who has been likened to Marlowe's contemporaries James VI of Scotland and Henry III of France, may have influenced William Shakespeare's portrayal of Richard II. In the 17th century, the playwright Ben Jonson picked up the same theme for his unfinished work, Mortimer His Fall.
The filmmaker Derek Jarman adapted the Marlowe play into a film in 1991, creating a postmodern pastiche of the original, depicting Edward as a strong, explicitly homosexual leader, ultimately overcome by powerful enemies. In Jarman's version, Edward finally escapes captivity, following the tradition in the Fieschi letter. Edward's current popular image was also shaped by his contrasting appearance in Mel Gibson's 1995 film Braveheart, where he is portrayed as weak and implicitly homosexual, wearing silk clothes and heavy makeup, shunning the company of women and incapable of dealing militarily with the Scots. The film received extensive criticism, both for its historical inaccuracies and for its negative portrayal of homosexuality.
Edward's life has also been used in a wide variety of other media. In the Victorian era, the painting Edward II and Piers Gaveston by Marcus Stone strongly hinted at a homosexual relationship between the pair, while avoiding making this aspect explicit. It was initially shown at the Royal Academy in 1872 but was marginalised in later decades as the issue of homosexuality became more sensitive. More recently, the director David Bintley used Marlowe's play as the basis for the ballet Edward II, first performed in 1995; the music from the ballet forms a part of composer John McCabe's symphony Edward II, produced in 2000. Novels such as John Penford's 1984 The Gascon and Chris Hunt's 1992 Gaveston have focused on the sexual aspects of Edward and Gaveston's relationship, while Stephanie Merritt's 2002 Gaveston transports the story into the 20th century.
## Issue
Edward II had four children with Isabella:
1. Edward III of England (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377). Married Philippa of Hainault on 24 January 1328 and had issue.
2. John of Eltham (15 August 1316 – 13 September 1336). Never married. No issue.
3. Eleanor of Woodstock (18 June 1318 – 22 April 1355). Married Reinoud II of Guelders in May 1332 and had issue.
4. Joan of the Tower (5 July 1321 – 7 September 1362). Married David II of Scotland on 17 July 1328 and became Queen of Scots, but had no issue.
Edward also fathered the illegitimate Adam FitzRoy (c. 1307–1322), who accompanied his father in the Scottish campaigns of 1322 and died shortly afterwards.
## Ancestry
## See also
- History of same-sex relationships, specifically the note on historiographical considerations
- List of earls in the reign of Edward II of England
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2,616,465 |
Pied butcherbird
| 1,153,532,406 |
Black and white songbird native to Australia
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[
"Articles containing video clips",
"Birds described in 1837",
"Birds of Victoria (state)",
"Cracticus",
"Endemic birds of Australia"
] |
The pied butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis) is a songbird native to Australia. Described by John Gould in 1837, it is a black and white bird 28 to 32 cm (11 to 12.5 in) long with a long hooked bill. Its head and throat are black, making a distinctive hood; the mantle and much of the tail and wings are also black. The neck, underparts and outer wing feathers are white. The juvenile and immature birds are predominantly brown and white. As they mature their brown feathers are replaced by black feathers. There are two recognised subspecies of pied butcherbird.
Within its range, the pied butcherbird is generally sedentary. Common in woodlands and in urban environments, it is carnivorous, eating insects and small vertebrates including birds. A tame and inquisitive bird, the pied butcherbird has been known to accept food from humans. It nests in trees, constructing a cup-shaped structure out of sticks and laying two to five eggs. The pied butcherbird engages in cooperative breeding, with a mated pair sometimes assisted by several helper birds. The troop is territorial, defending the nesting site from intruders. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the pied butcherbird as being of least concern on account of its large range and apparently stable population.
## Taxonomy
The pied butcherbird was first described by the ornithologist John Gould in 1837 as Vanga nigrogularis. The type specimen was collected near Sydney. The species name is from the Latin words niger (black), and gula (throat). Gould described Cracticus picatus in 1848 from northern Australia, calling it "A miniature representative of, and nearly allied to, but distinct from, Cracticus nigrogularis." The word picatus is Latin for "daubed with pitch", hence "black patches. This was reclassified as a subspecies of C. nigrogularis. Gregory Mathews described subspecies inkermani from Queensland and subspecies mellori from Victoria and South Australia in 1912, on the basis of smaller and larger size than the nominate subspecies respectively. Both are now regarded as inseparable from the nominate subspecies. Mathews described subspecies kalgoorli from Kalgoorlie in 1912 on the basis of its longer bill than the nominate subspecies, but is regarded today as part of subspecies picatus.
Two subspecies are recognised today. The nominate subspecies nigrogularis is found across eastern Australia, and subspecies picatus is found in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and northern South Australia. The latter subspecies has a broader (3.7 cm (1.5 in) wide) white collar and a more whitish rump, with specimens becoming smaller in the more northern parts of the range. The border between the two subspecies lies in the Gulf Country and is known as the Carpentarian Barrier. Although there is a demarcation in physical characters, this is not borne out genetically, and birds from northwestern Australia have affinities with the eastern subspecies. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences indicates the pied butcherbird has expanded rapidly from many refugia during the Pleistocene.
