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7,547,832	Hurricane Klaus (1984)	1,171,665,612	Category 1 Atlantic hurricane in 1984	[ "1984 Atlantic hurricane season", "Category 1 Atlantic hurricanes", "Hurricanes in Puerto Rico", "Hurricanes in the United States Virgin Islands", "Tropical cyclones in 1984" ]	Hurricane Klaus was a North Atlantic hurricane that hit the Leeward Islands from the west in November of the 1984 Atlantic hurricane season. Forming from a broad area of low pressure on November 5, Klaus maintained a northeast movement throughout much of its path. After making landfall on extreme eastern Puerto Rico, it passed to the north of the Leeward Islands, resulting in strong southwesterly winds and rough seas. Klaus attained hurricane status and reached peak winds of 90 mph (145 km/h) before becoming extratropical over cooler waters on November 13. The storm dropped heavy rainfall in Puerto Rico, causing minor flooding and light damage. Klaus caused heavy marine damage in the Leeward Islands, including wrecking at least three ships. The Virgin Islands experienced heavy damage as well. ## Meteorological history A broad area of low pressure gradually developed over the extreme southeastern Caribbean Sea on November 1. It moved slowly westward and steadily organized. By November 4, the system stalled to the north of Curaçao, which was followed by a turn to the northeast. Convection slowly organized as a surface circulation formed, and on November 5 the system developed into Tropical Depression Fifteen. Initially weak with only 20 mph (32 km/h) winds, the depression steadily organized as it moved northeastward, and a Reconnaissance Aircraft mission confirmed the existence of the cyclone on November 6 as it was located midway between Puerto Rico and the Netherlands Antilles. Late on the 6th, the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Klaus while located a short distance south of Puerto Rico. Tropical Storm Klaus continued northeastward, and made landfall on extreme eastern Puerto Rico early on November 7. The storm passed a short distance north of the Lesser Antilles, and became the first tropical cyclone in recorded history to affect the islands from the west. Favorable conditions allowed the storm to continue strengthening, and Klaus attained hurricane status early on November 8. The hurricane accelerated to the northeast, and reached its peak intensity of 90 mph (145 km/h) late on November 8. After maintaining its peak strength for 30 hours, Klaus weakened slightly. Interaction with an upper-level low turned the hurricane westward on November 11, though an approaching trough of low pressure turned Hurricane Klaus to the northeast. Cold air and cooler waters weakened the convection around the center on November 12, and Klaus degenerated to a subtropical storm. It accelerated to the northeast and degenerated to an extratropical storm on November 13 while located about 440 miles (700 km) south-southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland. Six hours later, it was absorbed by another extratropical system. ## Preparations Shortly after forming, gale warnings were issued for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Netherlands Antilles of the Leeward Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Anguilla. Klaus was the first tropical cyclone on record to hit the Leeward Islands from the west, and as a result many were unprepared for the strong winds and rough seas from the southwest. ## Impact While moving past Puerto Rico, Tropical Storm Klaus dropped heavy rainfall peaking at 25.69 inches (653 mm) in Guavate Camp in the southeastern part of the island. Much of the southern half of Puerto Rico reported over 7 inches (180 mm) (178 mm). Vieques received around 7 inches of precipitation, while Culebra experienced over 10 inches (250 mm). The heavy rainfall resulted in freshwater flooding. The strongest winds of the storm remained offshore, and wind gusts peaked at 37 miles per hour (60 km/h) in Roosevelt Roads Naval Station. Winds and rainfall on the island resulted in downed trees and power lines, though damage was minimal. Klaus struck the island on election day, causing slight disruptions to the process. Saint John in the United States Virgin Islands reported over 15 inches (380 mm) of rainfall in association with Tropical Storm Klaus. Both Saint Thomas and Saint Croix received around 10 inches, while rainfall in the British Virgin Islands remained below 10 inches. Tropical Storm Klaus caused severe flooding and extensive damage throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands. Strong southwesterly winds resulted in gale-force winds and rough seas along the southwestern portions of the Leeward Islands. The rough waves caused considerable damage to marine interests in the area. In Anguilla, three ships were wrecked. One mile (1.6 km) off Saint Martin, the rough seas wrecked a cruise ship. The 60 passengers and 23 crew members swam safely to shore, though one person was hospitalized. Rough seas also damaged local coral reefs. 10,000 people were affected on the island of Dominica. There, the storm caused \$2 million (1984 USD, \$3.9 million 2006 USD) in damage and resulted in two fatalities. In Antigua, strong waves from the hurricane produced severe beach erosion, which endangered a highway behind an eroded beach. Beach erosion was reported in nearby Barbuda, as well. The British Virgin Islands sustained moderate damage totaling to \$152 million (1984 USD, \$315 million 2008 USD). St. Kitts and Nevis also saw much Leeward coastal damage resulting from the storm, the worst impact being the destruction of the Sandy Point town port in Saint Kitts. ## Aftermath In Anguilla, nine ships, including three that were wrecked from the hurricane, were intentionally sunk in 1990 to create an artificial reef. About a month after the storm passed, President Ronald Reagan declared the U.S. Virgin Islands a major disaster area. The declaration permitted use of federal funds for recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided an average relief fund of \$2,128 (1984 USD, \$4,147 2006 USD) per affected person, the smallest return rate for a declared disaster in the Virgin Islands. Because damage was not significant, the name Klaus was not retired after this year. However, the name was later retired after Hurricane Klaus in 1990 (which, unusually, was less damaging), and was replaced by Kyle in 1996. ## See also - Hurricane Lenny - Hurricane Omar - Hurricane Rafael - List of Atlantic hurricanes
24,346,910	Lake Manix	1,140,359,252	Lake in San Bernardino County, California	[ "Endorheic basins of the United States", "Former lakes of the United States", "Glacial lakes of the United States", "Lakes of California", "Lakes of San Bernardino County, California", "Lakes of Southern California", "Lakes of the Great Basin", "Lakes of the Mojave Desert", "Mojave River", "Natural history of the Mojave Desert", "Pleistocene" ]	Lake Manix is a former lake fed by the Mojave River in the Mojave Desert. It lies within San Bernardino County, California. Located close to Barstow, this lake had the shape of a cloverleaf and covered four basins named Coyote, Cady/Manix, Troy and Afton. It covered a surface area of 236 square kilometres (91 sq mi) and reached an altitude of 543 metres (1,781 ft) at highstands, although poorly recognizable shorelines have been found at altitudes of 547–558 metres (1,795–1,831 ft). The lake was fed by increased runoff during the Pleistocene and overflowed into the Lake Mojave basin and from there to Lake Manly in Death Valley, or less likely into the Bristol Lake basin and from there to the Colorado River. The lake formed about 500,000 years before present, when the Mojave River left the Victorville area and started to drain into Manix and Lake Harper. The lake did not immediately include the Afton basin; its integration occurred only about 190,000 years ago, most likely due to a catastrophic flood. Lake Manix lasted until 25,000–13,800 years ago, when Afton Canyon formed, either through slow downcutting or a large outburst flood. The lake supported a rich ecosystem, including birds, fish, mammals and plants. A group of archeological finds in the area have been called, controversially, the "Lake Manix Industry". ## Name The name "Lake Manix" was bestowed upon the lake by J. P. Buwalda in 1913; Buwalda also named its fossil-bearing sediments "Manix Beds" and today the lake sediments are named "Manix Formation". The name was derived from the Manix railroad siding of the Union Pacific, east of Barstow. ## Geography Lake Manix was located 32–64 kilometres (20–40 mi) east of present-day Barstow and Daggett. It had a cloverleaf shape, formed by a central Cady or Manix basin, a northwestern Coyote Basin, a south-southeastern Troy Basin and an eastern-northeastern Afton Basin. The latter basin is heavily dissected in comparison to the others. These basins were at various points separated from each other by sills. In the older history of the lake another basin named Cady Basin existed, before the Mojave River eroded through the Buwalda Ridge and connected it to the Afton Basin. This through-going erosion may have been assisted by the Manix Fault trace. A bedrock sill at 540 metres (1,770 ft) separates the Coyote Basin from the rest of the lake basin. The total surface area of the lake is given by sources as 236 square kilometres (91 sq mi). Earlier highstands may have reached Yermo, California. Yermo, together with Dunn and Newberry Springs, are present-day towns whose locations would have been close to the shore of, or submerged beneath, Lake Manix. The upper threshold of the lake reached 543 metres (1,781 ft) above sea level; a shoreline at 549 metres (1,801 ft) was later shown to be an error of measurement, although some poorly recognizable higher shorelines at 547–558 metres (1,795–1,831 ft) have been found that are attributed to earlier highstands. The stability of the 543-metre (1,781 ft) shoreline suggests that the lake either became much larger at that point or started to overflow. These shorelines are marked by beach bars and wavecut scarps, and at least one lagoon formed behind a beach bar. Other landforms include alluvial fans, deltas, mudflats and their deposits. Part of the shoreline was buried by deposits transported by the Mojave River; these include large parts of a 557-metre-high (1,827 ft) shoreline. One island potentially existed in the middle of the lake; at a lake surface elevation of 558 metres (1,831 ft), the island would have become two islands separated by a narrow strait. The lake reached a depth of 60 metres (200 ft) and was surrounded by alluvial fans which formed around the subbasins of Lake Manix. The lake was surrounded by mountain chains: in clockwise order, the Cronese Mountains, the Cave Mountains, the Cady Mountains, the Newberry Mountains, the Calico Mountains and the Alvord Mountains. These mountains are formed by sediments and volcanic rocks with ages ranging from Paleozoic to Tertiary and contributed sediments to Lake Manix. The whole region was subject to strong tectonically driven deformation from the Eastern California Shear Zone. A number of faults in the region show evidence of Holocene activity, including the Calico Fault, the Camp Rock Fault, the Dolores Lake Fault, the Pisgah Fault and the Manix Fault. This last fault probably contributed to the formation of the drainage by shearing rocks along its path. Distorted sediments, soil liquefaction remnants and sand blows have been identified in drilling cores from Lake Manix sediments; distorted sediments may be evidence that seismic activity occurred in the lake during its history. Earthquakes may have occurred on the several faults close to the lake and across the lake floor. The 1947 Manix earthquake occurred along the Manix fault. The Mojave River entered the lake from the west, probably forming a river delta. The most recent drainage from the lake was Afton Canyon, which drained the lake east towards Soda Lake, Silver Lake and eventually Death Valley. This draining cut 120 metres (390 ft) deep into the sediments of Lake Manix, removing about 2.815 cubic kilometres (0.675 cu mi) of material and depositing it below Afton Canyon. The erosion has exposed sediments of Lake Manix, making their climatic records accessible to research. The playas Coyote Lake and Troy Lake presently fill the eponymous basins of Lake Manix. In many places, wind- and water-driven erosion has removed deposits from Lake Manix and obscured shorelines. The present-day Interstate 40 and Interstate 15 cross the former lake bed of Lake Manix. ## Hydrology During the ice ages, a number of lakes filled in the Great Basin and the southwestern United States. These lake fillings were influenced by shifts in storm tracks caused by the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Changes in sea surface temperatures increasing moisture supply or increased supply from tropical regions may also have contributed to lake formation. Similar lakes included Lake Babicora, Lake Bonneville, Lake Estancia, Lake Lahontan, Lake Manly, Lake Owens, Lake Panamint, Lake Russell and Lake Searles. Some interglacials also featured the growth of lakes. Under present-day climate, runoff in the region is also influenced by the El Niño Southern Oscillation, the Northern Annular Mode and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation; the Northern Annular Mode may have affected the infilling of Lake Manix as well. The Mojave River drained into Lake Manix, with the formation of the lake reflecting increased precipitation in the San Bernardino Mountains. Local arroyos also drained into the lake. It has been estimated that runoff had to increase by a factor of about ten to form Lake Manix. Lake Manix contained over 1.6 cubic kilometres (0.38 cu mi) of water, possibly as much as 3.2 cubic kilometres (0.77 cu mi). Water levels in the lake frequently fluctuated by 5–15 metres (16–49 ft). It formerly was the Mojave River's terminal lake, and received about 1 millimetre per year (0.039 in/year) of sediment. The Coyote Basin was not permanently coupled to the main lake body; its relatively large surface area and consequently high evaporation would have stabilized lake levels when it was connected to Lake Manix proper. Tufa, a type of calcium carbonate deposit that develops in waterbodies, formed within Lake Manix. Based on information gleaned from fossil ostracods, Lake Manix was a well mixed lake, especially in summer; likely, no thermocline developed in it. While the lake may have been warm during oxygen isotope stage 12 and possibly nourished from early summer runoff, after that point it was much colder, with water temperatures not rising above 4 °C (39 °F). After oxygen isotope stage 5, the lake became warmer again. The environment of Lake Manix has been compared to shallow lakes in northern California that lie behind the Cascade Range. Lake Manix was not the only lake that formed on the Mojave River; Lake Mojave in the Silver Lake and Soda Lake basins was also formed by the river. While it was at first believed that the two lakes could not have existed simultaneously, it has been suggested that Lake Mojave could have formed when Lake Manix still existed. Water spilled from Lake Manix to Lake Mojave; possibly, Lake Manix overflowed to that basin through Baxter Wash from a spillway south of the present-day Afton Canyon at an altitude of 544 metres (1,785 ft). While it is reasonable to assume, however, that earlier highstands were stabilized by overflow, there is no physical evidence in Baxter Wash for an overflow path there. Whatever path overflow might have taken, Lake Mojave was nourished by such overflow. The Mojave River, together with the Amargosa River, formed Lake Manly in Death Valley; the disappearance of Lake Manix after the formation of Afton Canyon would have increased water supply to Death Valley as evaporation surfaces were reduced. Another theory assumes that the Troy Lake basin of Lake Manix might have spilled into Bristol Lake and from there into the Colorado River; this theory is viewed as questionable seeing as there is no evidence that Bristol Lake (which Lake Manix waters would have flowed through on the way to the Colorado) contained an overflowing lake, although paleocurrent data obtained from Lake Manix deposits may support it. Water levels in Lake Manix appear to have reached peaks during both cold and warm stages of the Dansgaard-Oeschger events, with a southward shift of storm activity and increased moisture supply triggering increased precipitation. The average storm track passes far north of the Mojave River headwaters, meaning that the river is exquisitely sensitive to changes in storm position. ## Biology Bird species whose skeletons have been found in sediments of Lake Manix include the western grebe and the white pelican. Other bird skeletons found there have been attributed to the species Aquila chrysaetos (Golden eagle), Branta canadensis (Canada goose), Ciconia maltha (an extinct stork), Erismatura jamaicensis (Ruddy duck), the genus Grus, Nyroca valisineria, Nannopterum auritum (double-crested cormorant), Phoenicopterus copei and Phoenicopterus minutus. These are typical lake-dwelling birds that have also been found at Fossil Lake in Oregon, and might indicate that the lake was a stopover for bird migrations. Mammal genera at Lake Manix included Canis, Felis, Equus, Camelops, Tanupolama, Ovis, Bison, Mammuthus and Nothrotherium. This fauna list, called "Camp Cady local fauna" after a Union Army post in the area, is not exhaustive. The fossils of the Manix Formation have been studied for over a century. The freshwater clam Anodonta californiensis existed in Lake Manix, as well as gastropods. Anodonta especially was probably very common in Lake Manix and other paleolakes, considering the large shell deposits left by it. Fish species whose fossils have been found include the Mojave tui chub and stickleback. The Western pond turtle also existed in the lake. An abundance of Ostracod valves have been found in the Manix beds, including Limnocythere ceriotuberosa and other Limnocythere species. Subordinates include Candona species, Cypridopsis vidua, Heterocyphris incongruens, Limnocythere bradburyi, Limnocythere platyforma and Limnocythere robusta. Diatoms found at Lake Manix include Stephanodiscus species. Further evidence of microbial organisms are present in the Stromatolites developed in the lake. Lake Manix during the time of its existence featured reedy marshes surrounded by juniper-sage vegetation and Pinyon-juniper woodlands in the mountains. The present natural vegetation consists mostly of the creosote bush; starting in 1964, parts of the lake bed were used for groundwater-supported center pivot irrigation-driven agriculture before increasing water-pumping costs after 1980 caused their abandonment. ## Climate Present-day climates at the location of Lake Manix are dry and warm, with the mean temperature at Barstow 21.2 °C (70.2 °F). Precipitation is scarce, 125–150 millimetres per year (4.9–5.9 in/year), while potential evaporation exceeds 2,000 millimetres per year (79 in/year). In the Victorville area, winter is the season where most of the precipitation falls, while east of Barstow two wet seasons occur, one in winter and another in late summer. ## History Originally, the Mojave River flowed southward before tectonic changes forced its course into the Mojave Desert between 2 and 1.5 million years ago. At that point, the river ended at Victorville, and after 575,000–475,000 years ago, in Harper Lake. About 500,000 years ago, it reached the Cady Basin of Lake Manix, based on tephrochronological dating of the Bishop Tuff. At first, the river may have alternated between Harper Lake and Lake Manix. 190,000 years ago, Afton Basin was integrated with the other three basins, as the river cut through the Buwalda Ridge. The presence of deposits with chaotically bedded rocks suggests that the breakthrough took the form of a catastrophic flood that may have been a mudflow. Afton Basin had a bottom at an altitude of c. 460 metres (1,510 ft) before; as it was integrated into Lake Manix, sedimentation progressively filled it. The course change from Harper Lake to Lake Manix was not immediately stable; 25,000 years ago, the Mojave River was again filling both lakes before definitively shifting to Manix by 20,000 years before present. Conflicting interpretations of the history of Lake Manix exist, particularly for the late Pleistocene. One theory assumes three distinct highstands during the Pleistocene; they have been dated 33,500–30,500, 23,500–20,800 and 17,600–16,500 years ago. An alternative timeline assumes three highstands at 40,000–35,000, 33,000–20,000 and 27,000–25,000 radiocarbon years. Clusters of shells in highstand deposits are dated 36,000–33,000 and 26,500–21,500 years before present. Other theories assume eight highstands and unstable lake levels between 45,000 and 25,000 years before present. Yet another theory assumes four highstands during oxygen isotope stages 6, 4 and 2. Finally, radiocarbon dating in 2015 yielded highstand ages of 43,000, 39,700, 36,100, 34,100, 31,600, 30,800, 29,400, 27,200 and 25,600 years ago, coinciding with cold and wet periods in speleothem records in Arizona and New Mexico. The lake existed at least until 14,230 ± 1,325 years before present. Lake Manix drained when the Afton Canyon formed, possibly around 13,800 years before present; an earlier estimate of 14,000 years ago was later discarded. An alternative date is about 25,000 years before present. This emptying may have been quick, draining Lake Manix within a short time, perhaps as little as ten hours. The draining probably contributed to the "Lake Mojave II" highstand. After the initial catastrophic cutting, a slower incision further deepened the Afton Canyon. Alternative theories assume a much slower formation of the Afton Canyon outlet, based on the presence of several terraces and possible recessional landforms. As of 2003, the formation speed question was still not settled. The formation of the path to Afton Canyon was probably aided by the Manix Fault, which had left easily eroded sediments. The Mojave River may have drained into the Coyote Basin even after the formation of Afton Canyon under the influence of faulting until headward erosion cut off that basin from the river flow about 9,000–7,500 years ago. Sediments transported through Afton Canyon during the event and afterwards have buried the landscape beneath Afton Canyon, potentially also contributing sand to the development of the Kelso Dunes. At present, almost all runoff of the Mojave River comes from the San Bernardino Mountains, and ground infiltration and water diversions mean the river ends in the Victorville area; only the biggest floods reach all the way to Soda Lake. Water occasionally also flows into the Cronese Lakes beneath the Afton Canyon. ## Archeology Lake Manix may have been important for early humans in the area. Radiocarbon dating attests to the presence of humans at Lake Manix around 11,500 years before present. Lithic artifacts have been found at the shorelines of Lake Manix. Some are of late Pleistocene age. Such artifacts include bifaces, disks, flakes and hammerstones, which were grouped as the "Lake Manix Industry". Their supposedly pre-Clovis origin was questioned for a number of reasons. Dates obtained on the desert varnish they were embedded in yielded ages of 400–32,000 years before present, indicating that these items have varying origins and cannot be considered part of one grouping. ## See also - List of lakes in California - Calico Early Man Site
53,794,883	St Elmo Bridge	1,146,215,650	Single-span arched truss steel footbridge in Malta	[ "1906 establishments in Malta", "1941 disestablishments in Malta", "2012 establishments in Malta", "Bridges completed in 1906", "Bridges completed in 2012", "Bridges in Malta", "Bridges to nowhere", "Buildings and structures demolished in 1941", "Buildings and structures in Malta destroyed during World War II", "Buildings and structures in Valletta", "Footbridges", "Steel bridges", "Truss bridges" ]	The St Elmo Bridge is a single-span arched truss steel footbridge leading from the foreshore of Fort Saint Elmo in Valletta, Malta, to the breakwater at the entrance of the Grand Harbour. It was constructed in 2011–12 to designs of the Spanish architects Arenas & Asociados. The bridge stands on the site of an earlier bridge which had been built in 1906 and which was destroyed during World War II in 1941. The original bridge had a similar design to the present one, but it had two spans instead of one. ## Original bridge In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Grand Harbour was a major British naval base. In 1900 the Admiralty began making plans to construct a breakwater so as to protect the harbour from both the rough seas as well as potential enemy intrusion. The breakwater was built out of limestone and concrete, and it consisted of two sections with a lighthouse on each end. The larger arm of the breakwater was linked to the foreshore near Fort Saint Elmo, with the smaller one being linked to Fort Ricasoli. The tender to construct the breakwater was issued in 1902, and it was won by S. Pearson & Sons. The foundation stone was laid down by King Edward VII on 20 April 1903, and work began in 1905 and was completed in 1910. The total cost of the breakwater was around £1 million. It was deemed necessary to have a 70-metre-long (230 ft) gap between the larger section of the breakwater and the St Elmo foreshore, so as to prevent water inside the harbour from becoming stagnant and also allow small vessels to take a quicker route to the harbour. A steel footbridge was constructed across this gap in 1906, and it consisted of two spans of arched truss beams supported on a pair of cylindrical steel columns filled with concrete. ### Destruction On the night of 25–26 July 1941, during World War II, the Decima Flottiglia MAS of the Italian Regia Marina launched an attack on the harbour using MAS motorboats, MT explosive motorboats and SLC Maiale human torpedoes. One of the SLCs was supposed to attack the bridge, which had nets blocking the entrance to the harbour, allowing the other vessels to enter the breach and attack naval shipping inside the harbour. The element of surprise was lost when the British were able to detect the impending attack using radar, which the Italians had not anticipated. The attack on the bridge was launched at 04:46 on 26 July. The explosives in the first craft did not detonate, prompting the pilot of another craft to smash his explosive motorboat against the bridge in a suicide mission. The craft hit one of the bridge's columns, and it detonated the explosives in the other boat, causing one of the spans to collapse. This did not allow access to the harbour; on the contrary the collapsed span ended up completely blocking the entrance. The coastal batteries of Fort Saint Elmo subsequently opened fire on the attackers, and most of the vessels were destroyed, with a few being captured. The collapsed span was removed after the attack, and the rest of the bridge was subsequently demolished after the war. All that remained were the stone abutments on either side and parts of the central columns. The breakwater and lighthouse were subsequently only accessible by boat. ## Present bridge The intention to construct a replica of the bridge on the site was announced in 2007. However, it became apparent that a reconstruction in accordance with the original design would not be financially feasible due to the quantity of steel required. When a tender for design, fabrication and construction of the bridge was issued on 18 September 2009, it called for a single-span bridge with a new design echoing the style of the original. The construction of a new bridge formed part of a larger project to regenerate Valletta, which also included the reconstruction of City Gate and the Barrakka Lift, among other projects. The single-span steel bridge weighs 190 tonnes (190 long tons; 210 short tons), and it is 70 metres (230 ft) long and 5.5 metres (18 ft) wide. It has an asymmetrical L-shaped cross section, with an arched truss facing the seaward side. It is supported on the stone abutments of the original bridge, and the remains of the columns were also retained, although they are not connected to the modern bridge. The bridge was designed by the Spanish architects Arenas & Asociados, and it was fabricated at A Coruña before being shipped to Malta on board the Storman Asia. Bezzina & Cole Architects along with the contractor Vassallo Builders were responsible for putting the bridge in place, and the installation took place on 5 October 2011. The lighting system was designed by Anthony Magro of Calleja Limited. The project cost €2.8 million. The bridge was designed to last for 120 years. The bridge was inaugurated on 24 July 2012 by Austin Gatt, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications, and it was subsequently opened to the public. The bridge received mixed reactions from the public, with some praising its design and the fact that it restored the original appearance of the breakwater, while critics disapproved of the cost of construction and called it a "bridge to nowhere." Since its inauguration it has become a landmark, and it has occasionally suffered damage to its decking or railings, which have resulted in it being closed to the public for some periods of time to allow for repair works.
10,051,234	History of the New York Giants (1925–1978)	1,160,623,096	Aspect of history surrounding the New York Giants from 1925–78	[ "History of the New York Giants" ]	The history of the New York Giants from 1925 to 1978 covers the American football franchise from the team's inception until the conclusion of their tumultuous 1978 season. Currently members of the NFL's National Football Conference, the Giants were founded in 1925 by original owner Tim Mara in the then five-year-old NFL. Mara gave control of the team over to his two sons—Wellington and Jack—early in their lives. During this period in their history the Giants acquired four NFL championships, but also suffered some down times, including consecutive non-playoff seasons from 1964 to 1978. In just its third season, the team finished with the best record in the league at 11–1–1 and was awarded the NFL title. In a 14-year span from 1933 to 1946, New York qualified to play in the NFL championship game eight times, winning twice. They did not win another league title until 1956, aided by a number of future Pro Football Hall of Fame players such as running back Frank Gifford, linebacker Sam Huff, and offensive tackle Roosevelt Brown. The Giants 1956 Championship team not only comprised players who would eventually find their way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but it also had a Hall of Fame coaching staff. Head coach Jim Lee Howell's staff had Vince Lombardi coaching the offense and Tom Landry coaching the defense. From 1958 to 1963, New York played in the NFL championship game five out of those six years, but failed to win. The 1958 NFL Championship game, in which they lost 23–17 in overtime to the Baltimore Colts, is credited with increasing the popularity of the NFL in the United States. From 1964 to 1978, the Giants registered just two winning seasons and were unable to advance to the playoffs. During this period the team also traded away quarterback Fran Tarkenton, who would later lead the Minnesota Vikings to three Super Bowls and end up in the Hall of Fame. This period was characterized by the front office's bad decisions in the college draft, several ill-advised trades, and the team's fans' growing disappointment. It was not until the 1980s that the Giants would develop a consistent playoff team. ## Birth and success: 1925–1930 In 1925, the NFL was in need of a franchise in a large city market that could be used to showcase the league. To achieve this, NFL President, Joseph Carr traveled to New York City to offer boxing promoter Billy Gibson, a franchise. Gibson was chosen by Carr since he had owned the league's last New York franchise, the New York Brickley Giants, in 1921. However, Gibson refused the offer for a new franchise, but he did refer Carr to a friend of his, Tim Mara. Mara, a bookmaker (then a legal profession), businessman, and promoter, with an investment of US\$500, then established the modern-day New York Giants franchise. Other than the name, there is no relation between the Brickley Giants and the modern New York Giants franchise. Mara decided to invest the \$500 in the Giants as opposed to heavyweight boxer Gene Tunney in a spur-of-the-moment decision, and started the team with the statement, "an exclusive franchise for anything in New York is worth \$500." Mara owned the team until his death in 1959, when it was passed on to his sons Wellington and Jack Mara. Legally named "New York Football Giants" to distinguish themselves from the baseball team of the same name, the Giants played their first game against All New Britain in New Britain, Connecticut, on October 4, 1925. They defeated New Britain 26–0 in front of a crowd of 10,000. Mara soon realized that his purchase of the team did not yield a home field nor any players, coaches, or equipment. Harry March, who was part of the group that convinced Mara to buy the team from the league, helped him establish the team by taking a job as the team's secretary. March guiding him through the team's early years, handling the personnel decisions. Mara rented the Polo Grounds as the team's stadium, and March developed a strategy that hinged on acquiring college stars such as Jim Thorpe. At 37 years old, Thorpe was a shadow of his former self, and although he signed with the team, his contract required that he only play parts of games during the early portion of the season, until he got into shape, at which point he would play full games. He played only the first regular season game however, before ending his Giants career due to injury. His absence would severely hurt the team's monetary outlook for the season. Although the Giants were successful on the field in their first season, going 8–4 in 1925, their financial status was a different story. The players' salaries were so low that they could not fully dedicate themselves to the game as most of them had to work other jobs. The team's abbreviated practices, held at 4:30 PM each day so as not to conflict with work schedules, also allowed for little in-season improvement. Overshadowed by baseball, boxing, and college football, professional football was not a popular sport in 1925. Mara had to spend \$25,000 of his own money during the season just to keep the franchise alive. This struggle continued until the 11th game of the season when Red Grange and the Chicago Bears came to town, attracting more than 73,000 fans—a pro football record. The game attracted such attention that 20,000 fans were turned away at the gates. This gave the Giants a much needed influx of revenue, and perhaps altered the history of the franchise. New York went 8–4–1 in 1926, and withstood a challenge from an upstart American football league led by a team featuring Grange. Grange and his agent had formed the American Football League and placed their flagship team, the Yankees, in New York. Grange's agent, C.C. Pyle, had tried to get the franchise admitted into the NFL using Yankee Stadium but was blocked by Mara, who asserted his territorial rights clause. Angered, Pyle swore revenge, saying "I am now ready to put the National Football League, and Mr. Mara out of business." According to a story published by The New York Times in December 1926, the Giants lost over \$50,000 during the season. Grange's league lasted one season however, and was subsumed into the NFL. Grange went back to playing for the Bears before the 1928 season, and the Yankees folded a year later. The Giants had a very successful season in 1927, finishing 11–1–1. Mara had instructed March to spend freely to acquire talent, and he signed Cal Hubbard, a 6'5" 245 lb. two-way end, who had led small Geneva College to a victory over then-powerful Harvard the previous year. Led by team captain, defensive tackle Steve Owen, they held their opponents to 20 points on the season, with their league best defense posting 10 shutouts in 13 games. On offense, they were led by halfback Jack McBride, whose 57 points led the league in scoring, and his versatile backfield partner Hinkey Haines. New coach Earl Potteiger led the team into a game against the Chicago Bears late in the season with first place on the line. New York won 13–7 in what Owen called, "the toughest, roughest football game I ever played." From then on it was an easy trip to the championship, as they had a 2-game lead over the Bears by virtue of their head to head tiebreaker (note: the championship was determined by record in that era; it was not until 1933 that the NFL had a championship game). Despite solid performances by linemen Hubbard and Steve Owen, New York finished a disappointing 4–7–2 in 1928. Following the season, the team released 18 players and Potteiger was fired and replaced by LeRoy Andrews. Before the 1929 season Mara purchased the entire squad of the Detroit Wolverines, including star quarterback Benny Friedman, a team which had finished in third place the year before. The rosters of the two teams were combined under the Giants name and this led to immediate improvement as the Giants record soared to 13–1–1 in 1929. Friedman's arrival in particular boosted tickets sales and fan interest, which more than covered the expense of his high salary (\$10,000). However, their only loss was a 20–6 defeat in November to the Green Bay Packers who by virtue of this win, and their 12–0–1 record, won the NFL title. That Packers team featured Hubbard who Green Bay had bought from New York after he expressed a desire to play there. Before the season, Mara had transferred ownership of the team over to his two sons to insulate the team from creditors, and during the season the team added star Army halfback Red Cagle whose drawing power helped the team's financials, but whose performance did little to aid their on-field product. In 1930, there were still many who questioned the quality of the professional game, claiming the college "amateurs" played with more intensity. In December 1930, the Giants played a team of Notre Dame All Stars at the Polo Grounds to raise money for the unemployed of New York City. It was also an opportunity to establish the superiority of the pro game. Knute Rockne reassembled his Four Horsemen along with the stars of his 1930 Championship squad and told them to score early, then defend. Rockne, like much of the public, thought little of pro football and expected an easy win. But from the beginning it was a one way contest, with Friedman running for two Giant touchdowns and Hap Moran passing for another. Notre Dame failed to score, and New York played its backups in the second half. When it was all over, Coach Rockne told his team, "That was the greatest football machine I ever saw. I am glad none of you got hurt." The game raised \$115,183 for the homeless, and is often credited with establishing the legitimacy of the professional game. ## Steve Owen era: 1931–1953 Following the 1930 season, Friedman retired to become an assistant coach at Yale, and the team hired lineman Steve Owen as the team's new head coach. Owen worked for Mara as a supervisor in his Harlem River area coalyard in the offseason. Mara said that his leaderships skills displayed in that job earned him the top position. Owen was decidedly blue collar; he grew up on a farm in Oklahoma where he was raised by a "prairie schoolmarm and a Cherokee strip farmer", and spent his summer vacations in high school working as a roughneck in a Burkburnett, Texas oil field. An accomplished player who was noted for his toughness and physical strength, Owen had to learn on the job as a head coach. He became an innovator who was responsible for introducing the A formation on offense, and the Umbrella defense, the latter of which helped the team control several high power passers during his tenure. ### Pre–World War II era: 1931–1940 Friedman was lured back halfway through the 1931 season, and, but the Giants struggled the next two seasons, finishing with a combined record of 11–12–3. They rebounded in 1933 finishing 11–3, and narrowly losing to the Chicago Bears 23–21 in the championship game. New York's resurgence was led by some of the league's best linemen, such as Ray Flaherty, and future Hall of Famers Red Badgro, and Mel Hein. Hein, the team's center, was acquired in 1931, and also played the linebacker position. He would go on to a fifteen-year NFL career in which, as a center, he became an All-NFL first team selection eight times, and the only offensive lineman ever named league MVP. They also were aided by strong seasons from halfbacks Ken Strong, whose 64 points paced the team, and Kink Richards who averaged 6.8 yards per carry on the season. The Giants started 1–5–1 in 1932, leading Owen to re-enlist McBride, who had been recently released by the Brooklyn Dodgers for lax practice habits, as the team's starting quarterback. McBride restored them to respectability by leading the team to a 3–1–1 finish that season. Before the 1933 season the team acquired University of Michigan All-American quarterback Harry Newman, and versatile free agent halfback Ken Strong. The Giants finished 11–3, first in the new "Eastern Division", and Newman, Hein, and Badgro were named first team All-NFL. Newman led the NFL in passes completed (53), passing yards (973), touchdown passes (11), and longest pass completion (78 yards), with his passing yards total setting an NFL record. They advanced to play the league's first championship game in Chicago's Wrigley Field versus the Bears. The game was the teams' third meeting of the season. The Bears won the first one, 14–10, and the Giants the second, 3–0. Both teams used several trick plays, and the contest was described at the time as "probably the most spectacular game of the year" and "a brilliant display of offensive power" by the Associated Press. The Bears won 23–21 via a successful hook and ladder play with under two minutes remaining in a game which had six lead changes. Badgro scored the first touchdown in NFL Championship Game history on a 29-yard pass reception from Newman in the second quarter. The core of New York's 1933 team returned intact in 1934 and they added talented quarterback Ed Danowski who had played collegiately at Fordham the previous year. Owen played Danowski sparingly, ignoring chants from the spectators for the quarterback. The New York fan base consisted of many Long Islanders and Fordham graduates who were eager to see Danowski play. Newman carried the ball a then-record 39 times in a 17–3 victory against Green Bay, but suffered a severe injury to his back in a late season game against Chicago, and his backup, Stu Clancy, was still out due to an elbow injury from a mid-season game. Because of these injuries, Danowski, by default, became the team's starting quarterback. The team finished 8–5, which placed them first in the Eastern Division. Without Newman, Clancy, and Badgro—who was also out due to injury—Owen knew the team was undermanned going into the playoffs, but said "I know it doesn't look good, but we'll give 'em a battle." Although they signed McBride, who had spent the 1934 season playing on a semi-pro team, before the game, the Western Division champion Bears were still 21⁄2–1 favorites. The Giants defeated the previously unbeaten Bears, however, 30–13 at the Polo Grounds on an icy field with temperatures peaking at 25 degrees. Before the game, team treasurer John Mara talked with Owen and captain Ray Flaherty about the frozen field conditions. Flaherty suggested the Giants wear sneakers on the frozen field, as he had played in a game under similar circumstances at Gonzaga and the sneakers proved to be effective. Mara dispatched equipment manager Abe Cohen to get as many sneakers as he could get. Due to traffic and the inability to find any athletic goods stores open on Sunday, Cohen was unable to return before the game started and New York, wearing conventional footwear, trailed 10–3 at the end of the first half. Realizing time was short, Cohen went to Manhattan College—where he had a key to the equipment and locker rooms—and returned to the Polo Grounds at halftime with nine pairs of basketball sneakers, saying that "nine pairs was all I could get." Players donned the sneakers and the Giants, after allowing the Bears another field goal late in the third period, responded with 27 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to win their first NFL Championship game. When they took the lead 17–13 on a touchdown run by Strong, the game had to be stopped because hundreds of fans ran onto the field to celebrate. The game would come to be known as "The Sneakers Game", and the 27 points the Giants scored in the fourth quarter set a single-quarter championship game scoring record that stood for decades. Fans converged on the field after the game, tearing down one of the goal posts. After the game offensive tackle Len Grant expressed his gratitude, saying "God bless Abe Cohen." Oddly, the team's performance was also aided by the consumption of alcohol. The team's trainer felt that whiskey could warm the players up, and he put some into their paper cups. Strong scored a touchdown on the next play, and the trainer did the same thing on the next drive, which again ended in a touchdown. Fearing drunkenness, water was returned to their cups once the team had the lead,. Before the 1935 season the NFL's roster limit was increased from 20 to 24 players. The Giants filled the extra spots with players such as end Tod Goodwin, who played for coach Greasy Neale at West Virginia University the previous season, and running back Leland Shaffer, another rookie, this time out of Kansas State. Newman retired rather than come back from his back injury when the team refused to raise his salary. Goodwin led the league in receptions (26) and yards per catch (16.6), while finishing second behind the Boston Redskins Charley Malone in receiving yards (433–432), and Danowski led the league in passing yards, passes attempted, and passes completed. They were unable to repeat as champions however, as they fell to the Lions 26–7 in the NFL Championship game. Goodwin was knocked out for the game with two broken ribs early in the first quarter. The Lions staked a 13–0 lead before the Giants were able to cut the deficit to 13–7 in the third quarter. The Lions defense helped their team score two late touchdowns with a blocked punt and an interception to give them the win. By 1935 19‐year‐old Wellington had become the team's secretary, and he started to exert influence over personnel decisions. Wellington was a fan of George Washington University's Alphonse "Tuffy" Leemans, and he selected the obscure running back in the second round of the NFL's first draft in 1936. Leemans led the league in rushing with 830 yards, and posted 118 in the second half of a come-from-behind victory against the Chicago Cardinals. Hubbard came out of retirement to help the team's line towards the end of the season, but despite his solid performance, the Giants finished 5–6–1, losing out on a chance to win the Eastern Division when they lost to eventual Division champion Boston in the final game of the season. The Giants were very successful from the latter half of the 1930s until the United States entry into World War II. According to one publication, "[f]rom 1936 to 1941 the New York Giants annually fielded a collection of NFL all-stars." Danowski led the league in passing in 1935 and 1936. They added their third NFL championship in 1938 with a 23–17 win over the Green Bay Packers in front of over 48,000 fans at the Polo Grounds. The game was a close one with New York having ridden two blocked Green Bay punts to an early lead, before the Packers came back to take a 17–16 lead. In the fourth quarter however, Danowski threw a 23–yard touchdown pass to Hank Soar, and the defense held the lead to give the Giants their third NFL championship. The Giants made the championship game again the following year, losing to the Packers in a rematch 27–0. ### World War II era: 1941–1944 They finished 8–3 in 1941, and held a ceremony to honor the future Hall of Famer Leemans in the final regular season game on December 7, 1941. Leemans had been with the Giants since 1936, when he led the league in rushing as a rookie with 830 yards. A versatile performer, he rushed for over 3,000 yards, and passed for over 2,300 in his career. During the course of the game the stadium announcer paged Colonel William Joseph Donovan to answer a call from Washington, D.C., and told all servicemen to return to their units, but it was only when the game concluded that players and spectators learned of the attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor earlier that day. New York advanced to the championship game following the season, in which they lost to the Bears 37–9. Both the 1940 and 1941 championship games were close early before their respective opponents went on an offensive surge to break the games open late. In 1942 and 1943, the Giants totalled an 11–8–2 record and failed to make the postseason. In 1944, led by standout halfback Bill Paschal, whose 737 rushing yards and 54 points led the team, the Giants reached the championship game where they faced the Green Bay Packers for the third time in 10 seasons. They lost again, this time 14–7 as Ted Fritsch scored two touchdowns and the Packers defense was able to hold on to the lead despite a fourth-quarter touchdown by the Giants. Notable in this era was a game against the Detroit Lions on November 7, 1943 which ended in a scoreless tie, the last NFL game ever played to end this way. The defensive unit of the 1944 Giants team is ranked \#1 of all time in NFL history, giving up only 7.5 points per game – a record that stands to this day. ### Post World War II era: 1945–1953 By 1946, Mara had given over complete control of the team to his two sons. Jack, the older son, controlled the business aspects, while Wellington controlled the on-field operations. NBC televised the Giants game versus the Green Bay Packers on September 20, 1946,—the first televised game in league history. The Giants advanced to their eighth championship game in fourteen seasons, where they were beaten by the Sid Luckman led Bears 24–14. Before the 1948 season, New York signed defensive back Emlen Tunnell, who became the first African American player in team history, and who would later become the first African American inducted into the Hall of Fame. They struggled from 1947 to 1949, never finishing above .500, but came back with a solid 10–2 record in 1950. However, they lost to the Cleveland Browns, whom they had beaten twice in the regular season, 8–3 in the 1950 divisional playoff game. In 1949, halfback Gene "Choo-Choo" Roberts scored a league high 17 touchdowns, and in 1950 he set a team record that would stand for over 50 years, when he rushed for 218 yards on November 12. During this period quarterback Charlie Conerly emerged. Conerly was the team's starting quarterback from 1948 to 1960, and had a franchise-record string of 12 consecutive seasons in which he led the team in passing. A former US Marine, Conerly was renowned among his teammates for his toughness. "There was a time my rookie year when I really saw it", recalled running back Frank Gifford. "He broke his nose really badly, they literally called a timeout and then they called another one while they stopped the bleeding, they stuck stuff up there until it would stop bleeding. You try to get them to do that today. They'd be yelling, 'Get my agent!'". In 1951, the Giants finished 9–2–1, but their inability to beat division rival Cleveland cost them an opportunity to play in the Championship Game. Fullback Eddie Price led the league in rushing and set a league record for rushing attempts in a season, and defensive linemen Arnie Weinmeister and Al DeRogatis, linebacker Jon Baker, and offensive tackle Tex Coulter all made the All-Pro team. The following year New York fell to 7–5, but Tunnell continued to impress. "Tunnell returned interceptions, punts, and kickoffs with such electric flair that he actually outgained the league rushing leader in yards gained" according to one publication. Tunnell amassed 924 yards, while never lining up on offense, whereas the league rushing leader totalled 894. The Giants offense struggled in 1953, and they fell to a 3–9 record. Gifford was forced to play both ways due to a depleted roster, and in the second to last game of the season they lost 62–14 to division rival Cleveland. ## Jim Lee Howell and the Hall of Famers: 1954–1958 Following the 1953 season, an important transition in Giants history occurred. Steve Owen was fired by Wellington and Jack Mara, and replaced by Jim Lee Howell. Owen had coached the Giants for 23 seasons, and compiled a 153–108–17 record. He is credited with introducing several innovations to football, including inventing the "Umbrella defense", which was the first to use four defensive backs. Wellington, who was beginning to take a more active role in the team by this period, later described the move by calling it "the hardest decision I'd ever made". The change would have a profound impact on Gifford. A multi-talented player who could run, catch, and throw, Gifford was a star at the University of Southern California as a quarterback and runner, and while at the school he had bit parts in some Hollywood films. After clashing with Owen, whom he considered a taskmaster, and inspiring jealousy in some of his teammates who despised his "glamour boy" status, Gifford thrived under Howell. Lombardi switched him from defensive back, where he was already a pro bowl performer, to halfback, and Gifford made seven pro bowls at the position. The Giants went 7–5 in 1954 under Howell. In their thirty-first and final season playing their home games at the Polo Grounds in 1955, they went 5–1–1 over their final seven games to finish 6–5–1. They were led by the rejuvenated Gifford who played the entire season solely on offense for the first time in several years. The Giants won their fourth NFL Championship in 1956. Playing their home games at Yankee Stadium for the first time, New York won the Eastern Division with an 8–3–1 record. In the NFL Championship Game on an icy field against the Chicago Bears, the Giants wore sneakers as they had 22 years previous. They dominated the Bears winning the championship by a score of 47–7. The 1956 Giants featured a number of future Hall of Fame players, including 1956 league MVP Gifford, Sam Huff, and Roosevelt Brown. Equally notable, the team featured as its coordinators future Hall of Fame head coaches Tom Landry (defense) and Vince Lombardi (offense). Combined, the pair would later win 7 NFL championships as head coaches. Howell wisely let his assistants do most of the coaching, and acted mostly as an administrator. During his time in New York, Landry (who had been a defensive back for the team) invented the 4-3 defense. This unit, led by middle linebacker Huff and defensive end Andy Robustelli, is credited with "bringing status to the defensive side of the ball", and Giants' fans of this particular team are credited with inventing the "De-fense" chant. Landry used Huff in his middle linebacker position to key in on star Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown, and this was most effective in a 1958 playoff game where New York held Brown to eight yards in a victory. In addition, those Giants featured Gifford, Kyle Rote, and Pat Summerall, who would go on to highly successful second careers as football announcers. In 1957, the Giants lost their final three games to compile a 7–5 record, finishing second in the NFL's Eastern Division to Cleveland. ### The Greatest Game Ever Played: 1958 The Giants had another successful year in 1958. They tied for the Eastern Division regular season title with a 9–3 record, and beat the Cleveland Browns 10–0 in a one-game playoff to determine the division winner. In the victory they held Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown to a career low eight yards rushing. They then played in the NFL Championship Game against the Baltimore Colts on December 28, 1958, in front of 64,185 fans at Yankee Stadium. This game, which would become known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played", was a watershed event in the history of the NFL and marked the beginning of the rise of football into the dominant sport in the American market. The game itself was highly competitive. New York got off to a quick 3–0 lead; however Baltimore scored two touchdowns to take a 14–3 halftime advantage. Late in the third quarter, the Colts appeared ready to put the game out of reach by driving deep into Giants' territory. However, they were stopped and turned the ball over on downs. This would be a turning point of the game, as the Giants, who had trouble mounting many drives to that point, came back with a 95–yard drive. The key play of the drive was Conerly's pass to Kyle Rote, who after a 62–yard gain, fumbled at the Colts' 25–yard line, where Alex Webster picked up the ball and ran it to the 1–yard line. New York then scored a touchdown, to make the score 14–10. The Giants drove again, with quarterback Charley Conerly throwing a 15–yard touchdown pass to Frank Gifford to take the lead, 17–14. With just over two minutes left the Giants punted the ball to the Colts, pinning them on their own 14 yard line. The Colts put together one last, desperate drive. The star of this drive was receiver Raymond Berry, who caught three passes for 62 yards, the last one for 22 yards to the Giant 13–yard line. With seven seconds left in regulation, Steve Myhra kicked a 20–yard field goal to tie the score 17–17, sending the game to overtime for the first time in NFL history. After winning the toss and receiving the ball, the Giants offense stalled and was forced to punt. From their own 20, the Colts drove the ball down the field, with Alan Ameche finally scoring from the 1–yard line to give the championship to the Colts, 23–17. ## More success: 1959–1963 The Giants enjoyed a run of success over the next several years. Led by league MVP quarterback Charlie Conerly, who passed for 1,706 yards, 14 touchdowns, and four interceptions, they finished 9–3 in 1959 and faced the Colts in a championship game rematch. They lost again, this time in a far less dramatic game, 31–16. Conerly struggled with age and injuries in 1960, and was replaced by George Shaw. Gifford was concussed in a vicious hit by Chuck Bednarik during a November game versus the Philadelphia Eagles, and missed the rest of the season, and the following season, as a result. The hit was so devastating, that after being taken to the locker room, Gifford was given his last rites. The team still finished with a winning record at 6–4–2, but were led to acquire former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Y. A. Tittle in the offseason. Led by Tittle and new head coach Allie Sherman, New York won three consecutive Eastern Division titles from 1961 to 1963. In 1961, they were beaten by the Packers, 37–0 in the championship game. In 1962, they went into the championship game with a 12–2 record, and a nine-game winning streak; but lost to the Packers again, 16–7. Nonetheless, the Giants had captivated New York by this time, even though the sold-out game was played in single-digit weather with 35 mph winds, only 299 of the 65,000+ fans who bought tickets stayed home. Before the 1962 season, Gifford came out of his injury-forced retirement, saying he missed the game too much. He changed positions from halfback to flanker. During the season, Tittle and wide receiver Del Shofner set still-standing team records when Tittle threw for seven touchdowns and Shofner amassed 269 receiving yards in the same game on October 28. After the season, the team traded two-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Roosevelt Grier to the Los Angeles Rams at his request; Grier wanted to move to LA to start his singing career. Led by league MVP Tittle, who passed for over 3,000 yards and 36 touchdowns, the Giants had an 11–3 record in 1963. They set what remains the NFL's record for most points in a 14-game season by scoring 448. They advanced to face the Chicago Bears in the NFL championship game. On an icy field, New York's defense played well, but Chicago's newly invented zone defense intercepted Tittle five times (including one returned for a score) and injured Tittle in the first half (though he finished the game). Several Giants players including linebacker Huff pleaded with Sherman to replace the hobbled Tittle, who the players felt was pressing and committing too many turnovers, from playing the second half. Sherman however, had little alternative. "The old man kept saying 'I can do it. I feel a little better'" Sherman recalled. "We had a young quarterback (Glynn Griffing), he had gone to get married a couple of weeks earlier but failed to come back in the days he said he would. We couldn't use him." The Giants defense, led by Hall of Famer Huff, held the Bears in check, but they lost 14–10, their third straight NFL Championship Game defeat. New York had a chance to take a 14–0 lead in the first quarter but wide receiver Del Shofner dropped a potential touchdown in the end zone, a drop he said in 2010, that he feels would have won the Giants the game. "I was alone in the end zone—ball right into my hands, nobody around me—and I dropped the ball...as good a defense as we had that year, I don't think the Berar would have ever come back from being down 14–0." On the next play, Tittle threw an interception to Chicago linebacker Larry Morris, which he returned to the New York five-yard line. Two plays later, the Bears tied the game. New York's run of championship game appearances combined with their large-market location translated into financial success. By the early 1960s, the Giants were receiving \$175,000 a game under the NFL's television contract with CBS—four times as much as small-market Green Bay, which was one of the most successful teams of the era. However, in the league's new contract, the Maras convinced the other owners that it would be in the best interest of the NFL to share television revenue equally, a practice which is still current, and is credited with strengthening the league. ## Wilderness years begin: 1964–1972 > I think the Jets coming in when they did [1964] contributed to our bad years, because we tried to do everything for the short term rather than the long haul — we'd trade a draft choice for a player, figuring he'd give us one or two good years. We didn't want to accept how the public might react if we had a bad year or two or three. After the 1963 season, the team fell apart. Partly due to trades but also due to poor drafting. Sherman traded away key players on the team's defense — such as Huff and defensive tackle Dick Modzelewski — which was their strongest unit, and Wellington Mara, who came in the 1960s with a reputation as a shrewd judge of talent, exited the decade carrying a sub-par one according to a writer for New York magazine. Modzelewski went on to make the pro bowl in Cleveland in 1964, while Huff did the same in Washington. First round draft choices such as running backs Joe Don Looney, Tucker Frederickson, and Rocky Thompson were disappointments. Frederickson was selected as the first overall draft choice in 1965 (over Hall of Famers Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers), but never rushed for more than 659 yards in a season during his injury-shortened career. This period in team history is often referred to as "the wilderness years". The Week two game of the 1964 season was played in Pittsburgh. Tittle was brutally tackled by Steelers defensive end John Baker during the second quarter. It was here that Morris Berman, a photographer for the Pittsburgh Gazette, snapped a now famous picture of the injured quarterback kneeling on the ground with blood running down his scalp. Tittle spent that night in a hospital, then returned to play the following week. But it was clear that he was not the same player, and the Giants finished with a disappointing 2-10-2 record. Tittle retired the following summer, and in 1971 was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Following the season Gifford and Alex Webster announced their retirement, and Jack Mara, who had been President of the team for since he was 22, died at the age of 57. The team rebounded with a 7–7 record in 1965, before compiling a league-worst 1–12–1 record in 1966, with their defense setting a new league record by allowing over 500 points. This season also included a 72–41 loss to the rival Redskins at D.C. Stadium in the highest-scoring game in league history. Interest in the team was waning, especially with the rise of the AFL's New York Jets, who featured a wide-open style of play and a charismatic young quarterback in Joe Namath. Looking to improve their on-field product, and also to find a player with talent and star power to better compete with the Jets for New York fans' affections, the Giants acquired quarterback Fran Tarkenton from the Minnesota Vikings before the 1967 season and showed improvement. They finished 7–7 in both the 1967 and 1968 seasons. In those seasons, one of Tarkenton's favorite targets, wide receiver Homer Jones made the Pro Bowl by amassing over 2,200 yards and 21 touchdowns. The team also upset the division champion Dallas Cowboys 27–21 in one of their biggest wins in years, and the Giants' jubilant players carried Sherman off the field on their shoulders. After the game, Wellington Mara said he expected Sherman to remain the team's coach for several more seasons, however, after starting 7–3 they lost their final four games. During the 1969 preseason, the Giants lost their first meeting with the Jets, 37–14, in front of 70,874 fans at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut. Three weeks later, Wellington Mara fired Sherman, and replaced him with former Giants fullback Alex Webster. Sherman was a lax disciplinarian, who Gifford later said "wanted to be loved and that's deadly for a coach." The firing was welcomed by fans: a writer from The New York Times commented, "[t]he Giants last winning season was 1963 and since then the fans's sing-song chant "Good-by Allie!" has mounted to a crescendo." On opening day of the 1969 regular season, Tarkenton led the Giants to a 24–23 victory over his former team, the Vikings, by throwing two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter. New York finished 6–8 in the 1969 season under Webster. In 1970, Tarkenton's fourth with the Giants, New York showed marked improvement, fielding their most competitive team since 1963. After an 0–3 start the Giants won 9 out of their next 10, and went into their season finale against the Los Angeles Rams with a chance to win the NFC East Division. Though New York took an early 3–0 lead, the Rams scored the next 31 points, dashing the Giants hopes and leaving them out of the playoffs. Tarkenton had his best season as a Giant in 1970 and made the Pro Bowl. Much of the team's success was credited to him. Teammate Fred Dryer later commented, "[w]ithout Tarkenton, I don't think we would have won any games." Running back Ron Johnson also made the Pro Bowl and ran for 1,027 yards, becoming the first Giant ever to gain 1,000 yards rushing in a season, and Webster was named NFL Coach of the Year. Meanwhile, the Jets, much as the Giants had in 1964, fell apart, dropping to a 4–10 record after several consecutive seasons of success, with Namath breaking his wrist in a Super Bowl III rematch with the Baltimore Colts and missing the final eight games. New York was unable to build on their 1970 success. Tarkenton left the team's 1971 training camp in a salary dispute, before coming back a few days later after signing a one-year contract. In place of a salary increase, Tarkenton had asked for a large loan to get a tax break, but the Maras turned it down, and made sure the press knew the raise and loan were denied. Johnson missed most of the season with a knee injury, and the Giants dropped to 4–10. Before the 1972 season they traded Tarkenton, who frequently feuded with Webster, back to the Vikings. Initially the trade produced positive results, as New York rallied to finish 8–6 in 1972. The 1972 team was led by veteran journeyman quarterback Norm Snead (acquired in the trade for Tarkenton), who led the league in passing and had the best season of his career. They set a still-standing team record on November 26 when they scored 62 points via eight touchdowns and two field goals. After the 1972 season however, the Giants suffered one of the worst prolonged stretches in their history. Meanwhile, Tarkenton would lead the Vikings to three Super Bowls and establish a Hall of Fame resume. ## Leaving New York: 1973–1978 Desiring their own home stadium, in the early 1970s the Giants reached an agreement with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to play their home games at a brand-new, state-of-the-art, dedicated football stadium. The stadium, which would be known as Giants Stadium, was to be built at a brand new sports complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. As the complex was being built, and their current home at Yankee Stadium was being renovated, they would be without a home for three years. Their final full season at Yankee Stadium was 1972. After playing their first two games there in 1973, the Giants played the rest of their home games in 1973, as well as all of their home games in 1974, at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut. This was done out of a desire to have their own home field, as opposed to having to share Shea Stadium with the Jets. However, between access problems, neighborhood issues, the fact that the Yale Bowl was not ideally suited for pro football (the stadium did not have lights, nor does it have lights today), the age of the stadium (it was built in 1914) and the lack of modern amenities (teams must dress at the Smilow Field Center and walk 200 yards to the stadium since there are no on-site locker rooms), the Giants reconsidered their decision and ultimately agreed to share Shea Stadium with the Jets for the 1975 season. The Giants left Yale Bowl after losing all seven home games played at Yale in the 1974 season and compiling a home record of 1–11 over that two-year stretch. After the 1973 season the team fired Webster, who later admitted his heart was never in head coaching, and said he more enjoyed life as an assistant. They hired retired star defensive end Andy Robustelli to run their football operations, and he picked Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger as the team's head coach. Arnsparger had built an enviable reputation as the architect of the Dolphins defense which helped the team to two Super Bowl championships. Robustelli traded their 1975 first round draft choice to the Cowboys (who used it to select Hall of Fame defensive lineman Randy White) for quarterback Craig Morton in the middle of the 1974 season. One of the bright spots in this era was the play of tight end Bob Tucker who, from 1970 through part of the 1977 season was one of the top tight ends in the NFL. He led the league with 59 receptions in 1971, becoming the first Giant ever to do so. Tucker amassed 327 receptions, 4,322 yards and 22 touchdowns during his years as a Giant. Despite their new home and heightened fan interest, New York suffered posted a 3–11 season in 1976. After compiling a 7–28 record Arsnparger was fired during the middle of that year. They traded the struggling Morton to the Denver Broncos following the season for quarterback Steve Ramsey. Morton led the Broncos to Super Bowl XII in his first season there, while Ramsey never started for the Giants, or any NFL team, after the trade. They went 5–9 in 1977, featuring the unusual choice of three rookie quarterbacks on the roster. In 1978, New York started the year 5–6 and played the Eagles at home with a chance to solidify their playoff prospects. However, the season imploded on November 19, 1978, in one of the most improbable finishes in NFL history. Playing their archrival the Philadelphia Eagles the Giants were leading 17–12 and had possession of the ball with only 30 seconds left. They had only to kneel the ball to end the game, as the Eagles had no time outs. However, instead of kneeling the ball, offensive coordinator Bob Gibson ordered Giants quarterback Joe Pisarcik to run play "pro 65 up", which was designed to hand the ball off to fullback Larry Csonka. Pisarcik never gained control of the ball after the snap however, and gave a wobbly handoff to Csonka. "I never had control of the ball" Pisarcik later recalled. It rolled off Csonka's hip and bounced free. Eagles safety Herman Edwards picked up the loose ball and ran, untouched, for a score, giving the Eagles an improbable 19–17 victory. After the game Giants coach John McVay stated "[t]hat's the most horrifying ending to a ball game I've ever seen." This play is referred to as "The Miracle at the Meadowlands" among Eagles fans, and "The Fumble" among Giants fans. In the aftermath of the defeat, Gibson was fired (the next morning). New York lost three out of their last four games to finish 6-10 and out the playoffs for the 15th consecutive season, leading them to let McVay go as well. Two games after "The Fumble", angry Giants fans burned tickets in the parking lot. Protests continued throughout the remainder of the season, reaching a crescendo in the final home game. A group of fans hired a small plane to fly over the stadium on game day carrying a banner that read: "15 years of Lousy Football — We've Had Enough." Fans in the stadium responded, chanting "We've had enough...We've had enough" after the plane flew overhead. The game had 24,374 no-shows, and fans hanged an effigy of Wellington Mara in the Stadium parking lot. However, following the 1978 season came the steps that would, in time, lead the Giants back to the pinnacle of the NFL. ## See also - List of New York Giants seasons - Logos and uniforms of the New York Giants - List of New York Giants players