The pied butcherbird is one of six (or seven) members of the genus Cracticus, known colloquially as butcherbirds. Within the genus, it is most closely related to the Tagula butcherbird (C. louisiadensis) and hooded butcherbird (C. cassicus). The three form a monophyletic group within the genus, having diverged from ancestors of the grey butcherbird around five million years ago. The butcherbirds, Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) and currawongs (Strepera spp.) were placed in the family Cracticidae in 1914 by John Albert Leach after he had studied their musculature. American ornithologists Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between woodswallows and the butcherbirds in 1985, and combined them into a Cracticini clade, which became the family Artamidae in 1994.
"Pied butcherbird" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). Black-throated butcherbird is an alternative common name, as are Break o'day boy and organbird. Leach also called it the black-throated crow shrike, a name used by Gould for subspecies nigrogularis while calling subspecies picatus the pied crow-shrike. ‘Jackeroo’ is a colloquial name from the Musgrave Ranges in Central Australia. Gould recorded Ka-ra-a-ra as a name used by indigenous people of Darwin. The Ngarluma people of the western Pilbara knew it as gurrbaru. In the Yuwaaliyaay dialect of the Gamilaraay language of southeastern Australia, it is buubuurrbu. Names recorded from central Australia include alpirtaka and urbura in the Upper Arrernte language.
## Description
Like other butcherbirds, the pied butcherbird is stockily built with short legs and a relatively large head. It ranges from 28 to 32 cm (11 to 12.5 in) long, averaging around 31 cm (12 in), with a 51 cm (20 in) wingspan and weight of around 120 g (4 oz). The wings are fairly long, extending to half-way along the tail when folded. Its plumage is almost wholly black and white, with very little difference between the sexes. It has a black head, nape and throat, giving it the appearance of a black hood, which is bounded by a white neck collar, which is around 3.2 cm (1 in) wide. The black hood is slightly glossy in bright light, can fade a little with age, and is slightly duller and more brownish in the adult female. The neck collar in the female is slightly narrower at around 2.5 cm (1 in) and is a grey-white rather than white. Several stiff black bristles up to 1.5 cm (1 in) long arise from the lower lores. The upper mantle and a few of the front scapulars are white, contrasting sharply with the black lower mantle and the rest of the scapulars. The rump is pale grey, and the upper tail coverts are white. The tail is rather long, with a rounded or wedge-shaped tip. It has twelve rectrices, which are black in colour. The tail tip and outer wing feathers are white. The underparts are white. The eyes are a dark brown, the legs grey and the bill a pale bluish grey tipped with black, with a prominent hook at the end.
The juvenile pied butcherbird has dark brown instead of black plumage, lacks the pale collar and has a cream to buff lores, chin, and upper throat, becoming more brown on the lower throat and breast. Its underparts are off-white to cream. The bill is dark brown. In its first year, it moults into its first immature plumage, which resembles that of the juvenile, but has a more extensive dark brown throat. Its bill is blue-grey with a dark brown or blackish tip.
### Voice
The pied butcherbird has been considered the most accomplished songbird in Australia, its song described as a "magic flute" by one writer, richer and clearer than the Australian magpie. Song melodies vary across the continent and no single song is sung by the whole population. There is no clear demarcation between simple calls and elaborate songs: duets, and even larger choirs, are common. The species improvises extensively in creating new and complex melodies. One of its calls has been likened to the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Singing often takes place at dawn, and rarely late in the day. Pied butcherbirds sometimes sing on moonlit nights.
Three types of song have been described: the day song is the most common, sung by birds alone or in pairs as a chorus or an antiphonal duet, generally over the course of the day and while the birds are in flight. It appears to promote bonding and act as communication. The whisper song is sung more commonly in wet or windy weather, the singer sitting in a tree warbling soft and complex harmonies for up to 45 minutes, often mimicking many other bird species as well as dogs barking, lambs bleating or even people whistling. In the breeding season, pied butcherbirds sing the breeding song at night until dawn, when they switch to the day song. This song is longer and more complex than the day song. In response to threats, pied butcherbirds may chatter or make a harmonic alarm call composed of short, loud descending notes.
### Similar species
The black hood helps distinguish the pied butcherbird from other butcherbirds, the Australian magpie and much smaller magpie-lark, the latter of which also has a much smaller beak. It has a higher-pitched call than the grey butcherbird and inhabits more open habitat. The juvenile pied butcherbird resembles the grey butcherbird: it has a buff upper throat and dark brown instead of black plumage.
## Distribution and habitat
The pied butcherbird is found across much of Australia, excepting the far south of the mainland, and Tasmania. It is only rarely recorded in the Sydney Basin, and absent from the Illawarra, Southern Tablelands and south coast of New South Wales. In Victoria it is found along the Murray Valley and west of Chiltern. In South Australia it is not found in the northeast of the state, nor on the Adelaide plain. It is found across Western Australia, though is absent from the Great Sandy Desert. It is generally sedentary across most of its range, with minimal seasonal movements.
It is a bird of open sclerophyll forests, eucalypt and acacia woodlands and scrublands, with sparse or no understory, or low cover with shrubs such as Triodia, Lomandra or Hibbertia. It is less common in mallee scrub. In arid areas and northern Australia, it is more restricted to woodland alongside rivers and billabongs. It has become more common in southwest Western Australia with land clearing, though has become rare around Darwin on account of urban development.
### Conservation status
The pied butcherbird is listed as being a species of least concern by the IUCN, on account of its large range and stable population with no evidence of any significant decline.
## Behaviour
The pied butcherbird is thought to be monogamous, though its breeding habits have not been much studied. There is evidence of cooperative breeding, with some mated pairs being assisted by up to several other helper birds. These individuals help feed young and defend the nest. These pairs or small groups defend their territory from intruders, mobbing and chasing raptors and other birds, and occasionally dogs or people. They may attack animals (and people) that venture too close to the nest, with one bird coming front-on while the other may approach from behind.
The maximum age recorded from banding has been 22 years 1.7 months, for an individual banded in Rockhampton in June 1988 and recovered in August 2010–7 km away. The bird was injured and had to be euthanased.
### Breeding
Across most of its range, the pied butcherbird can generally be found breeding from winter to summer; eggs are laid anywhere from July to December, but mostly from September to November, and young can be present in the nest from August till February. There are reports of breeding outside these months, however. The nest is constructed of dry sticks with a finer material such as dried grass, black roly poly (Sclerolaena muricata), bark and leaves forming a cup-shaped interior. It is located in the fork of a tree, often among foliage and inconspicuous. The clutch consists of two to five (most commonly three or four) oval eggs blotched with brown over a base colour of various shades of pale greyish- or brownish-green. Larger clutches have been recorded, such as at Jandowae in Queensland, where two pairs laid eggs and were sharing incubation duties. Eggs of subspecies nigrogularis are larger, at around 33 mm long by 24 mm (1.3 by 0.95 in) wide, while those of subspecies picatus are around 31 mm long by 22 mm (1.2 by 0.85 in) wide. Incubation takes 19 to 21 days, with the eggs laid up to 48 hours apart and hatching at a similar interval. Like all passerines, the chicks are altricial—they are born naked or sparsely covered in down and blind. They spend anywhere from 25 to 33 days in the nest before fledging, though may leave the nest early if disturbed. They are fed by parents and helper birds. Brood parasites recorded include the pallid cuckoo (Cacomantis pallidus) and channel-billed cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae).
### Feeding
The pied butcherbird is carnivorous, and eats insects such as beetles, bugs, ants, caterpillars, and cockroaches, as well as spiders and worms. It preys on vertebrates up to the size of such animals as frogs, skinks, mice, and small birds such as the silvereye (Zosterops lateralis), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), double-barred finch (Taeniopygia bichenovii), willie wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys), and grey teal (Anas gracilis) duckling. It has been looked upon favourably by farmers as it hunts such pests as grasshoppers and rodents. Some individuals look for scraps around houses and picnic sites, and can become tame enough to be fed by people, either by hand or by tossing food in the air. The pied butcherbird also eats fruit, such as those of sandpaper figs (Ficus coronata), native cherry (Exocarpos cupressiformis), African boxthorn (Lycium ferocissimum) and grapes (Vitis vinifera), and nectar of the Darwin woollybutt (Eucalyptus miniata).
The pied butcherbird often perches on a fencepost, stump or branch while foraging for prey. It generally pounces on victims on the ground and eats them there. At times, it may hop or run along hunting ground-based food, and occasionally seize flying insects. It generally forages alone, or occasionally in pairs. The pied butcherbird has been observed hunting collaboratively with the Australian hobby, either picking off common starlings or rufous-throated honeyeaters disturbed by the larger hobby, or flushing out small birds from bushes, which the larger bird then hunts. The pied butcherbird sometimes stores food items by impaling them on a stick or on barbed wire, or shoving them in a nook or crevice.
## Cultural significance
Several Australian and international composers have been inspired by and written music incorporating the songs of the pied butcherbird, including Henry Tate, David Lumsdaine (who described it as "a virtuoso of composition and improvisation"), Don Harper, Olivier Messiaen, Elaine Barkin, John Rodgers, Ron Nagorcka, and John Williamson. In the dance 'Bird Song' by Siobhan Davies, the main central solo was accompanied by the call of a pied butcherbird and this same sound provided inspiration to much of the dance, including the improvisational aspects. Composer and researcher Hollis Taylor has studied pied butcherbird song for 12 years, and has released a double CD called Absolute Bird based on fifty-plus pied butcherbird nocturnal solo songs. Taylor's 'Is Birdsong Music? Outback Encounters with an Australian Songbird' offers portraits of the remote locations where the species is found.
In the now extinct Warray language spoken on the Adelaide River in Arnhem Land, Cracticus nigrogularis was known as lopolopo.
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