418,109	Félix Houphouët-Boigny	1,173,698,010	First president of Ivory Coast, from 1960 to 1993	[ "1908 births", "1993 deaths", "20th-century Ivorian politicians", "20th-century presidents in Africa", "Baoulé people", "Converts to Roman Catholicism from animism", "Deaths from cancer in Ivory Coast", "Deaths from prostate cancer", "Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally politicians", "Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic", "Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic", "Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic", "Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic", "Foreign Ministers of Ivory Coast", "French Ministers of Health", "French planters", "Heads of government of Ivory Coast", "Ivorian Roman Catholics", "Ivorian anti-communists", "Ivorian conspiracy theorists", "Members of Parliament for French West Africa", "Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1945)", "Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1946)", "People from Yamoussoukro", "People of French West Africa", "Presidents of Ivory Coast", "Rassemblement Démocratique Africain politicians", "State ministers of France" ]	Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was an Ivorian politician and physician who served as the first president of Ivory Coast, serving from 1960 until his death in 1993. A tribal chief, he worked as a medical aide, union leader, and planter before being elected to the French Parliament. He served in several ministerial positions within the French government before leading Ivory Coast following independence in 1960. Throughout his life, he played a significant role in politics and the decolonisation of Africa. Under Houphouët-Boigny's politically moderate leadership, Ivory Coast prospered economically. This success, uncommon in poverty-ridden West Africa, became known as the "Ivorian miracle"; it was due to a combination of sound planning, the maintenance of strong ties with the West (particularly France) and development of the country's significant coffee and cocoa industries. However, reliance on the agricultural sector caused difficulties in 1980, after a sharp drop in the prices of coffee and cocoa. Throughout his presidency, Houphouët-Boigny maintained a close relationship with France, a policy known as Françafrique, and he built a close friendship with Jacques Foccart, the chief adviser on African policy in the de Gaulle and Pompidou regimes. He aided the conspirators who ousted Kwame Nkrumah from power in Ghana in 1966, took part in the failed coup against Mathieu Kérékou in Benin in 1977, was suspected of involvement in the 1987 coup d'état that removed Thomas Sankara from power in Burkina Faso and provided assistance to UNITA, a United States-supported, anti-communist rebel movement in Angola. Houphouët-Boigny maintained a strong anti-communist foreign policy, which resulted in, among other things, severing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1969 (after first establishing relations in 1967) and refusing to recognise the People's Republic of China until 1983. He re-established relations with the Soviet Union in 1986. In the West, Houphouët-Boigny was commonly known as the "Sage of Africa" or the "Grand Old Man of Africa". Houphouët-Boigny moved the country's capital from Abidjan to his hometown of Yamoussoukro and built the world's largest church there, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, at a cost of US\$300 million. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving leader in Africa's history and the third longest-serving leader in the world after Fidel Castro of Cuba and Kim Il Sung of North Korea. In 1989, UNESCO created the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize for the "safeguarding, maintaining and seeking of peace". After his death, conditions in Ivory Coast quickly deteriorated. Between 1994 and 2002, there were a number of coups, a devaluation of the CFA franc and an economic recession; a civil war began in 2002. ## Early life ### Birth, childhood and education According to his official biography, Houphouët-Boigny was probably born on 18 October 1905, in Yamoussoukro to a family of hereditary chiefs of the Baoulé people. Unofficial accounts, however, place his birth date up to seven years earlier. Born into the animist Akouès tribe, he was named Dia Houphouët: his first name Dia means "prophet" or "magician". His father was N'Doli Houphouët. Dia Houphouët was the great-nephew through his mother of Queen Yamousso and the village chief, Kouassi N'Go. When N'Go was murdered in 1910, Dia was named to succeed him as chief. Due to his young age, his stepfather Gbro Diby ruled as regent until Dia came of age; Dia's father had already died. Houphouët-Boigny descended from tribal chiefs through his mother, Kimou N'Dri (also known as N'Dri Kan). She died much later in 1936. Doubts remain as to the identity of his father, N'Doli. Officially a native of the N'Zipri of Didiévi tribe, N'Doli Houphouët died shortly after the birth of his son Augustin, although no reliable information regarding his death exists. Houphouët-Boigny had two elder sisters, Faitai (1898?–1998) and Adjoua (d. 1987), as well as a younger brother Augustin (d. 1939). The French colonial administration recognised tribal leaders; they arranged to have Houphouët go to school at the military post in Bonzi, not far from his village, in order to prepare for his future as a leader, despite strenuous objections from relatives, especially his great-aunt Queen Yamousso. In 1915, he was transferred to the école primaire supérieure (secondary) at Bingerville in spite of his family's reluctance to have him go to boarding school. The same year, at Bingerville, Houphouët converted to Christianity; he considered it a modern religion and an obstacle to the spread of Islam. He chose to be christened Félix. First in his class, Houphouët was accepted into the École normale supérieure William Ponty in 1919, and earned a teaching degree. In 1921, he attended the École de médecine de l'AOF (French West Africa School of Medicine) in French Senegal, where he came first in his class in 1925 and qualified as a medical assistant. As he never completed his studies in medicine, he could qualify only as a médecin africain, a poorly paid doctor. ### Medical career On 26 October 1925, Houphouët began his career as a doctor's aide at a hospital in Abidjan, where he founded an association of indigenous medical personnel. This undertaking proved short-lived as the colonial administration viewed it unsympathetically, considering it a trade union. As a consequence, they decided to move Houphouët to a lesser hospital in Guiglo on 27 April 1927. After he proved his considerable talents, however, he was promoted on 17 September 1929 to a post in Abengourou, which until then had been reserved for Europeans. At Abengourou, Houphouët witnessed the mistreatment of indigenous cocoa farmers by the colonists. In 1932, he decided to act, leading a movement of farmers against the influential white landowners and for the economic policies of the colonial government, who favoured the farmers. On 22 December, he published an article titled "On nous a trop volés" (They have stolen too much from us), in the Trait d'union, an Ivorian socialist newspaper. It was published under a pseudonym. The following year, Houphouët was called by his tribe to assume the responsibilities of village chief. Preferring to pursue his medical career, he relinquished the office to his younger brother Augustin. Wishing to live closer to his village, he obtained a transfer to Dimbokro on 3 February 1934 and then to Toumodi on 28 June 1936. While Houphouët had displayed professional qualities, his attitude had chafed those around him. As a result, in September 1938, his clinical director demanded that he choose between his job as a doctor and his involvement in local politics. The choice was quickly made for him: his brother died in 1939, and Houphouët became the chef de canton (an office created by the colonial administration to collect taxes). Due to this, Houphouët ended his medical career the next year. ### First marriage In 1930, Houphouët married Kady Racine Sow (1913–2006) in Abengourou; their union was controversial because he was a practising Catholic and she was the daughter of a wealthy Muslim from Senegal. The families of the two eventually overcame their opposition and accepted the interfaith union, the first ever celebrated in Ivory Coast. The couple had five children: Felix (who died in infancy), Augustine, Francis, Guillaume and Marie, all raised as Catholics. ### Chef de canton and union leader By becoming chef de canton, Houphouët assumed responsibility for the administration of Akouè, a canton which comprised 36 villages. He also took charge of the family plantation—at the time one of the most important in the country—and worked to diversify its rubber, cocoa and coffee crops. He soon became one of Africa's richest farmers. On 3 September 1944, he established, in cooperation with the colonial administration, the African Agricultural Union (Syndicat agricole africain, SAA). Under his presidency, the SAA brought together African farmers who were dissatisfied with their working conditions and worked to protect their interests against those of European planters. Anti-colonialist and anti-racist, the organisation demanded better working conditions, higher wages, and the abolition of the forced labour. The union quickly received the support of nearly 20,000 plantation workers, together with that of the left-wing French administrators placed in office by the Provisional Government. Its success irritated colonists to the extent that they took legal action against Houphouët, accusing him of being anti-French for never seeking French citizenship. However, Houphouët befriended the Inspector Minister of the Colonies, who ordered the charges dropped. They were more successful in obtaining the replacement of the sympathetic Governor André Latrille with the hostile Governor Henry de Mauduit. Houphouët entered electoral politics in August 1945, when elections for the Abidjan city council were held for the first time. The French electoral rules established a common roll: half of the elected would have to be French citizens (who were mostly Europeans) and the other half non-citizens. Houphouët reacted by creating a multi-ethnic all-African roll with both non-citizens and citizens (mostly Senegalese with French citizenship). As a result, most of the African contenders withdrew and a large number of the French protested by abstaining, thus assuring a decisive victory for his African Bloc. In October 1945, Houphouët moved onto the national political scene; the French government decided to represent its colonies in the assemblée constituante (English: Constituent Assembly) and gave Côte d'Ivoire and Upper Volta two representatives in Parliament combined. One of these would represent the French citizens and another would represent the indigenous population, but the suffrage was limited to less than 1% of the population. In an attempt to block Houphouët, the governor de Mauduit supported a rival candidature, and provided him the full backing of the administration. Despite that and thanks to the SAA's strong organization, Houphouët, running for the indigenous seat, easily came first with a 1,000-vote majority. He failed, however, to obtain a majority, due to the large number of candidates running. Houphouët emerged victorious again in the second round of elections held on 4 November 1945, in which he narrowly defeated an Upper Voltan candidate with 12,980 votes out of a total of 31,081. At this point, he decided to add "Boigny" to his surname, meaning "irresistible force" in Baoulé and symbolizing his role as a leader. ## French political career ### Member of Parliament In taking his seat at the National Assembly in the Palais Bourbon alongside compatriots Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly and Zinda Kaboré, Houphouët-Boigny had to first decide with which group to side, and he opted for the Mouvements unis de la Résistance (English: Unified Resistance Movements), a small party composed of Communist sympathizers but not formal members of the Communist Party. He was appointed a member of the Commission des territoires d'outre-mer (Commission of Overseas Territories). During this time, he worked to implement the wishes of the SAA, in particular proposing a bill to abolish forced labor—the single most unpopular feature of French rule. The Assembly adopted this bill, known as Loi Houphouët-Boigny, on 11 April 1946, greatly enhancing the author's prestige beyond his country. On 3 April 1946, Houphouët-Boigny proposed to unify labour regulations in the territories of Africa; this would eventually be completed in 1952. Finally, on 27 September 1946, he filed a report on the public health system of overseas territories, calling for its reformation. Houphouët-Boigny in his parliamentary tenure supported the idea of a union of French territories. As the first constitution proposed by the Constituent Assembly was rejected by the voters, new elections were held in 1946 for a second constituent assembly. For these elections Houphouët-Boigny organized on 9 April 1946, with the help of the Communist Study Groups, the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast – African Democratic Rally (PDCI), whose structure closely followed that of the SAA. It immediately became the first successful independent African party when the new party Houphouët-Boigny easily swept the elections with 21,099 out of 37,888 votes, his opponents obtaining only a few hundred votes each. In this he was helped by the recall of Governor Latrille, whose predecessor had been fired by the Overseas Minister Marius Moutet for his opposition to the abolition of the indigénat. With his return to the assembly he was appointed to the Commission du règlement et du suffrage universel (Commission for Regulation of Universal Suffrage); as secretary of the commission from 1947 to 1948, he proposed on 18 February 1947 to reform French West Africa (AOF), French Equatorial Africa (AEF), and the French territories' federal council to better represent the African peoples. He also called for the creation of local assemblies in Africa so that Africans could learn how to be politically autonomous. ### Foundation of the RDA and Communist alliance During the holding of the second Constituent Assembly the African representatives witnessed a strong reaction against the colonial liberalism that had been embedded in the rejected constitution drafted by the previous assembly. The new text, approved by the voters on 13 October 1946, reduced the African representatives from 30 to 24, and reduced the number of those entitled to vote; also, a large number of colonial topics were left in which the executive could govern by decree, and supervision over the colonial administration remained weak. Reacting to what they felt was a betrayal of the MRP's and the Socialists' promises, the African deputies concluded they needed to build a permanent coalition independent from the French parties. Houphouët-Boigny was the first to propose this to his African colleagues, and obtained their full support for a founding congress to be held in October at Bamako in French Sudan. The French government did all it could to sabotage the congress, and in particular the Socialist Overseas Minister was successful in persuading the African Socialists, who were originally among the promoters, from attending. This ultimately backfired, radicalizing those convened; when they founded the African Democratic Rally (RDA) as an inter-territorial political movement, it was the pro-Communist Gabriel d'Arboussier who dominated the congress. The new movement's goal was to free "Africa from the colonial yoke by the affirmation of her personality and by the association, freely agreed to, of a union of nations". Its first president, confirmed several times subsequently, was Houphouët-Boigny, while d'Arboussier became secretary-general. As part of the bringing of the territorial parties in the organization, the PDCI became the Ivoirian branch of the RDA. Too small to form their own parliamentary group, the African deputies were compelled to join one of the larger parties in order to sit together in the Palais Bourbon. Thus, the RDA soon joined the French Communist Party (PCF) as the only openly anti-colonialist political faction and soon organised strikes and boycotts of European imports. Houphouët-Boigny justified the alliance because it seemed, at the time, to be the only way for his voice to be heard: "Even before the creation of RDA, the alliance had served our cause: in March 1946, the abolition of compulsory labour was adopted unanimously, without a vote, thanks to our tactical alliance." During his stays in Paris, he travelled in a black limousine to the PCF executive school. On the strength of this contrast, he defends himself from any communist sympathy: "Can I, Houphouet, traditional leader, doctor, big owner, Catholic, can we say that I am a communist?" As the Cold War set in, the alliance with the Communists became increasingly damaging for the RDA. The French colonial administration showed itself increasingly hostile toward the RDA and its president, whom the administration called a "Stalinist". Repression against his party, the PDCI, was increasing in Ivory Coast. Activists are regularly arrested and beaten by police officers, sometimes with acts of torture; others are fired from their jobs. One of the party's main leaders, Senator Biaka Boda, was found hanging and shredded in the forest while wanted by the police. Houphouët-Boigny is afraid for his life and for the existence of the movement. Tensions reached their height at the beginning of 1950, when, following an outbreak of anti-colonial violence, almost the entire PDCI leadership was arrested; Houphouët-Boigny managed to slip away shortly before police arrived at his house. Although Houphouët-Boigny would have been saved by his parliamentary immunity, his missed arrest was popularly attributed to his influence and his prestige. In the ensuing chaos, riots broke out in Ivory Coast; the most significant of which was a clash with the police at Dimbokro in which 13 Africans were killed and 50 wounded. According to official figures, by 1951 a total of 52 Africans had been killed, several hundred wounded and around 3,000 arrested (numbers which, according to an opinion reported by journalist Ronald Segal in African Profiles, are certainly underestimated). In order to defuse the crisis, Prime Minister René Pleven entrusted the France's Minister for Overseas Territories, François Mitterrand, with the task of detaching the RDA from the PCF, and in fact an official alliance between the RDA and Mitterrand's party, the UDSR, was established in 1952. Knowing he was at an impasse, in October 1950, Houphouët-Boigny agreed to break the Communist alliance. Asked in an undated interview why he worked with the communists, Houphouët-Boigny replied: "I, a bourgeois landowner, I would preach the class struggle? That is why we aligned ourselves with the Communist Party, without joining it." A 1954 report from the French military authorities points out that Houphouët-Boigny "conducted his game alone with great flexibility, procrastination and Machiavellian roueries, refraining from convening either the Coordination Committee or the party congress, which could have opposed this volte-face and gradually became a pro-administrative party. "The Secretary General of the RDA, Gabriel d'Arboussier, denounced this new line and left the party. Similarly, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, the Union démocratique sénégalaise and the Niger Democratic Union refuse to sever their relations with the PCF and the CGT. ### Rehabilitation and entry into government In the 1951 elections, the number of seats was reduced from three to two; while Houphouët-Boigny still won a seat, the other RDA candidate, Ouezzin Coulibaly, did not. All in all, the RDA only garnered 67,200 of 109,759 votes in that election, and the party in direct opposition to it captured a seat. On 8 August 1951, Boigny, speaking at René Pleven's inauguration as president of the board, denied being the leader of a communist group; he was not believed until the RDA's 1952 affiliation with UDSR. On the 24th of that same month, Boigny delivered a statement in the Assembly contesting the result of the elections, which he declared tainted by fraud. He also denounced what he saw as the exploitation of overseas deputies as "voting machines", who, as political pawns, supported the colonial government's every action. Thereafter, Houphouët-Boigny and the RDA were briefly unsuccessful before their success was renewed in 1956; at that year's elections, the party received 502,711 of 579,550 votes cast. From then on, his relationship with Communism was forgotten, and he was embraced as a moderate. Named as a member of the Committees on Universal Suffrage (distinct from the aforementioned committee regulating said suffrage), Constitutional Laws, Rules and Petitions. On 1 February 1956, he was appointed Minister Discharging the Duties of the Presidency of the Council in the government of Guy Mollet, a post he held until 13 June 1957. This marked the first time an African was elected to such a senior position in the French government. His principal achievement in this role was the creation of an organisation of Saharan regions that would help ensure sustainability for the French Union and counter Moroccan territorial claims in the Sahara. He said nothing against the First Indochina War or against Guy Mollet's vote for special powers to repress the insurrection of the National Liberation Front in Algeria. On 6 November 1957, Houphouët-Boigny became Minister of Public Health and Population in the Gaillard administration and attempted to reform the public health code. He had previously served as Minister of State under Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury (13 June – 6 November 1957). Following his Gaillard ministry, he was again appointed Minister of State from 14 May 1958;– 20 May 1959. In this capacity, he participated in the development of France's African policy, notably in the cultural domain. At his behest, the Bureau of French Overseas Students and the University of Dakar were created. On 4 October 1958, Houphouët-Boigny was one of the signatories, along with de Gaulle, of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic. The last post he held in France was Minister-Counsellor in the Michel Debré government, from 23 July 1959 to 19 May 1961. ### Leading up to independence Until the mid-1950s, French colonies in west and central Africa were grouped within two federations: French Equatorial Africa (AEF) and French West Africa (AOF). Côte d'Ivoire was part of the AOF, financing roughly two-thirds of its budget. Wishing to free the country from the guardianship of the AOF, Houphouët-Boigny advocated an Africa made up of nations that would generate wealth rather than share poverty and misery. He participated actively in the drafting and adoption of the framework of the Defferre Loi Cadre, a French legal reform which, in addition to granting autonomy to African colonies, would break the ties that bound the different territories together, giving them more autonomy by means of local assemblies. The Deffere Loi Cadre was far from unanimously accepted by Houphouët-Boigny's compatriots in Africa: Léopold Sédar Senghor, leader of Senegal, was the first to speak out against this attempted "Balkanization" of Africa, arguing that the colonial territories "do not correspond to any reality: be it geographical, economic, ethnic, or linguistic". Senghor argued that maintaining the AOF would give the territories stronger political credibility and would allow them to develop harmoniously as well as emerge as a genuine people. This view was shared by most members of the African Democratic Rally, who backed Ahmed Sékou Touré and Modibo Keïta, placing Houphouët-Boigny in the minority at the 1957 congress in Bamako. Following the adoption of the Loi Cadre reform on 23 June 1956, a territorial election was held in Ivory Coast on 3 March 1957, in which the PDCI—transformed under Houphouët-Boigny's firm control into a political machine—won many seats. Houphouët-Boigny, who was already serving as a minister in France, as President of the Territorial Assembly and as mayor of Abidjan, chose Auguste Denise to serve as Vice President of the Government Council of Ivory Coast, even though Houphouët-Boigny remained, the only interlocutor in the colony for France. Houphouët-Boigny's popularity and influence in France's African colonies had become so pervasive that one French magazine claimed that by 1956, the politician's photograph "was in all the huts, on the lapels of coats, on the corsages of African women and even on the handlebars of bicycles". On 7 April 1957, the Prime Minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, on a visit to Ivory Coast, called on all colonies in Africa to declare their independence; Houphouët-Boigny retorted to Nkrumah: > Your experience is rather impressive ... But due to the human relationships between the French and the Africans, and because in the 20th century, people have become interdependent, we considered that it would perhaps be more interesting to try a new and different experience than yours and unique in itself, one of a Franco-African community based on equality and fraternity. Unlike many African leaders who immediately demanded independence, Houphouët-Boigny wished for a careful transition within the "ensemble français" because, according to him, political independence without economic independence was worthless. He also invited Nkrumah to meet up with him in 10 years to see which one of the two had chosen the best approach toward independence. On 28 September 1958 Charles de Gaulle proposed a constitutional referendum to the Franco-African community: the territories were given the choice of either supporting the constitution or proclaiming their independence and being cut off from France. For Houphouët-Boigny, the choice was simple: "Whatever happens, Côte d'Ivoire will enter directly to the Franco-African community. The other territories are free to group between themselves before joining." Only Guinea chose independence; its leader, Ahmed Sékou Touré, opposed Houphouët-Boigny, stating that his preference was "freedom in poverty over wealth in slavery". The referendum produced the French Community, an institution meant to be an association of free republics which had jurisdiction over foreign policy, defense, currency, common ethnic and financial policy, and strategic raw materials. Houphouët-Boigny was determined to stop the hegemony of Senegal in West Africa and a political confrontation ensued between Ivorian and Senegalese leaders. Houphouët-Boigny refused to participate in the Inter-African conference in Dakar on 31 December 1958, which was intended to lay the foundation for the Federation of Francophone African States. Although that federation was never realised, Senegal and Mali (known at the time as French Sudan) formed their own political union, the Mali Federation. After de Gaulle allowed the Mali Federation independence in 1959, Houphouët-Boigny tried to sabotage the federation's efforts to wield political control; in cooperation with France, he managed to convince Upper Volta, Dahomey, and Niger to withdraw from the Mali Federation, before it collapsed in August 1960. Two months after the 1958 referendum, seven member states of French West Africa, including Ivory Coast, became autonomous republics within the French Community. Houphouët-Boigny had won his first victory against those supporting federalism. This victory established the conditions that made the future "Ivorian miracle" possible, since between 1957 and 1959, budget revenues grew by 158%, reaching 21,723,000,000 CFA francs. ## President of Ivory Coast ### Early years and second marriage Houphouët-Boigny officially became the head of the government of Ivory Coast on 1 May 1959. Although he faced no opposition from rival parties and the PDCI became the de facto party of the state in 1957, he was confronted by opposition from his own government. Radical nationalists, led by Jean-Baptiste Mockey, openly opposed the government's Francophile policies. In an attempt to solve this problem, Houphouët-Boigny decided to exile Mockey in September 1959, claiming that Mockey had attempted to assassinate him using voodoo in what Houphouët-Boigny called the "complot du chat noir" (black cat conspiracy). Houphouët-Boigny began drafting a new constitution for Ivory Coast after the country's independence from France on 7 August 1960. It drew heavily from the United States Constitution in establishing a powerful executive branch, and from the Constitution of France, which limited the capacities of the legislature. He transformed the National Assembly into a mere recording house for bills and budget proposals. On 27 November 1960, Houphouët-Boigny was elected unopposed to the Presidency of the Republic, while a single list of PDCI candidates was elected to the National Assembly. 1963 was marked by a series of alleged plots that played a decisive role in ultimately consolidating power in the hands of Houphouët-Boigny. There is no clear consensus on the unfolding of the 1963 events; in fact, there may have been no plot at all and the entire series of events may have been part of a plan by Houphouët-Boigny to consolidate his hold on power. Between 120 and 200 secret trials were held in Yamoussoukro, in which key political figures—including Mockey and the president of the Supreme Court Ernest Boka—were implicated. There was discontent in the army, as the generals grew restive following the arrest of Defense Minister Jean Konan Banny, and the president had to intervene personally to pacify them. For the next 27 years, almost all power in Ivory Coast was centered in Houphouët-Boigny. From 1965 to 1985, he was reelected unopposed to five successive five-year terms. Also every five years, a single list of PDCI candidates was returned to the National Assembly. For all intents and purposes, all of them were appointed by the president, since in his capacity as leader of the PDCI he approved all candidates. He and the PDCI believed that national unity and support for the PDCI were one and the same, and that a multiparty system would waste resources and harm the country's unity. For this reason, all adult citizens were required to be members of the PDCI. The media were tightly controlled, and served mainly as outlets for government propaganda. While Houphouët-Boigny's regime was authoritarian, it was less harsh than other African regimes of the time. Once he had consolidated his power, he freed political prisoners in 1967. Under his "unique brand of paternalistic authoritarianism", Houphouët-Boigny subdued dissent by offering government positions instead of incarceration to his critics. As a result, according to Robert Mundt, author of Côte d'Ivoire: Continuity and Change in a Semi-Democracy, he was never seriously challenged after 1963. While Houphouët-Boigny's Ivory Coast lacked political democracy in the Western sense, it was somewhat more tolerant and open than became the case in post-colonial Africa. In order to foil any plans for a coup d'état, the president took control of the military and police, reducing their numbers from 5,300 to 3,500. Defence was entrusted to the French armed forces that, pursuant to the treaty on defence cooperation of 24 April 1961, were stationed at Port-Bouët and could intervene at Houphouët-Boigny's request or when they considered French interests to be threatened. They subsequently intervened during attempts by the Sanwi monarchists to secede in 1959 and 1969, and again in 1970, when an unauthorised political group, the Eburnian Movement, was formed and Houphouët-Boigny accused its leader Kragbé Gnagbé of wishing to secede. Houphouët-Boigny married the much younger Marie-Thérèse Houphouët-Boigny in 1952, having also divorced his first wife of twenty-two years earlier in 1952. `The couple had no children of their own, but they adopted one child, Olivier Antoine, in 1981.` Hélène Houphouët-Boigny – Abla Pokou - was legally recognized in 1960 by her father Mister Felix Houphouët-Boigny who came to Court along with his three witnesses: his sisters Ms Faitai and Adjoua Houphouët-Boigny and his cousin Yao Simon Yamoussoukro's chief of Canton (Judgement Supplétif numsber1261 – 26 AOUT 1960 – Tribunal of Toumodi – A Court Session opened to the public). Madame Helene Houphouët-Boigny is the granddaughter of the Bouale's King Nanan Kouakou Anougble II, her Mother being Madame Akissi Anougble. They both died in 1958. The marriage was not without scandal: in 1958, Marie-Thérèse went on a romantic escapade in Italy, while in 1961, Houphouët-Boigny fathered a child (Florence, d. 2007) out of wedlock by his mistress Henriette Duvignac. ### Leadership in Africa Following the example of de Gaulle, who refused proposals for an integrated Europe, Houphouët-Boigny opposed Nkrumah's proposed United States of Africa, which called into question Ivory Coast's recently acquired national sovereignty. However, Houphouët-Boigny was not opposed to collective African institutions if they were subject to his influence or control. On 29 May 1959, in cooperation with Hamani Diori (Niger), Maurice Yaméogo (Upper Volta) and Hubert Maga (Dahomey), Houphouët-Boigny created the Conseil de l'Entente (English: Council of Accord or Council of Understanding). This regional organisation, founded in order to hamper the Mali Federation, was designed with three major functions: to allow shared management of certain public services, such as the port of Abidjan or the Abidjan–Niger railway line; to provide a solidarity fund accessible to member countries, 90% of which was provided by Ivory Coast; and to provide funding for various development projects through low-interest loans to member states (70% of the loans were supplied by Côte d'Ivoire). In 1966, Houphouët-Boigny even offered to grant dual citizenship to nationals from member countries of the Conseil de l'Entente, but the proposition was quickly abandoned following popular protests. The ambitious Ivorian leader had even greater plans for French-speaking Africa: he intended to rally the different nations behind a large organisation whose objective was the mutual assistance of its member states. The project became a reality on 7 September 1961 with the signing of a charter giving birth to the Union africaine et malgache (UAM; English: African and Malagasy Union), comprising 12 French-speaking countries including Léopold Sédar Senghor's Senegal. Agreements were signed in various sectors, such as economic, military and telecommunications, which strengthened solidarity among Francophone states. However, the creation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in May 1963 affected his plans: the supporters of Pan-Africanism demanded the dissolution of all regional groupings, such as the UAM. Houphouët-Boigny reluctantly ceded, and transformed the UAM into the Organisation africaine et malgache de coopération économique et culturelle (English: African and Malagasy Organization of economic and cultural cooperation). Considering the OAU a dead end organisation, particularly since Paris was opposed to the group, Houphouët-Boigny decided to create in 1965 l'Organisation commune africaine et malgache (OCAM; English: African and Malagasy Organization), a French organization in competition with the OAU. The organisation included among its members 16 countries, whose aim was to break revolutionary ambitions in Africa. However, over the years, the organisation became too subservient to France, resulting in the departure of half of the countries. In the mid-1970s, during times of economic prosperity, Houphouët-Boigny and Senghor put aside their differences and joined forces to thwart Nigeria, which, in an attempt to establish itself in West Africa, had created the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The two countered the ECOWAS by creating the Economic Community of West Africa (ECWA), which superseded the old trade partnerships in the French-speaking regions. However, after assurances from Nigeria that ECOWAS would function in the same manner as the earlier Francophone organisations, Houphouët-Boigny and Senghor decided to merge their organization into ECOWAS in May 1975. ### Françafrique Throughout his presidency, Houphouët-Boigny surrounded himself with French advisers, such as Guy Nairay, Chief of Staff from 1960 to 1993, and Alain Belkiri, Secretary-General of the Ivorian government, whose influence extended to all areas. This type of diplomacy, which he labelled "Françafrique", allowed him to maintain very close ties with the former colonial power, making Ivory Coast France's primary African ally. Whenever one country would enter an agreement with an African nation, the other would unconditionally give its support. Through this arrangement, Houphouët-Boigny built a close friendship with Jacques Foccart, the chief adviser on African policy in the de Gaulle and Pompidou governments. #### Destabilization of revolutionary regimes By claiming independence for Guinea through the 28 September 1958 French constitutional referendum, Ahmed Sékou Touré had not only defied de Gaulle, but also his fellow African, Houphouët-Boigny. He distanced himself from Guinean officials in Conakry and the Guinean Democratic Party was excluded from the RDA. Tensions between Houphouët-Boigny and Touré also began to rise due to the conspiracies of the French intelligence agency SDECE against the Sékou Touré regime. In January 1960, Houphouët-Boigny delivered small arms to former rebels in Man, Ivory Coast and incited his council in 1965 to agree to taking part in an attempt to overthrow Sékou Touré. In 1967, he promoted the creation of the Front national de libération de la Guinée (FNLG; English: National Front for the Liberation of Guinea), a reserve of men ready to plot the downfall of Sékou Touré. Houphouët-Boigny's relationship with Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of neighboring Ghana, degraded considerably following Guinea's independence, due to Nkrumah's financial and political support for Sékou Touré. After Sékou Touré convinced Nkrumah to support the secessionist Sanwi in Ivory Coast, Houphouët-Boigny began a campaign to discredit the Ghanaian regime. He accused Nkrumah of trying to destabilise Ivory Coast in 1963, and called for the Francophone states to boycott the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) conference scheduled to take place in Accra. Nkrumah was ousted from power in 1966 in a military coup; Houphouët-Boigny allowed the conspirators to use Ivory Coast as a base to coordinate the arrival and departure of their missions. Also in collaboration with Foccart, Houphouët-Boigny took part in the attempted coup of 16 January 1977 led by famed French mercenary Bob Denard against the revolutionary regime of Mathieu Kérékou in Dahomey. Houphouët-Boigny, in order to fight against the Marxists in power in Angola, also lent his support to Jonas Savimbi's UNITA party, whose feud with the MPLA party led to the Angolan Civil War. Despite his reputation as a destabiliser of regimes, Houphouët-Boigny granted refuge to Jean-Bédel Bokassa, after the exiled Central African Republic dictator had been overthrown by French paratroopers in September 1979. This move was met with international criticism, and thus, having become a political and financial burden to Houphouët-Boigny, Bokassa was expelled from Côte d'Ivoire in 1983. #### Alignment with France Houphouët-Boigny was a participant in the November 1960 Congo Crisis, a period of political upheaval and conflict in Congo-Kinshasa. The Ivorian leader supported President Joseph Kasa-Vubu, an opponent of Lumumba, and followed France in supporting the controversial Congolese Prime Minister Moise Tshombe. Tshombe, disliked by much of Africa, was passionately defended by Houphouët-Boigny and was even invited into OCAM in May 1965. After the overthrow of Kasa-Vubu by General Mobutu in November 1965, the Ivorian president supported, in 1967, a plan proposed by the French secret service which aimed to bring the deposed Congolese leader back into power. The operation was a failure. In response, Houphouët-Boigny decided to boycott the fourth annual summit of the OAU held in September 1967 in Kinshasa. Houphouët-Boigny was also a major contributor to the political tensions in Biafra. Considering Nigeria a potential danger to French-influenced African states, Foccart sent Houphouët-Boigny and Lieutenant-Colonel Raymond Bichelot on a mission in 1963 to monitor political developments in the country. The opportunity to weaken the former British colony presented itself in May 1967, when Biafra, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, undertook to secede from Nigeria. French-aligned African countries supported the secessionists who, provided with mercenaries and weapons by Jean Mauricheau-Beaupré, fought a civil war with the Nigerian government. By the end of the 1960s, French-supported nations suddenly and openly distanced themselves from France and Ivory Coast's position on the civil war. Isolated on the international scene, both countries decided to suspend their assistance to Ojukwu, who eventually went into exile in Ivory Coast. At the request of Paris, Houphouet-Boigny began forging relations with South Africa in October 1970, justifying his attitude by stating that "[t]he problems of racial discrimination, so painful, so distressing, so revolting to our dignity of Negros, must not be resolved, we believe, by force." He even proposed to the OAU in June 1971 that they follow his lead. In spite of receiving some support, his proposal was rejected. This refusal did not, however, prevent him from continuing his attempts to approach the Pretoria regime. His attempts bore fruit in October of that year, when a semi-official meeting between a delegation of high level Ivorian officials and South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster was held in the capital of South Africa. Moreover, mindful of the Communist influence in Africa, he met Vorster in Geneva in 1977, after the Soviet Union and Cuba tried to collectively spread their influence in Angola and Ethiopia. Relations with South Africa continued on an official basis until the end of his presidency. Houphouët-Boigny and Thomas Sankara, the leader of Burkina Faso, had a highly turbulent relationship. Tensions reached their climax in 1985 when Ivory Coast Burkinabés accused authorities of being involved in a conspiracy to forcibly recruit young students to training camps in Libya. Houphouët-Boigny responded by inviting the dissident Jean-Claude Kamboulé to take refuge in Côte d'Ivoire so that he could organise opposition to the Sankara regime. In 1987, Sankara was overthrown and assassinated in a coup. The coup may have had French involvement, since the Sankara regime had fallen into disfavour in France. Houphouët-Boigny was also suspected of involvement in the coup and in November, the PDCI asked the government to ban the sale of Jeune Afrique following its allegations of Houphouët-Boigny's participation. The Ivorian president would have greatly benefited from the divisions in the Burkina Faso government. He contacted Blaise Compaoré, the second-most powerful man in the regime; it is generally believed that they worked in conjunction with Laurent Dona Fologo, Robert Guéï and Pierre Ouédraogo to overthrow the Sankara regime. Besides supporting policies pursued by France, Houphouët-Boigny also influenced their actions in Africa. He pushed France to support and provide arms to warlord Charles Taylor's rebels during the First Liberian Civil War in hopes of receiving some of the country's assets and resources after the war. He secretly participated in the trafficking of arms to the South African segregationist regime at the time when it is engaged in a conflict in Angola. ### Opposition to the Soviet Union and China From the time of Ivory Coast's independence, Houphouët-Boigny considered the Soviet Union and China "malevolent" influences on developing countries. He did not establish diplomatic relations with Moscow until 1967 and then severed them in 1969 following allegations of direct Soviet support to a 1968 student protest at the National University of Côte d'Ivoire. The two countries did not restore ties until February 1986, by which time Houphouët-Boigny had embraced a more active foreign policy reflecting his quest for greater international recognition. Houphouët-Boigny was even more outspoken in his criticism of the People's Republic of China (PRC). He voiced fears of an "invasion" by the Chinese and a subsequent colonisation of Africa. He was especially concerned that Africans would see the problems of development in China as analogous to those of Africa, and see China's solutions as appropriate to sub-Saharan Africa. Accordingly, Ivory Coast was one of the last countries to normalise relations with China, doing so on 3 March 1983. Under the principle demanded by Beijing for "one China", the recognition by Côte d'Ivoire of the PRC effectively disestablished diplomatic relations between Abidjan and Taiwan. ### Economic policies in the 1960s and 1970s Houphouët-Boigny adopted a system of economic liberalism in Ivory Coast in order to obtain the trust and confidence of foreign investors, most notably the French. The advantages granted by the investment laws he established in 1959 allowed foreign business to repatriate up to 90% of their profits in their country of origin (the remaining 10% was reinvested in Côte d'Ivoire). He also developed an agenda for modernising the country's infrastructure, for example, building an American-style business district in Abidjan where five-star hotels and resorts welcomed tourists and businessmen. Ivory Coast experienced economic growth of 11–12% from 1960 to 1965. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew twelvefold between 1960 and 1978, from 145 to 1,750 billion CFA francs, while the trade balance continued to record a surplus. The origin of this economic success stemmed from the president's decision to focus on the primary sector of the economy, rather than the secondary sector. As a result, the agricultural sector experienced significant development: between 1960 and 1970, cocoa cultivators tripled their production to 312,000 tonnes and coffee production rose by nearly 50%, from 185,500 to 275,000 tonnes. As a result of this economic prosperity, Ivory Coast saw an influx of immigrants from other West African countries; the foreign workforce—mostly Burkinabés—who maintained indigenous plantations, represented over a quarter of the Ivorian population by 1980. Both Ivorians and foreigners began referring to Houphouët-Boigny as the "Sage of Africa" for performing what became known as "Ivorian miracle". He was also respectfully nicknamed "The Old One" (Le Vieux). However, the economic system developed in cooperation with France was far from perfect. As Houphouët-Boigny described it, the economy of Ivory Coast experienced "growth without development". The growth of the economy depended on capital, initiatives and a financial framework from investors abroad; it had not become independent or self-sustaining. ### Crisis in Ivory Coast #### Economy on the brink of collapse Beginning in 1978, the economy of Ivory Coast experienced a serious decline due to the sharp downturn in international market prices of coffee and cocoa. The decline was perceived as fleeting, since its impact on planters was buffered by the Caistab, the agricultural marketing board, which ensured them a livable income. The next year, in order to contain a sudden drop in the prices of exported goods, Houphouët-Boigny raised prices to resist international tariffs on raw materials. However, by applying only this solution, Ivory Coast lost more than 700 billion CFA francs between 1980 and 1982. From 1983 to 1984, Côte d'Ivoire fell victim to a drought that ravaged nearly 400,000 hectares of forest and 250,000 hectares of coffee and cocoa plants. To address this problem, Houphouët-Boigny travelled to London to negotiate an agreement on coffee and cocoa prices with traders and industrialists; by 1984, the agreement had fallen apart and Ivory Coast was engulfed in a major financial crisis. Even the production of the offshore oil drilling and petrochemical industries, developed to supply the Caistab, was affected by the 1986 worldwide economic recession. Ivory Coast, which had bought planters' harvests for double the market price, fell into heavy debt. By May 1987, the foreign debt had reached US\$10 billion, prompting Houphouët-Boigny to suspend payments of the debt. Refusing to sell off its supply of cocoa, the country shut down its exports in July and forced world rates to increase. However, this "embargo" failed. In November 1989, Houphouët-Boigny liquidated his enormous stock of cocoa to big businesses to jump-start the economy. Gravely ill at this time, he named a Prime Minister (the post was unoccupied since 1960), Alassane Ouattara, who established a series of belt-tightening economic measures to bring the country out of debt. #### Social tensions The general atmosphere of enrichment and satisfaction during the period of economic growth in Ivory Coast made it possible for Houphouët-Boigny to maintain and control internal political tensions. His easygoing authoritarian regime, where political prisoners were almost nonexistent, was well accepted by the population. However, the economic crisis that began in the 1980s caused a sharp decline in living conditions for the middle class and underprivileged urban populations. According to the World Bank, the population living below the poverty threshold went from 11% in 1985 to 31% by 1993. Despite the implementation of certain measures, such as the reduction of the number of young French workers (who worked abroad while serving in the military) from 3,000 to 2,000 in 1986, allowing many jobs to go to young Ivorian graduates, the government failed to control the rising rates of unemployment and bankruptcy in many companies. Strong social agitations shook the country, creating insecurity. The army mutinied in 1990 and 1992, and on 2 March 1990, protesters organized mass demonstrations in the streets of Abidjan with slogans such as "thief Houphouët" and "corrupt Houphouët". These popular demonstrations prompted the president to launch a system of democratization on 31 May, in which he authorised political pluralism and trade unions. ##### Opposition Laurent Gbagbo gained recognition as one of the principal instigators of the student demonstrations during the protests against Houphouët-Boigny's government on 9 February 1982, which led to the closing of the universities and other educational institutions. Shortly thereafter, his wife and he formed what would become the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). Gbagbo went into exile in France later that year, where he promoted the FPI and its political platforms. Although the FPI was ideologically similar to the Unified Socialist Party, the French socialist government tried to ignore Gbagbo's party to please Houphouët-Boigny. After a lengthy appeal process, Gbagbo obtained status as a political refugee in France in 1985. However, the French government attempted to pressure him into returning to Ivory Coast, as Houphouët-Boigny had begun to worry about Gbagbo's developing a network of contacts, and believed "his stirring opponent would be less of a threat in Abidjan than in Paris". In 1988, Gbagbo returned from exile to Ivory Coast after Houphouët-Boigny implicitly granted him forgiveness by declaring that "the tree did not get angry at the bird". In 1990, Houphouët-Boigny legalised opposition parties. On 28 October, a presidential election was held. Gbagbo filed to run against Houphouët-Boigny, resulting in the country's first contested election. Gbagbo highlighted the President's age, suggesting that the 85-year-old president would not survive a seventh five-year term. Houphouët-Boigny countered by broadcasting television footage of his youth. According to official figures, he defeated Gbagbo with 2,445,365 votes to 548,441—an implausible 81.7 percent of the vote. #### Displays of wealth During his presidency, Houphouët-Boigny benefited greatly from the wealth of Ivory Coast; by the time of his death in 1993, his personal wealth was estimated to be between US\$7 and \$11 billion. With regards to his large fortune, Houphouët-Boigny said in 1983, "People are surprised that I like gold. It's just that I was born in it." The Ivorian leader acquired a dozen properties in the metropolitan area of Paris (including Hotel Masseran on Masseran Street in the 7th arrondissement of Paris), a property in Castel Gandolfo in Italy, and a house in Chêne-Bourg, Switzerland. He owned real estate companies, such as Grand Air SI, SI Picallpoc and Interfalco, and had many shares in prestigious jewelry and watchmaking companies, such as Piaget SA and Harry Winston. He placed his fortune in Switzerland, once asking if "there is any serious man on Earth not stocking parts of his fortune in Switzerland". In 1983, Houphouët-Boigny moved the capital from Abidjan to Yamoussoukro. There, at the expense of the state, he built many buildings such as the Institute Polytechnique and an international airport. The most luxurious project was the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, which is currently the largest church in the world, with an area of 30,000 square metres (320,000 sq ft) and a height of 158 metres (518 ft). Personally financed by Houphouët-Boigny, construction for the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace was carried out by the Lebanese architect Pierre Fakhoury at a total cost of about US\$150–200 million. Houphouët-Boigny offered it to Pope John Paul II as a "personal gift"; the latter, after having unsuccessfully requested it being shorter than St. Peter's in Rome, consecrated it all the same on 10 September 1990. Due to a collapse of the national economy coupled with lavish amounts spent on its construction, the Basilica was criticized: it was called "the basilica in the bush" by several western news agencies. ## Death and legacy ### Succession and death The political, social, and economic crises also touched the issue of who would succeed Houphouët-Boigny as head of state. After severing ties with his former political heir Philippe Yacé in 1980, who, as president of the National Assembly, was entitled to exercise the full functions of President of the Republic if the Head of State was incapacitated or absent, Houphouët-Boigny delayed as much as he could in officially designating a successor. The president's health became increasingly fragile, with Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara administering the country from 1990 onwards, while the president was hospitalised in France. There was a struggle for power, which ended when Houphouët-Boigny rejected Ouattara in favour of Henri Konan Bédié, the President of the National Assembly. In December 1993, Houphouët-Boigny, terminally ill with prostate cancer, was urgently flown back to Côte d'Ivoire so he could die there. He was kept on life support to ensure that the last dispositions concerning his succession were defined. After his family consented, Houphouët-Boigny was disconnected from life support at 6:35 am GMT on 7 December. At the time of his death, Houphouët-Boigny was the longest-serving leader in Africa and the third in the world, after Fidel Castro of Cuba and Kim Il Sung of North Korea. Houphouët-Boigny left no written will or legacy report for Côte d'Ivoire upon his death in 1993. His recognised heirs, especially Helena, led a battle against the government to recover part of the vast fortune Houphouët-Boigny had left, which she claimed was "private" and did not belong to the State. ### Funeral Following Houphouët-Boigny's death, the country's stability was maintained, as seen by his impressive funeral on 7 February 1994. The funeral for this "doyen of francophone Africa" was held in the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, with 7,000 guests inside the building and tens of thousands outside. The two-month delay before Houphouët-Boigny's funeral, common among members of the Baoule ethnic group, allowed for many ceremonies preceding his burial. The president's funeral featured many traditional African funerary customs, including a large chorus dressed in bright batik dresses singing "laagoh budji gnia" (Baoulé: "Lord, it is you who has made all things") and village chiefs displaying strips of kente and korhogo cloth. Baoulés are traditionally buried with objects they enjoyed while alive; Houphouët-Boigny's family, however, did not state what, if anything, they would bury with him. Over 140 countries and international organisations sent delegates to the funeral. However, according to The New York Times, many Ivorians were disappointed by the poor attendance of several key allies, most notably the United States. The small United States delegation was led by Secretary of Energy Hazel R. O'Leary and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs George Moose. In contrast, Houphouët-Boigny's close personal ties with France were reflected in the large French delegation, which included President François Mitterrand; Prime Minister Édouard Balladur; the presidents of the National Assembly and of the Senate, Philippe Séguin and René Monory; former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing; Jacques Chirac; his friend Jacques Foccart; and six former Prime Ministers. According to The New York Times, "Houphouët-Boigny's death is not only the end of a political era here, but perhaps as well the end of the close French-African relationship that he came to symbolize." ### Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize To establish his legacy as a man of peace, Houphouët-Boigny created an award in 1989, sponsored by UNESCO and funded entirely by extra-budgetary resources provided by the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny Foundation, to honor those who search for peace. The prize is "named after President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the doyen of African Heads of State and a tireless advocate of peace, concord, fellowship and dialogue to solve all conflicts both within and between States". It is awarded annually along with a check for €122,000, by an international jury composed of 11 persons from five continents, led by former United States Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger. The prize was first awarded in 1991 to Nelson Mandela, president of the African National Congress, and Frederik Willem de Klerk, president of the Republic of South Africa, and has been awarded each year since, with the exception of 2001 and 2004. ## Positions in government ### France ### Ivory Coast
253,036	Mrs. Puff	1,163,868,353	Character in the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants	[ "Animated characters introduced in 1999", "Anthropomorphic fish", "Comedy film characters", "Female characters in animated series", "Female characters in television", "Fictional drivers", "Fictional schoolteachers", "Fictional undersea characters", "SpongeBob SquarePants characters", "Television characters introduced in 1999" ]	Mrs. Puff is a fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants and all three films based on the franchise. Voiced by Mary Jo Catlett, Mrs. Puff debuted in the season one episode "Boating School" on August 7, 1999. Mrs. Puff was created and designed by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. He developed the character in response to a request from Nickelodeon that the show star a schoolteacher. Hillenburg did not want to portray SpongeBob SquarePants as a school-age child, so Mrs. Puff was introduced as his driving instructor instead of an elementary school teacher. Mrs. Puff is SpongeBob's paranoid driving teacher and the owner of the town boating school, which is similar to a driver's education facility. She would like nothing more than to pass SpongeBob, as he is her most dedicated and hard-working student, but he routinely panics when he tries to drive a boat and fails every driving test he takes. His failures often cause crashes that lead to mass destruction and endanger Mrs. Puff. While she tries her best to be friendly and patient with her students, Mrs. Puff finds SpongeBob's unintentional recklessness exasperating. She is the long-standing love interest and girlfriend of Mr. Krabs. The character has received a positive critical reception and has become well known in popular culture for her distinctive voice and temperamental personality. Catlett received an Annie Award nomination in 2001 for her voice-over work as Mrs. Puff along with Tom Kenny as the title character, making them the first SpongeBob cast members to be nominated for an award. Mrs. Puff is featured regularly in a variety of merchandise, such as plush toys and video games, and has appeared at theme parks and in Toyota commercials. ## Role in SpongeBob SquarePants Mrs. Puff is an anthropomorphic pufferfish, specifically a porcupinefish, who owns the underwater boating school that SpongeBob attends. Despite her efforts, she has been unsuccessful at teaching SpongeBob how to drive a boat. He is her most committed student, and knows the answer to every question on the oral exam, but panics every time he takes the driving part of her course. He often crashes her vehicles and causes town-wide destruction in the process. Mrs. Puff displays the pufferfish's inflation defense mechanism when she is scared or when SpongeBob crashes, akin to a car's airbag deploying. Mrs. Puff's friendliness toward other characters varies. She sympathizes with the short-tempered Squidward Tentacles, and considers him to be the prime example of an outstandingly good driver. Mrs. Puff also treats Patrick, who has attended her class multiple times, with respect despite his slow-wittedness. Of all the residents of Bikini Bottom, she is closest to SpongeBob. While she normally dreads having to drive with SpongeBob, she often acts as a motherly figure towards him. A running gag in the series is Mrs. Puff's extensive criminal record. As a result of SpongeBob's reckless driving, he regularly lands Mrs. Puff in jail since she assumes responsibility for his actions. This gag is introduced in "Hall Monitor", when Mrs. Puff is held responsible after SpongeBob inadvertently destroys Bikini Bottom. In "Doing Time", SpongeBob and Patrick attempt to break her out of prison to no avail. It is revealed that she prefers prison to working as a teacher because she does not have to drive with SpongeBob. In "No Free Rides", it is implied that Mrs. Puff once had to move to a new town and start a new school with a new name. Mrs. Puff was married to another pufferfish named Mr. Puff in the past, but he was captured by humans and turned into a novelty lamp – SpongeBob tells Mr. Krabs that Mrs. Puff does not like to talk about the loss of her husband. Since then, she and Mr. Krabs have pursued a romantic relationship and gone on many dates together. As of the show's tenth season, Mrs. Puff and Mr. Krabs have been dating for sixteen years. Mr. Krabs' love for her is so strong that it can transcend his greed for money. She is one of only two characters, the other being his daughter Pearl, that he cares for more than his riches. He gives her a variety of pet names in the series and in spin-off media. In his review of the third season, Bryan Pope of DVD Verdict examined the two characters' relationship and mistook Mrs. Puff for Krabs' wife. ## Character ### Creation and design Mrs. Puff was conceived and designed by series creator Stephen Hillenburg. She was the last of the main SpongeBob characters to be designed, since she was not conceptualized until after Hillenburg had already completed the show bible. The June 2003 issue of Nickelodeon Magazine states that when Hillenburg pitched SpongeBob to Nickelodeon, he "had yet to come up with the idea that Mrs. Puff and SpongeBob would be on an endless quest to get SpongeBob a driver's license". Thus, some early development artwork for the show depicted SpongeBob driving submarine-esque vehicles with ease. Mrs. Puff's development was sparked by Nickelodeon's request for SpongeBob to attend a school. Nickelodeon executives originally wanted to make SpongeBob a child since their most successful cartoons at the time focused on young, school-age characters. Hillenburg said that the network wanted SpongeBob to be like "Arnold [from Hey Arnold!] under the sea," but he told them, "No, that's not the show." As a compromise, Hillenburg decided to "put him in school - but it would be a [boat] driving school." This allowed him to keep writing SpongeBob as an adult while also using the school as a main plot element. Showrunner Vincent Waller suggested that if the network had creative control over the show, almost every episode would take place at Mrs. Puff's school, not at a variety of locations. The choice to make Mrs. Puff a pufferfish, who inflates into a ball when SpongeBob crashes, was made to evoke the appearance of car airbags. Because she was created late in production, her design incorporates elements of the earlier characters' appearances, such as the same type of skirt as Pearl and the same rounded teeth as Squidward. The episode "Doing Time" was one of the first to be written specifically from Mrs. Puff's point of view; another early example was season two's "No Free Rides." In his 2013 book The SpongeBob SquarePants Experience, animation historian Jerry Beck argued that the former was the episode that "elevated Mrs. Puff to star status". ### Voice Mrs. Puff is voiced by American actress Mary Jo Catlett, who is known for her live-action roles on television programs from the 1970s such as Diff'rent Strokes and M\A\S\H. As of 2017, voicing Mrs. Puff is Catlett's only regular television role. Catlett described herself as "basically retired" in 2013, since she is good friends with the other SpongeBob cast members, making the SpongeBob recording booth an easy environment that requires less preparation than in-person performances. The About Group's Nancy Basille noted in 2016 that Catlett's "rich, low tones as teacher Mrs. Puff recall other roles she has had," citing Diff'rent Strokes and M\A\S\H as programs where she used a similar voice. ## Reception The character has received positive reactions from critics and fans. Yahoo! News called Mrs. Puff "the most famous driving teacher on the planet." Fashion designer Peter Jensen, who designed a line of sweatshirts inspired by SpongeBob, called Mrs. Puff his "absolute favorite" character in an interview with Women's Wear Daily. In 2004, New York Times chief film critic A. O. Scott named Mrs. Puff as one of his favorite characters on SpongeBob SquarePants, along with Squidward Tentacles and Sandy Cheeks. Mrs. Puff was ranked second on Chilango's list of favorite cartoon teachers. KSL-TV listed Mrs. Puff in their countdown of "13 teachers from pop culture you can't help but love". Andrew Whalen of IBT Media called Mrs. Puff's role in the "Doing Time" episode "a series highlight". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in 2002 that episodes about Mrs. Puff's Boating School were fan favorites. Scott Lecter of DVD Talk said that Mrs. Puff, Sandy and Squidward "make for some of the biggest laughs in the episodes". Francis Rizzo of DVD Talk called Mrs. Puff's voice "spot-on" thanks to "the perfectly cast Mary Jo Catlett". Catlett's voice-over work as Mrs. Puff was nominated for a 2001 Annie Award in the category Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production. Tom Kenny was nominated at the same ceremony for voicing SpongeBob, making them the first actors to earn an award nomination for their work on the show. Catlett and some other main cast members were also nominated for Best Vocal Ensemble at the 2013 Behind the Voice Actors Awards. During the controversy surrounding SpongeBob's sexuality, Mrs. Puff's name began to be criticized for supposedly referring to the slang term "puff," a descriptor of gay men that can be derogatory or affectionate. The BBC first noted this in reports of the controversy in 2002 and again in 2004. In a 2005 issue of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, columnist David Grimes challenged this interpretation, writing, "I do not consider [Mrs. Puff's name] damaging evidence. However, if SpongeBob were receiving lessons from Mr. Puff, that would be an entirely different matter." K. Sobschak of the St. Catharines Standard also denounced the debate, asking, "What is wrong with taking boating lessons from a fish? This is a comedy for kids." The National Expert Commission of Ukraine on the Protection of Public Morality revived the criticism of Mrs. Puff's name in 2012, citing it as one of the reasons for an attempted nationwide ban of the program. Mediaite Editor-in-Chief Andrew Kirell questioned this decision, asking rhetorically, "What's so offensive there? Well, 'puff' is a term often used to describe a gay man, as if Ukrainian children knew that." Mrs. Puff's quotes and voice have also become popular with fans and casual viewers. The Sun writer Esther Cepeda humorously referred to Mrs. Puff's catchphrase "Oh, SpongeBob!" as "immortal words" in a 2011 article. Her quote "Oh, Neptune" became part of an Internet meme in 2016. Various memes covered by the comedy websites Smosh and BuzzFeed have featured other quotes from the character. In an interview with San Diego Gay & Lesbian News, the cast of Surprise Surprise (which starred Catlett) mentioned that "not one cast or crew person on the movie let a day [on the set] go by without calling some relative ... and handing their cell phones to Mary Jo [Catlett] to do her best 'Oh noooooooo, SpongeBob, nooooooooooo!'" ## In other media Mrs. Puff has appeared in many types of SpongeBob SquarePants merchandise, including action figures, aquarium ornaments, and video games. Tie-in books have prominently featured the character. Board games based on the show, such as The Game of Life and Bikini Bottom Book of Games, use her schoolhouse as a playing location. In 2007, a Lego construction set based on Mrs. Puff's school was released. SpongeBob's Boating Bash, a 2010 racing video game, centers on Mrs. Puff and takes place at the boating school. Mrs. Puff is a playable character in the Wii version, and acts as a guide for the player in the Nintendo DS game. Theme parks and events have featured Mrs. Puff, often as a costumed character. She was included on a boating school float as part of Sea World Australia's SpongeBob ParadePants parade, which opened in December 2011. She appeared at Universal Studios Hollywood's "SpongeBob Fan Shellabration" in 2013, and at the 2015 SpongeBob SquarePants 400 in Kansas City. Mrs. Puff also made regular appearances at Nickelodeon Suites Resort and Nickelodeon Universe with Mr. Krabs. A section of the SpongeBob StorePants souvenir shop at the Universal Orlando Resort is modeled after Mrs. Puff's boating school. In 2011, Mary Jo Catlett provided the voice-over for a road traffic safety commercial hosted by Mrs. Puff. It was produced by Nickelodeon and Toyota as the first in a series of SpongeBob advertisements from the two companies. The 30-second infomercial incorporated clips from the fifth-season episode "Boat Smarts" along with new content. Catlett also sings a track as Mrs. Puff on The Best Day Ever album, titled "Mrs. Puff's Boating School Ad". It was released on September 12, 2006, by Nick Records. Rita Engelmann, who voices Mrs. Puff in the German dub of SpongeBob SquarePants, recorded a single as her character titled "Hinterher! (feat. Mrs. Puff)". The song is a parody of Icona Pop's "I Love It" and was released in 2014 by Sony Music Entertainment. Mrs. Puff is mentioned in the book Shingaling, a 2015 sequel to Wonder. Mrs. Puff plays a small role in the 2004 film The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and its 2015 sequel. Her lack of screen time in both movies was criticized. Jessica Walsh of the Reading Eagle felt that the first film was "missing something, since key characters, such as Sandy the Squirrel and Mrs. Puff, make only cameo appearances". Sandie Chen of Common Sense Media wrote that the decision to relegate characters like Mrs. Puff to small roles "won't go over well with some fans". About.com's Nancy Basille considered this the first movie's biggest flaw and asked, "why didn't they use more of Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Gary, Mrs. Puff and all our other favorite secondary characters?" The novelization of the 2004 movie includes additional scenes starring Mrs. Puff and Squidward that were not in the motion picture. Mrs. Puff appears in the 2009 stage adaptation of "The Sponge Who Could Fly", which debuted at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. The 2016 musical based on the series stars Abby C. Smith as Mrs. Puff. SpongeBob's inability to pass Mrs. Puff's course has been referenced in popular culture. In 2011, ice hockey player Taylor Hall failed his driving test and likened it to SpongeBob's situation at Mrs. Puff's school. The writers of Engadget compared a remote-controlled, underwater camera to the boats in SpongeBob, remarking that Mrs. Puff should call her insurance agent if users channel their "inner SpongeBob while remotely driving the thing". In a satirical 2011 article, writers at The Washington Post pretended to interview SpongeBob about his trouble graduating from Mrs. Puff's boating school.
4,804,828	Tropical Depression Fourteen (1987)	1,171,669,391	Atlantic tropical depression in 1987	[ "1987 Atlantic hurricane season", "Atlantic tropical depressions", "Hurricanes in Cuba", "Hurricanes in Florida", "Hurricanes in Jamaica", "Tropical cyclones in 1987" ]	Tropical Depression Fourteen was the last tropical depression of the 1987 Atlantic hurricane season and was the third most destructive storm of the year. The depression formed on October 31, 1987, in the Caribbean Sea, heading along a northward path into the southern Gulf of Mexico and into Florida until the system was absorbed on November 4. The path and damage from the depression followed a similar path to Hurricane Floyd earlier in October. The depression peaked in intensity with wind speeds of 35 mph (56 km/h) on November 1 with a minimal barometric pressure reading of 1,004 millibars (29.6 inHg). However, certain barometric readings have considered that the depression may have become a tropical storm. The depression in the time affected several cities and parishes in Jamaica and Cuba, along with causing significant rainfall in southern Florida. Jamaica was the area hardest hit by the depression, claiming the lives of six people and causing about \$1.802 million (1987 USD, \$3 million in 2009 USD) in damage. The depression caused floods that washed out villages, roads and bridges and caused dozens of landslides on the island. The island also had several rivers overflow including the Rio Minho and Rio Dogna. The damage caused by the tropical depression was comparable to previous flood in June 1986. ## Meteorological history Prior to the formation of Tropical Depression Fourteen, the southern Caribbean Sea was under a large area of low pressure. On October 30, satellite imagery showed that the area of pressure was beginning to form into a tropical disturbance. A reconnaissance aircraft was scheduled for the next morning to investigate the forming system, but by 1400 UTC on October 31, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida had upgraded the system to a tropical depression based on the imagery and surface data. At this time, the specialists at the Hurricane Center believed that this was its most developed stage of its lifetime. The depression began a movement to the northwest upon formation and on the night of October 31, the depression ran into a newly forming upper-level low near the Yucatan Peninsula. The interaction with the upper-level low caused shearing in the depression, and broke apart the previous low-level circulation that was developing. By the morning of November 1, the depression was nothing more than a swirl of low-level clouds near the center of circulation. After this, the depression could no longer attain the circulation it had previously developed. During the period of November 2 and 3, the depression moved to the northeast, crossing over the islands of Jamaica, Cayman and Cuba and then entering the southern parts of the Gulf of Mexico. On occasion, the convection of the system would flare up, and in the early morning hours of November 3, the Naval Air Station at Boca Chica, Florida reported winds of 50 mph (80 km/h), which would mean the depression may have attained tropical storm status. A similar report was filed at the Air Force Station at Cudjoe Key. After another reconnaissance flight was sent out to study the system, and recorded that surface area temperatures had dropped, the flight-level winds had reached 92 mph (148 km/h) and the surface area pressure had reached 998 millibars (29.5 inHg). In the evening and overnight hours of November 3, the tropical depression continued to the northeast, making landfall in Florida at a location near Tampa Bay. The depression crossed Florida, weakening significantly, and becoming extratropical. After emerging from land in the Atlantic Ocean on November 5, the depression had become a low pressure area once again and was last spotted that day near the Carolina Capes. ## Preparations and impact The flash flood warnings released in relation to Tropical Depression Fourteen were centered in the area of Jamaica, which would later receive rainfall in excess of 9 inches (230 mm) as the center of the depression moved across the island. In the United States, the National Hurricane Center issued two tropical storm warnings in Florida. The first was from the middle and lower islands of the Florida Keys to the area of Dry Tortugas on November 1. The warning lasted only 24 hours, with the warning ending on November 2. The second issued tropical storm warning was from the area of Fort Myers Beach to Cedar Key on November 3. This also lasted only 24 hours and was discontinued on November 3. Forecasters also suggested on November 2 that boaters should avoid the area in or around Key Largo. Wind gusts from Tropical Depression Fourteen exceeded 70 mph (110 km/h) near the Cudjoe Key Air Force Base on November 3. The Naval Air Station at Boca Chica reported gusts around 65 mph (105 km/h) and sustained winds of about 50 mph (80 km/h) on November 2. The highest recorded winds over Cuba reached 25 mph (40 km/h) in the capital city of Havana. There were no gusts reported in Cuba however. In Jamaica, gusts to 58 mph (93 km/h) were reported in the city of Kingston and sustained winds of about 45 mph (72 km/h). Ships also reported tropical storm force winds, reaching as high as 60 mph (97 km/h) with seas of 32.5 feet (9.9 m). As the depression was moving to the west of the island of Jamaica, it caused significant rainfall on several parts of the island. Over a three-day period from October 31 to November 2, the rainfall reached as high as 10.21 inches (259 mm) at the capital city of Kingston, with a daily high of 6.38 inches (162 mm) on November 1. The significant rainfall caused major damage and issues on the island, with an estimated 1,000+ people being displaced from their homes and being placed into government shelters. Several residential communities were totally underwater from the rainfall, with local roads being washed away from landslides and floodwater, but these were restored quickly. The government of Jamaica also reported that three bridges were washed away from the heavy rain and resulting floods. According to the government, the country received \$587,500 (1987 USD) of damage to the highways and streets, \$11,000 (1987 USD) to the utilities around the island, \$836,000 (1987 USD) to the agriculture system and about \$372,000 to the health system. The total damage reached \$1.802 million (1987 USD, \$3 million in 2009 USD) on the island of Jamaica alone. There were also six recorded fatalities from the system. In Cuba, the reported rainfall amounts reached about 4.75 inches (121 mm) in the community of Bahia Honda, along with 2.03 inches (52 mm) in the capital of Havana, and 2.75 inches (70 mm) in the community of Saua La Grande. Although by the time the depression had reached the United States was undeveloped, the remains caused significant rainfall in several states in southeastern United States, with a peak of 10.23 inches (260 mm) at the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. The city of Miami reported rainfall totals of 4.42 and 5.90 inches (112 and 150 mm) in the community of Tavarnier. Rainfalls above 1 inch (25 mm) were reported in eastern Georgia, southern South Carolina, eastern Mississippi and eastern Alabama. Rainfalls in other areas went unrecorded. Outside the damage in Jamaica, the damage to Cuba and the United States were minimal, with no other reported casualties. ## See also - List of Florida hurricanes - 1935 Jérémie hurricane - Hurricane Gustav (2008) - Tropical Storm Nicole (2010)
3,393,868	Let's Dance (David Bowie song)	1,171,943,703	1983 single by David Bowie	[ "1983 singles", "1983 songs", "1997 singles", "Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles", "British new wave songs", "Cashbox number-one singles", "Dance-pop songs", "Dance-rock songs", "David Bowie songs", "Dutch Top 40 number-one singles", "EMI America Records singles", "EMI Records singles", "European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles", "Funk rock songs", "Funk songs", "Indigenous Australian mass media", "Irish Singles Chart number-one singles", "Music video controversies", "Music videos directed by David Mallet (director)", "Number-one singles in Israel", "Number-one singles in New Zealand", "Number-one singles in Norway", "Number-one singles in Sweden", "Number-one singles in Switzerland", "Number-one singles in the Netherlands", "Post-disco songs", "RPM Top Singles number-one singles", "Song recordings produced by Nile Rodgers", "Songs about dancing", "Songs written by David Bowie", "UK Singles Chart number-one singles" ]	"Let's Dance" is a song written and recorded by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie, originally included as the title track of his 1983 album of the same name. Co-produced by Nile Rodgers of Chic, it was recorded in late 1982 at the Power Station in New York City. With the assistance of engineer Bob Clearmountain, Rodgers transformed the song from its folk origins to a dance number through studio effects and new musicians Bowie had yet to work with. Bowie hired then-unknown Texas guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who added a blues-edge. Embracing rock, funk, dance, new wave and post-disco, the full-length seven-minute track features numerous solos, including trumpet, saxophone, guitar and percussion. Several music elements, from the bassline and the breakdown, were based on Rodgers' work with Chic, while the rising vocal intros were taken from the Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout". The lyrics describe a couple dancing under the moonlight and possess a sense of peril and ominousness. Released as the album's lead single in full-length and edited formats, "Let's Dance" became the biggest selling single of Bowie's career, topping the charts in numerous countries, including the UK and the US. The song's music video, filmed in Australia, provided commentary on the treatment of Aboriginal Australians, using the red shoes from a line to symbolise their abuse. Bowie performed the song throughout the 1980s and early 2000s during his concert tours. Viewed as one of Bowie's most popular songs, the song has received praise for its catchiness, accessibility, commerciality and production, and has appeared on lists of his best songs. "Let's Dance" has been covered, sampled, remixed and performed by other artists, and has made appearances in films, video games and television commercials. ## Background and development In 1982, David Bowie left his longtime label RCA Records, having grown increasingly unsatisfied with them, and signed a new contract with EMI for a reported \$17 million. With a new label and an idea for a commercial sound, he wanted to start fresh with a new producer. Around autumn, Bowie met Nile Rodgers of the American band Chic in the after-hours New York nightclub Continental, where the two developed a rapport over industry acquaintances and shared musical interests; he eventually asked him to produce his next record. Rodgers initially thought Bowie desired to continue making art rock records—a follow-up to 1980's Scary Monsters—until the artist informed him, "I want you to make hits." In late 1982, the duo regrouped at Bowie's home in Montreux, Switzerland. Bowie, using a 12-string acoustic guitar that had only six strings, played for him a folk-like number he believed could be a hit with the right arrangement, tentatively calling it "Let's Dance". Dismissing the number as sounding "like Donovan meets Anthony Newley", Rodgers recalled: "I was like, 'that's not happening, man'. It totally threw me. It was not a song you could dance to." Nevertheless, Rodgers adjusted the arrangement, moving it higher in the scale, switching the key up to B, inverting the chords and adding upstrokes. ### Demo Bowie and Rodgers recorded a demo of "Let's Dance" at Montreux's Mountain Studios with a group of musicians, among them Turkish musician Erdal Kızılçay on bass. Kızılçay's work at first followed the stylings of Jaco Pastorius, but he and Rodgers ultimately worked out a simpler bassline for the song. Biographer Chris O'Leary describes the demo's sound as "basically Bowie singing over a Chic demo". In 2018, Rodgers stated: "This [demo] recording was the first indication of what we could do together as I took his 'folk song' and arranged it into something that the entire world would soon be dancing to and seemingly has not stopped dancing to for the last 35 years! It became the blueprint not only for 'Let's Dance' the song but for the entire album as well." The same year, an edited version of the demo, mixed by Rodgers, was released digitally on 8 January, and the full-length 7:34 demo was released as a 12" vinyl single on 21 April for Record Store Day. ## Recording "Let's Dance" was the first song recorded for the album. The sessions, co-produced by Bowie and Rodgers, took place at the Power Station in New York City during the first three weeks of December 1982. Engineered by Bob Clearmountain, the song was completed in one or two takes and set the tone for the rest of the project. The rest of the album was recorded quickly, completed in just 17 days. Along with a new producer, Bowie hired an entirely new set of musicians for the sessions, as he "wanted to try people that I'd never worked with before, so that I couldn't predict how they were going to play". Rodgers replaced Bowie's regular Carlos Alomar on rhythm guitar and recruited his Chic collaborators: keyboardist Robert Sabino, percussionist Sammy Figueroa and backing vocalists Frank and George Simms. Also hired were drummer Omar Hakim, bassist Carmine Rojas, trumpeter Mac Gollehon, vocalist David Spinner and saxophonists Stan Harrison, Robert Aaron and Steve Elson. Bowie himself did not play any instruments, stating at the time: "I don't play a damned thing. This was a singer's album!" He recorded all of his vocals in two days. Rodgers had the guitar parts treated with delays by Clearmountain and separated into groups of notes, punctuated by the bassline. Blending Rojas' Fender bass with Sabino's bass synthesiser as a way to "expand the dynamic range", Rodgers later said: "David threw in little elements like that and gave it that edge and excitement that I probably wouldn't have though of." Hakim's snare drum was treated with gated reverb, a sound developed by engineers like Clearmountain and Hugh Padgham at the Power Station and London's Townhouse Studios, respectively, wherein a microphone would be hooked up on the snare head to record the initial impact and rig ambient microphones equipped with noise gates above the kit for extra reverb. Rodgers also added processed rhythm guitar tracks on top of the saxophone and trumpet lines: "It sounds almost unnaturally tight. The attacks come from out of nowhere. There's no pre-attack breathing. The horns just come in, 'pop pop', and then decay out fast." Rojas later stressed the importance of Clearmountain's role in the production: "Bob, as an engineer, really captured what we were doing live in the room. He gets very little credit historically, but take it from me, he was vital to that record." Contributing additional guitar overdubs towards the end of the sessions was Stevie Ray Vaughan, a then-unknown 28-year-old Texas blues guitarist, whom Bowie hired after seeing him play at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival. Bowie praised his guitar playing, saying: "He's got a whole other thing going on." He used a Fender Stratocaster plugged into an old Fender amplifier; author Paul Trynka commented on "all tone coming from the player". "Let's Dance" was the first song Bowie and Rodgers played for the guitarist. The latter recalled: "[Vaughan] could sense this group of anonymous musicians were about to make history." ## Composition Over seven minutes in length, O'Leary states that "Let's Dance" consists of a series of "set pieces", featuring individual solos by trumpet, guitar, percussion and saxophone. The track's verses and refrains are merged, with the bridge acting "as another refrain". The title comes from Chris Montez's 1962 song of the same name that Bowie had played with his first band the Kon-rads. ### Music Speaking in 2014, Rodgers explained: "[Bowie] wanted me to make a record that sounded like the future, but still sounded like the essence of rock 'n' roll and R&B, but would be timeless." Bowie, who labelled the song "a postmodern homage to the Isley Brothers' 'Twist and Shout'", cited Rodgers as the reason for its "incredible commercial appeal". Mirroring the popular dance music of the day, author James E. Perone says the song was aimed at the audience that ignored Bowie's prior musical and lyrical experiments. O'Leary describes the song as "a sampler of American music" and "a catalog in jump-cuts", displaying the likes of electric blues, funk, Hollywood jazz, R&B, rock 'n' roll [and] Latin". Other commentators have categorised the song as funk, new wave, dance-rock, post-disco, dance-pop and funk rock. The song begins with a rising vocal intro, which Bowie had Rodgers add as a way to hook audiences in immediately. Taken from the Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout" (1963), drums, bass, trumpet, saxophone and vocals converge and explode into a cadence. Similarly styled crescendos occur towards the end of the refrains, where Bowie moves up the scale – "if you should fall... into my arms" – before peaking on "trem-ble-like-a-flowwwww-er!" According to O'Leary, the bridge is a "melodic steal" from the Beatles' "She Loves You" (1963). The song's breakdown mimics Chic, where the instruments strip one by one to bass and drums before building back up again. Rodgers later explained to biographer David Buckley: "On a song like Chic's 'Good Times' [1979], the most important part was the breakdown. Whenever the band would go to the breakdown the audience would scream." O'Leary compares the dueling saxophone break to the World Saxophone Quartet rather than a contemporary R&B horn section. Instrumentally, the final bassline, which biographer Nicholas Pegg considers "pure Chic", boasts two interspersing hooks of "a four-note stepwise descent and a five-note pattern that falls a step or holds the same note". The drum track utilises an elaborate kick drum pattern that repeats every eight bars, while the brass riffs–heard directly after "dance the blues"–were lifted from Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn soundtrack (1959). Rodgers said "that [riff] seemed to me so anti-groove, but sticking it on something that was so hard groove [...] it was magic!" O'Leary compares Figueroa's woodblocks to sounding like "mechanical rattlesnakes" and notes the isolated vocal tracks sound like they were "recorded in a canyon". Vaughan, using Albert King as inspiration, adds a blues-inflected edge to the overall dance groove. Discussing the track at the time, Bowie said: "It's got a hard cut, very high on treble – it sears through." ### Lyrics Pegg writes that the song "maintains a gravity absent from the rest of the album by virtue of its surprising bleakness". Containing an enigmatic sense of peril, the narrator invites his partner to dance, portrayed as a type of ceremonial engagement. Rather than dancing under a "lovers' moon", the two dance "under the moonlight"—a "serious moonlight". Although Bowie told an interviewer at the time the phrase was meaningless, Rodgers felt the "serious moonlight" was indebted to him, telling Buckley that he "used to say 'serious' all the time". However, Pegg finds a possible inspiration to be Aleister Crowley's 1923 composition "Lyric of Love to Leah", which features lines related to dancing in the moonlight with a lover. Perone interprets the use of "serious" as representing a "critical juncture" of the relationship. Additionally, the future is portrayed as empty and the only remedy is to dance "for fear tonight is all". O'Leary deems the lyrics "fragile, regretful and ominous". The narrator also instructs his lover to "put on your red shoes and dance", which O'Leary likens to the medieval St. Vitus' dance and the 1948 film The Red Shoes. Artist Tanja Stark also argued the phrase recalls Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The Red Shoes", in which a little girl is vainly tempted to wear red shoes only to find they could not be removed, separating her from God's grace: "Let's dance / for fear your grace should fall." ## Release EMI America issued "Let's Dance" as the lead single from the album on 14 March 1983, backed by a remake of "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)". Appearing on 7" and 12" vinyl—catalogue numbers EA 152 and 12EA 152, respectively—the former featured a shortened edit running 4:07, while the latter had the full-length 7:38 album cut; it also received a cassette release two weeks later. O'Leary calls the single edit "pure economy"; Vaughan's first appearance is relegated to a single note. The Brazilian single featured a different edit, which Pegg states was the album version with an early fade. Both sides of the single offered a glimpse into Bowie's change of direction following Scary Monsters. On the album, released on 14 April, "Let's Dance" appeared as the third track on side one of the original LP, sequenced between "China Girl" and "Without You". "Let's Dance" was the biggest single of Bowie's career and a massive international hit. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number five, securing the top spot from Duran Duran's "Is There Something I Should Know?" two weeks later and remained there for three weeks, enjoying a 14-week chart stay; the song would become his final UK number-one. It is one of the 300 best-selling UK singles of all time. It also attained the number one position on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Dance/Disco charts, and number one in Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway, and number two in Australia, Austria and Germany. Becoming the biggest selling single of Bowie's career up to that point, aside from the often-reissued "Space Oddity" (1969), "Let's Dance" relaunched Bowie as a worldwide superstar of the 1980s after years of dwindling commercial fortunes in the late-1970s, and changed the course of his career. Rodgers later commented: "The song was going to be a major hit. And we knew it." ### Reception "Let's Dance" was met with positive reviews on release. Writing for NME, Charles Shaar Murray enjoyed Elson's bass and Vaughan on guitar and praised Bowie's vocal performance for reaching "new heights". He concluded: "'Let's Dance' is easily this year's biggest single; every time it comes up it creates an instant impression of sheer scale. The sounds are huge, the emotions it contains gigantic. You should catch this beat, but be careful what you catch it with." In the US, Rolling Stone's Ken Tucker hailed the song as "a jittery, bopping single as vital as anything on the radio". Debra Rae Cohen of The New York Times also commended the song's use of different R&B rhythms to create "a larger-than-life dance music that's almost timeless in its appeal, reminiscent of an encyclopedia of sources, yet never – for more than an instant, anyway – completely familiar". A Billboard writer said, "[Nile] Rodgers' predictable arrangement sets up the rules [of the dance-funk genre], while Bowie's melodic structure and delivery methodically break them." NME placed "Let's Dance" at number 21 in its list of the best tracks of 1983. ## Music video The music video for "Let's Dance" was shot in February 1983 in Australia, together with "China Girl", after Bowie officially signed with EMI. Co-directed by Bowie and frequent video collaborator David Mallet, the video starred Terry Roberts and Joelene King, two students from Sydney's Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre. Shooting locations included Sydney, the Warrumbungle National Park, a sheep-farming outpost in Carinda and a Carindan hotel bar. Bowie made appearances in the bar and in the middle of a field playing guitar. Buckley argues he appears "incredibly detached", as if delivering the lyrics with a "clenched jaw" and "acting out the song rather than singing it". He also notes that Bowie positions himself as "paternal narrator" rather than the protagonist for the first time. In the video, which has little to do with the song itself, the Aboriginal couple visit an art gallery, eat a meal, work in a factory, clean for a white family and walk with friends barefoot in the outback. During the bar scenes, Roberts and King dance in the centre surrounded by an array of bar guests while Bowie and an extra one mime to the song wielding a guitar and upright bass, respectively. The bar guests were actual Carinda residents and were unaware of who Bowie was or that a music video was being filmed; their reactions towards the dancing couple were genuine. Video producer Ross Cameron later stated: "You couldn't pay actors to act the way they looked with these Aboriginals dancing in their bar." Additionally, manager Peter Lawless recalled: "It was so alien for both sides, Bowie and the locals. They didn't believe who he was. It was so off the wall. It was kind of weird." The video provides commentary on the treatment of Aboriginal Australians, particularly scenes depicting the boy being forced to drag machinery down a busy road and the girl being forced to clean the tarmac with water and a brush. At the time, Bowie said: "As much as I love this country, it's probably one of the most racially intolerant in the world, ... There's a lot of injustice, so let's, you know, say something about it." Mallet later said Bowie's "bottom line" was setting the video in Australia and making it politicised. An uneasy subject in the country at the time, the director explained that "a lot of people were horrified about what we were doing". In his book Strange Fascination, Buckley describes the video as "an attempt to articulate the clash of interests between white consumer capitalism and the Aboriginal traditions it displaced". Bowie added similar commentary to the videos of "China Girl" and "Loving the Alien" (1984). The music video's only lyrical reference to the song is the use of red shoes, which appear in several scenes and represent several themes. Bowie explained: > The red shoes are a found symbol and it seemed a propos for this particular video. They are the simplicity of the capitalist society – the pair of luxury goods – red leather shoes. Also, they're the striving for success – black music is all about 'put on your red shoes, baby'. Those two qualities were right for the song and video. The shoes are first found in a shop window by the Aboriginal couple, which Buckley says symbolises "conspicuous consumption". Additionally, the author says that a female factory boss wearing the outfit suggests "capitalistic domination" and the abuse of Aboriginals and general labour. Lastly, the Aboriginal girl finds the red shoes in the Australian outback, putting them on and seeing a vision of nuclear devastation. Buckley analyses the scene as symbolising the "twisted and corrupt result of unrestrained capitalism", effectively turning the shoes from a symbol of power and wealth to one of ill-fortune and corruption. The Aboriginals stomp the shoes into the dirt before leaving them to rot in the outback. Bowie also appears at one point as a corporate manager, which Pegg believes suggests "an implicit anxiety about his own role as a global rock star, the ultimate cultural colonist". Additionally, there is a parody of American Express's then-current "That'll do nicely" commercial. Receiving heavy rotation on MTV, the video has received praise. Buckley writes: "'Let's Dance' champions the Aboriginal cause and is a visual precursor to the white Australian critique of the same subject by Midnight Oil." Pegg says the video remains "oblique" decades later, relying on various "powerful" metaphors to "dig deep into the Australian psyche". Frank Zappa's song "Be In My Video" from the 1984 album Them Or Us mocks music videos generally, particularly the "Let's Dance" video, as pompous and riddled with clichés. A short documentary about the video's making, directed by Rubika Shah and Ed Gibbs and titled Let's Dance: Bowie Down Under, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015. In an interview, Shah argued that "['Let's Dance'] made Aboriginal people feel proud of their culture. They're not a spear-wielding tribal people out in the middle of nowhere. They live like everybody else does. But it was the first time that Aboriginals had been seen on global television like that." ## Live performances "Let's Dance" was a regular on the 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour, the name of which derived from the song's lyric. One performance, filmed on 12 September 1983 and featured in the Serious Moonlight concert film the following year, later appeared as the B-side of two releases: a 2015 limited edition Australian single commemorating the Melbourne residency of the David Bowie Is exhibition and the 2018 Record Store Day single release of the song's original demo. The song made return appearances on the 1987 Glass Spider and 1990 Sound+Vision tours; a performance on the former saw release on 1988's Glass Spider. Bowie also performed the song as a duet with singer Tina Turner several times during the 1980s, the first being on 23 and 24 March 1983 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham; the former performance was later released on CD and video in 2016 and charted at number 31 in France. Another 1985 live duet appeared on Turner's Live in Europe album in 1988. Bowie dropped "Let's Dance" from his setlists in the 1990s, supposedly viewing it as a threat to his creativity; he even dismissed the song as the epitome of what he would not performing on the 1995 Outside Tour. Nevertheless, "Let's Dance" made a one-off appearance at the Bridge School Benefit concert on 19 October 1996 in a stripped-down manner with Bowie and his then-bassist Gail Ann Dorsey on vocals. He announced during the show: "This started off as a joke for you all tonight, but we kind of got to like it. In fact, we prefer this version to the original!" It won a standing ovation. The song again made return appearances during Bowie's summer shows in 2000, performed in a "dreamy acoustic style" that Pegg compares to "Wild Is the Wind" (1976) before returning to the original tempo on the first "tremble like a flower". The 25 June 2000 performance at the Glastonbury Festival was released in 2018 on Glastonbury 2000, while another recorded two days later was released on BBC Radio Theatre, London, 27 June 2000, a bonus disc accompanying the first release of Bowie at the Beeb in 2000. "Let's Dance" made further appearances on the 2002 Heathen and 2003–2004 A Reality tours. ## Legacy The single edit of "Let's Dance" has appeared on numerous compilation albums, including Changesbowie (1990), The Singles Collection (1993), Best of Bowie (2002), The Platinum Collection (2006), Nothing Has Changed (2014) and Legacy (The Very Best of David Bowie) (2016). Both single and album cuts were remastered and released on the box set Loving the Alien (1983–1988) in 2018. ### Retrospective appraisal The song continues to be viewed positively, receiving praise for its catchiness, accessibility, commerciality and production. Writing for the BBC, David Quantick praised the "perfect" combination of Bowie and Rodgers. Discussing its accessibility, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that, together with fellow singles "Modern Love" and "China Girl", the song boasts "just enough of an alien edge to make [it] distinctive". Buckley commented that "Bowie was never able to match its instant accessibility again". A writer of Classic Pop magazine said that despite being "a curious jumble of ideas", the song itself remains timeless and "quite the most 'danceable' track Bowie ever produced". Some also gave recognition to Vaughan's guitar contribution. Chris Ingalls of PopMatters wrote that the song is "all dancefloor swagger, with modern production touches meshing nicely with the song's bluesy edge". Some have even called "Let's Dance" Bowie's most popular song. In AllMusic, Dave Thompson wrote that "[the song] is one of Bowie's most overtly commercial compositions" and "blessed by one of his most simplistic lyrics". The Guardian's Alexis Petridis said it "signaled his temporary abandonment of the avant-garde" but still remains "a superb song, nervier and stranger than its global smash status might suggest". In Bowie: A Biography, Marc Spitz considers "Let's Dance" "easily the most unconventional number-one hit single of the modern era" and further praises Bowie's vocal performance as his "most romantic and insistent" since "Heroes'" (1977). In The Complete David Bowie, Pegg hails the song as one of Bowie's finest recordings of the 1980s and "undoubtedly" one of the best pop singles of all time. Following Bowie's death in January 2016, the writers of Rolling Stone named "Let's Dance" one of the 30 most essential songs of Bowie's catalogue. The song has placed in other lists ranking Bowie's best songs by Smooth Radio (3), Far Out (4), NME (6), The Guardian (18), Consequence of Sound (43) and Mojo (60). In 2018, the readers of NME voted the song Bowie's 20th best track. In a list ranking every Bowie single from worst to best, Ultimate Classic Rock placed it at number seven. The song has been selected several times by the BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs programme, including by Lulu in 1987, Pete Waterman in 1995, John Bishop in 2012 and Noel Gallagher in 2015. ### Cover versions and tributes Rodgers has regularly played "Let's Dance" live, often joined by guests, including: Prince at the 2014 Essence Festival; Jimmy Fallon during a 2017 episode of Saturday Night Live; and Josh Homme, Chris Chaney and original drummer Omar Hakim at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert on 3 September 2022. Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins also interpolated lines from "Let's Dance" into live performances of Joy Division's "Transmission" (1979). The original song was sampled in Puff Daddy & the Family's 1997 hit "Been Around the World" and Craig David's 2007 single "Hot Stuff". Bowie also expressed enthusiasm for a 2009 mashup of "Let's Dance" and Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" by Jessica Lee Morgan. In 2003, the original track was radically reworked by EMI with Bowie's approval, as part of a remix project for release in Southeast Asian territories. Titled "Let's Dance (Club Bolly Mix)" and packaged with a "club mix" of "China Girl", the remix added sitars, tabla drums and Hindi backing vocals and was accompanied by a new music video produced by MTV Asia, which recast the original as a Bollywood-style romance. Bowie commented at the time: "Asian culture has had a fairly high profile within my work from the early 1970s. It was not a difficult decision to give a green light to these remixes. I think they're pretty cool." While different versions of the remixes appeared on promo CDs in Singapore and Hong Kong in August 2003, the actual remixes were released later the same year on the remix album Club Bowie and the limited-edition US reissue of Best of Bowie. Pegg says that while these remixes are not for everyone, they are "certainly among the most elaborate and interesting Bowie remixes ever released". Artists who have covered "Let's Dance" for specific projects include the Futureheads for a CD called The Eighties, packaged with copies of Q magazine in 2006, and M. Ward for the Starbucks compilation Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project in 2007. Discussing his cover with Spitz in 2009, M. Ward stated: "I always wanted to do a stripped down version of a dance song. The beautiful thing about 'Let's Dance', I found, are the lyrics. The production is great but it tends to hide the fact that the lyrics are so good." Spitz described his take on the song as a reimagined Nina Simone torch song. Also in 2007, Dutch outfit hi_tack enjoyed club chart success with several remixes of Bowie's original and a salsa-style cover by Stellarsound featuring Paula Flynn was released as a single after being featured in an Irish commercial for Ballygowan mineral water. In 2014, will.i.am and his protégés played the song during the semi-final of the BBC's The Voice; Pegg says the artist "brutally assaulted" it. ### Appearances in media "Let's Dance" has appeared on the soundtracks of the films Private Parts (1997), Zoolander (2001), We Own the Night (2007) and The Boat That Rocked (2009). In Zoolander, a short snippet of the song plays during Bowie's cameo, accompanied by a freeze-frame. Pegg describes his cameo as "willingly sending up the media's image of him as the ultimate arbiter of cool". The song also appears in the video games Elite Beat Agents (2006) and Sackboy: A Big Adventure (2020). Additionally, "Let's Dance" was serviced as the backing track for a 2008 Marks & Spencer womenswear commercial. ## Personnel According to Chris O'Leary: - David Bowie – lead vocals - Stevie Ray Vaughan – lead guitar - Nile Rodgers – rhythm guitar - Carmine Rojas – bass guitar - Omar Hakim – drums - Robert Sabino – Hammond organ, keyboards - Mac Gollehon – trumpet - Robert Aaron – tenor saxophone - Stan Harrison – tenor saxophone - Steve Elson – baritone saxophone - Sammy Figueroa – woodblocks, congas, tambourine - Frank Simms, George Simms, David Spinner – backing vocals Technical - David Bowie – producer - Nile Rodgers – producer - Bob Clearmountain – engineer ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### All-time charts ## Certifications and sales
900,763	May Pang	1,172,476,970	American former music executive	[ "1950 births", "American jewelry designers", "American memoirists", "American people of Chinese descent", "American women memoirists", "John Lennon", "Living people", "People from East Harlem", "Women jewellers" ]	May Fung Yee Pang (born October 24, 1950) is an American former music executive. She worked for John Lennon and Yoko Ono as a personal assistant and production coordinator. When Lennon and Ono separated in 1973, Pang and Lennon began a relationship that lasted more than 18 months. Lennon later referred to this time as his "Lost Weekend". Pang subsequently published two books about her relationship with Lennon; a memoir, Loving John (Warner, 1983), and a book of photographs, Instamatic Karma (St. Martin's Press, 2008). A documentary about their relationship, The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, was produced in 2022. Pang was married to producer Tony Visconti from 1989 to 2000 and has two children. ## Early years and education Pang was born in Manhattan in New York City. She is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and grew up in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City with an elder sister and an adopted brother, both of whom were born in China. Pang's mother owned and operated a laundry business in the area. The Pang family left Spanish Harlem when the tenements where they lived were scheduled to be razed, moving to an apartment near 97th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. After graduating from Saint Michael Academy, Pang attended New York City Community College. She aspired to be a model, but modeling agencies reportedly told her she was too "ethnic". Pang's early jobs included being a song-plugger, which meant encouraging artists to record songs written by songwriters. In 1970, she began work in New York as a receptionist at ABKCO Records, Allen Klein's management office, which at that time represented Apple Records and three former Beatles: Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Pang was asked to help Lennon and Ono with their avant-garde film projects, Up Your Legs Forever and Fly, in December 1970. Pang was then asked to be Lennon and Ono's secretary and factotum and gofer in New York City and Britain, which led to a permanent position as their personal assistant when the Lennons moved from London to Manhattan in 1971. Pang coordinated an art exhibition in Syracuse, New York, on October 9, 1971, for Ono's This Is Not Here art show at the Everson Museum. Ono's show coincided with Lennon's 31st birthday, and a party was held at the Hotel Syracuse, which was attended by Ringo Starr, Phil Spector, and Elliot Mintz, among others. ## "Lost Weekend" In mid-1973, Pang was working on the recording of Lennon's Mind Games album. Lennon and Ono were having marital problems and Ono suggested to Pang that she become Lennon's companion. Ono explained that she and Lennon were not getting along, had been arguing and were growing apart, and said that Lennon would start seeing other women. She pointed out that Lennon had said he found Pang sexually attractive. Pang replied that she could never start a relationship with Lennon, as he was her employer and married. Ono ignored Pang's protests and said that she would arrange everything. Ono later confirmed this conversation in an interview. At the time Lennon had his 18-month relationship with Pang, he was in a period of his life that he would later refer to as his "Lost Weekend", in reference to the film and novel of the same title. In October 1973, Lennon and Pang left New York for Los Angeles to promote Mind Games, and decided to stay for a while, living at lawyer Harold Seider's apartment for a couple of days and then Lou Adler's house. While there, Lennon was inspired to embark on two recording projects: to make an album of the old rock 'n' roll songs that inspired him to become a musician, and to produce another artist. In December 1973, Lennon collaborated with Phil Spector to record the oldies album Rock 'n' Roll. The alcohol-fueled recording sessions became legendary. Every musician in L.A. wanted to participate, but soon Lennon's drinking and Spector's erratic behavior (which included his firing a gun in the studio control room) caused the sessions to break down. Then Spector, who claimed to have been in a car accident, took the session tapes and became unreachable. In March 1974, Lennon began producing Harry Nilsson's Pussy Cats album, thus named to counter the "bad boy" image the pair had earned in the media with two drinking incidents at The Troubadour. The first was when Lennon placed a Kotex on his forehead and scuffled with a waitress at a concert given by Ann Peebles, who had released one of Lennon's favorite records at the time, 'I Can't Stand The Rain'; and the second, two weeks later, when Lennon and Nilsson were ejected from the same club after heckling the Smothers Brothers. Lennon thought it would be a good idea for the musicians to live under one roof to ensure they would get to the studio on time, so Pang rented a beach house in Santa Monica for her, Lennon, Nilsson, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon to live in. At this time, Pang encouraged Lennon to reach out to family and friends. He and Paul McCartney mended fences and played together for the first and only time after the breakup of the Beatles (see A Toot and a Snore in '74). Pang also arranged for Julian Lennon to visit his father for the first time in almost four years. Julian began to see his father more regularly. Lennon bought Julian a Gibson Les Paul copy guitar and a drum machine for Christmas in 1973, and encouraged Julian's interest in music by showing him some chords. "Dad and I got on a great deal better then," recalls Julian. "We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot and had a great time in general when he was with May Pang. My memories of that time with Dad and May are very clear—they were the happiest time I can remember with them." The cover of Julian's seventh album, Jude, features a childhood photo of him taken by Pang. In June 1974, Lennon and Pang returned to live in Manhattan. Lennon stopped drinking and concentrated on recording. Lennon previously had cats while he lived at his Aunt Mimi's house in Liverpool; he and Pang adopted two cats that they named Major and Minor. In the early summer, Lennon was working on his Walls and Bridges album when the couple moved into a penthouse apartment at 434 East 52nd Street. On August 23, Lennon and Pang claimed to have seen a UFO from their terrace, which had a panoramic view of Queens. To gain access to the deck, Lennon and Pang had to climb out of their kitchen window. On the night in question, a naked Lennon excitedly called Pang to join him on the deck outside and they both watched a circular object silently floating less than 100 feet away. Lennon called Bob Gruen—Lennon's "official" photographer—and told him what had happened. Gruen suggested Lennon should call the police, but Lennon laughed it off, saying, "I’m not going to call up the newspaper and say, 'This is John Lennon and I saw a flying saucer last night.'" Gruen called the local police precinct which confirmed that three other people had reported a sighting, and the Daily News said that five people had reported a sighting in the same area of New York where Lennon and Pang lived. Lennon references the incident in the song, "Nobody Told Me". Walls and Bridges rose to the top spot on the album charts. Lennon achieved his only number-one solo US single in his lifetime with "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night". Pang's is the voice whispering Lennon's name on "#9 Dream". Another song, "Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)", was written about her. Julian played drums on the album's last track, "Ya Ya". While recording Walls and Bridges, Al Coury, vice president of promotion for Capitol Records, got possession of the chaotic Spector session tapes and brought them to New York. Lennon would complete his oldies album, which would be called Rock 'n' Roll, with the same musicians he used on Walls and Bridges. Pang received an RIAA gold record award for her work on Walls and Bridges and continued her work as production coordinator of Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll album, where she was credited as "Mother Superior". Pang also worked on albums by Nilsson, Starr, Elton John and David Bowie. While visiting Mick Jagger at Andy Warhol's compound in Montauk, New York, Lennon and Pang saw a Scottish-style cottage for sale close to the Montauk Point Lighthouse. Lennon asked a real estate broker to put in an offer for it in February 1975. In the same month, Lennon and Pang were also planning on visiting Paul and Linda McCartney in New Orleans, where Wings were recording the Venus and Mars album, but Lennon reconciled with Ono the day before the planned visit, after Ono said she had a new cure for Lennon's smoking habit. After the meeting, he failed to return home or call Pang. When Pang telephoned the next day, Ono told her that Lennon was unavailable because he was exhausted after a hypnotherapy session. Two days later, Lennon reappeared at a joint dental appointment; he was stupefied and confused to such an extent that Pang believed he had been brainwashed. Lennon told Pang he had reconciled with Ono and their relationship was over. Over the coming years, Pang quietly met Lennon a few times but their relationship was never rekindled. Lennon would lament this period publicly but not in private. Journalist Larry Kane, who befriended Lennon in 1964, wrote a comprehensive biography of Lennon which detailed the "Lost Weekend" period. In the interview with Kane, Lennon explained his feelings about his time with Pang; "You know Larry, I may have been the happiest I've ever been... I loved this woman (Pang), I made some beautiful music and I got so fucked up with booze and shit and whatever." ### Pang's books about Lennon After Lennon returned to Ono, Pang started working for United Artists Records and Island Records as a PR manager, working on albums by Bob Marley and Robert Palmer. Pang published her memoir, Loving John, in 1983. It was later updated and renamed John Lennon: The Lost Weekend. The original 500-page Loving John book focused mainly on Pang's role on Lennon's albums and sessions. It was edited down to 300 pages, concentrating mostly on the sensational aspects of their relationship. It also included postcards that Lennon had written to Pang during his travels throughout the world in the late 1970s. Pang claims that she and Lennon remained lovers until 1977, and stayed in contact until his death. Pang's book of photographs, Instamatic Karma, was published in 2008. Besides the candid personal portraits, the book contains some historically important photographs, such as Lennon signing the official dissolution of the Beatles' partnership, and one of the last known photographs of Lennon and Paul McCartney together. Cynthia Lennon also provided a back cover endorsement, acknowledging Pang's role in reuniting Lennon with his estranged first son, Julian. ## The Lost Weekend documentary The Tribeca Film Festival announced the 2022 premiere of The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, a 97-minute documentary about Pang's life and relationship with Lennon, on June 10 via virtual home viewing. The film was produced and directed by Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman and Stuart Samuels. The Lost Weekend appeared in theaters internationally for a limited run April 13th and 14th 2023. ## Photography Coinciding with the release of the documentary, Pang teamed up with the Rock Art Show to publish 30 of her photographs of Lennon and is touring galleries throughout the United States with an exhibition called The Lost Weekend: The Photography of May Pang, selling limited-editions of her photographs. ## Jewelry Pang started her own jewelry business. She designs stainless-steel feng shui jewelry. ## Subsequent personal life Pang married record producer Tony Visconti in 1989; the couple divorced in 2000. They had two children. Pang remains in touch with some of the people from her time with Lennon, and Paul McCartney invited her to Linda McCartney's memorial service. She was an invited guest at The Concert for George in 2002 and remained close to Cynthia Lennon and Lennon's first son, Julian. Although having had no contact for 30 years, on October 9, 2006, Pang accidentally met Ono in Iceland, on what would have been Lennon's 66th birthday. Ono was in Iceland to unveil a sculpture in Reykjavík and was staying in the same hotel. Pang still resides in New York City. She volunteers with an animal shelter called Animal Haven in New York and owned a dog that was rescued after Hurricane Katrina. She also co-hosts an Internet talk radio show, Dinner Specials with Cynthia and May Pang, at blogtalkradio.com, with on-air partner Cynthia Neilson.
13,511,580	Sachsen-class ironclad	1,172,729,828	Armored corvette class of the German Imperial Navy	[ "Ironclad classes", "Sachsen-class ironclads" ]	The Sachsen class of armored corvettes was a class of four ships built by the Imperial German Navy in the late 1870s to early 1880s. The ships—Sachsen, Bayern, Württemberg, and Baden—were designed to operate as part of an integrated coastal defense network. The ships were intended to sortie from fortified bases to break up an enemy blockade or landing attempt. Armed with six 26 cm (10.2 in) guns, they were also intended to fight hostile ironclads on relatively equal terms. Following their commissionings in 1878–1883, the four ships served with the fleet on numerous training exercises and cruises in the 1880s and 1890s. They also participated in several cruises escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on state visits to Great Britain and to various cities in the Baltic Sea in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In the late 1890s, the four ships were extensively rebuilt; their secondary batteries were modernized and they received upgraded propulsion systems. They were removed from active duty between 1902 and 1910 and relegated to secondary duties. Sachsen and Bayern became target ships while Württemberg became a torpedo training ship. The three ships were broken up for scrap in 1919–1920. Baden was used as a boom defense hulk from 1910 to 1920, when she became a target ship. She survived until 1938, when she was sold for scrapping. ## Background The origin of the Sachsen class of ironclad corvettes traces back to the fleet plan of 1861 approved for the Prussian Navy. The plan called for the construction of four small ironclads that had a shallow-enough draft to allow them to operate in the Baltic Sea, where larger armored frigates would be unable to maneuver. These ships were never built, owing to a combination of budgetary limitations, technical inexperience in Prussian shipyards, and other factors. But the blockade the Danish Navy had imposed during the Second Schleswig War of 1864 and the operations of the French fleet during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 made clear the vulnerability of the long Baltic coastline to enemy attacks. After the Franco-Prussian war, General Albrecht von Stosch became the Chief of the Imperial Admiralty; he immediately set about drafting a new fleet plan, based on the most recent program that had been approved in 1867. Stosch saw the role of the navy as primarily defensive; a fleet of ironclad warships would be kept in German waters to defend the coast. Stosch's fleet plan, finalized in 1873, called for a total of eight ocean-going ironclads and six smaller, armored corvettes. The quota for sea-going vessels was met by the Kaiser class, while only one armored corvette had been laid down by that point: SMS Hansa. The new corvettes were to be the first vessels built under the Imperial government. The new ships were intended to operate in the Baltic Sea as a primary component of an integrated coastal defense system proposed by Stosch. He designated the ships Ausfallkorvetten (sortie corvettes), denoting their intended use. In the event of war with a superior naval power and the imposition of a naval blockade, the Sachsen-class ships would sortie from fortified bases to attack the blockaders. They also had the task of breaking up landing attempts. The German railway network linked the bases so ground forces could be transferred to the sites of enemy landings. Stosch envisioned using the smaller Wespe class of armored gunboats to support them, though these proved to be disappointments in service. ## Design Stosch had instructed the design staff to begin work on the next corvette already in 1872, before they had been authorized under the 1873 fleet plan. Work on what became the Sachsen class continued into 1874. Their roles imposed several design limitations on the vessels. The vessels were designed to operate in coastal areas, which required a shallow draft in order for them to be able to enter any port on the Baltic seaboard. They also required a heavy armament and think armor plate, in order for them to be able to engage any hostile ironclad on equal terms. Because Stosch envisioned only local deployments for the vessels, they did not need a high top speed or a long cruising radius. As a result, they had limited coal stowage, as they would operate close to their bases and could easily replenish fuel. A supplemental sailing rig was rejected for the same reason. Initially, 30.5 cm (12 in) guns were considered, but the design staff decided to use lighter 26 cm (10 in) guns instead. The designers adopted the basic format of the British breastwork monitors, but rather than employing the heavy gun turrets used in those vessels, the Germans opted for lighter open barbette mountings. The ships were poorly received once they entered active service. This was in large part because they had been designed for a specialized purpose, rather than as a balanced warship. The dissatisfaction with the Sachsens further damaged Stosch's reputation in the navy; Stosch, who was an army officer, was derisively referred to a "Land Admiral". Blame for the ships' design was unfairly attributed to Stosch, however, as he had recognized that he lacked the necessary technical expertise and deferred to advice from senior naval commanders. There was considerable disagreement in the naval command structure, in part owing to the transition from wooden-hulled sailing ships to iron-hulled steamships. They nevertheless introduced two developments to the German fleet: they were the first German capital ships built with a two-propeller arrangement and the first without a sailing rig. They also formed the homogeneous core of the German fleet for many years, until the arrival of the Brandenburg-class pre-dreadnought battleships in the 1890s. In the early 1880s, AG Vulcan, which built Sachsen and Württemberg, contracted with the government of Qing China to build the two Dingyuan-class ironclads to a modified Sachsen design. The primary difference between the German and Chinese vessels was the arrangement of the main battery: the Germans had adopted an open barbette mounting for their guns, while the Chinese opted for revolving gun turrets for theirs. ### General characteristics and machinery The ships of the Sachsen class were 98.2 m (322 ft 2 in) long overall. They had a beam of 18.4 m (60 ft 4 in) and a draft of 6.32 m (20 ft 9 in) forward and 6.53 m (21 ft 5 in) aft. At the designed displacement, the vessels displaced 7,635 metric tons (7,514 long tons). When the vessels were fully loaded, they displaced between 7,742 t (7,620 long tons) and 7,938 t (7,813 long tons). Their hulls were built with transverse bulkheads and double longitudinal iron frames; iron plating covered teak backing. The ships had sixteen watertight compartments and a double bottom that ran for 60 percent of the length of the hull. The Sachsen class was the first major warship of the fleet to adopt internal subdivision. The German navy regarded the ships as poor sea boats, with severe rolling, and a tendency to take on water. Steering by alternating engine speeds only worked while steaming in reverse. The ships had a very small turning radius, however, and were quick to answer commands from the helm. Their standard complement consisted of 32 officers and 285 enlisted men, and while serving as a division flagship, this could be augmented by an additional seven officers and thirty-four sailors. After their reconstruction in the 1890s, the ships' crews were significantly increased, to 33 officers and 344 enlisted men, and later to 35 officers and 401 enlisted men. The ships carried a number of smaller boats, including one picket boat, one launch, one pinnace, two cutters, one yawl, and one dinghy. The four ships were powered by two 3-cylinder single-expansion steam engines. The ships' engines drove a pair of four-bladed screws that were 5 m (16 ft 5 in) in diameter. Each engine was placed in its own engine room. The engines were supplied with steam by eight coal-fired trunk boilers. The eight boilers were vented into four funnels arranged in a square amidships. This unusual arrangement led to the ships being nicknamed Zementfabriken (cement factories). All four ships' propulsion systems were manufacture by Märkisch-Schlesische Maschinenbau und Hütten and AG Germania. Three generators provided 69 kilowatts of electrical power at 65 volts. The ships' designed speed was 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph), at 5,600 metric horsepower (5,500 ihp). All four ships exceeded this speed on trials by between one half to one knot. The ships were designed to store 420 t (410 long tons) of coal, though they could be modified to carry up to 700 t (690 long tons). The ships could steam for 1,940 nautical miles (3,590 km; 2,230 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). At maximum speed, the ships' ranges were reduced to 700 nmi (1,300 km; 810 mi). The four Sachsen-class ships were the first large, armored warships built for the German navy that relied entirely on engines for propulsion. ### Armament and armor The Sachsen-class ships were armed with a main battery of six 26 cm (10.2 in) L/22 guns mounted in two armored barbettes, one forward and one amidships. Two guns were placed in the forward barbette and four were mounted in the amidships position. These guns were supplied with 480 rounds of ammunition. They could depress to −7° and elevate to 16.5°; this enabled a maximum range of 7,400 m (8,100 yd). The barbette arrangement would have theoretically provided a total of four guns firing forward during a ramming attack, but the blast damage from the ships' own guns proved to be too serious to permit this in practice. For defense against torpedo boat attacks, the ships were also equipped with six 8.7 cm (3.4 in) L/24 guns and eight 3.7 cm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannons. The ships' iron armor was made of wrought iron and backed with teak. The armor belt was composed of four alternating layers of wrought iron and teak. The outer iron layer was 203 mm (8 in) thick amidships, backed with 200 mm (7.9 in) of teak. The inner iron layer was 152 mm (6 in) thick and was backed with 230 mm (9.1 in) of teak. It was capped with 254 mm (10 in) thick bulkheads on either end of the belt. German industry initially lacked the capability to produce iron armor in the necessary thickness, so iron plate from Camel & Company of Sheffield, Britain, was purchased for the first two members of the class. By the time work began on the latter pair of vessels, the German firm Dillinger Hütte was capable of producing the required plates, allowing Stosch to buy domestically produced armor. The thickness of the deck armor ranged from 50 to 75 mm (2 to 3 in). The forward conning tower had 140 mm (5.5 in) thick sides, though after their modernization, this was increased to 200 mm (7.9 in) thick sides and a 50 mm (2 in) roof was added. A rear conning tower was also added, with only splinter protection: 15 mm (0.59 in) thick sides and a 12 mm (0.47 in) thick roof. The barbettes for the main battery guns had 254 mm of wrought iron backed with 250 mm of teak. ### Modifications After 1886, three 35 cm (14 in) torpedo tubes were installed on each ship; one tube was placed in a swivel mount in the stern and two were placed in the bow, submerged. The tubes were supplied with a total of twelve torpedoes. Later, a pair of 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes were mounted in the ships' hulls above water on the broadside. The ships were more heavily rebuilt in the late 1890s; their engines were replaced and the boilers were ducted into a single large funnel. These improvements increased the speeds of the ships to 14.5 to 15.4 kn (26.9 to 28.5 km/h; 16.7 to 17.7 mph). The battery of 8.7 mm guns was replaced with an equal number of 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/30 guns and four 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns. Each ship also had their old wrought iron armor and teak backing replaced with new Krupp armor that significantly increased their ability to withstand shell hits. ## Construction Sachsen, the first ship of the class, was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1875, under construction number 74. The ship was launched on 21 July 1877 and commissioned into the fleet on 20 October 1878. AG Vulcan also built Württemberg, which was laid down in 1876 under construction number 78. She was launched on 9 November 1878 and commissioned for service on 9 May 1881. Bayern was actually the first ship to be laid down; work on her keel began in 1874 at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Kiel, under construction number 3. She was not launched until 13 May 1878, nearly one year after her sister Sachsen. She was commissioned on 4 August 1881, rendering her the third ship of the class to enter service. Baden was the fourth and final ship of the class; she was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel in 1876. She was launched on 28 July 1880 and commissioned into the fleet on 24 September 1883. The ships built by AG Vulcan—Sachsen and Württemberg—were completed in three and five years, respectively. The two vessels built by the Imperial Dockyard—Bayern and Baden—required eight and seven years' work, respectively. One of the primary causes for the great disparity in build times was that after Sachsen experienced difficulties in her initial sea trials, work on the other three ships was halted while AG Vulcan implemented changes to correct the problems. Additionally, the experience of the shipbuilders played a significant role. AG Vulcan was an established commercial ship builder, while the Imperial Dockyards were recently founded and still lacked experience in large warship construction. ## Service history Though Sachsen entered service in 1878, she only participated in one annual fleet exercise, in 1880, before all four ships were assigned to the 1884 maneuvers. This was due to the poor performance of Sachsen in the 1880 maneuvers and the negative reputation of the class. Among the problems associated with the Sachsen-class ships was a tendency to roll dangerously due to their flat bottoms, which greatly reduced the accuracy of their guns. The ships were also poorly armored, compared to their contemporaries. In addition, they were slow and suffered from poor maneuverability. The four ships served rotations with the fleet for the next two years, though in 1886, all four were demobilized as the Reserve Division in the Baltic. Aside from the Sachsen's half-sister Oldenburg, the German Navy took a hiatus on capital ship building until the late 1880s when the first of the Siegfried-class coastal defense ships were laid down. The poor performance of the sortie corvettes, coupled with the rise of the Jeune École, led Leo von Caprivi to abandon capital ship construction in favor of torpedo boats. The ships were reactivated for a number of ceremonial duties in the late 1880s, including for the dedication of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in June 1887 and a tour of the Baltic by the recently crowned Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1888. In the 1890s, all four ships returned to active service with the fleet, serving in I Division until the middle of the decade, when the new Brandenburg-class battleships began entering service. The four Sachsens were then displaced to II Division. In the late 1890s, all four of the ships were extensively reconstructed; their secondary armament was modernized and their propulsion systems were rebuilt with new machinery, which increased their speed. The four ships remained with the fleet until shortly after the turn of the century. Sachsen was removed from duty in 1902 and used as a target ship from 1911 to 1919. Bayern was stricken from the naval register in February 1910 and similarly used as a target vessel until 1919. Württemberg was converted into a torpedo training ship in 1906, equipped with seven 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes in a variety of different mountings. She served in this capacity until 1919, when she was used briefly as an escort for F-boats. All three ships were broken up for scrap between 1919 and 1920. Baden survived longest, serving as a boom defense hulk after 1910 and a target ship after 1920. She remained in the German Navy's inventory until 1938, when she was sold for scrapping.
13,758,636	French battleship Charlemagne	1,168,929,290	French Navy's Charlemagne class pre-dreadnought battleship	[ "1895 ships", "Charlemagne-class battleships", "Ships with Belleville boilers", "World War I battleships of France" ]	Charlemagne was a predreadnought battleship built for the French Navy in the mid-1890s, the name ship of her class. Completed in 1899, she spent the bulk of her career in the Mediterranean Sea. The battleship was initially assigned to the Northern Squadron (Escadre du Nord), but was not transferred to the Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée) until 1900. Twice the ship participated in the occupation of the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, then owned by the Ottoman Empire, once as part of a French expedition and another as part of an international squadron. Charlemagne and her sister ships rejoined the Northern Squadron in 1909 and the obsolete battleship became a gunnery training ship in 1913. When World War I began in August 1914, she escorted Allied troop convoys in the Mediterranean for the first three months. Charlemagne was ordered to the Dardanelles in November to guard against a sortie into the Mediterranean by the ex-German Ottoman battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim. In 1915, she joined British ships in bombarding Ottoman fortifications. The ship was transferred later that year to the squadron assigned to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica front. Charlemagne briefly served as a flagship before she was converted into a depot ship in mid-1917 and was partially disarmed later that year. The ship was stricken from the naval register in 1918. Charlemagne was condemned in 1920 and later sold for scrap in 1923. ## Design and description The Charlemagne-class ships were authorized in the 1892 Naval Program as smaller versions of the preceding Bouvet, albeit with an improved armament. They were 117.7 metres (386 ft 2 in) long overall and had a maximum beam of 20.3 metres (66 ft 7 in). At deep load, the ships had a draught of 7.4 metres (24 ft 3 in) forward and 8.4 metres (27 ft 7 in) aft. Their designed displacement was 11,287 tonnes (11,109 long tons), but they were overweight and displaced 11,415 tonnes (11,235 long tons) at normal load. When serving as flagships, their crew numbered 750 men, but had 32 officers and 660 ratings as private ships. The ships were powered by three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft using steam generated by 20 Belleville boilers. These boilers were coal-burning with auxiliary oil sprayers and were designed to produce 14,200 metric horsepower (10,444 kW; 14,006 ihp) to give the Charlemagne class a speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). During her sea trials, Charlemagne reached a top speed of 18.1 knots (33.5 km/h; 20.8 mph) during her sea trials on 15 June 1898, although her main armament had not yet been installed. The ships carried enough coal to give them a range of 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). The Charlemagnes carried their main battery of four Canon de 305 mm (12 in) Modèle 1893 guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament consisted of ten Canon de 138.6 mm (5.5 in) Modèle 1893 guns, eight of which were mounted in individual casemates and the remaining pair in shielded mounts on the forecastle deck amidships. They also carried eight Canon de 100 mm (3.9 in) Modèle 1893 guns in open mounts on the superstructure. The ships' anti-torpedo boat defences consisted of twenty Canon de 47 mm (1.9 in) Modèle 1885 and two 37 mm (1.5 in) Maxim guns, fitted in platforms on both masts, on the superstructure, and in casemates in the hull. The ships mounted four 450-millimetre (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside, one submerged and the other above water. As was common with ships of her generation, they were built with a plough-shaped ram. The Charlemagne-class ships had a complete waterline belt of nickel-steel armour that ranged in thickness from 300 to 400 mm (11.8 to 15.7 in) and was thickest amidships. The armour plates were 2 m (6 ft 7 in) high with the upper 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in) above the design waterline and they tapered to a maximum thickness of 150 mm (5.9 in) at their bottom edges. The thicknesses of the bottom edges of the plates gradually reduced to 134 mm (5.3 in) at the bow and 110 mm (4.3 in) at the stern. The gun turrets were protected by 320 mm (12.6 in) of Harvey armour and their barbettes had 270-millimetre (10.6 in) plates of the same type of armour. The main armoured deck of extra mild steel was 70 mm (2.8 in) thick and there was a 40-millimetre-thick (1.6 in) splinter deck below it. The conning tower had a 326-millimetre-thick (12.8 in) face and 276 mm (10.9 in) sides. ## Construction and career Charlemagne was the namesake of the first Holy Roman Emperor, and was ordered on 30 September 1893 as the name ship of the three battleships of her class. With an initial budget of 24,000,000 French francs, the ship was laid down at the Arsenal de Brest on 2 August 1894, launched on 17 October 1895 and completed on 12 September 1899. Construction was delayed by the late delivery of her main gun turrets. Charlemagne was initially assigned to the Northern Squadron, but, together with her sister Gaulois, she was transferred to the 1st Battleship Division of the Mediterranean Squadron in January 1900. On 18 July, after combined manoeuvres with the Northern Squadron, the ship participated in a naval review conducted by the President of France, Émile Loubet, at Cherbourg. She escorted Louis André, the Minister of War and Jean de Lanessan, the Minister of Marine on their tours of Corsica and French Tunisia later in October. While passing through the Bizerte Canal, she damaged a propeller and it was repaired in November. The following year, Charlemagne and the Mediterranean Squadron participated in an international naval review by President Loubet in Toulon with ships from Spain, Italy and Russia. In October 1901, the 1st Battleship Division (1<sup>re</sup> Division cuirassée), comprising Charlemagne and her sisters Gaulois and Saint Louis, under the command of Rear Admiral (contre-amiral) Leonce Caillard, was ordered to proceed to the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, then owned by the Ottoman Empire. After landing two companies of marines that occupied the major ports of the island on 7 November, Sultan Abdul Hamid II agreed to enforce contracts made with French companies and to repay loans made by French banks. The 1st Division departed Lesbos in early December and returned to Toulon. In January–March 1902, Charlemagne was deployed in Moroccan waters and participated in the summer fleet exercises later that year. At the end of January 1903, the division conducted gunnery training off Golfe-Juan. Naval historians Paul Silverstone and Eric Gille claim that the ship collided with Gaulois on 2 March 1903, but was not damaged. The battleships of the Mediterranean Squadron visited Cartagena, Spain, in June and then Palma de Mallorca and Ibiza in the Balearic Islands in October. On 24 February 1904, Charlemagne was transferred to the 2nd Battle Division. She was one of the ships that escorted President Loubet during his state visit to Italy in April and participated in the annual fleet manoeuvers later that summer. While ammunition was being transferred on 30 December 1904, an explosion occurred in a 305 mm magazine, but Charlemagne suffered neither casualties nor damage from the incident as the magazine was quickly flooded. Together with the destroyer Dard, the ship was the French contribution to an international squadron that briefly occupied Mytilene in November–December 1905 and participated in a naval review by President Armand Fallières in September of the following year. Charlemagne, Saint Louis, and the predreadnought battleship Suffren were deployed to Morocco on 30 November to reduce tensions between the European powers vying to assume control over that country. Their presence was effective and they returned to Toulon before the end of the year. She engaged in the summer naval manoeuvres in 1907 and 1908 and was transferred to the 4th Battle Division with her sisters when that unit was formed in July 1908. The 4th Division had been reassigned to the newly formed 2nd Battle Squadron (Escadre de ligne) by 5 January 1909. The Mediterranean and Northern Squadrons were redesignated as the 1st and 2nd Squadrons respectively on 5 October 1909. The division spent Christmas at Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, and made port visits to Cadiz, Spain, Lisbon, Portugal, and Quiberon enroute to Brest where they arrived on 27 February 1910 and their new assignment to the 2nd Squadron. The divisions of the battle squadrons had been renumbered on 5 January and the 4th Division became the 1st Division of the 2nd Battle Squadron. On 1 August 1911 the 2nd Battle Squadron was renumbered as the 3rd Battle Squadron and the ships participated in a large naval review by President Fallières off Toulon on 4 September. Charlemagne was placed in reserve in Brest in September 1912 to begin a lengthy overhaul; the ship rolled 34° during her post-overhaul sea trials on 30 May 1913 which raised serious questions about her stability and that of her sisters. She returned to the Mediterranean in July and was relegated to serve as a gunnery training ship from 23 July until the beginning of World War I a year later. ### World War I Charlemagne was not initially combat ready and arrived at Bizerte on 19 August and was joined there by Saint Louis and Suffren three days later. They were tasked with patrolling merchant traffic between Tunis and Sicily to prevent contraband shipments to the Central Powers. In October, the British requested assistance in escorting two large troop convoys through the Mediterranean in October and Charlemagne was one of the ships deployed to Port Said, Egypt, in mid-October to do so. Together with Saint Louis, Charlemagne was transferred to the Dardanelles Division (Division de Dardanelles) and joined Gaulois in the Aegean Sea on 26 November to guard against a sortie by Yavuz Sultan Selim. During the bombardment of Ottoman fortifications on 25 February 1915, Charlemagne engaged the fort at Kum Kale with some effect. The ship provided support for British battleships on 1 March as they bombarded Kilitbahir Castle; she was straddled several times by return fire, but was not damaged. On 18 March, Charlemagne, together with Bouvet, Suffren, and Gaulois, was tasked to penetrate deep into the Dardanelles after six British battleships suppressed the defending Ottoman fortifications and attack those same fortifications at close range. After the French ships were ordered to be relieved by six other British battleships, Bouvet struck a mine and sank almost instantly while Gaulois was hit twice, one of which opened a large hole in her hull that began to flood the ship. Charlemagne escorted Gaulois to the Rabbit Islands, north of Tenedos, where the latter ship could be beached for temporary repairs. Together with two British predreadnought battleships and the Russian protected cruiser Askold, Charlemagne bombarded Ottoman fortifications defending the Gulf of Saros on 26 March. The battleship arrived at Bizerte on 3 April to begin a badly needed refit that included repairs to her rudder. The same day that Charlemagne returned to the Dardanelles, the Dardanelles Division was redesignated as the Dardanelles Squadron (Escadre des Dardanelles) on 14 May and the battleships were assigned to the 3rd Battleship Division shortly afterwards. Together with the British predreadnought battleship HMS Agamemnon, she bombarded Ottoman positions during the Third attack on Anzac Cove on 19–22 May. Charlemagne was slightly damaged when her armour belt was dented when she was struck by a shell on 25 May. The ship bombarded Ottoman fortifications at Achi Baba on 30 May without noticeable effect and Kumkale on 5–6 June. During the Landing at Suvla Bay, Charlemagne bombarded Ottoman positions on 5–6 August. The ship was transferred to Salonica in October 1915 where she joined the French squadron assigned to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations in Greece. Charlemagne was escorted by the destroyers Hussard and Massue from Salonica to Bizerte on 20–24 April 1916 to begin a refit. She returned to Salonica on 5 August and was assigned to the Division of the Naval Bases of the Eastern Army (Division des bases navales du corps expéditionnaire d'Orient). The ship became the flagship of Rear Admiral Henri Salaün, commander of the Division of the Naval Bases, on 24 February. Charlemagne was scheduled to receive modifications to improve her stability early in 1917, but this was cancelled. Salaün transferred his flag to the predreadnought Patrie on 18 August as Charlemagne was in the process of leaving Greek waters. The ship continued onwards to Bizerte where she arrived on 20 August. She was scheduled to begin a refit there, but the navy decided to transfer the work to Toulon on 31 August. Escorted by the destroyers Carabinier, Arquebuse, Fronde, Aspirant Herber and Mortier, Charlemagne arrived there on 17 September. Due to a shortage of coal, the navy decided to cancel the refit two days later and convert her into a depot ship for propellant and explosives. Her 138.6 mm guns were removed the following month and three ventilators were removed in January 1918 for use on other ships. The ship was decommissioned on 1 November 1917 and was stricken from the naval register on 14 March 1918 with the proviso that her propulsion plant was required to remain operational. Charlemagne was condemned on 21 June 1920 and turned over as part payment to the company that was scrapping the wreck of the predreadnought Liberté. They sold her to an Italian company that demolished her in Savona, Italy.
5,872,429	Heterodontosauridae	1,172,505,180	Extinct family of dinosaurs	[ "Early Cretaceous extinctions", "Heterodontosaurids", "Norian first appearances", "Prehistoric dinosaur families", "Taxa named by Alfred Romer" ]	Heterodontosauridae is a family of ornithischian dinosaurs that were likely among the most basal (primitive) members of the group. Their phylogenetic placement is uncertain but they are most commonly found to be primitive, outside of the group Genasauria. Although their fossils are relatively rare and their group small in numbers, they have been found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica, with a range spanning the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. Heterodontosaurids were fox-sized dinosaurs less than 2 metres (6.6 feet) in length, including a long tail. They are known mainly for their characteristic teeth, including enlarged canine-like tusks and cheek teeth adapted for chewing, analogous to those of Cretaceous hadrosaurids. Their diet was herbivorous or possibly omnivorous. ## Description Among heterodontosaurids, only Heterodontosaurus itself is known from a complete skeleton. Fragmentary skeletal remains of Abrictosaurus are known but have not been fully described, while most other heterodontosaurids are known only from jaw fragments and teeth. Consequently, most heterodontosaurid synapomorphies (defining features) have been described from the teeth and jaw bones. Heterodontosaurus measured just over 1 meter (3.3 ft) in length, while the fragmentary remains of Lycorhinus may indicate a larger individual. Tianyulong from China appears to preserve filamentous integument which has been interpreted to be a variant of the proto-feathers found in some theropods. These filaments include a crest along its tail. The presence of this filamentous integument has been used to suggest that both ornithischians and saurischians were endothermic. ### Skull and teeth Both Abrictosaurus and Heterodontosaurus had very large eyes. Underneath the eyes, the jugal bone projected sideways, a feature also present in ceratopsians. As in the jaws of most ornithischians, the anterior edge of the premaxilla (a bone at the tip of the upper jaw) was toothless and probably supported a keratinous beak (rhamphotheca), although heterodontosaurids did have teeth in the posterior section of the premaxilla. A large gap, called a diastema, separated these premaxillary teeth from those of the maxilla (the main upper jaw bone) in many ornithischians, but this diastema was characteristically arched in heterodontosaurids. The mandible (lower jaw) was tipped by the predentary, a bone unique to ornithischians. This bone also supported a beak similar to the one found on the premaxilla. All the teeth in the lower jaw were found on the dentary bone. Heterodontosaurids are named for their strongly heterodont dentition. There were three premaxillary teeth. In the Early Jurassic Abrictosaurus, Heterodontosaurus, and Lycorhinus, the first two premaxillary teeth were small and conical, while the much larger third tooth resembled the canines of carnivoran mammals and is often called the caniniform or 'tusk'. A lower caniniform, larger than the upper, took the first position in the dentary and was accommodated by the arched diastema of the upper jaw when the mouth was closed. These caniniforms were serrated on both the anterior and posterior edges in Heterodontosaurus and Lycorhinus, while those of Abrictosaurus bore serrations only on the anterior edge. In the Early Cretaceous Echinodon, there may have been two upper caniniforms, which were on the maxilla rather than the premaxilla, and Fruitadens from the Late Jurassic may have had two lower caniniforms on each dentary. Like the characteristic tusks, the cheek teeth of derived heterodontosaurids were also unique among early ornithischians. Small ridges, or denticles, lined the edges of ornithischian cheek teeth in order to crop vegetation. These denticles extend only a third of the way down the tooth crown from the tip in all heterodontosaurids; in other ornithischians, the denticles extend further down towards the root. Basal forms like Abrictosaurus had cheek teeth in both maxilla and dentary that were generally similar to other ornithischians: widely spaced, each having a low crown and a strongly-developed ridge (cingulum) separating the crown from the root. In more derived forms like Lycorhinus and Heterodontosaurus, the teeth were chisel-shaped, with much higher crowns and no cingula, so that there was no difference in width between the crowns and the roots. These derived cheek teeth were overlapping, so that their crowns formed a continuous surface on which food could be chewed. The tooth rows were slightly inset from the side of the mouth, leaving a space outside the teeth that may have been bounded by a muscular cheek, which would have been necessary for chewing. The hadrosaurs and ceratopsians of the Cretaceous Period, as well as many herbivorous mammals, would convergently evolve somewhat analogous dental batteries. As opposed to hadrosaurs, which had hundreds of teeth constantly being replaced, tooth replacement in heterodontosaurids occurred far more slowly and several specimens have been found without a single replacement tooth in waiting. Characteristically, heterodontosaurids lacked the small openings (foramina) on the inside of the jaw bones which are thought to have aided in tooth development in most other ornithischians. Heterodontosaurids also boasted a unique spheroidal joint between the dentaries and the predentary, allowing the lower jaws to rotate outwards as the mouth was closed, grinding the cheek teeth against each other. Because of the slow replacement rate, this grinding produced extreme tooth wear that commonly obliterated most of the denticles in older teeth, although the increased height of the crowns gave each tooth a long life. ### Skeleton The postcranial anatomy of Heterodontosaurus tucki has been well-described, although H. tucki is generally considered the most derived of the Early Jurassic heterodontosaurids, so it is impossible to know how many of its features were shared with other species. The forelimbs were long for a dinosaur, over 70% of the length of the hindlimbs. The well-developed deltopectoral crest (a ridge for the attachment of chest and shoulder muscles) of the humerus and prominent olecranon process (where muscles that extend the forearm were attached) of the ulna indicate that the forelimb was powerful as well. There were five digits on the manus ('hand'). The first was large, tipped with a sharply curved claw, and would rotate inwards when flexed; Robert Bakker called it the 'twist-thumb'. The second digit was the longest, slightly longer than the third. Both of these digits bore claws, while the clawless fourth and fifth digits were very small and simple in comparison. In the hindlimb, the tibia was 30% longer than the femur, which is generally considered an adaptation for speed. The tibia and fibula of the lower leg were fused to the astragalus and calcaneum of the ankle, forming a 'tibiofibiotarsus' convergently with modern birds. Also similarly to birds, the lower tarsal (ankle) bones and metatarsals were fused to form a 'tarsometatarsus.' There are four digits in the pes (hindfoot), with only the second, third, and fourth contacting the ground. The tail, unlike many other ornithischians, did not have ossified tendons to maintain a rigid posture and was probably flexible. The fragmentary skeleton known for Abrictosaurus has never been fully described, although the forelimb and manus were smaller than in Heterodontosaurus. Also, the fourth and fifth digits of the forelimb each bear one fewer phalanx bone. ## Classification South African paleontologist Robert Broom created the name Geranosaurus in 1911 for dinosaur jaw bones missing all of the teeth and some partial associated limb bones. In 1924, Lycorhinus was named, and classified as a cynodont, by Sidney Haughton. Heterodontosaurus was named in 1962 and it, Lycorhinus and Geranosaurus were recognized as closely related ornithischian dinosaurs. Alfred Romer named Heterodontosauridae in 1966 as a family of ornithischian dinosaurs including Heterodontosaurus and Lycorhinus. Kuhn independently proposed Heterodontosauridae in the same year and is sometimes cited as its principal author. It was defined as a clade in 1998 by Paul Sereno and redefined by him in 2005 as the stem clade consisting of Heterodontosaurus tucki and all species more closely related to Heterodontosaurus than to Parasaurolophus walkeri, Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis, Triceratops horridus, or Ankylosaurus magniventris. Heterodontosauridae includes the genera Abrictosaurus, Lycorhinus, and Heterodontosaurus, all from South Africa. While Richard Thulborn once reassigned all three to Lycorhinus, all other authors consider the three genera distinct. Within the family, Heterodontosaurus and Lycorhinus are considered sister taxa, with Abrictosaurus as a basal member. Geranosaurus is also a heterodontosaurid, but is usually considered a nomen dubium because the type specimen is missing all its teeth, making it indistinguishable from any other genus in the family. More recently, the genus Echinodon has been considered a heterodontosaurid in several studies. Lanasaurus was named for an upper jaw in 1975, but more recent discoveries have shown that it belongs to Lycorhinus instead, making Lanasaurus a junior synonym of that genus. Dianchungosaurus was once considered a heterodontosaurid from Asia, but it has since been shown that the remains were a chimera of prosauropod and mesoeucrocodylian remains. José Bonaparte also classified the South American Pisanosaurus as a heterodontosaurid at one time, but this animal is now known to be a more basal ornithischian. The membership of Heterodontosauridae is well-established in comparison to its uncertain phylogenetic position. Several early studies suggested that heterodontosaurids were very primitive ornithischians. Due to supposed similarities in the morphology of the forelimbs, Robert Bakker proposed a relationship between heterodontosaurids and early sauropodomorphs like Anchisaurus, bridging the orders Saurischia and Ornithischia. The dominant hypothesis over the last several decades has placed heterodontosaurids as basal ornithopods. However, others have suggested that heterodontosaurids instead share a common ancestor with Marginocephalia (ceratopsians and pachycephalosaurs), a hypothesis that has found support in some early 21st century studies. The clade containing heterodontosaurids and marginocephalians has been named Heterodontosauriformes. Heterodontosaurids have also been seen as basal to both ornithopods and marginocephalians. In 2007, a cladistic analysis suggested that heterodontosaurids are basal to all known ornithischians except Pisanosaurus, a result that echoes some of the very earliest work on the family. However, a study by Bonaparte found the Pisanosauridae to be synonymous with the Heterodontosauridae and not a separate family in its own right, thereby including Pisanosaurus as a heterodontosaur. Butler et al. (2010) found the Heterodontosauridae to be the most basal known significant ornithischian radiation. The cladogram below shows the interrelationships within Heterodontosauridae, and follows the analysis by Sereno, 2012: A 2020 reworking of Cerapoda by Dieudonné and colleagues recovered the animals traditionally considered 'heterodontosaurids' as a basal grouping within Pachycephalosauria, paraphyletic with respect to the traditional, dome-headed pachycephalosaurs. This result was based on numerous skull characteristics including the dentition, and also to account for the fact that pachycephalosaur fossils are completely unknown from the Jurassic period. Modern understanding of ornithischian phylogeny implies that Jurassic pachycephalosaurs must exist, because numerous Jurassic ceratopsians have been found, yet no such pachycephalosaurs have been confidently identified. This analysis was done to elaborate on the findings of Baron and colleagues (2017), which found Chilesaurus to be a basal ornithischian. The phylogenetic analysis was conducted with Chilesaurus coded as an ornithischian, which also had implications for the phylogeny of ornithopods. The cladogram below is an abridged version of Dieudonne and colleagues' findings: ## Distribution While originally known only from the Early Jurassic of southern Africa, heterodontosaurid remains are now known from four continents. Early in heterodontosaurid history, the supercontinent Pangaea was still largely intact, allowing the family to achieve a near-worldwide distribution. The oldest known possible heterodontosaurid remains are a jaw fragment and isolated teeth from the Laguna Colorada Formation of Argentina, which dates back to the Late Triassic. These remains have a derived morphology similar to Heterodontosaurus, including a caniniform with serrations on both anterior and posterior edges, as well as high-crowned maxillary teeth lacking a cingulum. Irmis et al. (2007) tentatively agreed that this fossil material represents a heterodontosaurid, but stated that additional material is needed to confirm this assignment because the specimen is poorly preserved, while Sereno (2012) only stated that this material may represent an ornithischian or even specifically a heterodontosaurid. Olsen, Kent & Whiteside (2010) noted that the age of the Laguna Colorada Formation itself is poorly constrained, and thus it wasn't conclusively determined whether the putative heterodontosaurid from this formation is of Triassic or Jurassic age. The most diverse heterodontosaurid fauna comes from the Early Jurassic of southern Africa, where fossils of Heterodontosaurus, Abrictosaurus, Lycorhinus, and the dubious Geranosaurus are found. Undescribed Early Jurassic heterodontosaurids are also known from the United States and Mexico, respectively. In addition, beginning in the 1970s, a great deal of fossil material was discovered from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation near Fruita, Colorado in the United States. Described in print in 2009, this material was placed in the genus Fruitadens. Heterodontosaurid teeth lacking a cingulum have also been described from Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous formations in Spain and Portugal. The remains of Echinodon were redescribed in 2002, showing that it may represent a late-surviving heterodontosaurid from the Berriasian stage of the Early Cretaceous in southern England. Dianchungosaurus from the Early Jurassic of China is no longer considered a heterodontosaurid; though one Middle-Late Jurassic Asian form is known (Tianyulong). Indeterminate cheek teeth possibly representing heterodontosaurids are also known from the Barremian aged Wessex Formation of southern England, which if confirmed would represent the youngest record of the group. ## Paleobiology Most heterodontosaurid fossils are found in geologic formations that represent arid to semi-arid environments, including the Upper Elliot Formation of South Africa and the Purbeck Beds of southern England. It has been suggested that heterodontosaurids underwent seasonal aestivation or hibernation during the driest times of year. Due to the lack of replacement teeth in most heterodontosaurids, it was proposed that the entire set of teeth was replaced during this dormant period, as it seemed that continual and sporadic replacement of teeth would interrupt the function of the tooth row as a single chewing surface. However, this was based on a misunderstanding of heterodontosaurid jaw mechanics. It was thought that heterodontosaurids actually did replace their teeth continually, though more slowly than in other reptiles, but CT scanning of skulls from juvenile and mature Heterodontosaurus shows no replacement teeth. There is currently no evidence that supports the hypothesis of aestivation in heterodontosaurids, but it cannot be rejected, based on the skull scans. While the cheek teeth of heterodontosaurids are clearly adapted for grinding tough plant material, their diet may have been omnivorous. The pointed premaxillary teeth and sharp, curved claws on the forelimbs suggest some degree of predatory behavior. It has been suggested that the long, powerful forelimbs of Heterodontosaurus may have been useful for tearing into insect nests, similarly to modern anteaters. These forelimbs may have also functioned as digging tools, perhaps for roots and tubers. The length of the forelimb compared to the hindlimb suggests that Heterodontosaurus might have been partially quadrupedal, and the prominent olecranon process and hyperextendable digits of the forelimb are found in many quadrupeds. However, the manus is clearly designed for grasping, not weight support. Many features of the hindlimb, including the long tibia and foot, as well as the fusion of the tibiofibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus, indicate that heterodontosaurids were adapted to run quickly on the hindlegs, so it is unlikely that Heterodontosaurus moved on all four limbs except perhaps when feeding. The short tusks found in all known heterodontosaurids strongly resemble tusks found in modern musk deer, peccaries and pigs. In many of these animals (as well as the longer-tusked walrus and Asian elephants), this is a sexually dimorphic trait, with tusks only found in males. The type specimen of Abrictosaurus lacks tusks and was originally described as a female. While this remains possible, the unfused sacral vertebrae and short face indicate that this specimen represents a juvenile animal. A second, larger specimen originally proposed to belong to Abrictosaurus clearly possesses tusks, which was used to support the idea that tusks are found only in adults, rather than being a secondary sexual characteristic of males. These tusks could have been used for combat or display with members of the same species or with other species. The absence of tusks in juvenile Abrictosaurus could also be another characteristic separating it from other heterodontosaurids as well, as tusks are known in juvenile Heterodontosaurus. Other proposed functions for the tusks include defense and use in an occasionally omnivorous diet. However, this specimen was alternatively reassigned to Lycorhinus by Sereno in 2012, which is already known to have possessed tusks and therefore their absence in Abrictosaurus may not have been a result of age. In 2005 a small complete fossilized heterodontosaurid skeleton more than 200 million years old was discovered in South Africa. In July 2016 it was scanned by a team of South African researchers using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility; the scan of the dentition revealed palate bones less than a millimeter thick.
70,217,029	Space Guitar	1,157,451,196	1954 instrumental by Johnny "Guitar" Watson	[ "1950s instrumentals", "1954 singles", "Experimental rock songs", "Federal Records singles" ]	"Space Guitar" is an instrumental composed and recorded by American rhythm and blues artist Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Released as a single in 1954, it was Watson's first recording to showcase his guitar playing. The backing arrangement for the piece is fairly typical for R&B and jump blues at the time. However, Watson's groundbreaking performance on the electric guitar sets it apart. When it was released, a reviewer in Billboard was at a loss to describe it or assign it a numerical rating. Subsequently, the single did not appear in the magazine's charts. More current assessments describe the instrumental as being well ahead of its time with Watson's over-the-top guitar playing and the heavy use of audio effects. Guitarists, such as Bo Diddley, Ike Turner, Frank Zappa, and Jimi Hendrix have been identified as being influenced by Watson's novel approach. "Space Guitar" is included on several Watson and various artists compilations. ## Background By April 1954, Watson had recorded three singles for Federal Records under the name "Young John Watson". Ralph Bass, the veteran rhythm-and-blues record producer, handled the production, but none had managed to reach the record charts. Watson, who was then 19 years old, had been performing primarily as a vocalist and pianist and other guitarists also appeared on his records. However, for "Space Guitar" he "came into his own as a guitarist", according to music historian Larry Birnbaum. Originally from Texas, Watson was influenced by T-Bone Walker and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, but also incorporated his own ideas: "I was seeing all these new sounds I could create ... I wasn't afraid to take it a little further and see where it went." Commenting on his early style, Jon Hartley Fox wrote: "With jagged blurts of notes, a highly amplified tone, and quirky improvisational ideas, Watson stepped out fully formed as a major stylist." He was also a flamboyant performer and played the guitar with his teeth, behind his head, and while roaming through the audience and beyond – tricks in the style of Walker and Guitar Slim. ## Composition and recording Except for the guitar, "Space Guitar" has the sound and instrumentation typical for the time. It has been described as rhythm and blues, jump blues, and a blues guitar instrumental. The piece uses a stop-time arrangement, when the other musicians drop out during breaks. During these, Watson plays various guitar figures, including the introduction from the theme music from Dragnet, a popular 1950s television series, before the accompaniment resumes. However, it is Watson's guitar fills, soloing, and the novel use of the rather new reverb effect that have received the most attention. Birnbaum describes Watson's guitar work as "furious bursts of notes, talking-guitar effects, jangling chords, jarring starts and stops, and wrenching blasts of echo and reverb". Although he fingerpicked the electric guitar, instead of the more common technique with guitar pick, Watson's playing has been described as "hyper-speed" and "rapid-fire". He also used exaggerated string bending and finger slides up and down the neck, which is further emphasized by the intermittent use of heavy reverb. In the early 1950s, reverb, as an added audio effect in the studio, was "really the only 'effect' available in those days", according to Dan Forte of Guitar Player magazine. It was an attempt to reproduce natural reverberation, in which sounds dissipate more slowly, as in an empty hall or other large space. Reverb has also been used in recordings as "a metaphor for solitude and wide open spaces [and] the vast expanse of outer space". In an interview in 1994, Watson explained that it was also "a great way to sustain notes". Rather than being applied to the same degree throughout or for soloing, in "Space Guitar", reverberated elements dramatically jump in and out at various points in the recording, in what one educator calls "extreme or impossible mixes of spatial sound with the 'dry' [unprocessed] signal". As with Watson's previous singles, "Space Guitar" was produced by Ralph Bass. The recording session took place in Los Angeles in February 1954, with backing musicians Devonia Willams on piano, Bill Gaither on tenor sax (who plays a 20-second solo about half-way through), Mario Delagarde on bass, and Charles Pendergraft on drums. According to Watson, a remark by the unnamed recording engineer inspired the title for the instrumental: "I don't know what you're trying to do, man, but Jesus, man, what is it? Are you some kind of spaceman?" ## Release and reception "Space Guitar" was released by Federal Records in April 1954. Coupled with the Rudy Toombs composition "Half Pint-a-Whiskey", it was issued on both the 78 rpm and 45 rpm record formats, but without A- or B-side designations. A staff reviewer in Billboard magazine gave "Half Pint-a-Whiskey" a favorable score of 80 (out of 100), while "Space Guitar" received a puzzled "??", instead of a numeric rating. The short review concluded with "This could break a few eardrums if it's played too loud. It's unusual, has a sound and in a way, it moves. Most unusual wax, and an intriguing coupling for the flip." Similar to Watson's earlier singles, neither song reached the singles charts and the instrumental was not included on any albums. Feeling that Cincinnati, Ohio-based Federal/King label was not promoting his records adequately, he subsequently signed with the Los Angeles-based Modern Records group of labels. There, he adopted the stage name "Johnny 'Guitar' Watson" (inspired by the 1954 Western Johnny Guitar) and in 1955, he enjoyed his first success on the charts with the slower R&B ballad "Those Lonely Nights". ## Legacy More recently, "Space Guitar" has received critical commentary from a variety of sources. Writing for All Music Guide to the Blues in 1996, critic Richie Unterberger identified the instrumental as "rank[ing] with the greatest achievements of its era [and] presages futuristic effects that rock guitarists still hadn't mastered another 15 years down the line." He later added that it was "one of the relatively obscure classics of the mid-50s." Others have also commented on the forward-looking aspect of the piece: a "tour de force that in terms of both sound and technique was at least a decade ahead of its time" (Batey); and "too freakishly futuristic to sell in its own day" (Birnbaum). Its more discordant elements have been described as "atonal, dissonant and fractured with reverb, distortion and shredding" (MacDonald); and "[one of the] early rock instrumentals that can be analyzed as examples of 'avant rock' as far as the disconcerting use of dissonance and noise" (Greene). Some writers suggest that "Space Guitar" also features an early use of guitar feedback, although "there is, in fact, no feedback on the record", according to Premier Guitar magazine writer Michael Ross. Music writer Cub Koda identified Watson as "a futuristic guitarist who influenced Bo Diddley and Ike Turner in the instrument-as-noisemaker department [with] 1954's 'Space Guitar'". According to Frank Zappa biographer John Corcelli, "when he heard Watson's classic instrumental 'Space Guitar' (Federal, 1954), it proved such an epiphany that Zappa adjusted the tone of his guitar to match Watson's when he started playing". Justin Patch wrote that the instrumental "no doubt influenced the sound and imagination of young Jimi Hendrix" and Birnbaum called it "a harbinger of Jimi Hendrix". "Space Guitar" received more attention when it was later included on several compilation albums of Watson's early singles, such as I Heard That (1985, Charly Records), Gangster of Love (c.1990, Charly), and The Very Best of Johnny "Guitar" Watson (1999, Rhino Entertainment). The various artists collections The King R&B Box Set (1996, King) and Honky Tonk! The King & Federal R&B Instrumentals (2000, Ace Records) also include the piece. ## Personnel - Johnny "Guitar" Watson – electric guitar - Devonia Willams – piano - Bill Gaither – tenor sax - Mario Delagarde – bass - Charles Pendergraft – drums - Ralph Bass – producer
702,117	Spider-Man 3	1,172,858,390	2007 superhero film directed by Sam Raimi	[ "2000s American films", "2000s English-language films", "2000s superhero films", "2007 action films", "2007 films", "American action films", "American films about revenge", "American sequel films", "Columbia Pictures films", "Film and television memes", "Films about amnesia", "Films about extraterrestrial life", "Films directed by Sam Raimi", "Films partially in color", "Films produced by Avi Arad", "Films produced by Laura Ziskin", "Films scored by Christopher Young", "Films set in Columbia University", "Films set in New York City", "Films shot in Cleveland", "Films shot in Los Angeles", "Films shot in New York City", "Films with screenplays by Alvin Sargent", "Films with screenplays by Ivan Raimi", "Films with screenplays by Sam Raimi", "Green Goblin", "IMAX films", "Internet memes", "Internet memes introduced in 2007", "Live-action films based on Marvel Comics", "Spider-Man (2002 film series)", "Spider-Man films", "Superhero drama films" ]	Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment and Laura Ziskin Productions, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it was directed by Sam Raimi from a screenplay he co-wrote with his older brother Ivan and Alvin Sargent. It is the third and final installment in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and the sequel to Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). The film stars Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, alongside Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, James Cromwell, Rosemary Harris, and J. K. Simmons. It also marks the final film appearance of Cliff Robertson before his retirement and death in 2011. Set a year after the events of Spider-Man 2, the film follows Peter Parker as he prepares for his future with Mary Jane Watson, while facing three new villains: Uncle Ben's true killer, Flint Marko, who becomes Sandman after a freak accident; Harry Osborn, his former best friend, who is now aware of Peter's identity and seeks to avenge his father; and Eddie Brock, a rival photographer who subsequently transforms into Venom. Peter also faces his greatest challenge when he bonds with an extraterrestrial symbiote that increases his abilities but amplifies his anger and other negative traits. Development of Spider-Man 3 began immediately after the successful release of Spider-Man 2 for a 2007 release. During preproduction, Raimi wanted two villains, Harry Osborn and Sandman. At the request of producer Avi Arad, he added Venom to the list, and the producers also requested the addition of Gwen Stacy. Principal photography for the film began in January 2006 and took place in Los Angeles and Cleveland before moving to New York City from May until July 2006. Additional pick-up shots were made after August and the film wrapped in October 2006. During post-production, Sony Pictures Imageworks created over 900 visual effects shots. Composer Danny Elfman, who had scored the previous installments, decided not to return due to creative differences and conflicts with Raimi during production of the previous film, so Christopher Young composed the score in Elfman's absence. With an estimated production budget of \$258–350 million, the film was the most expensive film ever made at the time of its release. Spider-Man 3 premiered on April 16, 2007, in Tokyo, and was released in the United States in both conventional and IMAX theaters on May 4. The film grossed \$895 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of the trilogy, the third-highest-grossing film of 2007 and was the highest-grossing Spider-Man film until it was surpassed by Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019. Unlike the previous installments, Spider-Man 3 received mixed reviews from critics. A fourth installment, titled Spider-Man 4, was set to be released on May 6, 2011, followed by a Venom spin-off film, along with a fifth and sixth installment, titled Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6 respectively, but all were canceled. The Spider-Man film series was rebooted twice; first with The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield; and later a new film series set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland, beginning with Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) explored the concept of the multiverse to connect the previous films and characters to the MCU with Maguire and Church reprising their roles in the film. A Venom film and sequel featuring another version of the Eddie Brock character was eventually produced and released in 2018 and 2021, respectively. ## Plot Peter Parker plans to propose to Mary Jane Watson, who has made her Broadway musical debut. In Central Park, a meteorite lands near the two, and an extraterrestrial symbiote follows Peter to his apartment by attaching to his motorbike. Harry Osborn, knowing Peter is Spider-Man, seeks to avenge his father Norman's death. Using Norman's performance-enhancing gas and Green Goblin technology, he battles Peter to an eventual stalemate, developing partial amnesia. Meanwhile, police pursue escaped convict Flint Marko, who visits his wife and sick daughter before fleeing. Falling into an experimental particle accelerator that fuses his body with the surrounding sand, he gains the ability to control and reform his body with sand, becoming Sandman. During a festival honoring Spider-Man for saving Gwen Stacy's life, Peter kisses her to please the crowd, angering Mary Jane. Marko then robs an armored truck and escapes after defeating Spider-Man. NYPD Captain George Stacy, Gwen's father, informs Peter and his aunt May that Marko is uncle Ben's true killer; the deceased Dennis Carradine was Marko's accomplice. At the apartment, the symbiote assimilates the Spider-Man suit as Peter sleeps in it while waiting for Marko to come out of hiding. Peter awakens on top of a building, discovering that the symbiote has colored his suit black and enhanced his powers; however, it also brings out aggressive traits of his personality. Peter locates and battles Marko in a subway tunnel. Discovering that water is his weakness, he opens a pipe, releasing water that reduces Marko to mud and washes him away in a sewer. Peter's changed demeanor alienates Mary Jane, who also receives negative reviews from critics. She shares a tender moment with Harry but leaves in regret. Urged by a hallucination of his father, Harry recovers from his amnesia and forces Mary Jane to break up with Peter. Harry later meets up with Peter and tells him that Mary Jane loves him. Under the symbiote's influence, Peter confronts Harry and spitefully says his father never loved him. As Peter leaves after an ensuing fight, Harry throws a pumpkin bomb at him, but the former deflects it back, scorching the latter's face. At the Daily Bugle, Peter exposes rival photographer Eddie Brock, whose fake photos incriminate Spider-Man. Publisher J. Jonah Jameson fires Brock and promotes Peter to staff photographer. Later, Peter brings Gwen to a jazz club where Mary Jane now works. In an attempt to make her jealous, Peter interrupts Mary Jane's performance and dances with Gwen in front of her. Upon realizing Peter's true intentions, Gwen apologizes to Mary Jane and leaves. After assaulting the bouncers and accidentally hitting Mary Jane, Peter realizes that the symbiote is corrupting him. Retreating to a church's bell tower and discovering that the sounds of clanging metal weaken the creature, Peter removes the symbiote. Brock is at the same church and becomes the symbiote's new host. As Venom, Brock locates a still-living Marko and convinces him to join forces to kill Spider-Man. Brock abducts Mary Jane and holds her captive from a web at a construction site, intending to kill her in revenge for Peter ruining him, while Marko keeps the police at bay. After Harry declines to help Peter, Harry's butler reveals that Norman's death was not Spider-Man's fault. While Brock and Marko pin Peter down, Harry arrives to help Peter and save Mary Jane. Brock attempts to impale Peter with Harry's glider, but Harry jumps in and is impaled instead. While remembering the symbiote's weakness, Peter assembles a perimeter of metal pipes to create a sonic attack, weakening it and allowing Peter to separate Brock from the symbiote. Peter activates a pumpkin bomb and throws it at the hostless symbiote. Having become addicted to its influence, Brock attempts to save the symbiote, and both are vaporized. Marko explains that Ben's death was an accident that has haunted him and that everything he has done was to help his daughter; Peter forgives Marko, allowing him to escape. Peter and Harry reconcile before the latter dies from his injuries. Sometime after Harry's funeral, Peter visits Mary Jane at the jazz club, where they embrace and share a dance. ## Cast - Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A superhero, a brilliant physics student at Columbia University, and photographer for the Daily Bugle. As he grows arrogant with the city starting to embrace him for the first time in his career, an alien symbiote attaches itself to Peter's costume and influences his behavior for the worse. Maguire said he relished the opportunity to play a less timid Peter in this film. - Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson: Peter Parker's girlfriend and a Broadway actress, whom he has loved since childhood. Mary Jane has a string of bad luck in the film, reminiscent of Peter's misfortune in Spider-Man 2, struggling in her career because of negative reviews and losing her friend when the symbiote takes him over. Mary Jane was not originally planned to be kidnapped during the climax by the villains as Raimi felt this became repetitive throughout the entire trilogy; this decision was changed late in production. - James Franco as Harry Osborn / New Goblin: The son of Norman Osborn, and Peter Parker's best friend, who believes Spider-Man killed his father. After learning Peter is Spider-Man and that Norman was the Green Goblin, Harry picks up where his father left and becomes the New Goblin to battle his former friend directly. - Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko / Sandman: A small-time thug who has an ex-wife and sick daughter, for whom he steals money to help get the treatment to cure her. He transforms into the Sandman following a freak accident and incurs Peter's wrath when Peter learns he was his Uncle Ben's killer. Church was approached for Sandman because of his award-winning performance in the film Sideways, and accepted the role despite the lack of a script at the time. The film's Sandman possesses sympathy similarly exhibited by Lon Chaney Jr. in his portrayals of misunderstood creatures, as well as Frankenstein's monster, the Golem, and Andy Serkis' portrayals of Gollum and King Kong. Church worked out for 16 months to improve his physique for the role, gaining 28 pounds of muscle and losing 10 pounds of fat. On his performance, Church expressed that "[villains] with a conscience have this sad realization of who they are, and the monster they've become — there's a sense of regret. So at the end of these movies there's a dramatic resonance that really stays with the audience." - Topher Grace as Edward "Eddie" Brock Jr. / Venom: Peter's rival at the Daily Bugle. He is exposed by Peter for creating a fake incriminating image of Spider-Man, and leaps at the opportunity to exact his revenge when he bonds with an extraterrestrial symbiote. Grace had impressed the producers with his performance in the film In Good Company. A big comic book fan who read the first Venom stories as a boy, Grace spent six months working out to prepare for the role, gaining 24 pounds of muscle. He approached the character as someone under the influence, similar to an alcoholic or drug addict, and interpreted him as having a bad childhood, which is the key difference between him and Peter. Grace found his costume unpleasant, as it had to be constantly smeared to give a liquid-like feel. The costume took an hour to put on, though prosthetics took four hours to apply. Grace also wore fangs, which bruised his gums. - Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy: A model and Peter's lab partner of whom Brock is attracted to. Peter asks her out to embarrass Mary Jane while possessed by the symbiote. Howard said the challenge of playing the role was in reminding many fans of the good-natured character who was Peter's first love in the comics, yet was "the other woman" in the film. Howard strove to create a sense that Gwen could potentially be a future girlfriend for him and that she "was not acting like some kind of man-stealing tart." Howard performed many of her stunts, unaware of the fact she was several months pregnant. - James Cromwell as Captain George Stacy: Gwen's father and a New York City Police Department captain. - Rosemary Harris as May Parker: The aunt of Peter Parker and the widow of Ben Parker, Peter's uncle. She gives Peter her engagement ring so he can propose to Mary Jane and gives him lessons in forgiveness. - J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson: The leader of the Daily Bugle. He has a particular dislike towards Spider-Man, whom he considers a criminal and he tries with every way to discredit him. Several actors reprise their roles from the previous films. Dylan Baker portrays Dr. Curt Connors, a college physics professor under whom Peter Parker studies, while Willem Dafoe portrays Norman Osborn / Green Goblin, Harry's late father, who returns as a hallucination to encourage his son to destroy Spider-Man, and Cliff Robertson appears as Ben Parker, Peter's deceased uncle in his final acting appearance before his retirement and death in 2011. Bill Nunn, Ted Raimi, Michael Papajohn, John Paxton, and Elizabeth Banks return as Joseph "Robbie" Robertson, a longtime employee at the Daily Bugle; Ted Hoffman, also a longtime employee of the Daily Bugle; Dennis "Spike" Carradine, the carjacker who was believed to have murdered Uncle Ben; Bernard Houseman, butler to the Osborn family; and Betty Brant, the receptionist at the Daily Bugle for J. Jonah Jameson, respectively. Elya Baskin additionally reprises his role as Mr. Ditkovitch, Peter's landlord while Mageina Tovah reprises her role as his daughter Ursula. Joe Manganiello reprises his role as Flash Thompson from the first film in a cameo appearance. Becky Ann Baker appears as Mrs. Stacy. Theresa Russell and Perla Haney-Jardine appear as Emma and Penny Marko, Sandman's wife and daughter respectively. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee has a cameo in Spider-Man 3, as he did in the previous Spider-Man films, which he referred to as his "best cameo". Actor Bruce Campbell, who had cameo roles as a wrestling ring announcer in Spider-Man and as a snooty usher in Spider-Man 2, returns in Spider-Man 3 with a new cameo as a French maître d'. Originally his character, who helps Peter try to propose, was much more antagonistic. Composer Christopher Young appears in the film as a pianist at Mary Jane's theater when she is fired, while producer Grant Curtis cameoed as the driver of an armored car that Sandman attacks. Comedian Dean Edwards played one of the newspaper readers who badmouth Spider-Man. 75-year-old newscaster Hal Fishman appears as himself anchoring the saga of Mary Jane's kidnapping by Venom; he died just fourteen weeks after the movie opened. Actress Lucy Gordon appeared as newscaster Jennifer Dugan. ## Production ### Development In March 2004, with Spider-Man 2 being released the coming June, Sony announced that Spider-Man 3 was already in development for a release in summer 2007. By the release of Spider-Man 2, a release date for Spider-Man 3 had been set for May 2, 2007 before production on the sequel had begun. The date was later changed to May 4, 2007. In January 2005, Sony Pictures completed a seven-figure deal with screenwriter Alvin Sargent, who had penned Spider-Man 2, to script Spider-Man 3 with an option to script a fourth film. Immediately after Spider-Man 2's release, Ivan Raimi wrote a treatment over two months, with Sam Raimi deciding to use the film to explore Peter learning that he is not a sinless vigilante, and that there also can be humanity in those he considers criminals. Harry Osborn was brought back because Raimi wanted to conclude his story line. Raimi felt that Harry would not follow his father's legacy, but be instead "somewhere between." Sandman was introduced as an antagonist, as Raimi found him a visually fascinating character. While Sandman is a petty criminal in the comics, the screenwriters created a background of the character being Uncle Ben's killer to increase Peter's guilt over his death and challenge his simplistic perception of the event. Overall, Raimi described the film as being about Peter, Mary Jane, Harry, and the Sandman, with Peter's journey being one of forgiveness. Raimi wanted another villain, and Ben Kingsley was involved in negotiations to play the Vulture before the character was cut. Vulture was considered to be an accomplice of Flint Marko in the script. Producer Avi Arad convinced Raimi to include Venom, a character whose perceived "lack of humanity" had initially been criticized by Sam Raimi. Venom's alter-ego, Eddie Brock, already had a minor role in the script. Arad felt the series had relied too much on Raimi's personal favorite Spider-Man villains, not characters that modern fans were actually interested in, so Raimi included Venom to please them, and even began to appreciate the character himself. The film's version of the character is an amalgamation of Venom stories. Eddie Brock, Jr., the human part of Venom, serves as a mirror to Peter Parker, with both characters having similar jobs and romantic interests. Brock's actions as a journalist in Spider-Man 3 also represent contemporary themes of paparazzi and tabloid journalism. The producers also suggested adding rival love interest Gwen Stacy, filling in an "other girl" type that Raimi had already created. With so many additions, Sargent soon found his script so complex that he considered splitting it into two films, but abandoned the idea when he could not create a successful intermediate climax. ### Filming Camera crews spent 2 weeks from November 5–18, 2005 to film sequences that would involve intense visual effects so Sony Pictures Imageworks could begin work on the shots early in the project. The same steps had been taken for Spider-Man 2 to begin producing visual effects early for sequences involving the villain Doctor Octopus. Principal photography for Spider-Man 3 began on January 16, 2006 and wrapped in July 2006 after over 100 days of filming. The team filmed in Los Angeles until May 19, 2006. In spring 2006, film location manager Peter Martorano brought camera crews to Cleveland, Ohio, due to the Greater Cleveland Film Commission offering production space at the city's convention center at no cost. In Cleveland, they shot the battle between Spider-Man and Sandman in the armored car. Afterwards, the team moved to Manhattan, where filming took place at various locations, including One Chase Manhattan Plaza, from May 26, 2006, until July 1, 2006. Shooting placed a strain on Raimi, who often had to move between several units to complete the picture. Shooting was also difficult for cinematographer Bill Pope, as the symbiote Spider-Man, Venom, and the New Goblin were costumed in black during fight scenes taking place at night. After August, pick-ups were conducted as Raimi sought to film more action scenes. The film then wrapped in October, although additional special effects shots were taken to finalize the production a month later. In early 2007, there were further pick-up shots regarding the resolution of Sandman's story, amounting to four different versions. ### Visual effects John Dykstra, who won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on Spider-Man 2, declined to work on the third film as visual effects supervisor. Dykstra's colleague, Scott Stokdyk, took his place as supervisor, leading two hundred programmers at Sony Pictures Imageworks. This group designed specific computer programs that did not exist when Spider-Man 3 began production, creating nine hundred visual effects shots. In addition to the innovative visual effects for the film, Stokdyk created a miniature of a skyscraper section at 1:16 scale with New Deal Studios' Ian Hunter and David Sanger. Stokdyk chose to design the miniature instead of using computer-generated imagery so damage done to the building could be portrayed realistically and timely without guesswork involving computer models. In addition to Sony Pictures Imageworks, Cafe FX provided visual effects for the crane disaster scene when Spider-Man rescues Gwen Stacy, as well as shots in the climactic battle. To understand the effects of sand for the Sandman, experiments were done with twelve types of sand, such as splashing, launching it at stuntmen, and pouring it over ledges. The results were mimicked on the computer to create the visual effects for Sandman. For scenes involving visual effects, Thomas Haden Church was super-imposed onto the screen, where computer-generated imagery was then applied. With sand as a possible hazard in scenes that buried actors, ground-up corn-cobs were used as a substitute instead. Because of its resemblance to the substance, sand from Arizona was used as the model for the CGI sand. In a fight where Spider-Man punches through Sandman's chest, amputee martial arts expert Baxter Humby took Tobey Maguire's place in filming the scene. Humby, whose right hand was amputated at birth, helped deliver the intended effect of punching through Sandman's chest. Producer Laura Ziskin said the visual effects budget alone was approximately 30% more than the previous film. Whereas the symbiote suit worn in the comics by Spider-Man was a plain black affair with a large white spider on the front and back, the design was changed for the film to become a black version of Spider-Man's traditional costume, complete with webbing motif. As a consequence of this, the suit Topher Grace wore as Venom also bore the webbing motif; as producer Grant Curtis noted, "it's the Spider-Man suit, but twisted and mangled in its own right." Additionally, the motif gave a sense of life to the symbiote, giving it the appearance of gripping onto the character's body. When animating the symbiote, Raimi did not want it to resemble a spider or an octopus, and to give it a sense of character. The CGI model is made of many separate strands. When animating Venom himself, animators observed footage of big cats such as lions and cheetahs for the character's agile movements. ### Deleted scenes When interviewed at the film's Tokyo premiere on April 16, 2007, Topher Grace said to Access Hollywood that despite liking how the film turned out, he expressed interest in having the rest of his scenes as both Eddie Brock and Venom being restored someday; later adding, "You know what? Spider-Man 3.5, or however they release it. You know, with the extra scenes". Following the release of the film, fan research compiled deleted scenes and archival footage, showing Adrian Lester in the role of Dr. Wallace, a molecular biologist working on a cure for Marko's daughter, and an alternate death scene for Venom attempting to reattach itself to Parker, who in turn would have destroyed the symbiote by yanking down a sling of steel rods and creating a sonic attack (although this was depicted in the film's novelization). ## Music Danny Elfman, the composer for the previous installments, chose not to return for the third installment of Spider-Man because of difficulties with director Sam Raimi. Elfman said that he had a "miserable experience" working with Raimi on Spider-Man 2 and could not comfortably adapt his music. Christopher Young was then announced to score Spider-Man 3 in Elfman's absence. Instead, Elfman chose to work with the 2006 reboot of Charlotte's Web. A few years later, he reunited with Raimi to compose the score for Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). According to Young, Sandman's theme uses "two contrabass saxophones, two contrabass clarinets, two contrabass bassoons and eight very low French horns" in order to sound "low, aggressive and heavy". Young described Venom's theme as "Vicious, my instructions on that one were that he's the devil personified. His theme is much more demonic sounding." Venom's theme uses eight French horns. Raimi approved the new themes during their first performance, but rejected the initial music to the birth of Sandman, finding it too monstrous and not tragic enough. Young had to recompose much of his score at a later stage, as the producers felt there were not enough themes from the previous films. Ultimately, new themes for the love story, Aunt May, and Mary Jane were dropped. ## Marketing On June 28, 2006, the first Spider-Man 3 teaser trailer premiered in theaters with Superman Returns. The first trailer was released in theaters on November 17, 2006 with the debut of Casino Royale and Happy Feet. This was followed by a second trailer, which was unveiled on March 9, 2007, being attached to the screenings of 300. The home video releases of Click and Monster House also contained trailers for Spider-Man 3. In New York City, the hometown of Spider-Man's fictional universe, tourist attractions arranged events and exhibits on April 30, 2007 to lead up to the release of Spider-Man 3. The unique campaign included a spider exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, workshops on baby spider plants at the New York Botanical Garden, a Green Goblin mask-making workshop at the Children's Museum of Manhattan, and a scavenger hunt and bug show at Central Park Zoo. Promotional tie-in partners include Burger King, 7-Eleven, General Mills, Kraft Foods, and Comcast. Hasbro, which holds the license for Marvel characters, released several toys to tie-in with the film. They include a deluxe spinning web blaster, along with several lines of action figures aimed at both children and collectors. Toys of the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus from the first two films have been rereleased to match the smaller scale of the new figures, as have been toys of the Lizard, the Scorpion, Kraven the Hunter, and Rhino in a style reminiscent of the films. Techno Source created interactive toys, including a "hand-held Battle Tronics device that straps to the inside of a player's wrist and mimics Spidey's web-slinging motions". Japanese Medicom Toy Corporation produced collectables, which Sideshow Collectibles distributed in the U.S. A prequel comic was released in June, 2007 and another comic called Spider-Man 3: The Black, which expands the birth of Venom, was released in November, 2007. ## Release ### Theatrical Spider-Man 3 had its world premiere at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills in Tokyo on April 16, 2007. The film held its UK premiere on April 23, 2007 at the Odeon Leicester Square, and the U.S. premiere took place at the Tribeca Film Festival in Queens on April 30, 2007. Spider-Man 3 was commercially released in sixteen territories on May 1, 2007. The film was released in Japan on May 1, 2007, three days prior to the American commercial release, to coincide with Japan's Golden Week. Spider-Man 3 was also released in China on May 3, 2007 to circumvent market growth of unlicensed copies of the film. The studio's release of a film in China before its domestic release was a first for Sony Pictures Releasing International. By May 6, 2007, Spider-Man 3 had opened in 107 countries around the world. The film was commercially released in the United States on May 4, 2007 in a North American record total of 4,253 theaters, including fifty-three IMAX theaters. The record number of theaters was later beaten by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which was released in 4,362 theaters in the United States—109 more than Spider-Man 3. It was the ninth film to play in more than 4,000 theaters upon opening, just after Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2, Shark Tale, Madagascar, Mission: Impossible III, Over the Hedge, Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Tracking data a month before the U.S. release reflected over 90% awareness and over 20% first choice among moviegoers, statistics that estimated an opening weekend of over \$100 million for Spider-Man 3. Online tickets for Spider-Man 3 were reported on April 23, 2007 to have been purchased at a faster rate—three times at Movietickets.com and four times at Fandango—than online ticket sales for Spider-Man 2. On May 2, 2007, Fandango reported the sales rate as six times greater than the rate for Spider-Man 2. The strong ticket sales caused theaters to add 3:00 AM showings following the May 4, 2007 midnight showing to accommodate the demand. The FX channel signed a five-year deal for the television rights to Spider-Man 3, which they began airing in 2009. The price was based on the film's box office performance, with an option for three opportunities for Sony to sell the rights to one or more other broadcast networks. ### Home media Spider-Man 3 was released on Region 4 DVD (anamorphic widescreen) in Australia on September 18, 2007. For Region 2 in the United Kingdom, the film was released on October 15, 2007. Spider-Man 3 was released on DVD in Region 1 territories on October 30, 2007. The film is available in one-disc and two-disc editions, on both standard and Blu-ray formats, as well as packages with the previous films and a PSP release. Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Grant Curtis are among those who contributed to the audio commentaries. Sony announced plans to create "one of the largest" marketing campaigns in Hollywood for the October 30, 2007 release of the DVD. Beginning with a partnership with Papa John's, Sony printed close to 8.5 billion impressions for pizza boxes, television, radio, and online ads. Sony also worked with Pringles Potato Crisp, Blu Tack, Jolly Time Pop Corn, and Nutella. Sony's Vice President of Marketing, Jennifer Anderson, stated the studio spent approximately 15% to 25% of its marketing budget on digital ad campaigns; from this, Papa John's sent text messages to mobile phones with ads. Anderson stated that there would be three sweepstakes held for consumers, where they would be able to win prizes from Sony and its promotional partners. In the United States, the film grossed more than \$125 million on DVD sales. It also grossed more than \$43.76 million on DVD/Home Video Rentals in 11 weeks. However, the DVD sales results of this film did not meet industry expectations. It was ranked in third place on the sales chart, behind I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and Ratatouille. The film's DVD sales were limited due to Sony's decision to bundle the Blu-ray version of the film with its new PlayStation 3 game console and Blu-ray player. Spider-Man 3 was included in The Spider-Man Legacy Collection which includes five major Spider-Man films in a 4K UHD Blu-Ray collection which was released on October 17, 2017. In April 2021, Disney and Sony Pictures reached a multi-year deal to let Sony's titles, including past Spider-Man franchises and SSU content to stream on Hulu and Disney+. A significant number of Sony titles began streaming on Hulu starting in June 2021. It includes films from 2022 onwards. While the deal only concerns the United States, titles from Sony Pictures begun to also be added to Disney+ in regions outside of the U.S., as early as June 2022, starting with the majority of the Spider-Man films. Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy was released on Disney+ on April 21, 2023. #### Spider-Man 3: Editor's Cut (2017) In 2017, Sony released an "editor's cut" of Spider-Man 3 that coincided with the film's 10th anniversary, which is included with the Spider-Man Limited Edition Blu-ray collection on June 13, 2017. The film features unused music from Christopher Young and is two minutes shorter than the theatrical cut. Some scenes are shifted around or have been completely removed, and the film includes 3 new scenes, 3 alternate climax sequences, and 1 extended scene. Spider-Man 3: Editor's Cut was later re-released with the Spider-Man Legacy Collection 4K Blu-ray Box Set. ## Reception ### Box office Spider-Man 3 earned \$336.5 million in North America and \$558.4 million in other countries for a worldwide total of \$894.9 million. Worldwide, it is the third-highest-grossing film of 2007, the highest-grossing film of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and was the highest-grossing film distributed by Sony/Columbia until 2012's Skyfall. The film set a worldwide single-day record (\$104 million) on its first Friday and broke its own record again on Saturday (\$117.6 million). It also set a worldwide opening-weekend record with \$381.7 million, beating Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Spider-Man 3 would hold that record until Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince took it in 2009. The film's IMAX screenings reached \$20 million in 30 days, faster than any other 2D film remastered in the format. In North America, Spider-Man 3 is the 58th-highest-grossing film, the third-highest-grossing film of the Spider-Man series, the third-highest-grossing film distributed by Sony/Columbia, and the highest-grossing 2007 film. The film sold an estimated 48,914,300 tickets. It was released in 4,252 theaters (about 10,300 screens) on Friday, May 4, 2007. This broke the previous record held by Shrek 2 for having the largest number of screenings. It set an opening- and single-day record with \$59.8 million (both were first surpassed by The Dark Knight). This included \$10 million from midnight showings. Spider-Man 3 then set an opening-weekend record with \$151.1 million (first surpassed by The Dark Knight), a record for the weekend per-theater average with \$35,540 per theater (first surpassed by Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert), and an IMAX opening-weekend record with \$4.8 million (first surpassed by The Dark Knight). It would hold the record for having the highest opening weekend for any film featuring Spider-Man until it was surpassed by Captain America: Civil War less than a decade later in 2016. Then in 2022, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness dethroned Spider-Man 3 for having the largest opening weekend for a Sam Raimi film. The film set record Friday and Sunday grosses and achieved the largest cumulative gross through its second, third, and fourth day of release (all were first surpassed by The Dark Knight). It also set a record Saturday gross (surpassed by Marvel's The Avengers). When the film was released, it was ranked in first place at the box office, just ahead of Disturbia. It would also dominate films that were released during the 2007 spring season, such as Meet the Robinsons, Fracture and Blades of Glory. When Shrek the Third opened two weeks later, Spider-Man 3 dropped into second place. Outside North America, it is the 23rd-highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing film of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and the third-highest-grossing film distributed by Sony/Columbia. On its opening day (Tuesday, May 1, 2007), Spider-Man 3 grossed \$29.2 million from 16 territories, an 86% increase from the intake of Spider-Man 2 on its first day of release. In 10 of the 16 territories, Spider-Man 3 set new opening-day records. These territories are Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, France, and Italy. In Germany, the film surpassed the opening day gross of Spider-Man 2. It also crushed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire's record for scoring the biggest opening day in France, earning \$6.8 million. Spider-Man 3 had the third-highest opening of any film in Austria, after The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Its Japanese opening generated a total of \$3.7 million, making it the country's highest Tuesday gross of any film, breaking the former record held by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Meanwhile, in the UK, the film had the third-highest opening of any film in the country, trailing only behind Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. During its six-day opening weekend (through its first Sunday), the film earned \$230.5 million from 107 markets, finishing \#1 in all of them. Spider-Man 3 set opening-weekend records in 29 markets including Italy, China, South Korea (the latter was first surpassed by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End), India, Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru. However, many of these records were achieved thanks to its six-day opening, while previous record-holders in some countries opened over the traditional three-day weekend (traditional two-, four-, or five-day weekend in other countries). In India, it grossed \$16.4 million and was the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2007 there. Russia and Ukraine both earned \$7.4 million from 671 screens, dethroning The Da Vinci Code. Moreover, five Asian countries had overturned a ten-year record that was held by The Lost World: Jurassic Park. As for South Korea, Spider-Man 3 crossed over The Matrix Reloaded for a local currency mark for a Hollywood release, as well as surpassing The Host. In Japan, it earned a total of \$26.5 million, kicking the previous record held by The Matrix Reloaded. It was ranked in first place at the box office outside North America for three consecutive weekends. ### Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Spider-Man 3 holds approval rating based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "Though there are more characters and plotlines, and the action sequences still dazzle, Spider-Man 3 nonetheless isn't quite as refined as the first two." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100 based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times deplored the film's pacing as "mostly just plods" and said it lacked humor. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a two out of four stars, feeling, "for every slam-bang action sequence, there are far too many sluggish scenes". David Edelstein of New York magazine misses the "centrifugal threat" of Alfred Molina's character, adding that "the three villains here don't add up to one Doc Ock" (referring to Molina's portrayal of the character in Spider-Man 2). James Berardinelli felt director Sam Raimi "overreached his grasp" by allowing so many villains, specifically saying, "Venom is one bad guy too many". Roger Ebert, who gave Spider-Man 2 a glowing review, gave the sequel two out of four stars and thought Church never expressed how Sandman felt about his new powers, something Molina, as Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2, did "with a vengeance"; he said the film was "a mess," with too many villains, subplots, romantic misunderstandings, conversations and "street crowds looking high into the air and shouting 'oooh!' this way, then swiveling and shouting 'aaah!' that way". The New Yorker's Anthony Lane, who gave Spider-Man 2 a favorable review, gave the film a negative review, characterizing the film as a "shambles" which "makes the rules up as it goes along". Roger Friedman of Fox News called the film a "4-star opera", noting that while long, there was plenty of humor and action. Andy Khouri of Comic Book Resources praised the film as "easily the most complex and deftly orchestrated superhero epic ever filmed ... despite the enormous amount of characters, action and sci-fi superhero plot going on in this film, Spider-Man 3 never feels weighted down, tedious or boring". Jonathan Ross, a big fan of the comic books, felt the film was the best of the trilogy. Richard Corliss of Time commended the filmmakers for their ability to "dramatize feelings of angst and personal betrayal worthy of an Ingmar Bergman film, and then to dress them up in gaudy comic-book colors". Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe, who gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, wrote that it was a well-made, fresh film, but would leave the viewer "overfulfilled". Jonathan Dean of Total Film felt the film's complex plot helped the film's pacing, in that, "it rarely feels disjointed or loose ... Spider-Man cements its shelf-life". IGN critic Todd Gilchrist felt that the film served as a satisfying conclusion to the series, and ultimately rated it with eight stars out of ten. Entertainment Weekly named the Sandman as the eighth best computer-generated film character. John Hartl of MSNBC gave Spider-Man 3 a positive review, but stated that it has some flaws such as having "too many storylines". His opinion is echoed by Houston Chronicle's Amy Biancolli who complained that "the script is busy with so many supporting characters and plot detours that the series' charming idiosyncrasy is sometimes lost in the noise". Jack Matthews of Daily News thought the film was too devoted to the "quiet conversations" of Peter and Mary Jane, but that fans would not be disappointed by the action. Finally, Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly felt that the director "substituted scope and scale for the warmth and wit that made those two previous pictures so memorable". ### Legacy Raimi himself would later call the film "awful" during a 2014 interview. In 2018, Avi Arad accepted responsibility for pushing Raimi to include Venom in the film, and how the end result had disappointed many fans of the character, saying "I think we learned that Venom is not a sideshow. In all fairness, I'll take the guilt because of what Sam Raimi used to say in all of these interviews feeling guilty that I forced him into it". In 2021, Raimi acknowledged that the negative internet reaction to Spider-Man 3 at the time felt "awful" and had been difficult for him to take, but when his agent told him that he was being considered by Marvel Studios to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), he wondered if he could do another superhero film but ultimately decided to direct the film. Following its initial mixed reception, Spider-Man 3 has gained widespread meme popularity on social media, becoming the subject of some fan reappraisal as well. Peter Parker's corrupted personality under the Venom symbiote has been nicknamed "Bully Maguire" or "Emo Peter Parker" and has helped increase the popularity of the film. The character's strutting the streets during the film's montage scene was used as an option content on Destiny 2. Screen Rant cited Sandman (along with Doctor Octopus), as the best villain of the trilogy, while The Washington Post ranked him the sixth best villain of all the live-action Spider-Man films. Em Casalena of Screen Rant reassessed it as the fifth most underrated superhero film ever made. MovieWeb cited it the best film that Sam Raimi directed, while Paste Magazine ranked it the 63rd best superhero movie of all time. ### Accolades Both the 35th Annie Awards and 61st British Academy Film Awards gave this movie one nomination, the former for Best Animated Effects and the latter for Best Special Visual Effects. Spider-Man 3 did not win any of the four Visual Effects Society Awards nominations it received. Dunst's and Maguire's performances earned them each one nomination from the National Movie Awards. She also received another nomination for Favorite Movie Actress from the 2008 Kids' Choice Awards ceremony. The movie fared better at the Teen Choice Awards, amounting a total of seven nominations, varying from Choice Movie Villain (for Grace) to Choice Movie Dance (for Maguire) and Choice Movie Liplock (shared between Maguire and Dunst). ## Future ### Cancelled sequels In 2007, Spider-Man 4 entered development, with Raimi attached to direct and Maguire, Dunst and other cast members set to reprise their roles. Both a fourth and a fifth film were planned and at one time the idea of shooting the two sequels concurrently was under consideration. Raimi said in March 2009 that only the fourth film was in development at that time and that if there were fifth and sixth films, those two films would actually be a continuation of each other. James Vanderbilt was hired in October 2007 to pen the screenplay after initial reports in January 2007 that Sony Pictures was in contact with David Koepp, who wrote the first Spider-Man film. The script was subsequently rewritten by Pulitzer-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire in November 2008 and rewritten again by Gary Ross in October 2009. Sony also engaged Vanderbilt to write scripts for Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6. A spin-off featuring Spider-Man 3's version of the Venom character was also planned; this never materialized, though a Venom film featuring a different version of the character was eventually produced and released in 2018. In 2007, Raimi expressed interest in portraying the transformation of Dr. Curt Connors into his villainous alter-ego, the Lizard, a villain which had been teased since Spider-Man 2; the character's actor Dylan Baker and producer Grant Curtis were also enthusiastic about the idea. By December 2009, John Malkovich was in negotiations to play Vulture and Anne Hathaway would play Felicia Hardy, though she would not have transformed into the Black Cat as in the comics but a new superpowered figure, the Vulturess. Raimi later clarified in a 2013 interview that Hathaway would have portrayed Black Cat if Spider-Man 4 had been made. Sony Pictures announced in January 2010 that plans for Spider-Man 4 had been canceled due to Raimi's withdrawal from the project. Raimi reportedly ended his participation due to his doubt that he could meet the planned May 6, 2011 release date while at the same time upholding the film creatively. Raimi purportedly went through four iterations of the script with different screenwriters and still "hated it". Following the appearance of Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a fan campaign has been trending on Twitter under the name \#MakeRaimiSpiderMan4, calling for Sony to make a fourth film in the Spider-Man series directed by Sam Raimi with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. Raimi later expressed interest in doing so in April 2022, noting that another sequel to his Spider-Man trilogy was possible after the introduction of the Multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home and his MCU film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). He stated the next month that he had no plans to direct Spider-Man 4, but would do so if offered the opportunity to direct a story he approved of. ### Reboot and unproduced films A reboot of the series titled The Amazing Spider-Man was released on July 4, 2012, with Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. A sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, was released on May 2, 2014. Following the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, leaked information from the hack indicated that prior to the cancellation of future The Amazing Spider-Man films, Sony was in talks with Sam Raimi about having him direct Spider-Man vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, a multiversal crossover film featuring Garfield's Spider-Man encounter Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man (with Maguire reprising his role), as well as a new film trilogy starring Maguire (following Garfield's firing) as a middle-aged Spider-Man years after the events of Spider-Man 3; these plans were ultimately scrapped in favor of a Marvel Studios-produced reboot set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), beginning with Captain America: Civil War (2016), with Tom Holland cast as Spider-Man. Sam Raimi directed the Marvel Studios film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) which sparked interest into making his unproduced Spider-Man 4 a reality. However, details and confirmations of this reprisal currently remains unknown. ### Marvel Cinematic Universe Following the underwhelming critical and commercial reception of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony and Marvel Studios announced in February 2015 that a new iteration of Spider-Man would appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the character appearing in Captain America: Civil War. As part of the agreement, Sony Pictures continued to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films. Marvel Studios and Sony will explore opportunities to integrate other characters of the MCU into future Spider-Man films. Sony released a standalone film titled Spider-Man: Homecoming, produced by Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal, on July 7, 2017 with Tom Holland starring as the new Spider-Man. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) continues the story arc of the MCU's iteration of Spider-Man in addition to using the multiverse to link the Marvel Studios films with Sony Pictures' preceding Spider-Man film franchises from Sam Raimi and Marc Webb. Maguire, Dafoe and Church all reprised their respective roles as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, Norman Osborn / Green Goblin and Flint Marko / Sandman from Spider-Man 3, appearing in supporting roles alongside other actors from previous films based on the characters outside the MCU's cast, including the Sam Raimi trilogy's version of Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2, reprised by Alfred Molina. They are joined by Andrew Garfield, Jamie Foxx and Rhys Ifans, who reprise their respective roles as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, Maxwell Dillon / Electro and Curt Connors / Lizard from Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man films.
369,656	Julia Domna	1,171,599,583	Roman empress consort from 193 to 211	[ "160 births", "217 deaths", "2nd-century Arab people", "2nd-century Roman empresses", "3rd-century Arab people", "3rd-century Roman empresses", "Ancient Roman women in warfare", "Arabs in the Roman Empire", "Burials at the Castel Sant'Angelo", "Deified Roman empresses", "Emesene dynasty", "Family of Septimius Severus", "Julii", "People from Homs", "People of Roman Syria", "Severan dynasty", "Suicides in Ancient Rome", "Women in 2nd-century warfare" ]	Julia Domna (; c. 160 – 217 AD) was Roman empress from 193 to 211 as the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. She was the first empress of the Severan dynasty. Domna was born in Emesa (present-day Homs) in Roman Syria to an Arab family of priests of the deity Elagabalus. In 187, she married Severus, who at the time was governor of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. They had two sons, Caracalla and Geta. A civil war over the Roman throne broke out in 193, and shortly afterwards Severus declared himself emperor. The war ended in 197 with the defeat of the last of Severus's opponents. As empress, Domna was famous for her political, social, and philosophical influence. She received titles such as "Mother of the Invincible Camps". After the elder of her sons, Caracalla, started ruling with his father, she was briefly co-empress with Caracalla's wife, Fulvia Plautilla, until the latter fell into disgrace. Following the death of Severus in 211, Domna became the first empress dowager to receive the title combination "Pia Felix Augusta", which may have implied greater powers being vested in her than what was usual for a Roman empress mother. Her sons succeeded to the throne. They had a conflictual relationship and Domna acted as their mediator, but Caracalla had his brother Geta assassinated later that year. Domna committed suicide in 217 upon hearing of Caracalla's assassination in the course of his campaign against Parthia, on which she had accompanied him to Antioch (present-day Antakya, Turkey). After the death of Domna, her older sister Julia Maesa successfully restored the Severan dynasty to power in 218. ## Family background Julia Domna was born in Emesa (modern day Homs) in Syria around 160 AD to an Arab family that was part of the Emesene dynasty. Her name, Domna, is an archaic Arabic word meaning "black", referencing the nature of the sun god Elagabalus which took the form of a black stone. She was the youngest daughter of the high priest of Baal, Julius Bassianus, and sister to Julia Maesa. Through Maesa and her husband Julius Avitus, Domna had two nieces: Julia Soaemias and Julia Mamaea, the respective mothers of future Roman emperors Elagabalus (r. 218–222) and Severus Alexander (r. 222–235). Domna's ancestors were priest kings of the temple of Elagabalus. The family had enormous wealth and was promoted to Roman senatorial aristocracy. Before her marriage, Domna inherited the estate of her paternal great-uncle Julius Agrippa, a former leading centurion. ### Marriage The Historia Augusta, a generally unreliable source, relates that, after losing his first wife around 186, politician Septimius Severus heard a foretelling of a woman in Syria who would marry a king. So Severus sought her as his wife. This woman was Domna. Bassianus accepted Severus' marriage proposal in early 187, and in the summer the couple married in Lugdunum (modern-day Lyon, France), of which Severus was the governor. The marriage proved happy, and Severus cherished Domna and her political opinions. Domna built "the most splendid reputation" by applying herself to letters and philosophy. She gave birth to their two sons, Lucius Septimius Bassianus in 188 in Lugdunum, and Publius Septimius Geta the following year in Rome. ## Civil war After the Roman emperor Commodus was murdered without an heir in 192, many contenders rushed for the throne, including Domna's husband Severus. An elder senator, Pertinax, was appointed by the Praetorian Guard as the new emperor of Rome. But when Pertinax would not meet the Guard's demands, he too was murdered. Another politician, Didius Julianus, was called to Rome and appointed emperor. Severus, coming from the north into Rome, overthrew Julianus and had him executed. Severus claimed the title of emperor in 193. By offering Clodius Albinus, a powerful governor of Britannia, the rank of Caesar (successor), Severus could focus on his other rival to the throne, Pescennius Niger, whom he defeated at the Battle of Issus in 194. When afterwards Severus openly declared his son Caracalla as his successor, Clodius Albinus was hailed emperor by his troops. At the Battle of Lugdunum in 197, Severus defeated and killed Albinus, establishing himself as Emperor. Thus, Domna became Empress-consort. ## Power and influence Unlike most imperial wives, Domna remarkably accompanied her husband on his military campaigns and stayed in camp with the army. As worded by Barbara Levick, Domna "was to exceed all other empresses in the number and variety of her official titles." Honorary titles were granted to Domna similar to those given to Faustina the Younger, including "Mother of the Invincible Camps", and Mater Augustus (Mother of Augustus). She was respected and viewed positively for most of her tenure, as indicated by coins minted with her portrait that mention her titles or simply refer to her as "Julia Augusta". The title Pia Felix Augusta () which she received after Severus' death was "perhaps a way of implying that Domna had absorbed and was continuing her husband's attributes" after his death. Several medallions for Domna were issued by Severus as early as 207, on the reverses of which is "Vesta Mater" (Mother Vesta), which, according to Molly M. Lindner, "could refer to an invocation to Vesta during prayers and supplications that the Vestal Virgins made whenever they prayed publicly". According to Lindner, > While some scholars have proposed that Julia Domna's medallions commemorate the restoration of the Temple of Vesta by the empress, Melanie Grunow Sobocinski pointed out that [the temple] burned down in 191, whereas Julia Domna's use of Vestal iconography does not occur until 207. Either the reconstruction of [the temple] took more than fifteen years, or Julia Domna had a different motivation, perhaps one connected to her role as the mother of Septimius Severus' heirs, as the legend on the reverses suggests. ## Transition of power When Severus died in 211 in Eboracum (York), Domna became the mediator between their two sons, Caracalla and Geta, who were supposed to rule as joint emperors, according to their father's wishes expressed in his will. However, the two young men had a discordant relationship, and Geta was murdered by Caracalla's soldiers in December of the same year. Geta's name was then removed from inscriptions and his image erased as the result of a damnatio memoriae. As explained by Caillan Davenport: > [Caracalla] spent the majority of his reign outside Rome, departing the city in late 212 or early 213 for a campaign against the Alemanni on the Rhine, for which he claimed the title Germanicus Maximus. After a rocky—and near fatal—crossing of the Hellespont, the emperor and his court established themselves at Nicomedia in Bithynia during the winter of 213/4. Caracalla's mother, Julia Domna, accompanied her son on his provincial tour. There is only circumstantial evidence for her presence in Germany, but she was certainly at court in Nicomedia, and later resided at Antioch in 216 . ### Death In 217, Caracalla began a new war with Parthia. Domna went with Caracalla as far as Antioch. There she stayed, helping to deal with his correspondence, while he went on to the frontier. During the campaign, Caracalla was assassinated by a Roman soldier. Domna chose to commit suicide after hearing about the rebellion, perhaps a decision hastened by the fact that she was suffering from breast cancer, as well as a reluctance to return to private life. Her sister, Julia Maesa, restored the Severan dynasty in 218. Domna's body was brought to Rome and placed in the Sepulcrum C. et L. Caesaris (perhaps a separate chamber in the Mausoleum of Augustus). Later, however, both her bones and those of Geta were transferred by Maesa to the Mausoleum of Hadrian. ## Legacy Domna encouraged Philostratus to write the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, but is thought to have died before he finished the eight-volume work. She also influenced Roman fashion: the hairstyle that she used would later be worn by Roman empress Cornelia Salonina and Palmyran queen Zenobia. Domna seems to have made the wearing of wigs, a custom of Assyrians, popular among Romans. ## Severan dynasty family tree
14,449,114	Dan Dworsky	1,157,091,321	American architect (1927–2022)	[ "1927 births", "2022 deaths", "20th-century American architects", "21st-century American Jews", "American football centers", "American wrestlers", "Architects from California", "Jewish American sportspeople", "Jewish architects", "Los Angeles Dons players", "Michigan Wolverines football players", "Players of American football from Los Angeles", "Players of American football from Minneapolis", "Players of American football from South Dakota", "Sportspeople from Sioux Falls, South Dakota", "Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning alumni" ]	Daniel Leonard Dworsky (October 4, 1927 – January 19, 2022) was an American architect who was a longstanding member of the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. Among other works, Dworsky designed Crisler Arena, the basketball arena at the University of Michigan named for Dworsky's former football coach, Fritz Crisler. Other professional highlights include designing Drake Stadium at UCLA, the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles and the Block M seating arrangement at Michigan Stadium. He is also known for a controversy with Frank Gehry over the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Previously, Dworsky was an American football linebacker, fullback and center who played professional football for the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1949, and college football for the Michigan Wolverines from 1945 to 1948. He was an All-American on Michigan's undefeated national championship teams in 1947 and 1948. ## College football at the University of Michigan Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1927, Dworsky lived in the Twin Cities and Sioux Falls, South Dakota before attending the University of Michigan. Dworsky was a four-year starter for Fritz Crisler's Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1945 to 1948. He played linebacker, fullback, and center for the Michigan Wolverines and was a key player on the undefeated 1947 and 1948 Michigan football teams that won consecutive national championships. The 1947 team, anchored by Len Ford, Alvin Wistert, Dworsky and Rick Kempthorn, has been described as the best team in the history of Michigan football. Dworsky won a total of six varsity letters at Michigan, four in football and two in wrestling where he competed in the heavyweight division. Dworsky is among the famous Jews in football, and has been extensively profiled in encyclopedic Jewish publications. Dworsky married the former Sylvia Ann Taylor on August 10, 1957. The couple has three children: Douglas, Laurie and Nancy. They resided in Los Angeles. ### 1947 season The 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team went 10–0 and outscored their opponents 394 to 53. Dworsky led a defensive unit that gave up an average of 5.3 points per game and shut out Michigan State (55–0), Pitt (60–0), Indiana (35–0), Ohio State (21–0), and USC (49–0). He also played fullback and center for the 1947 team and was named a third team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association. In a 1988 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Dworsky described the 1947 team's defensive scheme as follows: "We were an intelligent team and we had some complex defenses, the nature of which you see today. I called the defensive signals and we would shift people, looping, or stunting." After going undefeated and winning the Big Ten championship, Michigan was invited to Pasadena to face the USC Trojans in the 1948 Rose Bowl—the Wolverines' first bowl game since 1901. Just before Christmas, the team boarded a train in Ann Abor for a three-day trip across the country. With little to do on the train, Alvin Wistert recalled that Dworsky entertained the team with music. "Dan Dworsky was a piano player. We'd gather around and sing. There was a piano in the last car." After the long trip, the Wolverines beat the Trojans 49–0. Dworsky recalled that the coaching staff did an excellent job of scouting the Trojans. "When we went to the Rose Bowl, we had USC down pat. We knew their system as well as they did." The Trojans gained only 91 yards rushing and 42 yards passing, moving past midfield only twice. Dworsky played center during the Rose Bowl, blocking USC's All-American tackle (and future Los Angeles city councilman), John Ferraro. In Dworsky's collegiate days, the final national rankings were determined before the bowl games. At the end of the regular season in 1947, Michigan was ranked No. 2 behind Notre Dame, but after defeating USC 49–0 in the Rose Bowl, the Associated Press held a special poll, and Michigan replaced Notre Dame as the national champion by a vote of 226 to 119. Dworsky later noted, "Notre Dame still claims that national championship and so do we." ### 1948 season The 1948 Michigan Wolverines football team went 9–0 and outscored their opponents 252 to 44. The defensive unit led by Dworsky held its opponents to just 4.9 points per game, including shutouts against Oregon (14–0), Purdue (40–0), Northwestern (28–0), Navy (35–0), and Indiana (54–0). The 1948 Wolverines finished the season ranked No. 1 by the AP, but Big Ten Conference rules prohibited a team from playing in the Rose Bowl two years in a row. Dworsky did, however, play in the 1948 Blue–Gray All Star game. ### Relationship with Fritz Crisler Dworsky was a four-year starter under Michigan's legendary coach, Fritz Crisler. Dworsky later said that Crisler's "real genius" was in blending all the elements. The 1947 championship team included several older veteran players who had returned from military service. Dworsky recalled: "About half of us were 18-year old kids, and half were veterans. We had guys who were serious guys and guys who were excitable. Fritz struck a balance, so we never had to be pushed, but we never lost our focus either." Dworsky recalled: "Crisler was not only an intellectual in strategy, but also in the way he ran practices.... He ran practices rigidly and we called him 'The Lord'. He would allow it to rain, or not. He was a Douglas MacArthur-type figure, handsome and rigid.... I sculpted him and gave him the bust in 1971." Dworsky also kept another bust of Crisler in his office. ## Professional football with the Los Angeles Dons In 1949, Dworsky was the first round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference. The Dons were the first professional football team in Los Angeles. Dworsky played eleven games with the Dons in 1949, his only season in professional football. Dworsky played linebacker and blocking back for the Dons and had one interception and one kick return for 14 yards. The AAFC disbanded after the 1949 season, and Dworsky turned down an offer from the Pittsburgh Steelers to return to the University of Michigan where he graduated in 1950 with a degree in architecture. Dworsky later noted: "It was a toss-up whether I would become a pro football player or an architect. Being a linebacker is good conditioning for a young designer. You learn to block the bull coming at you from all sides." ## Career as an architect ### Overview of Dworsky's practice After receiving his degree in architecture in 1950, Dworsky moved to Los Angeles and served as an apprentice in the early 1950s with prominent local early modernists William Pereira, Raphael Soriano, and Charles Luckman. In 1953, Dworsky began his own architecture firm in Los Angeles, known as Dworsky Associates. The firm grew into one of the most prominent architectural firms in California, creating major public buildings in California. Dworsky Associates won the 1984 Firm of the Year Award from the California Council of the American Institute of Architects. In September 2000, Dworsky Associates merged with CannonDesign and ceased to operate as an independent firm. ### Architectural style Dworsky belongs to the generation of post-World War II modernists that took its cues from the 1920s German Bauhaus and the French-Swiss master Le Corbusier. In 1988, Dworsky noted: "I am most intrigued by the essential mystery of architecture. For me, built space will always be a kind of theater, a stage on which life is played, and played out. That's why I keep on being an architect. Asked what inspires his architecture, Dworsky said he draws from the "solid, resolved concepts" of modern designers such as Le Corbusier and Marcel Bruer, while being encouraged on occasion to experiment by such "new wave" designers as Frank Gehry and Eric Owen Moss. ### Crisler Arena and the Block "M" Dworsky's first major commission was to design a basketball arena for his alma mater, the University of Michigan. The members of the 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team had reunions with Fritz Crisler every five years in Ann Arbor, and it was at one of those reunions that Crisler (by then the school's athletic director) gave Dworsky one of his big breaks, asking him to design the arena. Built in 1967, the arena was named Crisler Arena, as a tribute to the coach. Dworsky's design of the arena was well received and was said to demonstrate "his ability to combine majesty of scale with human accessibility". The roof of Crisler Arena is made of two plates, each weighing approximately 160 tons. The bridge-like construction allows them to expand or contract given the change of seasons or the weight of the snow. Crisler Arena remains the home of Michigan's basketball team and houses memorabilia and trophies from all Wolverine varsity athletic teams. In 1965, the wooden benches at Michigan Stadium were replaced with blue fiberglass benches. Dworsky designed a yellow "Block M" for the stands on the eastern side of the stadium, just above the tunnel. ### Drake Stadium at UCLA After his work on Crisler Arena, Dworsky was commissioned by UCLA to design a track and field stadium on the university's central campus. Dworsky designed the stadium, known as Drake Stadium. Since its inaugural meet on February 22, 1969, the stadium has been the site of numerous championship meets, including the National AAU track & field championships in 1976, 1977, and 1978. It is also used each year for special campus events, such as the annual UCLA Commencement Exercises in June. ### Walt Disney Concert Hall controversy In February 1989, the Walt Disney Concert Hall Committee selected Dworsky as executive architect to work with designated architect Frank Gehry in designing the future home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Dworsky was selected to translate Gehry's conceptual designs into working drawings that would meet building code specifications. By 1994, the cost of the project had skyrocketed to \$160 million (it eventually reached \$274 million), and controversy halted the project. By 1996, a major donor was sought to complete the project by 2001 (four years behind schedule). Gehry and his design came under fire, and some considered him a spoiled, impractical artist. Gehry publicly blamed Dworsky: "The executive architect was incapable of doing drawings that had this complexity. We helped select that firm. I went to Daniel, supposedly a friend, and I said, 'This is going to fail and we now have the capability to do it, so let us ghost-write it.'" Dworsky refused. Gehry was also quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying: "We had the wrong executive architect doing the drawings. I helped pick him, I'm partly responsible. It brought us to a stop."" Gehry told Los Angeles magazine in 1996 that he "no longer speaks to his former friend (Dworsky)". Gehry continued his public attacks on Dworsky: "He (Dworsky) made a lot of money. He begged me for the job. I'd like to shoot him." Dworsky was eventually told to stop working on the drawings before he completed them, but he defended himself against Gehry's criticism. "Knowledgeable people were supportive of us. They were saying it's a very complex and unusual design, and they can understand the difficulties in trying to achieve this within a limited budget and a limited schedule. It was unfortunate that Frank came out with his criticism, but he was the center of the storm, having designed the building, and he was just trying to lessen the blame on himself." Dworsky also told the Los Angeles Times: "This is a one-of-a-kind building. You just don't simply open up the plans and understand them quickly." Dworsky's allies refer to Gehry's work as "confusing". Disney Hall official Frederick M. Nicholas also defended Dworsky's work against Gehry's attacks, denying that there were any problems with the Dworsky drawings not attributable to fast-tracking. Nicholas said: "They were not 'bad' drawings. It was a question of the subs not understanding them." ## Personal life and death Dworsky died in Los Angeles on January 19, 2022, at the age of 94. ## Major works The major works credited to Dworsky and his firm include the following: - The Jerry Lewis Neuromuscular Research Center at UCLA (1979). - The Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (1984). - A 35 acres (0.055 sq mi; 0.142 km<sup>2</sup>) planned community complex for the California School for the Blind in Fremont, California. The design won a merit award from the California AIA. - The Theater Arts Building at California State University Dominguez Hills. Dworsky cited the theater as one of his favorite projects. Photograph of Building - The Angelus Plaza residential complex in the Bunker Hill area of downtown Los Angeles (1982) Photograph of Building - The Ventura County Jail. - The Los Angeles Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank located at Grand Avenue and Olympic Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles (1987). Dworsky Associates won several awards for its design of the 304,000 square feet (28,200 m<sup>2</sup>), \$50 million building. Photograph of Building - The Northrop Electronics Division Headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Dworsky Associates received a Gold Nugget Grand Award for Best Commercial Office Building and top honors in the Crescent Architecture Awards competition for the design. - The Kilroy Airport Center in Long Beach, California, a complex of office buildings fronting the 405 Freeway with direct runway access to the Long Beach Airport for private aircraft (1987). Photograph of Building - The Westwood Terrace building on Sepulveda Boulevard in West Los Angeles, California occupied by New World Entertainment.Photograph of Building - The 20-story City Tower in Orange, California near the intersection of the Garden Grove (22) and Santa Ana (5) freeways in Orange County. Photograph of Building - The Home Savings building on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, California. - The Metropolitan, a 14-story upscale rental complex in downtown Los Angeles’ South Park area. - The Van Nuys Municipal Court building in Van Nuys, California. Dworsky Associates received the Kaufman & Broad Award for Outstanding New Public or Civic Project for the design. - The Federal Office Building in Long Beach, California. Dworsky Associates was awarded a 1992 Design Award from the General Services Administration for its design of the federal building. - The renovation of the Carnation Building at 5055 Wilshire Boulevard in Hollywood. The renovated building was occupied by The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and other entertainment industry companies. - The Beverly Hills Main Post Office in Beverly Hills, California. Dworsky Associates received a Beautification Award from the Los Angeles Business Council for the design. - The San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp, California. Shortly after the prison opened, six prisoners escaped after cutting through a one-inch bar in the dayroom with a hacksaw. The prison break led to finger-pointing among the construction firm, the architect, and the prison guards over who was responsible for the lapse in security. - The UC Riverside Alumni and Visitors Center (1996). Photographs - The Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, a project on which Dworsky Associates teamed with New Mexico architect Antoine Predock. The New Mexico chapter of the AIA gave Predock and Dworsky Associates an award in 1996 for their work on the Civic Arts Plaza. - The Calexico Port of Entry building in Calexico, California. The innovative design won the highest award from the California AIA, and it won a Presidential Design Award from President Bill Clinton. Photos and Drawings of Award Winning Calexico Port of Entry - Beckman Hall at Chapman University in Orange, California (1999). Photograph of Building - The Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas, Nevada (2000). Photographs of Courthouse - The Hollywood-Highland station on the Metro B Line in the heart of Hollywood. Photograph of Station - Ventura County Government Center Complex ## Awards and honors Dworsky has received numerous national, regional and community awards for design excellence, including the following: - Dworsky's numerous award-winning projects in his first 14 years of practice led to his election to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows at the early age of 41. - Gold Medal Award from the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects - Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service from the American Institute of Architects, California Council, awarded in 2004. In granting the award, the Council noted that Dworsky had "made a major, positive impact on California architecture" and his "strong, simple sculpted work has provided a compelling statement for California architecture the past half century". - He was voted one of the twelve most distinguished architects in Los Angeles. - Dworsky Associates won the 1984 Firm of the Year Award from the American Institute of Architects, California Council, for "excellence in design of distinguished architecture" and reaching for a livelier style beyond the boundaries of conventional modernism. - He was honored by the Southern California Institute of Architecture in May 1986 for his professional accomplishments and his efforts on behalf of the school's scholarship program. - Dworsky was awarded a \$3.5 million grant by the California Board of Corrections in 1982 to study the idea of the modular jail. - Dworsky served on the Architectural Evaluation Board for the County of Los Angeles. - Dworsky also served on the board of directors and the "directors circle" of the Southern California Institute of Architecture.
2,737,829	Bedtime Story (Madonna song)	1,164,287,777	1995 single by Madonna	[ "1994 songs", "1995 singles", "Madonna songs", "Maverick Records singles", "Music videos directed by Mark Romanek", "Music videos shot in the United States", "Sire Records singles", "Song recordings produced by Madonna", "Song recordings produced by Nellee Hooper", "Songs written by Björk", "Songs written by Marius de Vries", "Songs written by Nellee Hooper", "Warner Records singles" ]	"Bedtime Story" is a song by American singer Madonna from her sixth studio album, Bedtime Stories (1994). It was released as the third single from the album on February 13, 1995, by Maverick Records. The song was written by Björk, Nellee Hooper and Marius De Vries; it was the only time Björk wrote a song for a Madonna album. She re-wrote a demo of the song to the current version, which was then produced by Madonna and Hooper. A mid-tempo electronic and house song with acid, ambient and techno influences, "Bedtime Story" has an underlying skeletal synth melody influenced by minimal trance music. The track's unconventional, electronic sound was a departure from the pop-R&B-based tracks throughout the rest of the album. Lyrically, the song talks about the joys of the unconscious world. "Bedtime Story" received favorable reviews from music critics, who praised the song's hypnotic and electronic style, and deemed it an underrated song which could have had great potential. Commercially, the single reached the top-ten in the record charts of the United Kingdom, Italy and Australia, but missed the top 40 in the United States, while peaking at number one on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. The accompanying music video for "Bedtime Story" was directed by Mark Romanek and is listed as one of the most expensive music videos of all time with a cost of \$5 million (\$ million in dollars). It features surrealistic and new age imagery, with influences from artists such as Remedios Varo, Frida Kahlo and Leonora Carrington. The video received acclaim from critics and is permanently displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. "Bedtime Story" was performed at the 1995 Brit Awards in London with Madonna wearing a silver Versace dress and long blonde extensions, becoming one of the 30 best moments of the awards show history according to Marie Claire. A remixed version of the song was also used as a video interlude on her Re-Invention World Tour in 2004. Critics and scholars noted that the song foreshadowed Madonna's move towards electronic music in her future work. ## Background and release According to Lucy O'Brien in her book Madonna: Like an Icon, Madonna wanted to "make an impact" on the soul music scene, and started working with prominent producers from the R&B market. Madonna also wanted to explore British club music scene, where genres such as dub had been growing in popularity. She decided to work with several European producers and composers from the electronic scene, including Nellee Hooper, who pleased Madonna due to his "very European sensibility". Inviting Hooper over to Los Angeles, writing sessions started taking place in Chappell Studios, Encino, California. "Bedtime Story" was written by Hooper, Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk, and Marius De Vries, and co-produced by Madonna and Hooper. According to author Mark Pytlik in his book Björk: Wow and Flutter, Madonna was inspired at that time by Björk's album Debut (1993). Through her connections with De Vries and Hooper, Madonna got in touch with Björk and offered her a chance to write a track for Bedtime Stories. Björk did not consider herself a fan of Madonna's music, but she was intrigued by the offer and she accepted it. Bjork stated in a live interview prior to the MTV music awards that she'd never met Madonna, and explained, "basically she asked my friend [Marius De Vries] for a song, and my friend asked me to help him... no offence to Madonna, but I did it more as a present to my friend". Bjork wrote a song initially named "Let's Get Unconscious", with the opening lyrics "Today is the last day, that I'm using words"—the lines being born out of Björk's own criticism of Madonna's aesthetic. The singer clarified, "When I was offered to write a song for [Madonna], I couldn't really picture me doing a song that would suit her... But on second thought, I decided to do this to write the things I have always wanted to hear her say that she's never said." Once the song demo had been finished, De Vries and Hooper rearranged the track and the final version was called "Bedtime Story". The song was eventually released as the third single from the parent album, Bedtime Stories, on February 13, 1995. Björk later confessed that Madonna had got few of the lyrics wrong — like, instead of the original "learning logic and reason", Madonna included it as "leaving logic and reason". The original demo was later re-worked and released as "Sweet Intuition", which appeared as a B-side on Björk's "Army of Me" single and remixed on the "It's Oh So Quiet" single. On March 19, 2021, Madonna released the Bedtime Story EP to all digital and streaming outlets. ## Recording and composition "Bedtime Story" is an electronic song, a notable departure from the other tracks on its parent album, which are more R&B and new jack swing-driven. Unlike Madonna's more up-tempo, melodic work, the song is slower and has less melody but a more complex rhythmic structure. It has an ambient-influenced tone, with a "pulsating" and a "deep, bubbling" house beat. There are stylistic comparisons to acid house music with its "skeletal" synth arrangement, influences of minimal trance, as well as techno. The song's instrumentation is synthesized, consisting of drum machine loops, organs, strings, gurgles, handclaps, as well as a digitally-altered "homophonic" choir. According to sheet music published by Musicnotes.com, "Bedtime Story" is written in the key of G minor and has a moderate tempo of 108 beats per minute. Madonna's vocals span from the nodes of A<sub>3</sub> to G<sub>5</sub> and follows a basic sequence of Gm<sub>9</sub>–Dm–E–A–G as its chord progression. The song is linked to the ending of the previous album track, "Sanctuary", and starts with its chords. The ending of the track has a pulsating beat and a mix of the lead synth, with Madonna's voice whimpering and uttering "Ha-ha-aahs". It ends abruptly saying "And all that you've ever learned, try to forget, I'll never explain again" making the listener believe that it was all the part of a dream. According to Victor Amaro Vicente in his book The Aesthetics of Motion in Musics for the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi, the song's music bears many resemblances to new age-era music and different forms of Sufi music. Its slow atmospheric qualities have drawn comparison to "Mevlevi-Sufi Relaxation" and the song's intricate, "steady and continuous" rhythmic structure has also drawn comparison to the zikr ceremony. Björk, one of the song's writers, has been credited for giving the song its particular style and according to De Vries, the track's architecture is "distinctly Björkian" and she "has such a particular and idiosyncratic approach to the construction of lyrics and phrasing". In a chapter of Music and Technoculture written by Charity Marsh and Melissa West, it is stated that one can hear the influence of Björk in Madonna's vocals during the song. Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, noted that the lyrics of "Bedtime Story" are a hymn to the joys of unconsciousness and a rejection of the supposed constraints of reason and language, hence the line "Words are useless, especially sentences, They don't stand for anything, How could they explain how I feel?" Lyrically, despite being a song about a trip to the unconscious, scholars have noticed subtexts within the song's meaning. Vicente noted that postmodernism and new age themes are prevalent within the lyrics, especially with regards to their incapability of articulating the concept of the truth, as well as the song's theme of meditation and relax. Islamic mystic and sexual themes have also been noted within the song's lyrics. Vicente further found that the cliché references to "honey", "longing and yearning", and the sexual connotations of being "wet on the inside" does not relate to "secular" love, but to "ecstatic" Sufi poetry. The lyrics allude to concepts of movement which are "central" to Sufi philosophy: "It indicates achieving fana through sema (getting 'lost' and 'leaving logic and reason to the arms of unconsciousness')". ## Critical reception "Bedtime Story" has received positive reviews from music critics. Peter Galvin from The Advocate found that the song "calls to mind the Ecstasy anthem 'Rescue Me'". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, in a review for the parent album, wrote that "Bedtime Story" was among the "best songs on the album" and that it "slowly works [its] melodies into the subconscious as the bass pulses". Larry Flick from Billboard noted, "It is easily among [Madonna's] boldest and most experimental pop singles to date" with "trippy and cutting-edge trance dance rhythms". He finished his review praising its "ingratiating" hook and "it is an affecting plea for unconscious bliss and escape, voiced with underplayed angst and resolve". Writing for Idolator, Bianca Gracie called "Bedtime Story" the highlight of the album, adding that "It sucks you in with its quivering drum patterns taken directly from trance music, which creates an ethereal ambiance". Gracie commended the influence of UK dance music and Madonna's provocative vocals, finding the song to be a direct inspiration for singer Britney Spears' "Breathe on Me", from her fourth studio album In the Zone (2003). In his weekly UK chart commentary, James Masterton said that it's easily "the most credible single" Madonna has released since "Vogue". A reviewer from Music Week gave the song four out of five, stating that it "gives Madonna a vehicle for a mix of inviting vocals and an insistent sensual rhythm. One of the best songs on the album." James Hamilton from the RM Dance Update deemed it a "'let's get unconscious' whispered burbling throbber". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine praised the song, claiming that it had unfulfilled potential and that it "could have been the next 'Vogue'". In a review for her GHV2 album, he also described the song as a "trippy follow-up to the mainstream hit 'Take a Bow'" and gave it an "A" rating. O'Brien wrote that "'Bedtime Story' was a vivid track that foreshadowed Madonna's move towards electronica". Author Victor Amaro Vicente wrote in his book, The Aesthetics of Motion in Musics for the Mevlana Celal Ed-Din Rumi, that the song's "complex rhythmic texture" made it a "dance hall favorite in the mid-1990s". Rikky Rooksby wrote in The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, that the track was similar to the music of English alternative band Everything but the Girl, and claimed that "in contrast to most other songs of the album, this is one track that could have been longer and more trippy than it is". Matthew Rettenmund wrote in his Encyclopedia Madonnica that the song was a "total curveball" because of its inclusion on the album. He also believed that releasing it as a follow-up single to the commercially successful "Take a Bow" diminished its potential. However, Rettenmund praised it as one of Madonna's most "uncharacteristic" songs, describing as a "hypnotic, almost hallucinogenic, ride through an idealized state of mind." This was echoed by author Chris Wade, who wrote in the book The Music of Madonna that although written by Björk, Madonna made the song her own by "adding a druggy, sleepiness [to it] that makes it one of her most unusual, quirky and challenging tracks." Jude Rogers from The Guardian was more critical, saying that "as gorgeously hypnotic as it is, it sounds too much like Björk"; nonetheless, she placed the song at number 53 on her ranking of Madonna's singles, in honor of her 60th birthday. Pitchfork's Owen Pallett compared it negatively to Björk's "Violently Happy" and deemed it "disappointing—sterile and static". In August 2018, Billboard picked it as the singer's 44th greatest single, calling it "a bizarre choice for a third single [...] Its lightly flickering beat and moaning synths were pitched at a very radio-unfriendly midtempo minimalism, and Björk's anti-lyric about eschewing words hardly rate as Madonna's most rousing". ## Commercial performance In the United States, the song debuted at number 72 on the US Billboard Hot 100, on the issue dated April 22, 1995 and it sold 12,000 units in its first-week. One week later, the song peaked at number 42, becoming the first Madonna single since "Burning Up" (1983) not to reach the top 40. If "Bedtime Story" would have been able to reach the top 40, Madonna could have become the third woman in the "rock era" with the most top 40 hits, behind Aretha Franklin and Connie Francis. She would have achieved a consecutive string of 33 top 40 hits, starting from her single "Holiday" (1983). Fred Bronson from Billboard explained that the song's loss of radio airplay and sales prevented it from peaking within the US top 40. "Bedtime Story" spent a total of seven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it was successful on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart, where it peaked at number one and spent 16 weeks on the charts. Furthermore, it also charted on various Billboard genre charts, including the Rhythmic Top 40 at number 40, and the Top 40 Mainstream at number 38. On the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart, it reached a peak of number 42. In the United Kingdom, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at its peak of number four on the week of February 25, 1995. It left the top 20 two weeks later, eventually spending nine weeks on the charts. In other European countries, the song also found some success. It peaked at number 38 in Belgium for one week only. On the Dutch Single Top 100 chart, it entered and peaked at number 46 on April 15, 1995, and stayed on the same position the next week, with a total run of two weeks. "Bedtime Story" debuted at number nine in Finland, and peaked at number four the next week. In Australia, the song debuted and peaked at number five on April 9, 1995, where it stayed in that position for three weeks. It fell out of the top ten in the fifth week, and eventually exited the charts after a total run of nine weeks, falling to 44 on its last week in the charts. In New Zealand, it debuted at number 40 on May 7, 1995, moving up two positions to 38 which was its peak, and leaving the charts the next week. ## Music video ### Background and development The accompanying music video for "Bedtime Story" was directed by Mark Romanek over a course of six days at Universal Studios, Universal City, California. Madonna had first approached Romanek to direct the music video of her Erotica single, "Bad Girl" (1993). Romanek recalled in the DVD, The Work of Director Mark Romanek, that "Bad Girl" was ultimately directed by David Fincher, but Romanek agreed to direct "Rain," the final video from Erotica. He was then approached by the singer's team and asked to work on "Bedtime Story." Romanek contacted storyboard artist Grant Shaffer to create the storyboards for the video. He met with Romanek the next day, who played "Bedtime Story" for Shaffer and also showed him some photographs of Madonna, which were supposed to be used as the album cover. The surrealism inspired images portrayed a mystical looking Madonna, with white hair billowing behind her. Romanek wanted to have the music video capture the same look. Madonna called from Florida and together with Romanek they described to Shaffer every aspect of the video, including budget and their concepts. For the next few days, Shaffer sketched the storyboards and faxed them to Romanek for review. About 20 days later, Shaffer dropped the final sketches at Propaganda Films, who were producing the video. Production started from December 5, 1994, at Universal Studios. When Shaffer arrived there, he found that his storyboards were glued on a giant blackboard along with the schedule for each shot. He also observed that many of his storyboard ideas had evolved, but they retained the core concepts. The preliminary shots used a Madonna body double and the singer arrived afterwards, proceeding with the shots in a water tank. Filming stopped for few hours when a minor earthquake shook the film studio. Few complications were encountered like Madonna getting dyed in blue color from sitting in the water tank, as well as technical difficulties leading to cancellation of a storyboard showing the singer opening her chest cavity. One shot involving Madonna lying in the lap of a skeleton had to be postponed since the skeleton was too small for the singer, and had to be rebuilt from scratch. The last scene filmed was the one involving the laboratory where Madonna was shown sleeping in a futuristic dress. Making the clip reportedly cost US\$5 million (US\$ million in ), making "Bedtime Story" one of the most expensive music videos of all time. It was the most expensive video at the time of its release, alongside the clip for her single "Express Yourself" (1989). Tom Foden was the video's production designer and it was shot by cinematographer Harris Savides, on 35 mm film lens. Due to the vast number of digital effects required for the video, post-production lasted for weeks. In an interview with Aperture magazine, Madonna revealed the inspiration for the music video: > My "Bedtime Story" video was completely inspired by all the female surrealist painters like Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. There's that one shot where my hands are up in the air and stars are spinning around me. And me flying through the hallway with my hair trailing behind me, the birds flying out of my open robe – all of those images were an homage to female surrealist painters; there's a little bit of Frida Kahlo in there, too. ### Release and synopsis On March 10, 1995, the video was given a cinematic release at three different Odeon Cineplex film theaters; in Santa Monica, California at the Broadway Cinemas, in Manhattan, New York at the Chelsea Theater, and in Chicago, Illinois at the Biograph Theater. To promote the video, Madonna did a special known as Madonna's Pajama Party on March 18, 1995. where the singer could be seen reading a bedtime story in Webster Hall in New York City. Unlike most of Madonna's videos which debuted on either MTV or VH1 television channels, "Bedtime Story" was first put into circulation on radio station Z100 following the singer's "pajama party" on March 18. According to Maverick GM Abbey Konowitch, they first aligned with Odeon Cineplex so that they could assure that the music video would be viewed in an innovative way. However, Konowitch and his team were aware that such an event could not be organized for every release because it would cause problems with investments. Odeon VP Freeman Fisher explained that since it was a slow theatrical season, allowing the video's release enabled them to sell more tickets, "for four minutes the audience sees astounding cinematic images in a first class feature-like production. It's not just another artist lip-syncing to a track." The music video starts off with a blue monitor screen with an eye showing the inscription "Welcome". The video progresses inside a blue space ship-style room with Madonna lying prostrate in what seems to be a scientific experiment. The imagery cast in this section of the video have drawn comparisons to hermeticism. The video progresses into a sequence of dreams, containing varied surrealistic, mystic, new age, Sufi and Egyptian imagery and symbolism. Such include a scene in which Madonna lies on a rotating sunflower, and images of a woman with long hair, an alchemist-type man holding a cube with brunette-haired Madonna's face on each side as well as rotating Sufi dancers. The dream sequence progresses with unusual clips, including Madonna in a pool with half-visible skulls. A scene in which Madonna, dressed in a light dressing gown, gives birth to doves, can also be seen; the image has been compared to the work of René Magritte and Kahlo's 1932 painting My Birth. Next shot shows her sleeping and laying on the lap of a skeleton with skull, who hugs her. Suddenly, she floats down a corridor in a white gown and her blonde hair trails behind her and appears in a black-and-white projection in a cinema-like room. She appears spotting brunette hair and commands something. As the music gets more dramatic, the dream grows intense, the singer can be seen wading through space with her blonde hair trailing behind her again, the images of skulls and scars appearing and the singer being scared. A scene in which Madonna's eyes are placed with mouths and her mouth with an eye precedes the ending, influenced by the work of Kahlo; the final shots show Madonna waking up and looking out. ### Reception and analysis The music video for "Bedtime Story" has received generally positive reviews from critics ever since its release. It was exhibited and permanently kept in different art galleries and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art as well the School of Visual Arts in New York City. O'Brien praised the video, calling it "one of [Madonna]'s most experimental" music videos and a "Dalí-esque epic", causing it to enter "the portals of high art". MTV News' James Montgomery, while writing an article on the pop culture references of Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me" music video (2011), claimed that "Bedtime Story" was an ultra artistic video, influencing Spears' one. Corinna Herr wrote in the book Madonna's Drowned Worlds that "Visual references to surreal paintings seem to be a key to Madonna's world of images" and listed "Bedtime Story" as one of these videos. In the same book, author Santiago Fouz-Hernández added that videos like "Bedtime Story" included alchemical and hermeticist traditions, in particular the concepts of androgyny and masquerade. Herr also wrote regarding the video's new age influences and concept of an idealised world, one "which she is not necessarily a part, but to which she nevertheless seems to be attracted". Rettenmund commented that the video was rife with mystical and Sufi traditions, and described it as a "singular creation in Madonna's oeuvre". The music video has also drawn comparisons to Tarsem Singh's films, The Cell (2000) and The Fall (2006), in the sense that they both incorporate elements of Islamic mystic imagery, such as in the scene where the Sufi dance is executed, as well as the floating cube. According to writer Brad Brevet, who observed the similarities, deduced that both the video and the films deal with tapping into the subconscious of the human mind and hence the resulting strange visuals were directly an influence from "Bedtime Story". James Steffen, author of The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov, found that some of the imagery in the video were directly lifted from the 1969 Soviet film, The Color of Pomegranates, including the scenes showing a bare foot crushing grapes over a slab inscribed with Arabic, and a scene showing a bishop's croziers falling into hand. Steffen also noted that Romanek's influences for the video included the works of Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, including Stalker (1979) and Nostalghia (1983). Jake Hall from Dazed declared "Bedtime Story" as the blueprint for "90s brand of futurism", adding that the video "eschews the obvious and instead relies on undulating CGI". It can be found on the Madonna compilations, The Video Collection 93:99 (1999) and Celebration: The Video Collection (2009). The music video for "Bedtime Story" was published on Madonna's official YouTube channel in October 2009. It has amassed more than 7.7 million views as of September 2021. ## Live performances and legacy The Junior Vasquez single remix of the song was performed at the 1995 Brit Awards. Madonna wore a Versace Spring/Summer 1995 silver silk evening dress, with long blonde extensions. She even invited Björk to feature in the performance; the singer turned it down, saying "I was supposed to get [Madonna's] personal number and call her up, but it just didn't feel right. I'd love to meet her accidentally, really drunk in a bar. It's just all that formality that confuses me". It was described by Music Week as a "flamboyant performance". The performance was ranked number four on Marie Claire's "30 Best Brit Award Moments" list. It was described by the magazine as the "best opening performance" at the Brits. A writer described that "[Madonna] pulled out all the stops, treating the audience to a light show and trio of satin-clad male dancers". Madonna has only featured the song on one of her concert tours, the 2004 Re-Invention World Tour, where elements of the Orbital remix were used as a video interlude. As the video played, three acrobatic dancers dropped from the ceiling on swings. Madonna appeared in the video wearing a white costume while singing in front of a mirror and lying down on a big scanner. A white horse can be seen with her during the video riding on a white desert and running through white sheets. As the interlude ended, Madonna appeared on stage again to sing "Nothing Fails" (2003). "Bedtime Story" has been cited as one of the songs with the most unfulfilled potential in Madonna's career; nonetheless, the song did enjoy some success, being a club "favorite" in the mid-1990s. It has been described as the record that foreshadowed Madonna's usage of electronic music in her later work, especially Ray of Light (1998), which according to Vicente, owes "its contemplative and electronic techno rave character to 'Bedtime Story'." O'Brien wrote in Madonna: Like an Icon, that the song "foreshadowed [the singer's] move towards electronica". De Vries recalled that tackling the song "seemed to set something free in Madonna. She was straining at the leash a little bit, to find some other languages to speak, and 'Bedtime Story' was an embryonic moment that went a lot further on to the next few albums." In a review for the Bedtime Stories album on a whole, Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote that the song was "the germ that would later inspire Madonna to seek out and conquer electronica with the likes of William Orbit and Mirwais". While ranking Madonna's 60 best singles, Chuck Arnold from Entertainment Weekly listed "Bedtime Story" at 54, calling it an "important" song in the singer's catalogue as, according to the author, it provided a "jumping-off point for the avant-garde electronica of Ray of Light". Arca stated: "This song in particular and its video hit me hard and then stroked me soft, presented an infrastructure of widescreen unapologeticness so empowering that to this day, when the song starts, I smile from ear to ear and want to lick my own skin". ## Track listings and formats - US 7-inch, CD, and cassette single 1. "Bedtime Story" (Album Version) – 4:53 2. "Survival" (Album Version) – 3:33 - US CD maxi-single 1. "Bedtime Story" (Album Edit) – 4:08 2. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Wet Dream Mix) – 8:35 3. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Dreamy Drum Dub) – 9:34 4. "Survival" (Album Version) – 3:33 5. "Bedtime Story" (Orbital Mix) – 7:44 6. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Sound Factory Mix) – 9:18 7. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Single Mix) – 4:53 - US 12-inch vinyl 1. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Sound Factory Mix) – 9:18 2. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Sound Factory Dub) – 8:19 3. "Bedtime Story" (Orbital Mix) – 7:44 4. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Wet Dream Mix) – 8:35 5. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Wet Dream Dub) – 7:30 - UK and European 12-inch vinyl 1. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Sound Factory Mix) – 9:18 2. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Sound Factory Dub) – 8:19 3. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Wet Dream Mix) – 8:35 4. "Bedtime Story" (Orbital Mix) – 7:44 - UK 7" and Cassette Single 1. "Bedtime Story" (Album Edit) – 4:08 2. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Single Mix) – 4:53 - UK limited edition storybook CD single 1. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Single Mix) – 4:53 2. "Secret" (Allstar Mix) – 5:10 3. "Secret" (Some Bizarre Mix) – 9:48 4. "Secret" (Some Bizarre Single Mix) – 4:17 - UK, European and Australian CD maxi single 1. "Bedtime Story" (Album Edit) – 4:08 2. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Wet Dream Mix) – 8:35 3. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Dreamy Drum Dub) – 9:34 4. "Bedtime Story" (Orbital Mix) – 7:44 5. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Sound Factory Mix) – 9:18 - Digital single (2021) 1. "Bedtime Story" (Album Edit) – 4:08 2. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Wet Dream Mix) – 8:35 3. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Dreamy Drum Dub) – 9:34 4. "Survival" (Album Version) – 3:33 5. "Bedtime Story" (Orbital Mix) – 7:44 6. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Sound Factory Mix) – 9:18 7. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Single Mix) – 4:53 8. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Sound Factory Mix Edit) – 4:19 9. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Sound Factory Dub) – 8:19 10. "Bedtime Story" (Junior's Wet Dream Dub) – 7:31 11. "Bedtime Story" (Lush Vocal Radio Edit) – 4:42 12. "Bedtime Story" (Lush Vocal Mix) – 6:47 13. "Bedtime Story" (Luscious Dub Mix) – 7:38 14. "Bedtime Story" (Percapella Mix) – 6:31 15. "Bedtime Story" (Unconscious in the Jungle Mix) – 6:26 ## Credits and personnel Credits and personnel are adapted from the Bedtime Stories album liner notes. - Madonna – lead vocals, producer - Björk – songwriter - Marius De Vries – producer - Nellee Hooper – songwriter, producer - Frederick Jorio – mixing - P. Dennis Mitchell – mixing - Robert Kiss – assistant engineer - Joey Moskowitz – programming - Paolo Riversi – cover art, photographer, designer - Michael Penn – designer ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## See also - List of number-one dance singles of 1995 (U.S.) - List of most expensive music videos
162,393	Rin Tin Tin	1,169,350,974	German Shepherd actor (1918–1932)	[ "1918 animal births", "1932 animal deaths", "Dog actors", "Dogs in literature", "Film serial actors", "German shepherds", "Meurthe-et-Moselle", "Rin Tin Tin", "Warner Bros. contract players" ]	Rin Tin Tin or Rin-Tin-Tin (September 1918 – August 10, 1932) was a male German Shepherd born in Flirey, France, who became an international star in motion pictures. He was rescued from a World War I battlefield by an American soldier, Lee Duncan, who nicknamed him "Rinty." Duncan trained Rin Tin Tin and obtained silent film work for the dog. Rin Tin Tin was an immediate box-office success and went on to appear in 27 Hollywood films, gaining worldwide fame. Along with the earlier canine film star Strongheart, Rin Tin Tin was responsible for greatly increasing the popularity of German Shepherd dogs as family pets. The immense profitability of his films contributed to the success of Warner Bros. studios and helped advance the career of Darryl F. Zanuck from screenwriter to producer and studio executive. After Rin Tin Tin died in 1932, the name was given to several related German Shepherd dogs featured in fictional stories on film, radio, and television. Rin Tin Tin Jr. appeared in some serialized films, but was not as talented as his father. Rin Tin Tin III, said to be Rin Tin Tin's grandson, but probably only distantly related, helped promote the military use of dogs during World War II. Rin Tin Tin III also appeared in a film with child actor Robert Blake in 1947. Duncan groomed Rin Tin Tin IV for the 1950s television series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, but the dog performed poorly in a screen test and was replaced in the TV show by trainer Frank Barnes's dogs, primarily one named Flame Jr., called JR, with the public led to believe otherwise. Instead of shooting episodes, Rin Tin Tin IV stayed at home in Riverside, California. The TV show Rin Tin Tin was nominated for a PATSY Award in both 1958 and 1959 but did not win. After Duncan died in 1960, the screen property of Rin Tin Tin passed to TV producer Herbert B. Leonard, who worked on further adaptations such as the 1988–1993 Canadian-made TV show Katts and Dog, which was called Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop in the US and Rintintin Junior in France. Following Leonard's death in 2006, his lawyer James Tierney made the 2007 children's film Finding Rin Tin Tin, an American–Bulgarian production based on Duncan's discovery of the dog in France. Meanwhile, a Rin Tin Tin memorabilia collection was being amassed by Texas resident Jannettia Propps Brodsgaard, who had purchased several direct descendant dogs from Duncan beginning with Rinty Tin Tin Brodsgaard in 1957. Brodsgaard bred the dogs to keep the bloodline. Brodsgaard's granddaughter, Daphne Hereford, continued to build on the tradition and bloodline of Rin Tin Tin from 1988 to 2011; she was the first to trademark the name Rin Tin Tin, in 1993, and she bought the domain names rintintin.com and rintintin.net to establish a website. Hereford opened a short-lived Rin Tin Tin museum in Latexo, Texas and passed the tradition to her daughter, Dorothy Yanchak, in 2011. The dog Rin Tin Tin XII, owned by Yanchak, takes part in public events to represent the Rin Tin Tin legacy. ## Origins Following advances made by American forces during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, Corporal Lee Duncan, an armourer of the U.S. Army Air Service, was sent forward on September 15, 1918, to the small French village of Flirey to see if it would make a suitable flying field for his unit, the 135th Aero Squadron. The area had been subjected to aerial bombing and artillery fire, and Duncan found a severely damaged kennel which had once supplied the Imperial German Army with German Shepherd dogs. The only dogs left alive in the kennel were a starving mother with a litter of five nursing puppies, their eyes still shut because they were less than a week old. Duncan rescued the dogs and brought them back to his unit. When the puppies were weaned, he gave the mother to an officer and three of the litter to other soldiers, but he kept one puppy of each sex. He felt that these two dogs were symbols of his good luck. He dubbed them Rin Tin Tin and Nanette after a pair of good luck charms called Rintintin and Nénette that French children often gave to the American soldiers. Duncan sensed that Nanette was the more intelligent of the two puppies. (The soldiers were usually told that Rintintin and Nénette were lucky lovers who had survived a bombing attack, but the original dolls had been designed by Francisque Poulbot before the war in late 1913 to look like Paris street urchins. Contrary to linguistic clues and popular usage, Poulbot said that Rintintin was the girl doll.) In July 1919, Duncan sneaked the dogs aboard a ship taking him back to the US at the end of the war. When he got to Long Island, New York, for re-entry processing, he put his dogs in the care of a Hempstead breeder named Mrs. Leo Wanner, who trained police dogs. Nanette was diagnosed with pneumonia; as a replacement, the breeder gave Duncan another female German Shepherd puppy. Duncan travelled to California by rail with his dogs. While Duncan was travelling by train, Nanette died in Hempstead. As a memorial, Duncan named his new puppy Nanette II, but he called her Nanette. Duncan, Rin Tin Tin, and Nanette II settled at his home in Los Angeles. Rin Tin Tin was a dark sable colour and had very dark eyes. Nanette II was much lighter in colour. An athletic silent film actor named Eugene Pallette was one of Duncan's friends. The two men enjoyed the outdoors; they took the dogs to the Sierras, where Pallette liked to hunt, while Duncan taught Rin Tin Tin various tricks. Duncan thought that his dog might win a few awards at dog shows and thus be a valuable source of puppies bred with Nanette for sale. In 1922, Duncan was a founding member of the Shepherd Dog Club of California, based in Los Angeles. At the club's first show, Rin Tin Tin showed his agility but also demonstrated an aggressive temper, growling, barking, and snapping. It was a very poor performance, but the worst moment came afterward when Duncan was walking home. A heavy bundle of newspapers was thrown from a delivery truck and landed on the dog, breaking his left front leg. Duncan had the injured limb set in plaster and he nursed the dog back to health for nine months. Ten months after the break, the leg was healed and Rin Tin Tin was entered in a show for German Shepherd dogs in Los Angeles. Rin Tin Tin had learned to leap great heights. At the dog show while making a winning leap, he was filmed by Duncan's acquaintance Charley Jones, who had just developed a slow-motion camera. Seeing his dog being filmed, Duncan became convinced Rin Tin Tin could become the next Strongheart, a successful film dog that lived in his own full-sized stucco bungalow with its own street address in the Hollywood Hills, separate from the mansion of his owners, who lived a street away next to Roy Rogers. Duncan later wrote, "I was so excited over the film idea that I found myself thinking of it night and day." ## Career Duncan walked his dog up and down Poverty Row, talking to anyone in a position to put Rin Tin Tin in film, however modest the role. The dog's first break came when he was asked to replace a camera-shy wolf in The Man from Hell's River (1922) featuring Wallace Beery. The wolf was not performing properly for the director, but under the guidance of Duncan's voice commands, Rin Tin Tin was very easy to work with. When the film was completed, the dog was billed as "Rin Tan". Rin Tin Tin would be cast as a wolf or wolf-hybrid many times in his career because it was much more convenient for filmmakers to work with a trained dog. In another 1922 film titled My Dad, Rin Tin Tin picked up a small part as a household dog. The credits read: "Rin Tin Tin – Played by himself". Rin Tin Tin's first starring role was in Where the North Begins (1923), in which he played alongside silent screen actress Claire Adams. This film was a huge success and has often been credited with saving Warner Bros. from bankruptcy. It was followed by 24 more screen appearances. Each of these films was very popular, making such a profit for Warner Bros. that Rin Tin Tin was called "the mortgage lifter" by studio insiders. A young screenwriter named Darryl F. Zanuck was involved in creating stories for Rin Tin Tin; the success of the films raised him to the position of film producer. In New York City, Mayor Jimmy Walker gave Rin Tin Tin a key to the city. Rin Tin Tin was much sought after and was signed for endorsement deals. Dog food makers Ken-L Ration, Ken-L-Biskit, and Pup-E-Crumbles all featured him in their advertisements. Warner Bros. fielded fan letters by the thousands, sending back a glossy portrait signed with a paw print and a message written by Duncan: "Most faithfully, Rin Tin Tin." In the 1920s, Rin Tin Tin's success for Warner Bros. inspired several imitations from other studios looking to cash in on his popularity, notably RKO's Ace the Wonder Dog, also a German Shepherd dog. Around the world, Rin Tin Tin was extremely popular because as a dog he was equally well understood by all viewers. At the time, silent films were easily adapted for various countries by simply changing the language of the intertitles. Rin Tin Tin's films were widely distributed. Film historian Jan-Christopher Horak wrote that by 1927, Rin Tin Tin was the most popular actor with the very sophisticated film audience in Berlin. "He is a human dog," one fan wrote, "human in the real big sense of the word." A Hollywood legend holds it that at the first-ever Academy Awards competition in 1929, Rin Tin Tin was voted Best Actor, but that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, wishing to appear more serious and thus determined to have a human actor win the award, removed Rin Tin Tin as a choice and re-ran the vote, leading to German actor Emil Jannings winning the award. Author Susan Orlean stated this story as fact in her 2011 book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. However, former Academy head Bruce Davis has written that the 1928 ballots, kept in storage at the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library, show a complete absence of votes for Rin Tin Tin. Davis called the story an urban legend that probably originated in a joke ballot circulated that year by Zanuck, who wanted to mock the concept of the Academy Awards. Although primarily a star of silent films, Rin Tin Tin did appear in four sound features, including the 12-part Mascot Studios chapter-play The Lightning Warrior (1931), co-starring with Frankie Darro. In these films, vocal commands would have been picked up by the microphones, so Duncan likely guided Rin Tin Tin by hand signals. Rin Tin Tin and the rest of the crew filmed much of the outdoor action footage for The Lightning Warrior on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, known for its huge sandstone boulders and widely recognized as the most heavily filmed outdoor shooting location in the history of the movies. Rin Tin Tin and Nanette II produced at least 48 puppies; Duncan kept two of them, selling the rest or giving them as gifts. Greta Garbo, W.K. Kellogg, and Jean Harlow each owned one of Rin Tin Tin's descendants. ## Death and accolades On August 10, 1932, Rin Tin Tin died at Duncan's home on Club View Drive in Los Angeles. Duncan wrote about the death in his unpublished memoir: He heard Rin Tin Tin bark in a peculiar fashion so he went to see what was wrong. He found the dog lying on the ground, moments away from death. Newspapers across the nation carried obituaries. Magazine articles were written about his life, and a special Movietone News feature was shown to movie audiences. In the press, aspects of the death were fabricated in various ways, such as Rin Tin Tin dying on the set of the film Pride of the Legion (where Rin Tin Tin Jr. was working), dying at night, or dying at home on the front lawn in the arms of actress Jean Harlow, who lived on the same street. In a private ceremony, Duncan buried Rin Tin Tin in a bronze casket in his own backyard with a plain wooden cross to mark the location. Duncan was suffering the financial effects of the Great Depression and could not afford a finer burial, nor even his own expensive house. He sold his house and quietly arranged to have the dog's body returned to his country of birth for reburial in the Cimetière des Chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques, the pet cemetery in the Parisian suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine. In the United States, his death set off a national response. Regular programming was interrupted by a news bulletin. An hour-long program about Rin Tin Tin played the next day. In a ceremony on February 8, 1960, Rin Tin Tin was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1627 Vine Street. ## Filmography 1922–1931 ### Rin Tin Tin III Rin Tin Tin III starred alongside a young Robert Blake in 1947's The Return of Rin Tin Tin but is primarily credited with assisting Duncan in the training of more than 5,000 dogs for the World War II war effort at Camp Hahn, California. #### Filmography 1947 ## Radio Between 1930 and 1955, Rin Tin Tin was cast in three different radio series, beginning April 5, 1930, with The Wonder Dog, in which the original Rin Tin Tin performed some of the sound effects until his death in 1932. (Most of the dog noises were performed live on radio by a man named Bob Barker.) This 15-minute program was broadcast Saturdays on the Blue Network at 8:15 pm until March 1931, when it moved to Thursdays. Storylines were often highly unlikely, with Rin Tin Tin saving a group of space-exploring scientists from giant Martians in one episode. In September 1930, the title changed from The Wonder Dog to Rin Tin Tin. Don Ameche and Junior McLain starred in the series, which ended June 8, 1933. With Ken-L Ration as a sponsor, the series continued on CBS from October 5, 1933, until May 20, 1934, airing Sundays at 7:45 pm. The final radio series was broadcast on Mutual from January 2, 1955, to December 25, 1955, a 30-minute program heard Sunday evenings. Sponsored by National Biscuit for Shredded Wheat and Milk-Bone, the series featured Rin Tin Tin's adventures with the 101st Cavalry in the same manner as the concurrent TV show, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. The radio show also starred Lee Aaker (1943–2021) as Rusty, James Brown (1920–1992) as Lieutenant Ripley "Rip" Masters, and Joe Sawyer (1906–1982) as Sergeant Biff O'Hara. ## Television The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, an ABC television series, ran from October 1954 to May 1959. Duncan's Rin Tin Tin IV was nominally the lead dog, but nearly all of the screen work was performed by a dog named Flame Jr., nicknamed JR (pronounced Jay Are), owned by trainer Frank Barnes. Other dogs that sometimes played TV's Rin Tin Tin included Barnes's dog Blaze and Duncan's dog Hey You from the Rin Tin Tin bloodline. Hey You had suffered an eye injury during his youth; he was used as a stunt dog and for fight scenes. TV's Rin Tin Tin was far lighter in color than the original sable-colored dog of silent film. ## Legacy Lee Duncan died on September 20, 1960, without ever having trademarked the name "Rin Tin Tin". The tradition continued in Texas with Jannettia Brodsgaard Propps, who had purchased several direct descendant dogs from Duncan. Her granddaughter, Daphne Hereford, continued the lineage and the legacy of Rin Tin Tin following her grandmother's death on December 17, 1988. Hereford passed the tradition to her daughter, Dorothy Yanchak, in July 2011. The current Rin Tin Tin is twelfth in line from the original silent film star and makes personal appearances across the country to promote responsible pet ownership. Rin Tin Tin was the recipient of the 2011 American Humane Association Legacy award, accepted by a twelfth-generation Rin Tin Tin legacy dog in October 2011 at the first annual Hero Dog Awards in Beverly Hills. Mickey Rooney narrated a memorial tribute film about Rin Tin Tin. The next year, Rin Tin Tin was honored by the Academy of Arts and Sciences in a special program, Hollywood Dogs: From Rin Tin Tin to Uggie, on June 6, 2012, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre. Rin Tin Tin's silent-era career was compared to that of contemporary film dog Uggie (2002–2015). ## Cultural references In 1976, a film loosely based on Rin Tin Tin's debut was produced: Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood. Producer David V. Picker offered a fee to Herbert B. Leonard, but Leonard disagreed with the basic premise of a film ridiculing the famous dog. Leonard sued the filmmakers for infringement on the Rin Tin Tin legacy and lost. Originally co-produced by Leonard, the 1988–93 Canadian TV series Katts and Dog featured the adventures of a police officer and his canine partner. The series was titled Rin Tin Tin: K9 Cop for its American showings; in France it was presented as Rintintin Junior. Leonard was funded by the Christian Broadcasting Network, whose founder, televangelist Pat Robertson, had been enthusiastic for the idea. Leonard was criticized by his fellow producers for staying with his new wife in Los Angeles rather than helping with the show on location in Canada. Partway through the first season, Robertson said that some of his viewers were deeply concerned that the plot involved a widowed mother who was living unmarried in the same house with the brother of her late husband. Robertson recommended the mother character be killed off to stop the complaints, but Leonard protested such a change. After Leonard quit the show, the problematic character was killed off. Though separated from the show, Leonard continued to receive a fee for the screen rights to Rin Tin Tin. In 2007, a children's film was produced—Finding Rin Tin Tin—based on the story of Lee Duncan finding Rin Tin Tin on a battlefield in France and making a star of him in Hollywood. The film was the subject of a lawsuit brought in October 2008 by Daphne Hereford, who asked a federal court in Houston, Texas, to protect her rights to the Rin Tin Tin trademark. The judge ruled in favor of the filmmakers, declaring the use of the name in the film to be fair use. A fictionalized account of Lee Duncan finding and raising Rin Tin Tin is a major part of the novel Sunnyside by Glen David Gold. Rin Tin Tin has been featured as a character in many fiction works, including a children's book in which Rin Tin Tin and the other animal characters are able to talk to one another but are unable to talk to humans. Rin Tin Tin finds mention in Anne Frank's diary in her second entry on June 14, 1942. Frank wishes she had a dog like Rin Tin Tin. She also wrote about the 1924 Rin Tin Tin silent film The Lighthouse by the Sea, which she and her school friends watched together in her house for her birthday party. According to her, the movie was a big hit with her friends. The Clash's 1981 song 'The Magnificent Seven' referenced the dog - "Plato the Greek or Rin Tin Tin/ who's more famous to the Billion Millions?". ## See also - Rantanplan - List of individual dogs
2,182,983	Space opera in Scientology	1,169,115,846	None	[ "Scientology beliefs and practices", "Space opera", "Xenu" ]	Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard explicitly compared his teachings to the science-fiction subgenre space opera. In his writings, wherein thetans (roughly comparable to the concept of a human soul) were reincarnated periodically over quadrillions of years, retaining memories of prior lives, to which Hubbard attributed complex narratives about life throughout the universe. The most controversial of these myths is the story of Xenu, to whom Hubbard attributed responsibility for many of the world's problems. Some space opera doctrines of Scientology are only provided by the church to experienced members, who church leaders maintain are the only ones able to correctly understand them. Several former members of the church have exposed these secret documents, leading to lengthy court battles with the church, which failed to keep the secret. Critics of the church have noted that some of the narratives are scientifically impossible, and have thus assailed the church as untrustworthy for teaching them. The space opera teachings have also been satirized in popular culture. Scholars of religion have described the space opera narratives as a creation myth designed to encourage reverence of Hubbard as a supreme messenger. Several academics have drawn attention to the similarity of the space opera myths to themes of the 1950s Cold War culture in which they were constructed. ## Origins (Although this article regularly refers to Xenu, Hubbard in some of his lectures and writings actually uses the name Xemu and even spells it out). L. Ron Hubbard created a set of beliefs that he represented as a form of therapy, which he named Dianetics. He promoted it as a scientific, not religious, teaching. The system has no scientific basis and is a type of pseudoscience. Until the early 1950s, Hubbard had a negative view of organized religions, but thereafter discussed spiritual topics. In these teachings, he claimed to identify subconscious memories of past events, which he called "engrams", as causes of human dissatisfaction. By 1950, he had begun to ponder past lives, believing that they could be recalled; he attempted to use these recollections to develop a comprehensive narrative of the universe. He founded the Church of Scientology in 1953, advancing his beliefs as religious doctrines. The church was distinct from Dianetics-based groups but incorporated some of their views. Hubbard saw Dianetics as focused on the physical body but viewed Scientology as a way to address spiritual matters. In Hubbard's efforts to shift from a psychotherapeutic to a spiritual program, he introduced the concept of thetans: a set of godlike, non-corporeal entities capable of creating and shaping universes, later trapped in the MEST universe and confined, by reincarnation, to physical bodies. Hugh Urban of Ohio State University states that these teachings bear similarities to Gnosticism, although he doubts that Hubbard was well versed in Gnostic thought. In the 1950s, as Hubbard's followers recalled their past lives, he recorded many details of these recollections. With this as his source, he constructed an intricate history of the universe, identified as "space opera". Although Hubbard believed that he had developed a comprehensive history, Urban cites the isolated and incomplete record of the statements, wherein Hubbard identified a thetan universe, separate from the material universe, created by its inhabitants. The material universe, in Hubbard's view, began when other universes created by thetans collided, from which they entered the material universe in six invasion groups roughly 60 trillion years ago. Hubbard also described a series of events, called the "incidents", which divorced the thetans from their self-knowledge, but maintained that thetans could regain their former divinity, and referred to thetans that freed themselves from the material world as "operating thetans". ## Narratives and civilizations Hubbard located his first 'incident' four quadrillion years ago, in which a thetan encountered 'loud cracks and brightness' and then observed a cherub and chariot before experiencing total darkness. In Scientology, this is known as "Incident 1". Another important event in Scientology's chronology of the universe occurred on a space city known as Arslycus, the inhabitants of whom brought about an incident when capturing thetans. The most controversial portion of Scientology's space opera is the myth of Xenu, known as "Incident 2", in which Hubbard described a group of 76 planets, orbiting stars visible from Earth, organized in a Galactic Confederacy c. 75 million years ago, ruled by the dictator Xenu. The confederacy having become overpopulated, Xenu sent several billion of his citizens onto DC 8 planes to the planet Teegeeack (Earth), ostensibly for tax audition. There, hydrogen bombs were detonated inside volcanoes, killing the exiles, whose thetans were brainwashed on Hawaii and the Canary Islands, introducing various myths, such as the myth of Jesus, to conceal the thetans' origins. Eventually, officers of the Galactic Confederacy launched a rebellion against Xenu, which continued for six years before capturing him and placing him in an electrified prison in the center of a mountain. Hubbard taught that the thetans brainwashed by Xenu's forces remained on Earth, where the "body thetans", attached to human psyches, contribute to human problems; and that individuals could be freed from these brainwashed thetans and thus attain a type of salvation. Hubbard also taught that, upon the deaths of humans, thetans continued to "implant stations", including locations on planets near Earth, where their memories were erased and new memories emplaced. On grounds that some "implant stations" were better than others, Hubbard advised his followers to avoid the one on Venus. After passing an implant station, he taught, the thetan returned to Earth, where it was incarnated. Hubbard taught the Christian concept of heaven was based on a physical location on another planet, which he claimed to have visited. He compared its appearance to Busch Gardens in Pasadena, California, (actual location Van Nuys, California), and noted it contained effigies of characters from the New Testament. Over time, he recalled, the location fell into disrepair. A town nearby contained an implant station, at which thetans were convinced to return there. Another significant encounter in Hubbard's narrative occurred when a large group of planets formed the Marcab Confederacy, described as in search of slaves, and called a "decadent" society. The author related that this civilization caused a significant implant upon their encounter with thetans. Hubbard discussed the history of human civilizations on Earth, and the lives of ancient sea monsters and fish people, as well. He also said humans could recover memories of previous lives, such as the experiences of clams and Neanderthals. In his mythos, Atlantis was a completely electronic civilization, whose inhabitants possessed disintegration technology; in contrast, Earth was invaded by multiple groups around 1200 BCE, including the "fifth invader force from Martian Command" against the "fourth invasion force from Space Command" in battle. On premise that thetans are forced to believe various faulty ideas, the church teaches that their courses allow "theta beings" to be freed from these beliefs and regain their former abilities. Committed Scientologists pursue courses and procedures offered by the church in the hope of gaining freedom and enlightenment, allegedly permitting travel around the Solar System. The author referred to the process of a thetan leaving its human body as "exteriorization", which he said allowed for space travel. Urban notes that this is similar to Aleister Crowley's teachings of astral projection, although he adds that Hubbard did not use that term. ## Space opera and Scientologists A glossary on the Scientology website defined the term "space opera" as a description of actual events: > "Space opera has space travel, spaceships, spacemen, intergalactic travel, wars, conflicts, other beings, civilizations and societies, and other planets and galaxies. It is not fiction and concerns actual incidents." The 1958 Scientology publication Have You Lived Before This Life contains some space opera, describing past lives—including some on warlike planets—which were recalled through auditing. In the 1960s, Hubbard introduced a series of questions, known as "security checks", to verify members' loyalty. Mikael Rothstein, associate professor of religious history at the University of Copenhagen, sees the Xenu myth as building on, and the culmination of, these accounts. The Xenu myth was released to Scientologists in the late 1960s, after teachings about thetans and their relationship to the physical body had been disseminated; its release provided the cause and origin of many of the group's teachings. Rothstein describes "space opera" as "Hubbard's introduction of a new reality, and new foundation for everything". In a 1968 lecture, Hubbard acknowledged similarities between his teachings and the space opera. Said Hubbard: "This planet is part of an earlier federation and passed out of its control due to losses in war and other such things. Now, this larger confederacy, this isn’t its right name, but we have often called it and referred to it in the past as the Marcab Confederacy. And it has been wrongly or rightly pointed to as one of the tail stars of the Big Dipper, which is the capital planet of which this planet is. Now, all this sounds very Space Opera-ish and that sort of thing, and I’m sorry for it, but I am not one to quibble about the truth. " Although Hubbard spoke openly about space opera in the 1950s, Scientology eventually became an esoteric faith: some teachings are withheld until followers reach a certain point in their spiritual development, and the mythological foundation of the courses are unknown to many members. Over a decade of auditing and study—and donations of tens of thousands of dollars—are required for a member to reach the highest echelons of hidden knowledge. Followers below a certain level (OT III) of growth are denied access to the church's cosmological teachings, and they are given different explanations for the church's teachings. German scholar Gerald Willms notes that in addition to the esoteric foundations, Scientology cites practical justifications for its rituals, so they can be pursued without knowledge of advanced teachings. The Church of Scientology has attempted to prevent the public release of their esoteric teachings, but, through the internet, their confidential aspects have been widely released. The church considers public discussion of their space opera teachings offensive and has asked academics not to publish their details. Scientologists maintain that the true meaning of these texts is only accessible to those who have progressed through their courses, and that those who read them prematurely risk damage to their spiritual and physical conditions. Church leaders have sometimes outright refused to discuss the subject with journalists. Rothstein observes that the church also has a strong financial motivation to keep members from accessing higher-level courses, as devotees are required to make large payments to obtain them. Free Zone Scientologists, however, are sometimes more open about space opera. Some Free Zone Scientologists believe that the Church of Scientology has been hijacked by undercover agents of the Marcabian Confederacy. During auditing, Scientology members sometimes recall details of life in space. Rothstein states that this is part of a "mythological paradigm" that members initially partake of through Scientology's scriptures. He notes, however, that some Scientologists do not believe that there are space opera myths in the group's teachings, and that others have left the group after learning about the higher-level doctrines. Reitman relates that some members accept the space opera teachings by seeing them as similar to seemingly implausible stories of popular religions or simply remain quiet about their doubts. Rothstein states that space opera is a "part of the total fabric of Scientological thinking and narrative, but not of prime importance." He argues that these teachings are a "second order belief", in that they exist to support the group's core teachings about thetans. Mike Rinder, a former spokesman of the Church of Scientology, stated that extraterrestrial auditing is merely "a small percent" of their canon. ## Criticism and leaking Scientology's space opera teachings were publicized in accounts given by former church members, most notably during court cases. One such case was filed by a former Scientologist, Larry Wollersheim, against the church in 1980. Five years later, Wollersheim offered confidential Scientology materials, including space opera teachings, to the court as evidence, a move that was vigorously protested by the church's attorneys. They were unable to prevent disclosure, however, and the documents were published by the Los Angeles Times in November 1985. This was the first time that some aspects of Scientology's space opera teachings were offered as public evidence about the church. In the mid-1990s, Wollersheim published some of the materials on a website, prompting the church to sue his organization, FACTNet. The Church attested that the space opera narratives were trade secrets; this claim was rejected by the court. In 1990, after being sued for libel by the Church of Scientology, Steven Fishman, a former member turned critic, offered a large amount of the group's highly confidential teachings in court. The documents, contained in what is known as the Fishman Affidavit, included detailed accounts of the church's space opera narratives. This material was subsequently posted on alt.religion.scientology and a website of Dutch journalist Karin Spaink. The church filed suits against those who posted the documents, claiming copyright violations. Lengthy court battles ensued, but the church was unable to prevent the materials' dissemination over the internet. Former Scientologists and members of the anti-cult movement often discuss Scientology's space opera teachings. They generally take a rationalistic approach to the narratives and see them as absurd, or even as drug-fueled delusions, using them as a source of humor. The doctrines have been satirized in popular culture, most notably in the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet". The anti-Scientology website Operation Clambake prominently uses space opera doctrines in their criticisms of the church, casting the implausibility of the stories as a clear reason to reject the group. Anti-cult critics of Scientology argue that the content of these teachings demonstrates that Scientology misleads its followers; many aspects of the narratives, such as the age of the volcanoes that Xenu is said to have used, contradict scientific consensus. The space opera teachings are, in fact, incompatible with scientific consensus on the age of the universe: around 14 billion years. Rothstein notes that scholars of religion usually do not pursue this line of analysis because all myths contain unscientific content; he notes that cultural conditioning determines whether religious narratives appear reasonable. ## Analysis Rothstein argues that in the construction of the space opera narratives, Hubbard drew from tropes common to his audience. The concept of a Galactic Confederation, Rothstein observes, was present in other UFO religions of the 1950s; - In contrast to the overpopulation and atomic bombs were often discussed therein. Urban cites UFO encounters and alien invasions as popular themes during the Cold War; - Rothstein draws parallels between Hubbard's teachings and the beliefs of UFO religions, citing similarities between thetans trapped in human bodies and the walk-in hypothesis of the Ashtar Command. Andreas Grünschloß notes Scientology's space opera teachings place them in the tradition of the ancient astronaut hypothesis; he states the group's teachings about thetans bears similarities to "star seeds" found in UFO religions. Grünschloß speculates the UFO-contact narratives may have played a role in the group's development of space opera, specifically citing the resemblance of Hubbard's description of life in Xenu's time to statements by George Adamski, a UFO contactee of the 1950s. Rothstein notes the group's teachings about extraterrestrials varies greatly from most of the UFO movement, particularly in Hubbard's descriptions of demonic characters. Hubbard was a science fiction writer before starting Scientology, and some aspects of the church's space opera bear similarities to his previous writings. Noting similarities between Hubbard's fiction writing and creation of religious myths, Rothstein argues; "perhaps no division between such categories should be made". Kent posits some of his cosmology, such as the priests and psychiatrists loyal to Xenu, were modeled after events in Hubbard's life, such as his distaste for Christianity and clashes with the psychiatric establishment. Hubbard theorized science fiction writers sometimes recalled portions of events from past lives and incorporated it into their works, and Urban writes Hubbard's science fiction writings "contain more than a few seeds of Hubbard's religious movement, the Church of Scientology". Rothstein argues Scientology's space opera identify Xenu as the root of evil and Hubbard as the hero, for having uncovered the mysteries of the universe. Rothstein states the group's teachings about "salvation" may be a means to encourage reverence of Hubbard. In addition, Rothstein notes the space opera teachings also provide fundamental justifications for some practical aspects of Scientology, including the rejection of psychiatry and the formation of the Sea Org. He sees space opera as similar to most types of mythology, involving superhuman beings in the far distant past. Willms states the mythology of Scientology differs from many other religions because it focuses on material beings; but argues the Xenu myth is a religious narrative, although the Church of Scientology has never used this claim in their efforts to be recognized as a religion. ## See also - List of space opera media
19,157,509	Forgive Me (Leona Lewis song)	1,172,424,766	2008 single by Leona Lewis	[ "2008 singles", "2008 songs", "Leona Lewis songs", "Music videos directed by Wayne Isham", "Song recordings produced by Akon", "Songs written by Akon", "Songs written by Claude Kelly", "Songs written by Giorgio Tuinfort", "Syco Music singles" ]	"Forgive Me" is a song by British singer Leona Lewis featured on the North American version, the overseas digital re-issue and on the international deluxe edition of her debut album Spirit (2008). Musically, "Forgive Me" is a pop track with dance influences, written in A minor. The lyrics tell the story of a girl who has found a new love and asks her old one for forgiveness. The song was written by Aliaune "Akon" Thiam, Claude Kelly and Giorgio Tuinfort, and produced by the former. "Forgive Me" was released as the fourth single of the album in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2008. The single includes the B-side "Myself", written by and featuring vocals of American musician Novel. In "Forgive Me", music critics compared Lewis's vocals with that of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. The music video was directed by Wayne Isham, and it was inspired by multiple Broadway musicals, including Carousel and West Side Story. "Forgive Me" reached number five on the British and Irish charts, thus becoming Lewis's fourth single to peak within the top ten in the UK. Additionally, it peaked atop the Slovakian Singles Chart and reached the top ten in Italy and Sweden. Lewis promoted "Forgive Me" on some television shows, such as GMTV and The National Lottery Live, in the United Kingdom, as well as on the Italian television show Carràmba! Che sorpresa and on the Swedish talent show Idol. Also, the song was added to the setlists of her tours The Labyrinth (2010) and Glassheart (2013). ## Background and composition "Forgive Me" was written by Claude Kelly, Giorgio Tuinfort and Aliaune "Akon" Thiam, and produced by the latter. The single was published with one B-side, "Myself", written by Justin E. Boykin, Graham N. Marsh, Lewis and Alonzo "Novel" Stevenson. "Forgive Me" is described as a "funky pop song", written in A minor. According to the sheet music published by Sony BMG, it moves at 120 beats per minute and is set in common time. On it, Lewis performs her highest pitch (G<sub>5</sub>) in falsetto during the final chorus, and her lowest pitch (A<sub>3</sub>) during each verse. "Forgive Me" describes a female protagonist in a one-sided relationship who leaves her boyfriend and eventually finds someone to reciprocate her love. Though she has found love from someone else, she defends herself and asks her ex-boyfriend for forgiveness. In an interview with Digital Spy, Lewis explained why she decided to change her musical genre from her previous singles to a more upbeat one. She said: "I wanted to do something a bit different and the chance to work with Akon came about. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and it's great that it's different, rather than what I always do." There are two versions of the song, the "album version" (3:40) and the "single mix" (3:24). ## Release and promotion On 26 July 2008, the single mix was released to the Mexican iTunes Store as a stand-alone digital single. For the UK release, the single cover was revealed on 17 September 2008, whilst the song was released in the UK on 3 November 2008 as the fourth single. Originally, the song was featured only in the North American version of the album Spirit, launched in April 2008. Later, "Forgive Me" was added in the deluxe edition of the album, which was released internationally in November 2008. Lewis performed the song on the television programmes The National Lottery Live on 29 October 2008, and GMTV on 31 October 2008. Outside of the UK, she also performed the song on the Italian television show Carràmba! Che sorpresa and on the Swedish talent show Idol. In May 2010, the song was added to the setlist of her tour The Labyrinth, performed as the eighth song of the show. A live performance from The O2 Arena was included on the live album's DVD The Labyrinth Tour Live from The O2. In 2013, Lewis added "Forgive Me" to the setlist of her Glassheart Tour. ## Critical reception "Forgive Me" received generally positive reviews from music critics. CBBC's Newsround described "Forgive Me" as a danceable song. Gavin Martin of The Mirror gave the song three-out-of-five points and said, "[the song] showcases her voice of fire and honey. No apologies necessary". Nick Levine, Digital Spy music critic, gave the song a similar score, and compared it with Whitney Houston's song "I'm Your Baby Tonight". Levine added that after her previous three ballad singles, "it's a nice change". However, he also said the lyrics were implausible as "the adultery-theme [is a] poor match for the sweet, unassuming Hackney girl". Chad Grischow noted that with the song Lewis "will not go down as a glorified one-hit wonder". Stephen Thomas Erlewine described "Forgive Me" and another song from the album ("Misses Glass") as "just slightly glitzier than the rest of Spirit." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine called the song "bouncy and youthful". Nate Chinen from The New York Times ironised with a "so what if she sound like a second-tier Mariah". ## Chart performance "Forgive Me" debuted and peaked at number five in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2008, becoming Lewis's third single in debut within the top ten, after "A Moment Like This" and "Bleeding Love". In Ireland, before its official release as a single, it was the second highest debut of the week of the Irish Singles Chart, at number five. In the Slovak Airplay Chart, it debuted at number seventy-six and in its tenth week the song peaked at number one. In the Euro Digital Tracks the song reached the number 4. In Italy, "Forgive Me" debuted at number nine, but fell off the chart next week. Elsewhere in Europe, the song reached number seven in Sweden, twelve in Switzerland, and fifteen in both Austria and Germany. The song entered the Australian charts at number fifty on 19 October 2008, and next week peaked at forty-nine. Later, "Forgive Me" dropped out of the chart, but on 10 November 2009, it re-entered at number fifty. In the 2008 UK year-end chart, compiling the best-selling singles of the year, "Forgive Me" was eighty-fifth. ## Music video The music video for "Forgive Me" was directed by Wayne Isham, and edited by Nabil Mechi and Valentina Ganeva. It starts out with Lewis receiving a text message from her boyfriend saying he is just a minute away from meeting up with her. The video then turns into a dream-like sequence with Lewis dancing in four set-ups inspired by the Hollywood musicals West Side Story, The Rocky Horror Show, Singin' in the Rain and Carousel. The video ends with Lewis coming back to reality after a drop of rain lands on her hand as her boyfriend sends a message saying "Hurry! Looks like there could be rain". Mark Savage from BBC News commented that Lewis does not dance in the video. Lewis replied, "I love dancing [...] but I am a singer and that is what I do". ## Tracklisting and formats German CD single / Switzerland CD maxi 1. "Forgive Me" (single mix) – 3:24 2. "Myself" feat. Novel – 3:50 3. "Forgive Me" (video) UK CD single 1. "Forgive Me" (single mix) – 3:24 2. "Myself" feat. Novel – 3:50 ## Credits and personnel "Forgive Me" - Serban Ghenea: mixer - Mark Goodchild: recorder - John Hanes: Pro Tools engineer - Larry Jackson: vocal producers - Claude Kelly: vocal producers, writer - Leona Lewis: vocals, background vocals - Trent Privat: recorder assistant - Tim Roberts: Pro Tools engineer assistant - Aliaune "Akon" Thiam: background vocals, producer, writer - Giorgio Tuinfort: co-producer, writer "Myself" - Justin E. Boykin: acoustic guitar, writer - James Burch: cello - Matt Colette: drums, percussion - Everett James Harrell: piano, bells - Leona Lewis: vocals, background vocals, writer - Carlton Lynn: mixer, recorder - Graham Marsh: recorder, writer - Kimberly L. Smith: project coordinator - Alonzo "Novel" Stevenson: additional vocals, producer, writer ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Release history
55,135,242	Antarctic Treaty issue	1,167,792,570	Postage stamp	[ "1971 works", "Antarctic culture", "Antarctica agreements", "Postage stamps of Antarctica", "Postage stamps of the United States" ]	The Antarctic Treaty issue is a postage stamp that was issued by the United States Post Office Department on June 23, 1971. Designed by Howard Koslow, it commemorates the ten-year anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty, and is notable as Koslow's first postage stamp design. The stamp has a face value of eight cents. One-hundred thirty million were issued. ## Background The Antarctic Treaty was signed on December 1, 1959 by the United States and eleven other nations involved in scientific research on the continent of Antarctica during the preceding biennium; seven of these nations – Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom – had competing territorial claims to Antarctica. From November 18 to November 19, 1968, the fifth consultative meeting of the state parties to the treaty was held in Paris. During it, the issue of decennial commemorative stamps by the state parties who had signed the Antarctic Treaty was recommended. ## Release The public announcement of the Antarctic Treaty issue release was made in May 1971 and it was officially released June 23, 1971, the tenth (decennial) anniversary on which the Antarctic Treaty became effective. The official release was accompanied by a first day ceremony in Washington, D.C. attended by United States Secretary of State William P. Rogers, United States Postmaster General Winton M. Blount, and the ambassadors to the United States of the state parties to the Antarctic Treaty. During the ceremony, Blount presented an album of the stamps to Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. One-hundred thirty million Antarctic Treaty issue stamps were printed. ### Proofs Specimens of the stamp, as well as its plate proofs, are held by the National Philatelic Collection, housed in the National Postal Museum. In 2013, the United States Postal Service (USPS) auctioned on eBay a proof of the Antarctic Treaty issue that contained the handwritten approval of Postmaster General Blount. The proof was one of two such proofs of the Antarctic Treaty issue held in the Postmaster General's Philatelic Collection. It sold for \$1,099.99. ## Design The stamp was designed by the acclaimed American postage stamp illustrator Howard Koslow, and was notable as his first postage stamp design. It features a map of Antarctica in white, set on a field of blue, which was adapted from the logo design used on documents of the treaty's consultative meetings. Earlier, in 1965, the Special Committee on Antarctic Research of the International Council of Scientific Unions had called for stamps commemorating the decennial of the treaty to prominently feature the map of Antarctica. Due to competing territorial claims in Antarctica, the simplicity of a map-centered design was considered a matter of political importance. The stamp has an eight cents face value. ## Related stamps In addition to the United States, other state parties to the Antarctic Treaty also issued commemorative stamps on its ten-year anniversary. In 1991, on the thirtieth anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty, the United States issued another stamp commemorating the Antarctic Treaty. Howard Koslow returned to design the fifty-cent, airmail, stamp which depicted USCGC Glacier near Ross Island. ## Emblem of the Antarctic Treaty After the design found on the stamp was employed as an emblem of the Antarctic Treaty System informally since the first consultative meeting in 1961, with similar designs found even in the first redaction of the treaty from 1959, the members of the Antarctic Treaty System have adopted it officially in 2002. The emblem is used in the form of a flag, among other forms, and it has inspired subsequent designs. Officially this emblem represents the Antarctic Treaty System and not the continent itself. ## See also - List of the Antarctic flags - Postage stamps and postal history of the United States
21,917,269	Lago di Bientina	1,162,931,717	Former lake in Tuscany, Italy	[ "Drainage", "Flood control in Italy", "Former lakes of Italy", "Lakes of Tuscany", "Land reclamation" ]	Lago di Bientina, also known as Lago di Sesto, was a lake in Tuscany, Italy. Located to the north of the town of Bientina, between Lucca and Pisa, the lake was historically subject to numerous efforts at drainage due to its tendency to flood. Early attempts at canal-building and drainage in the 16th century were hampered by the lake's connection with the Arno River, which often led to backflow and even increased flooding. In the 19th century, by order of Grand Duke Leopold II, the lake was fully reclaimed and converted to farmland. Before drainage, it was the largest lake in Tuscany. The former lake-bed is drained by a series of canals, which flow through a channel called La Botte ('The Barrel') underneath the Arno River before emptying into the Canale Imperiale ('Imperial Canal'), and, subsequently, the Ligurian Sea. ## Geography The lake lay in a broad valley between two sets of hills, the Monte Pisano to the west and the Monte Carlo to the east. From antiquity, Lago di Bientina had two sections – a large area of permanent water towards the north, known as the Chiaro, and a marshy area towards the south that drained in the dry season, known as the Padule. Due to the shallowness of the valley, Lago di Bientina's size varied widely from season to season, from 16 km<sup>2</sup> (6.2 sq mi) during times of severe drought to 96 km<sup>2</sup> (37 sq mi) during floods. At its average area of 36 km<sup>2</sup> (14 sq mi), it was the largest lake in Tuscany. The lake was fed from the north by the Serchio River, also known as the Auser. At the southern end, the Padule led to several outflows that fed into a small river called the Serezza, which flowed into the Arno River several kilometres further downstream, and subsequently into the Ligurian Sea. ## Early history (to 1559) Several Etruscan tombs have been found in the area which was once covered by the lake, indicating that it may have been at a low level in ancient times. The earliest references to the existence of a lake north of Bientina date back to the 7th century AD. There exist stories of a Roman city named Sextum which was submerged to form the lake, but there is no documentary evidence of the existence of this city. However, it is believed that the Romans built canals to encourage the lake's outward flow and the level of the lake was probably low during the Roman period. Along the shores of the lake throughout the medieval period was the Abbey of San Salvatore near the town of Sesto. First recorded in the mid-8th century, the Abbey was granted royal immunity by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III in 996 AD. It controlled widely scattered lands as far as Corsica. However, fishing rights in the lake, especially in the marshy Padule, were controlled by the town of Bientina. Throughout the Renaissance and Enlightenment period, the Lago di Bientina marked the boundary between the city-state of Lucca and the Republic of Florence, later replaced by the Duchy of Tuscany. ## Drainage efforts (1560–1859) Due to regular flooding and the fact that the marshy Padule was associated with malaria, discussions regarding improving the drainage of the lake began in the 1500s. In 1560, Cosimo III, a Medici Grand Duke of Florence, agreed with the government of Lucca to dig a new, broader channel for the Serezza, the lake's southern outflow to the Arno. This work was completed in August 1562, lowering the level of the lake considerably and opening thousands of acres for cultivation. Afterwards, the prior channel of the Serezza was known as the Serezza Vecchia ('Old Serezza'), and closed off. Due to later modifications made to the course of the Arno river, however, the new canal rapidly lost effectiveness and the Old Serezza had to be reopened. By the 18th century, the population of Tuscany had grown considerably and attention was again given to the project of draining the Lago di Bientina in order to increase the amount of available farmland. Under the direction of Grand Duke Francesco di Lorena, several more channels were dug from the lake to the Arno, designed by engineer and mathematician Leonardo Ximenes. These efforts were spurred on by serious flooding around the lake in 1768, which prompted the Lucchese government to create a commission to address the issue. However, when the Arno flooded, as it did frequently at that time, these channels were liable to backflow and sometimes even led to increased flooding in the area around Lago di Bientina. At this time the lake was well known for its eels and its large population of waterfowl, especially coots. In 1837, continued disputes between the Lucchese and Florentine governments over fishing rights led the people of Lucca to suggest building a wall to divide the lake in two, but this was never carried out due to its marked impracticality. In 1852, the Grand Duke Leopold II ordered the construction of a "barrel" or channel beneath the Arno to convey the waters of the Lago di Bientina directly to the sea. This idea had been first proposed in 1699 by an engineer named Ciaccheri, but had not been carried out due to the high cost. Between 1852 and 1859 a new canal, the Canale Imperiale, was dug under the leadership of the engineer Alessandro Manetti. The channel known as La Botte was constructed beneath the Arno, consisting of a double-barreled siphon 250 meters long which was inaugurated in December 1859. This largely completed the draining of the Lago di Bientina, circumventing the troublesome Arno altogether and draining the valley of the Lago di Bientina directly to the Ligurian Sea. ## Post-drainage history (1860–present) The drained land was converted to farmland and divided among tenant farmers around the time of Italian unification. However, as the years passed, the efficiency of the drainage system began to decrease due to leaks and mechanical failures, and by 1907 it was necessary to set up a commission to install mechanical pumps to ensure the continued drainage of the former area of Lago di Bientina. Between 1915 and 1930, additional work was done to widen and deepen the canals leading from the region towards La Botte and the drainage under the Arno. Degradation of the drainage system was hastened by the post-war development of industry and an increase in civil discharge in the region, and by 1967 the area was in danger of reverting to marsh. This situation was considered untenable due to the large population and substantial industry supported in the former lakebed. A plan was developed to maintain the reclamation of the lake-bed of the Lago di Bientina and was presented to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 1974. However, this plan was not fully carried out, and the area, primarily farmland, still experiences regular flooding after heavy rains. In the dry season, however, the only trace of the lake is found in the canals of the region and a small hill in the center of the plain, which was previously an island called Isola di San Benedetto (St. Benedict's Island).
2,318,117	Cobra (manga)	1,151,111,195	Japanese manga series by Buichi Terasawa	[ "1978 manga", "1982 anime television series debuts", "1986 manga", "1995 manga", "2000 manga", "2008 anime OVAs", "2009 anime OVAs", "2019 webcomic debuts", "Adventure anime and manga", "Animated space adventure television series", "Anime series based on manga", "Cobra (manga)", "Comedy anime and manga", "Discotek Media", "Magic Bus (studio)", "Manga adapted into films", "Media Factory manga", "Pirates in anime and manga", "Seinen manga", "Sentai Filmworks", "Shueisha franchises", "Shueisha manga", "Shōnen manga", "Space Western anime and manga", "Space opera anime and manga", "Space pirates", "TMS Entertainment", "Viz Media manga" ]	Cobra (Japanese: コブラ, Hepburn: Kobura) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Buichi Terasawa. Set in the far future, the series tells the story of Cobra, who lives an adventurous life until his enemies begin to hunt him down. Cobra surgically alters his face and erases his own memory to hide from his foes and have a normal life. Eventually, he regains his memories and reunites with his former partner Lady Armaroid. Terasawa devised it as a mix of Spaghetti Western and samurai stories, and aspects of films, varying from James Bond to Disney. The manga was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from November 1978 to November 1984. Later, Shueisha collected the chapters and published them in 18 tankōbon volumes. The Cobra manga spawned various sequel manga series, one-shots, a 1982 feature-length anime film, two anime television series (a 31-episode series in 1982, and a 13-episode series in 2010), two original video animations (OVAs) in 2008–2009, audio albums, video games, and other merchandise. In the United States, portions of the manga were published by Viz Media in 1990 and the complete series was published in Kindle format by Creek & River in 2015. The feature film was licensed by Tara for its release in American theaters and by Manga Entertainment in British theaters in 1995. Urban Vision and Discotek Media released it for home video market, while Madman Entertainment acquired it for the Australasian region's release. The anime series was licensed in the Northern American region by Nozomi Entertainment. In Japan, the Cobra manga has sold 50 million copies, making it one of Weekly Shōnen Jump's best-selling manga series of all time. Publications for manga, anime and other media have compared the series to Star Wars and Barbarella, and the main character's attitude to James Bond. Its film adaptation received mixed reviews, and the original anime series as well as Cobra the Animation has been well received by reviewers. The anime series was very popular in France in the 1980s and French-speaking filmmakers and studios have attempted to adapt it into live-action films or animated series in the 2000s and in the 2010s. ## Plot In the far future, an office worker named Johnson leads a dull and mundane life. One Sunday morning, his robotic servant Ben suggests that he go to the Trip Movie Corporation—a company that enables its customers to experience a dream as though it were a reality. Johnson asks to be a king of a harem and to command a battlestar. In his dream, however, Johnson instead becomes "Cobra", an adventurer who explores space with his android partner Lady Armaroid. Cobra wields the Psychogun, a cybernetic arm-laser gun, to fight monsters and the Pirate Guild, an organized crime syndicate of pirates. After a battle with the Guild, Cobra allows its leader Captain Vaiken to escape. Vaiken distributes Cobra's picture to other pirates, making him a wanted man. After the dream ends, Johnson describes the fantasy to an attendant, who is surprised because Johnson's dream should not have any reference to pirates or to Cobra. On his way back home, Johnson crashes into a speeding car whose driver looks like Captain Vaiken. When Johnson mentions the resemblance, the driver reveals himself as Vaiken. He asks Johnson about "Cobra" and threatens to kill Johnson if he does not answer. Johnson unconsciously lifts his arm and a ray shoots out of his hand, killing Vaiken. The shot explodes Johnson's arm, revealing the Psychogun embedded in it. Johnson rushes home, where Ben notices the weapon on his arm. Johnson then realizes that he remembers nothing from before the last three years. After looking into a mirror, he finds a knob and turns it to reveal a secret room. There, he finds the revolver which he used in his dream. At that moment, armed intruders break into the house and address him as "Cobra". A battle ensues, and Ben's robot shell breaks to reveal Lady Armaroid, with whom Johnson kills the intruders. Johnson starts to remember his previous existence as Cobra. Hunted by the Pirate Guild for meddling in their criminal enterprises and tired of life on the run, Cobra surgically altered his face and had his memories erased. Lady Armaroid tells Cobra that the Trip Movie has triggered his subconscious to regain access to the memories of his former life. Cobra and Lady Armadroid resume their adventurous life together. ## Main characters \: the title character, whose left arm has been replaced by a mind-controlled energy cannon. \: a female android, Cobra's partner most of the time. - The Royal sisters: , , . a recurring enemy of Cobra, whose body is entirely composed of a special, very resistant glass (hence his name). first serves as the leader of the local branch of the Pirate Guild on her home planet. - Cobra's archenemy, the ultimate leader of the Pirate Guild with powerful psychic powers, revealed after his death to be an incarnation of Adolf Hitler's soul. ## Production Cobra is Buichi Terasawa's debut manga series. Previously he had written and illustrated between twenty and thirty science-fiction shōjo (targeted towards girls) short stories for manga contests held by manga magazines, with one of them earning an honorable mention. Terasawa created Cobra by combining the Spaghetti Western subgenre and Japanese stories featuring a "wandering swordsman". Terasawa wanted to create a hero who would be able to carry a concealed weapon and then the Psychogun was created before the titular character. His concept of a hero has been greatly influenced by "spaghetti westerns with a James Bond-type spin to them." Also from Bond series came the concept of several women who circulate around Cobra. For Cobra, he also drew inspiration from the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and his "phlegmatic style", specifically from his characters on Breathless (1960) and That Man from Rio (1964). The then rising actresses Dominique Sanda and Catherine Deneuve also inspired the names of the Royal Sisters. One of Cobra's main enemies, Crystal Bowie, was named as a tribute to English musician David Bowie. In general, Terasawa has been influenced by films, including Star Trek, René Laloux's animations, the James Bond film series, Akira Kurosawa's films, and Disney films prior to The Little Mermaid (1989). For example, Jane Fonda's performance in the cult science-fiction film Barbarella (1968) served as a direct model for his character Jane, whose hairstyle was also inspired by Princess Aurora's in the Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty (1959). For his storytelling, panel layout, and narrative pacing in general, he draws influence from manga artist Osamu Tezuka, who mentored him. Terasawa declared, "Without him, ... Cobra would never have existed. ## Publication Written and illustrated by Buichi Terasawa, Cobra was first published in 1977 in Shueisha's Japanese shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump as a one-shot edition. It was later serialized for six years, running from the November 6, 1978 issue to the November 12, 1984 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, and released under the magazine's Jump Comics line in eighteen tankōbon volumes between August 15, 1979 and August 15, 1985. Cobra was re-published from February 10, 1988 to November 10, 1998 in a ten-volume aizōban edition under Jump Comics Deluxe entitled Space Adventure Cobra. The manga series was only partially released in the United States by Viz Communications in 1990 in a series of twelve books. This English-language publication covered the origin story and the Royal Sisters' saga, with dialogue adapted by the American comic book writer Marv Wolfman and published under Viz Communications' Viz Select Comics line. In 2015 Creek & River released the complete manga in the US in a 15-volume full-color Kindle edition. The complete manga was printed in several other countries. In France, the manga was first published by Dynamic Visions, and later reprinted by Taifu Comics. Its first volume was released in the 1990s Brazil by Dealer, being one of the first manga to be published in the country. The manga was also published in Italy by Play Press, in Taiwan by Tong Li, in Hong Kong by Culturecom, and in Thailand by Vibulkij. Shueisha released Cobra in kanzenban form with the title Space Adventure Cobra: Handy Edition—which included volumes one through ten—from October 19, 2001 to February 4, 2002. Shueisha later created three kanzenban magazine series based on the Cobra manga under their Shueisha Jump Remix line. , which spanned two volumes, was published on October 7, 2002, and on October 21, 2002; , which spanned two volumes, was published on November 2, 2002, and on November 18, 2002; and , which spanned three volumes, was published from June 9, 2003 to July 7, 2003. Media Factory also published Cobra in a kanzenban edition; it was simply called , and spawned twelve volumes released between August 23, 2005, and June 23, 2006. Cobra was also sold as an e-book, for a limited time. ### Sequels and spin-offs The seinen manga magazine Super Jump published several Cobra sequel or spin-off series. The first was titled which was serialized in 1986 in a special issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump. It was then published in a single tankōbon by Shueisha in 1988 under the magazine's Jump Comics Deluxe line. a fully colored "computer graphics" manga, was serialized in Super Jump in 1995. A "computer graphics" sequel called was serialized in Super Jump from 2000 to 2002. Along with several other series serialized in Super Jump, they were published from 1995 to 2002 in Jump Comics Deluxe under the title Space Adventure Cobra. Space Adventure Cobra: Magic Doll was re-serialized in the Monthly Comic Flapper magazine by Media Factory, and was published under its MF Comics line as and on February 23, 2006, and September 22, 2006, respectively. In addition, Media Factory published six Cobra one-shots; the first one, , on March 23, 2006, and the last one, , on April 23, 2009, all of which were also under MF Comics. To celebrate the series' 30th anniversary, sixteen manga were reprinted and released by Media Factory; on May 23, 2008, and were released, and Magic Doll concluded it, with its release on July 7, 2009. From October 25, 2014 to June 13, 2015, Media Factory is republishing Cobra the Space Pirate through its MFR Series. Out of requests, Terasawa announced in February 2016 he would create a new saga for Cobra. He aims to deal with the unsolved plot of the strange resemblance of two female characters—Dominique and Secret. More than three years later, in November 2019, Comic Flapper magazine's official Twitter account announced the release of Cobra: Over the Rainbow. A sequel to the original manga, it started to be released digitally on November 19 through Kadokawa Corporation's Comic Walker and Niconico Manga websites under the Comic Hu label. ## Anime adaptations ### Film Tokyo Movie Shinsha adapted the manga into a film titled Space Adventure Cobra, which was released on July 23, 1982, in Japan. It was directed by Osamu Dezaki, with screenplay by Terasawa and Haruya Yamazaki, and retold the Cobra involvement with the Royal Sisters, and his fight against Crystal Bowie. Manga Entertainment released the film in British theaters in 1995. An American dub was created by Carl Macek's Streamline Pictures, and was released in American theaters also in 1995, by Tara, and was later distributed by Urban Vision on VHS format in 1998. The film was later released on DVD in the Australasian region by Madman Entertainment in 2007, in the UK by Manga Entertainment in 2008, and on DVD (in 2012) and Blu-ray (in 2015) by Discotek Media in the US. ### Space Cobra Cobra was adapted into an anime series titled Space Cobra directed by Dezaki and Yoshio Takeuchi that aired on Fuji Television between October 7, 1982, and May 19, 1983. The scenario writers were Haruya Yamazaki, Kosuke Miki, and Kenji Terada. Terasawa himself participated in weekly meetings to discuss the screenplays, giving his suggestions to the writers to fix what was wrong or rewriting the screenplay himself. The episodes were released in eight DVDs and a DVD box set on October 25, 2000 by Digital Site in Japan. The series was released in Northern America by Nozomi Entertainment in two parts; the first was released on March 4, 2014, and the second one is available since May 6, 2014. In November 2015, the series was added to the Crunchyroll streaming service to be broadcast in the United States and Canada with English substitles. In June 2020, Discotek Media licensed the anime series and was released on Blu-ray with a new experimental English dub for the first two episodes on September 29, 2020. ### Cobra the Animation Cobra was adapted into two OVAs and a television series that were created by Guild Project and animated by Magic Bus under the Cobra the Animation line for the series' 30th anniversary. The first of the series was The Psychogun, which was released direct-to-DVD between August 29, 2008, and February 27, 2009. It was written, storyboarded, and directed by Terasawa. Its sequel OVA, Time Drive, was released between April 24, 2009, and June 26, 2009. It was co-directed by Terasawa and Kenichi Maejima, and co-written by Terasawa and Mitsuyo Suenaga. Both OVA series were later released in Blu-ray box set on February 19, 2010. The anime television series Rokunin no Yūshi, directed by Keizo Shimizu, aired on BS 11 between January 2, 2010 and March 27, 2010. Crunchyroll streamed the first OVA series between December 18, 2009 to on January 8, 2010. The two episodes of Time Drive were uploaded on January 1, 2008, and Rokunin no Yūshi was simulcasted as it aired in Japan. In April 2016 during the Anime Boston the anime television and the OVAs were licensed by Sentai Filmworks to be released in North America through digital outlets and in the home video market. ### Audio The soundtrack of the film was composed by Osamu Shōji. It used a single opening theme and a single ending theme, and its lyrics were written by Tetsuya Chiaki and composed by Saburo Suzuki. by Shigeru Matsuzaki was used as the opening music and by Eve was used at the end. The subsequent anime's music was scored by Kentarō Haneda. The lyrics for "Cobra" and , the opening and the ending themes respectively, were written by Kayoko Fuyumori and composed by Yuji Ohno; both were sung by Yoko Maeno. The anime's music was compiled into two albums; Space Cobra: Original Soundtrack and Space Cobra: Complete Soundtrack were released by Nippon Columbia on September 25, 2003, and April 21, 2004, respectively. The musical score for Cobra the Animation was composed by Yoshihiro Ike. The opening theme from The Psychogun is by Yoko Takahashi and it ending theme is "Wanderer" by Shigeru Matsuzaki. Both were released as singles on August 27, 2008, by Nippon Columbia. The second OVA used "Time Drive" by Sasja Antheunis as its opening theme and by Shigeru Matsuzaki as its closing theme. "Cobra the Space Pirate" by Sasja Antheunis and respectively were used as opening theme and closing theme for Rokunin no Yūshi. On March 24, 2010, both were released as singles by Nippon Columbia. A soundtrack containing music from both OVAs and a compilation of music from the anime series were released on January 20, 2010, and April 14, 2010, respectively. Cobra Song Collection, which encompassed music from the soundtracks of the film, two OVAs and two anime series was released on March 31, 2010 by Nippon Columbia. ## Related media The Cobra manga has become the basis of two artbooks; the first focusing on the female characters of the series was released as on February 1, 1988. Concept designs of the manga were added to a Cobra artbook titled Cobra Wonder: Concept Design Arts of Cobra World, which was released on July 17, 1997, and included two Cobra's side stories— and —first published in Super Jump in 1988. Popy and Bandai included Cobra's ground vehicle, the Psychoroid, in the Japanese Machine Robo toyline, where it gained the ability to transform into a robot. Japan later exported this idea to the United States as part of the Super Gobots toyline under the name "Psycho", designed by Murakami Katsushi. In Japan, action figures, T-shirts, kewpie dolls, Cobra's Psychogun and Crystal Bowie's claw replicas, stamps, and limited-edition whiskey bottles were sold as merchandise for the series. ### Video games In 1982, Popy Electronics created the hand-held games Space Cobra Professional and Space Cobra the Psychogun. It was followed by Cobra: Kokuryū Ō no Densetsu, released in 1989 for the PC Engine, and Cobra 2: Densetsu no Otoko, released for the PC Engine in 1990, which was released in North America and Europe for the Sega CD as The Space Adventure - Cobra: The Legendary Bandit. ## Reception ### Critical response The English version of Cobra was named as one of "The Top 25 Translated-To-English Manga of All Time" by Wizard magazine. Ivevei Upatkoon of EX online magazine praised it as a "rich fantasy" that was unmatched by any other. She said the main character took "after James Bond, albeit somewhat on the silly side, and the costumes and bizarre worlds are but a shade shy of plagiarizing Barbarella". She was impressed that the series "is surprisingly devoid of the sexual innuendo and exploitation that anime fans have come to associate with decorative female characters"; it avoids the stereotypical, beautiful women, and instead creates its own "extreme" world. Upatkoon also said that modern readers might find the manga dated and would be discouraged from reading it, despite the improvement in artistic quality as the series progresses. Writing for Anime News Network (ANN), Jason Thompson described Cobra as "a significant piece of manga history". Thompson wrote that the women of the series have a "realistic physique and not some moe jailbait or grotesque bakunyu explosion". Thompson deemed Cobra as a parody of both Western action heroes and Star Wars and 1970s shōjo science fiction and its concept of beauty". Pedro Cortes from Japanator affirmed, "Space Adventure Cobra is interesting in that it takes a shard of an idea from a classic and then spins it out into its own epic." Cortes praised its "charming" designs, but criticized the main character's lack of development as "the only negative thing." He added, "There isn't a ton of depth, but the show doesn't pretend to be anything but a fun, sci-fi romp around the galaxy." ANN's Theron Martin praised its "surprisingly solid" art "for a series of its era" and affirmed, "it does stand up well as high-spirited, fun-loving action fare with occasional darker overtones." Chris Beveridge of The Fandom Post said, "It's simple but full of adventure, interesting characters and locations and a sense of fun that definitely makes it work in a very good way" and has "a solid visual design." Washington, in a review for Otaku USA, commended it for being "entertaining overall" and having "an overall fun vibe" because of its "smooth" art; he, however, criticized what he called "serious misogynistic tendencies." Chris Beveridge from Mania.com praised the Cobra the Animation anime series and its visual design, compared to those of The Psychogun, but said it is not for those who are unaware of the original series. He said the anime has "a healthy dose of action, the kind of sexuality that's a trademark of the series ... as well as a good bit of silly fun". In the second episode review, Beveridge said it "seems to be following much the same kind of pace and structure" as the OVAs. Its animation was compared to Darkside Blues; ANN's Erin Finnegan described it as "gritty" animation, but that from episode five, the animation quality looks more modern and much less gritty. Beveridge said the anime's idea is simple, but added it is "also not a show you see often since it doesn't center around teenagers, schools or the harem concept". He said it is not "a great show", but that "it gives us something different than the usual"—the reason it is "enjoyable". ### Popularity and legacy Cobra made Terasawa, who at the time was 22 and was little known, famous. Approximately 50 million copies of Cobra have been sold, making it one of Weekly Shōnen Jump'''s best-selling manga series of all time. The anime television series was a major success in France in the 1980s. Le Monde's Frédéric Potet said it "marked a whole generation of young viewers", and Joel Metreau of 20 minutes asserted it gained a cult following. Alexandre Aja and Luc Besson are among the French filmmakers that are fans of the series. Cobra has been influential on anime, manga, and video game creators. According to French scholar Marie Pruvost-Delaspre, its humorous style and sexual innuendos influenced manga City Hunter (1985), and Shinichirō Watanabe's anime Cowboy Bebop (1998) and Space Dandy (2014) owe their nostalgic appearance and the ironic tone, respectively, to Cobra. Manga author Kentaro Miura was influenced by Cobra's Psychogun on creating a prosthetic hand for Guts, the protagonist of Berserk (1989). Cobra's "provoking look", ironic style and capacity of changing from a little smile to a serious face also inspired video game designer Hideki Kamiya to create the character of Dante from the Devil May Cry series. Thirty years after the original manga's publication, the OVA adaptation Cobra the Animation has been well received by fans; it was among the best-selling anime for two weeks, and the sixth volume of the anime series was one of the best-selling DVDs for one week. #### Proposed live-action film In 2008, Buichi Terasawa said he received a Hollywood offer to purchase the rights to a live-action film adaptation of the series. He stated it was "off-the-record", and that if it happened it would be partly standalone and separate from his original manga. However, in 2010, Alexandre Aja announced he had purchased its rights, and that he planned to direct a live-action film adaptation of Cobra. Aja was inspired to create this film adaptation because the original manga was one of his childhood favorites. Aja said he wanted to create a "tent pole-sized live action franchise". In 2011, Aja wrote a script with Gregory Levasseur, and production was held by Aton Soumache and Dimitri Rassom under Onyx Films and Studio 37 with a budget of more than \$100 million. Later, a teaser poster depicting promotional concept art for Cobra: The Space Pirate, along with a release date scheduled for mid-2013, was unveiled. In September 2013, however, Aja admitted that making the film will be "very hard" since "to do a new kind of Star Wars, [is] expensive" though he stated "we are trying everything, we will make it." In July 2014, Aja revealed it was estimated that the project would require a budget of over \$150 million and that he was seeking to have an A-list actor to help attract a funder. One of his main difficulties, Aja said in 2015, was to decide who would star the film: "When I think 'who the heck is going to play that Cobra?', I become unable to move forward." In a June 2016 interview, Aja said he did not abandon it and that "The project is well advanced". Working with the Orange Studio and a group of twenty concept artists, Aja was able "to develop an absolutely huge universe in visual research". One of the drawbacks that made him slow the process was the release of Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, because Aja had to change several aspects of Cobra to differentiate it. In June 2017, he revealed the script was ready, but commented that another drawback is the big budget required for the film, which finds no funders in the US because the franchise is relatively unknown there. In April 2018, Aja announced the interruption of the film production and revealed it was in preproduction at Lionsgate until a regime change occurred; the company's new staff considered the film budget (US\$130 million) to be high and the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was also a factor on the cancellation. #### Proposed animated series In 2016, Monaco-based Shibuya Productions announced it would adapt the Rugball arc of the series into an "original animated series" called Cobra: Return of Joe Gillian. In collaboration with Terasawa's A-Girl Rights, the series is slated to be directed by Hervé Trouillet, produced by Cédric Biscay and Rinko Itoh, and written by Trouillet and Biscay. The announcement of the series was through a promotional teaser released on February 27, 2016. The arc choice was based on the fact that it is a favorite of Cobra fans and it aims to incorporate classic characters and elements of the Cobra universe and "a rendering that will not disappoint fans of Cobra''", according to Biscay. However, they hope to attract more people because of economic reasons; as such, it will have a new story and a modern style of animation. The target audience of the series is primarily adolescents of over 12 years and it was slated to premiere in 2018.
72,546,959	Lidia Patty	1,172,641,248	Bolivian politician (born 1969)	[ "1969 births", "20th-century Bolivian politicians", "20th-century Bolivian women politicians", "21st-century Bolivian politicians", "21st-century Bolivian women politicians", "Bolivian diplomats", "Bolivian domestic workers", "Bolivian educators", "Bolivian municipal councillors", "Bolivian politicians of indigenous peoples descent", "Bolivian trade unionists", "Bolivian women diplomats", "Bolivian women educators", "Bolivian women trade unionists", "Living people", "Luis Arce administration personnel", "Members of the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies from La Paz", "Movimiento al Socialismo politicians", "People from Bautista Saavedra Province", "Women members of the Chamber of Deputies (Bolivia)" ]	Lidia Patty Mullisaca (born 7 June 1969) is a Bolivian politician and trade unionist who served as consul of Bolivia to Puno, Peru, in 2023. A member of the Movement for Socialism, Patty previously represented La Paz in the Chamber of Deputies, first as a substitute alongside Manuel Canelas [es] from 2015 to 2018 and later as a voting member until 2020. An ethnic Kallawaya from Charazani in the Bautista Saavedra Province, Patty worked in domestic service before being employed as a rural schoolteacher. Starting from the mid-1990s, she became active in political activism and joined the Bartolina Sisa Confederation, serving as the organization's provincial executive and later departmental secretary. Around this time, she joined the nascent Movement for Socialism, with which she entered electoral politics in 1999. She won her first race for a seat on the Charazani Municipal Council in 2004 and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2014. Having kept a low profile while in office, Patty gained national notoriety following the conclusion of her term. She was the principal complainant in the Coup d'état Case, which resulted in the criminal prosecution of former president Jeanine Áñez and many other military and political actors in the country's 2019 crisis. A polemic figure for her frequent denunciations of both opposition and some ruling party officials alike, Patty launched an unsuccessful bid to become ombudsman of Bolivia in 2022. After briefly being considered for the post of ambassador to Paraguay, Patty was designated consul to Puno, Peru, in 2023. Amid deteriorating relations between both countries, the Peruvian government requested the annulment of her appointment, and the Bolivian Foreign Ministry withdrew her from the country shortly thereafter. ## Early life and political career ### Early life and education Lidia Patty was born on 7 June 1969 in the Charazani Municipality, capital district of La Paz's Bautista Saavedra Province. The region, situated in the Bolivian Yungas, is home to the Kallawaya, an indigenous ethnic group of which Patty is part. As with many Kallawaya, Patty is a practitioner of traditional medicine, a product of her people's historic dedication to folk healing. Patty completed portions of her primary schooling in Charazani before moving to La Paz at age 19. She spent some time employed in domestic service before receiving the support of a social aid institute to return home and complete her education. After a few years of study, during which time she was also taught to read and write Quechua, Patty graduated with a pre-university trade degree. She applied that knowledge to education as a schoolteacher in the employment of SEDEGES, a local government agency. ### Career and trade unionism In 1994, Patty joined the Bartolina Sisa Confederation, the national indigenous peasant women's union, serving as its provincial executive until 1999. Around this time, she also began making inroads into politics. Although originally a partisan of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), Patty quickly grew disenfranchised with the party and resigned from its ranks within a few weeks or months of registering. "I did not agree with their ideology," she explained, "the MIR used us indigenous people; I did not want to be used." Instead, Patty turned to a less established front: the nascent Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP). According to one indigenous authority from the Saavedra Province, once the MAS established a presence in Charazani, Patty became a member "overnight". In 1999, with the campaign underway for that year's municipal elections, Patty was nominated to seek a seat on the Charazani Municipal Council. She topped the MAS's electoral list in the district but failed to attain the position. Undeterred, she again contested the race in 2004 and was elected as a substitute councillor. Throughout her tenure, Patty stood out as a polemic figure, even netting herself a year-long suspension for "bad behavior" at one point, although she alleges that it was really retribution for her denunciations of economic mismanagement. Patty later challenged the suspension in court and won, forcing the municipality to pay her financial compensation. ## Chamber of Deputies ### Election Following the conclusion of her term on the municipal council, Patty remained active in party politics and union organizing, rising to become departmental secretary of the Bartolina Sisa Confederation. In 2014, the MAS nominated her to accompany Manuel Canelas [es] as his running mate on the party's electoral list. She agreed and was elected to represent the La Paz Department in the Chamber of Deputies. In doing so, Patty became the first Kallawaya woman ever to hold a seat in parliament—elected alongside José Mendoza, together becoming the second and third Kallawaya parliamentarians, after Walter Álvarez. ### Tenure Sworn in at the beginning of 2015, Patty spent the first three years of her term fulfilling the relatively low-profile role of a substitute deputy. That was until early 2018, when Canelas resigned from the legislature to join the executive branch as vice minister of planning and coordination. In his stead, Patty was sworn in as a primary deputy, with all the added legislative powers the role entailed. After taking office, Patty's public presence did not significantly increase, and she mostly focused her efforts on small-scale projects, such as those promoting Kallawaya culture and medicinal practices. Following the 2019 political crisis, Patty gained increased notoriety as a staunch critic of interim president Jeanine Áñez, whom she considered partially responsible for the ouster of then-president Evo Morales. Throughout the transition process, Patty issued frequent denunciations against the president and her cabinet, criticizing everything from the government's decision to close down schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic to alleged acts of political corruption. To combat the latter, Patty presented the so-called "Rooting Law", a bill that would prevent government authorities from traveling abroad for a period of six months after leaving office. The legislation was passed into law in September 2020, despite concerns from human rights observers that it violated certain standards, such as the presumption of innocence and freedom of movement. Patty was not nominated for reelection in the 2019 general election. Following the annulment of those results, her and other parliamentarians' terms of office were extended until new elections could be held; however, she was not among the select few incumbent MAS legislators included on its slate of candidates that cycle either. ### Commission assignments - Constitution, Legislation, and Electoral System Commission - Constitutional Development and Legislation Committee (–) - Democracy and Electoral System Committee (–) - Human Rights Commission - Gender Rights Committee (–) - Social Policy Commission - Housing and Public Services Committee (–) ## Post-parliamentary career ### Coup d'état Case Shortly after the conclusion of her parliamentary term, Patty ramped up her efforts to prosecute those she considered culpable for promoting a "coup d'état" against Morales and his government. Less than a month after leaving office, Patty filed a formal complaint with the Prosecutor's Office against a number of individuals for the crimes of conspiracy, sedition, and terrorism. "These gentlemen have to be tried; they have violated our Constitution," she stated. Although the process—dubbed the Coup d'état Case—was initially only intended to try prominent military and police personnel for their role in the 2019 crisis, it later became the catalyst for the prosecution and eventual detention of Áñez and a number of her former ministers. The process, which netted Áñez a ten-year prison sentence, remains ongoing. Patty continued to call for the prosecution and arrest of other opposition figures, such as Luis Fernando Camacho and former president Carlos Mesa; even some ruling party officials, including Adriana Salvatierra and her own ex-colleague, Manuel Canelas, whom she considered traitors for having negotiated with the opposition. ### Ombudsman election Having gained national notoriety for her role in the prosecution of Áñez, Patty announced her intention to launch a bid to become the country's human rights ombudsman. Although the selection process was under the purview of the MAS-majority Legislative Assembly, Patty's active membership within the party hampered her ability to attain the position, as all applicants were required to have been politically independent for at least the past eight years. Patty submitted her application anyway, justifying that the MAS was not a party but a "political instrument ... made up of the Bolivian people." She argued: "if they disqualify me, it will be discrimination because the Constitution comes before the regulations." Patty formally delivered her documentation on the penultimate day of registration, announcing to her supporters her readiness "to enforce the Constitution, enforce the agreements, the laws, the norms that we have ... [I] want to work closely with the people, hand in hand." Ultimately, Patty's candidacy was disqualified, partially on account of her political partisanship, but officially due to her failure to sign her curriculum vitae. ### Diplomatic service In December 2022, the Senate began considering Patty as a possible contender for a diplomatic role. Specifically, she was nominated to become ambassador to Paraguay, a decision that drew mixed reactions, given her lack of diplomatic experience. For opposition senator Centa Rek, the nomination demonstrated "that positions in embassies are used to fill a quota from some wing of the MAS ... it would be a degradation of diplomatic service. She has no career or accreditation; what role can she have in the foreign service?" For her part, Patty justified that assuming an ambassadorship did not require diplomatic experience. "I have my indigenous, native, peasant diplomacy," she stated, "aboriginal indigenous people also live in Paraguay." "You don't need people that prepare because you learn everything along the way," she added. By early 2023, Patty's nomination had begun to stall in parliament, a fact she attributed to "discrimination" on the part of opposition legislators, for which she announced her intent to take legal action—a move that, in turn, caused some MAS legislators to sour on her designation. Ultimately, the nomination was dropped, and Patty was instead appointed in May to serve as consul in Puno, Peru. That designation quickly proved controversial with the Peruvian government, given Patty's close relations with Morales, whose operations in southern Peru—one of the then-epicenters of anti-government protests—had strained relations and caused the former president to be barred from entering the country. On 12 June, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry formally requested that the Bolivian government annul Patty's appointment, stating that, in allowing her to exercise diplomatic functions without receiving the necessary exequatur permitting her presence, the country was in violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The Bolivian Foreign Ministry expressed its disagreement with the Peruvian government's determination, but nonetheless recalled Patty to La Paz the following day. She tendered her resignation shortly thereafter. ## Electoral history
36,061,506	The Office (American season 9)	1,163,244,823	Season of television series	[ "2012 American television seasons", "2013 American television seasons", "The Office (American season 9) episodes" ]	The ninth and final season of the American television comedy The Office premiered on NBC on September 20, 2012, and concluded on May 16, 2013, consisting of 25 episodes. The Office is an American adaptation of the British comedy series of the same name, and is presented in a mockumentary format, portraying the daily lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictitious Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The ninth season of The Office aired on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern) in the United States, as part of the Comedy Night Done Right television block. It stars Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, and Ed Helms, with supporting performances from Catherine Tate, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Clark Duke, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Ellie Kemper, Angela Kinsey, Jake Lacy, Paul Lieberstein, B. J. Novak, Oscar Nunez, Craig Robinson, and Phyllis Smith. This is the second season not to star Steve Carell as lead character Michael Scott, although he returned for a cameo appearance in the series finale. The ninth season largely focuses on the relationship between Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam Halpert (Jenna Fischer). After Jim decides to follow his dream and start a sports marketing company in Philadelphia, Pam begins to worry about moving, and the couple's relationship experiences stress. Meanwhile, Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) abandons the office for a three-month boating trip, and eventually quits his job to pursue his dream of becoming a star, although he soon becomes famous for a viral video. Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) is finally promoted to regional manager. The documentary airs, and a year later, the members of the office gather for Dwight and Angela's marriage as well as a final round of interviews. Following the decline in ratings from the previous year, the ninth season of The Office managed to stabilize around 4 million viewers per episode. The series finale, however, was watched by over 5.69 million viewers, making it the highest-rated episode that the show had aired in over a year. The season ranked as the ninety-fourth most watched television series during the 2012–13 television year and saw a decrease in ratings from the previous season. Critical reception was moderately positive; although some critics took issue with certain aspects, such as the reveal of the in-series documentary crew, many argued that it was an improvement over the previous season. Others lauded the way the show was able to successfully wrap-up its story arcs. "Finale" was nominated for three awards at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, and won for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series. ## Production The ninth season of the show was produced by Reveille Productions and Deedle-Dee Productions, both in association with Universal Television. The show is based on the British comedy series of the same name, which was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant for the BBC. In addition, the two are executive producers on the show. On May 11, 2012, NBC renewed The Office for a ninth season. Series developer Greg Daniels returned as showrunner this season. Daniels stated that the season would feature more big season arcs, saying "I'll tell you that the last couple of years, I don't think we did any big arc-type things in the way that we used to in the beginning, I think the thing we're going to do is bring back a lot of arcs." Brent Forrester, who had been a consulting producer and writer since the third season was promoted to executive producer, alongside new series writer Dan Sterling. In a conference call on August 21, 2012, Daniels announced that this would be the final season of the series. Daniels said, "This year feels like the last chance to really go out together and make an artistic ending for the show that pays off a lot of the stuff that matters most to fans." Daniels also said all the questions would be answered, such as who was behind the documentary, and why they had been filming it for so long, as well as the reveal of the Scranton Strangler. A central point during the season was the romance between Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) and Pete Miller (Jake Lacy). According to Michael Ausiello of TVLine, the nature of their relationship was heavily debated by the writers and producers; he noted that "the triangle [between Andy, Erin, and Pete] has stirred up a number of debates in the writers room, which tells me even they don't know at this point which guy Erin will choose." Daniels consulted with Kemper and asked for her input, as he felt she had the best understanding of Erin's characterization. For the season, cast members John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson, and Ed Helms were credited as producers. Krasinski also directed an episode. Guest directors for the season included Bryan Cranston, who directed the episode "Work Bus", and filmmaker Jon Favreau, who directed the episode "Moving On". Daniels directed the first episode, which he also wrote. This marked the first time that he had both written and directed an episode of The Office since the fourth season entry "Fun Run". Ken Kwapis directed the series finale; he also directed the show's pilot episode. While The Office was mainly filmed on a studio set at Valley Center Studios in Van Nuys, California, the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the show is set, was also used for shots of the opening theme. Angela Kinsey and Rainn Wilson, during an interview, expressed the hope to film an episode of the season in Scranton. Although this never came to fruition, exterior shots of the real Scranton bar The Bog were featured in the tenth episode "Lice". Originally, the season was supposed to contain 24 episodes, which would have meant that the series aired exactly 200 episodes. However, the series' penultimate episode was elongated into 2 separate episodes, resulting in "Finale"—which was announced previously as an hour-long special—being the 24th and 25th episodes of the season. This meant that the last part of "Finale" is the series' 201st episode. On March 19, 2013, the official Office fansite OfficeTally launched a campaign on Change.org to "super-size or extend" the finale; this campaign was motivated by a statement made by Daniels, in which he mentioned he would "beg" the studio to air a longer episode. On May 2, 2013 the petition amassed 20,000 signatures. On May 7, NBC announced the series finale would be extended, and air in a 75-minute time slot. A one-hour retrospective of the series aired prior to the one-hour series finale on May 16. ## Cast The Office employs an ensemble cast. Most of the main characters, and some supporting ones, are based on characters from the British version of The Office. While these characters normally have the same attitudes and perceptions as their British counterparts, the roles have been redesigned to better fit the American show. The show is known for its large cast size, many of whom are known particularly for their improvisational work. ### Main - Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute, based upon Gareth Keenan, who is the office's top-performing sales representative. - John Krasinski as Jim Halpert, a sales representative and prankster, who is based upon Tim Canterbury, and is married to Pam Halpert, the office administrator. - Jenna Fischer as Pam Halpert, who is based on Dawn Tinsley, is shy, but is often a cohort with Jim in his pranks on Dwight. - Ed Helms as Andy Bernard, the preppy manager and boastful Cornell alumnus whose love for a cappella music and awkward social skills generate mixed feelings from his employees. ### Starring - Catherine Tate as Nellie Bertram, the manager of special projects. - Leslie David Baker as Stanley Hudson, a grumpy salesman. - Brian Baumgartner as Kevin Malone, a dim-witted accountant - Creed Bratton as Creed Bratton, the office’s strange quality assurance officer. - Clark Duke as Clark Green, one of the two new customer sales representatives hired to replace Ryan and Kelly, who wants to become a salesman. - Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer, the promiscuous supplier relations representative. - Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor, the pop-culture obsessed customer service representative, who leaves with her fiancé, Ravi, at the beginning of the season. - Ellie Kemper as Erin Hannon, the receptionist and love interest of Andy. - Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin, a judgemental accountant. - Jake Lacy as Pete Miller, one of the two new customer sales representatives hired to replace Ryan and Kelly, who develops feelings for Erin. - Paul Lieberstein as Toby Flenderson, the sad-eyed human resources representative. - B. J. Novak as Ryan Howard, a former temporary worker, who leaves and follows Kelly to Ohio at the beginning of the season. - Oscar Nunez as Oscar Martinez, an intelligent accountant, who is also gay. - Craig Robinson as Darryl Philbin, the warehouse manager, who starts working with Jim at his new company. - Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Vance, a motherly saleswoman. ### Special guest star - Steve Carell as Michael Scott, the former regional manager of the Scranton branch, who is now happily married to Holly Flax in Colorado. He returns to be Dwight’s best man. - Melora Hardin as Jan Levinson, a former Dunder Mifflin employee, now working at the Scranton White Pages. ### Recurring - Jack Coleman as Robert Lipton, Angela’s husband and a state senator. - Ameenah Kaplan as Val Johnson, a warehouse worker and Darryl’s girlfriend. - Bobby Ray Shafer as Bob Vance, the owner of Vance Refrigeration and Phyllis’ husband. - Andy Buckley as David Wallace, the owner and CEO of Dunder Mifflin. - Hugh Dane as Hank Tate, the building’s security guard. - Chris Diamantopoulos as Brian, a boom mic operator. - Michael Schur as Mose Schrute, Dwight’s cousin. - Matt L. Jones as Ziek Schrute, Dwight’s cousin and Mose’s brother. - Nora Kirkpatrick as Esther Breugger, Dwight’s girlfriend. ### Notable guests - David Denman as Roy Anderson, a former warehouse worker and Pam’s ex-fiancé. - Randall Park as Steve, an Asian actor pretending to be Jim. - Stephen Colbert as Broccoli Rob, a former member of Here Comes Treble, Andy’s a cappella group. - Josh Groban as Walter Bernard Jr., Andy’s brother. - Julius Erving as himself - Ed Lauter as Sam Stone Sr., the owner of a suit warehouse. - Linda Purl as Helene Beesly, Pam’s mother. - Bob Odenkirk as Mark Franks, a regional manager in Philadelphia. - Zach Woods as Gabe Lewis, a former Sabre employee and Erin’s ex-boyfriend, who was fired after the Sabre’s liquidation. - Collette Wolfe as Alice, Pete’s ex-girlfriend. - Majandra Delfino as Fannie Schrute, Dwight’s sister. - Thomas Middleditch as Jeb Schrute, Dwight’s brother. - David Koechner as Todd Packer, a rude and offensive man and a former employee of Dunder Mifflin Sabre, who was fired by Robert California. - Ryan Howard as himself - Roseanne Barr as Carla Fern, Andy’s agent. - Clay Aiken as himself - Mark McGrath as himself - Aaron Rodgers as himself - Santigold as herself - Ed Begley Jr. as Martin Hannon, Erin’s biological father. - Joan Cusack as Fran Hannon, Erin’s biological mother. - Dakota Johnson as Dakota, an accountant hired to replace Kevin. - Devon Abner as Devon White, a former Dunder Mifflin Employee who was fired by Michael. - Nancy Carell as Carol Stills, a real estate agent. ### Casting Krasinski and Helms were expected to appear in fewer episodes in order to film several upcoming movies. Helms was temporarily written out of the series with a storyline that saw his character travel to the Caribbean with his brother on a boat. As such, Helms made only a small appearance in "The Whale" and was absent from the following eight episodes. He returned in the episode "Couples Discount". According to TVLine, he returned to work right before the show's Christmas break. Krasinski ultimately continued to appear in every episode, but was frequently absent from the primary Scranton setting as part of a storyline that saw Jim begin a start-up business in Philadelphia. Additionally, Wilson was initially slated to appear in only 13 episodes before leaving for a planned Dwight-centric spin-off, but the spin-off was not picked up by NBC. Mindy Kaling and B. J. Novak have much lesser roles as Kelly Kapoor and Ryan Howard, respectively. Both Kaling and Novak appeared in the season opener "New Guys", and both returned for the series finale. Actress Catherine Tate, who joined the series as a series regular midway through season eight portraying Nellie Bertram, continued with the series. Clark Duke and Lacy joined the cast as customer service representatives hired to deal with the many neglected customer service complaints Kelly has amassed over the years; Lacy's character, Pete, is also a love interest for Erin. Kinsey and Wilson also noted that the cast and crew could neither "confirm nor deny" but were "hoping" for a return of Steve Carell as Michael Scott. In mid-December, Krasinski later revealed that he was optimistic about a return; in an interview with E! Online Krasinski said that the producers were supposedly "still trying to figure out [Carell's] schedule" and that the finale "just wouldn't be the same without him". However, NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt later admitted during an interview that while he is "hopeful", he does not think Carell will return; he noted that Carell was satisfied with his character's exit and did not want to tarnish it. On January 16, Daniels revealed that Carell would not appear in the finale in any capacity, a decision that Carell later reiterated. Three months later, however, the producers for The Office mounted "an 11th-hour effort last month" to get Carell to make a cameo in the show's final episode, according to TVLine. Carell's personal representative confirmed that Carell was on the set for the final episode, but that he did not film any scenes. However, an anonymous source "close to the show" said "don't rule anything out". TVLine later reported on May 6, that Carell would appear in a cameo, although NBC declined to comment and Carell's representatives continued to deny the reports. Carell, however, did end up returning for the finale; his character, Michael Scott, becomes Dwight's best man at his wedding. A month after the episode aired, Carell explained in an interview with TVLine that he "lied for months to the press, to almost everyone, really". He noted that he "felt terribly for the cast and for [executive producer] Greg Daniels, because they all lied, too." Krasinski, on the other hand, explained that "It was so thrilling. We all just flat-out lied ... It was just one of those things that we all vowed and had to protect". In addition to Carell, the season also saw the return of several "veteran cast members". Former series regular David Denman was the first to do so, appearing as Roy Anderson in the second episode of the season "Roy's Wedding"; he was last seen as part of the Threat Level Midnight film in season seven. Josh Groban reprised his role as Andy's brother, Walter Jr, appearing in the episode "The Boat". Melora Hardin returned as Jan Levinson in the episode "The Whale" and had a small vocal cameo in the episode "Couples Discount". "Junior Salesman" saw the return of several minor characters, including Lance Krall as Sensei Ira (who first appeared in the second-season episode "The Fight"), Noel Petok as Troy Underbridge (who first appeared in the fourth-season episode "Night Out"), Beth Grant as Dwight's babysitter (who first appeared in the fourth-season episode "Dinner Party"), and James Urbaniak as Rolf (who first appeared in the fifth-season episode "Company Picnic"). Although cast member Zach Woods' series regular contract was not renewed for the season, he returned to the series as a guest star, in the episode "Moving On". David Koechner returned as Todd Packer in "The Farm". "Finale" also featured the return of several recurring characters, such as Nancy Carell as Carol Stills, Michael's real-estate agent and short-time girlfriend, Sendhil Ramamurthy as Ravi, Jackie Debatin as Elizabeth (who first appeared in the third season episode "Ben Franklin"), Devon Abner as Devon (who was a former Dunder Mifflin employee fired in "Halloween"), and Spencer Daniels as Jake Palmer (who first played Meredith's son in the season two episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day"). Stephen Colbert guest starred in the Halloween episode as Broccoli Rob, a former member of Here Comes Treble, Andy's a cappella group. The episode "Lice" guest starred Julius Erving playing himself as an investor in Jim's sports marketing business. Former NBC co-chairman and The Office executive producer Ben Silverman had a minor recurring role as one of Jim's colleagues. He appeared in the episodes "Here Comes Treble", "Suit Warehouse", "Customer Loyalty", and "Moving On". The fourteenth episode, "Junior Salesmen", featured several guest stars. These included Eric Wareheim as Gabor, Matt L. Jones as Zeke, and Will McCormack as Wolf. In the episode "Promos", athlete Ryan Howard played a version of himself. Comedian Roseanne Barr had a two-episode arc as a talent agent named Carla Fern, and first appeared in the episode "Stairmageddon". Michael Imperioli guest starred in the episode "Livin' the Dream" as Sensei Billy, acting as a foil for Dwight. The episode "A.A.R.M." guest starred Aaron Rodgers, Clay Aiken, Mark McGrath, Santigold, and Jessica St. Clair, all playing themselves. The series finale guest starred: Rachael Harris as Angela's sister; Joan Cusack and Ed Begley Jr. as Erin's biological parents; Malcolm Barrett as Stanley's replacement; and Bill Hader and Seth Meyers as themselves. ## Reception ### Ratings The season aired on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m., as part of the Comedy Night Done Right programming block. The season premiere, "New Guys" received a 2.1/6 percent share in the Nielsen ratings among viewers aged 18 to 49, meaning that 2.1 percent of viewers aged 18 to 49 watched the episode, and 6 percent of viewers watching television at the time watched the episode. The episode was viewed by 4.28 million viewers and became the lowest-rated season premiere for the series. In addition, it marked a 46 percent drop in viewership from the season eight premiere "The List". For the first sixteen episodes, the series was able to maintain roughly 4 million viewers. However, starting with the seventeenth episode "The Farm", ratings began to drop below this threshold. The series hit an all-time low with the twentieth episode, "Paper Airplane", which was viewed by only 3.25 million viewers, and received a 1.7 rating/5 percent share. The series finale was viewed by 5.69 million viewers and received a 3.0 rating among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This made it the highest-rated episode of the season; it also marked an increase in the previous season finale, which garnered only 4.49 million viewers. "Finale" was the most watched episode of The Office since the eighth season episode "Pool Party", but ranked as the third-least watched finale of the series, following the eighth- and first-season finales. Although in its ninth season, The Office no longer was NBC's highest-rated scripted comedy series—it was surpassed by Go On—it often ranked as the highest-rated scripted NBC series on Thursday nights. Rainn Wilson argued that the show's lower ratings were a combination of the overall trend in lower television ratings in 2012, as well as the fact that "NBC didn't promote [the series] one bit". NBC increased their usual ad-price by 200 percent for the finale, asking for \$400,000 per commercial. This was largely due to the anticipated increase in viewership that the finale would bring. The season ranked as the ninety-fourth most watched television series during the 2012–13 season, with an average of 5.061 million viewers. The season also tied with the CBS series Rules of Engagement and the Fox series American Dad! to be the forty-third most watched television series in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic. In this category, the show received a 2.6 rating. This meant that, on average, the season was viewed by 2.6 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds. It was viewed by 3.32 million in this demographic. In terms of viewers, the ninth season ranked as the lowest-rated season of The Office, although it beat the first season's ranking, which was the 102nd most watched program for the 2004–05 year. ### Critical response The ninth season of The Office received moderately positive reviews from television critics. Based on seven critiques, review aggregation website Metacritic gave the ninth season of the show a 64 out of 100 rating, which denotes "generally favorable reviews". Entertainment website Holy Moly named the series one of the best shows during the 2012–13 season, writing that "this final season of The Office has been great" largely due to the fact that "every single relationship in the show rings true with the audience." Michael Tedder of Vulture commented that he was "willing to call it the fourth best season of the show overall, which is by no means faint praise." He explained that this was largely due to the fact that the "final season was a chance to see how everyone else would end up". Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club wrote that "the tension between Jim and Pam in the final season ended up being highly controversial for a number of reasons ... but it also provided the most hopeful moments of the series' final stretch" (although she did note that it was clear that the writers had "blatantly" set up the drama). She concluded that the finale was able to successfully return the series "to what had always been its heart—to have true fulfillment". Roth Cornet of IGN awarded the season an 8.5 out of 10, denoting a "great" year. She felt that the character growth in the final few episodes was particularly well executed, and the last stretch of the season helped raise it after a rocky start; ultimately, she felt that the writers were able to craft the proper ending for the show. She was, however, critical of Andy's characterization, noting that he was merely used as a plot device when convenient. Many critics argued that the season was an improvement, in both writing and humor, over the previous season. Several specific episodes received praise. Andrea Reiher of Zap2it named "Dwight Christmas" the best comedy TV episode of 2012. She wrote that the episode "was not only funny but had a huge nostalgia factor", and continued the show's trend of strong Christmas episodes. Reiher also praised the episode's two subplots, writing that "drunk Darryl and Die Hard" helped produce "a classic episode of The Office that brought back the warm and fuzzy feelings of the early seasons of the show." The season's penultimate entry, "A.A.R.M.", received a glowing response from many critics. Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote that the episode was "surprisingly ... terrific in most areas." Roth Cornet of IGN noted that "The interplay between Jim, Dwight, and Pam has been the core of the series since Michael Scott's departure, and it was good to see the trio front and center once again as The Office comes to a close." The series finale, in particular, was praised by critics. Sepinwall called it "a tremendously satisfying conclusion to a show that could make us gasp with laughter, but that could also make us cry or smile". Cornet wrote that it "was a strong hour of television [and] the finale shone and delivered on all of its promise." Nick Campbell of TV.com wrote that the episode was "just right" for the series. Other episodes were not received as positively. "Lice", for instance, was called "terrible" by Campbell, as well as the "epitome of filler" by Brett Davinger of The California Literary Review. "The Farm" was largely derided due to its uneven nature, and the broad humor that it used. The reveal of the in-series documentary crew in "Customer Loyalty" received large amounts of critical attention. E! Online named the reveal one of the "Best TV Moments of the Week". Verne Gay of Newsday called the scene a "historic" moment for the show. Conversely, Myles McNutt of The A.V. Club wrote an article that argued that the mockumentary format made the camera "an audience surrogate", and that by revealing the documentary crew, "the audience no longer felt welcome". The subplot involving Brian (played by Chris Diamantopoulos), a boom mic operator for the in-series documentary, was met with mostly negative reviews. Michael Tedder of Vulture called it "the least interesting way this camera crew reveal could have gone". Dan Forcella of TV Fanatic criticized the reintroduction of the character in the episode "Promos", noting that his reappearance felt "forced". McNutt called it "an abandoned novelty". Daniels later revealed in an interview that the subplot was a red herring to keep viewers emotionally invested in Pam and Jim's story. He explained, "we never intended him to actually [interfere with Pam and Jim's marriage], but wanted people to worry about it so they would be engaged in the story." ### Awards On December 12, 2012, the series was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, but lost to Modern Family. Michael Scott's return was nominated and won the fan-voted "Best TV Moment" at the 3rd Critics' Choice Television Awards on June 10, 2013. Greg Daniels was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards for "Finale". "Finale" was also nominated for an Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series Emmy and an Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series Emmy; David Rogers and Claire Scanlon for "Finale" won the latter, marking the fifth win for The Office at the Emmys overall and the series' first win since 2009. Rogers and Scanlon also won an American Cinema Editors award for Best Edited Half-Hour Series for Television. In addition, the web documentary "The Office: The Farewells", which aired on NBC.com prior to the series' conclusion, was nominated for an Outstanding Special Class Program Creative Arts Emmy Award. ## Episodes In the following table, "U.S. viewers (million)" refers to the number of Americans who viewed the episode on the night of broadcast. Episodes are listed by the order in which they aired, and may not necessarily correspond to their production codes. `denotes an hour-long episode (with advertisements; actual runtime around 42 minutes).` ` denotes an extended 75-minute episode (with advertisements; actual runtime around 52 minutes).` ## Home media release
583,415	Jet Airways	1,173,581,591	Airline based in India	[ "1992 establishments in Maharashtra", "Airlines disestablished in 2019", "Airlines established in 1992", "Airlines of India", "Companies based in Mumbai", "Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange", "Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India", "Etihad Airways Partners", "Indian brands", "Indian companies disestablished in 2019", "Indian companies established in 1992", "Jet Airways" ]	Jet Airways (India) Ltd was an Indian airline based in Delhi NCR, with a training and developmental centre in Mumbai. Incorporated in April 1992 as a limited liability company, the airline began operations as an air taxi operator in 1993. It began full-fledged operations in 1995 with international flights added in 2004. The airline went public in 2005 and in 2007, when it acquired Air Sahara. It was the first and only privately owned Indian airline before the founding of Vistara in 2015. The airline is expected to re-commence its flight operations by the end of 2023, making it the first Indian airline to be revived after ceasing operations. It grew to be one of the largest airlines in India, with a 21.2% passenger market share in February 2016. It operated over 300 flights daily to 74 destinations worldwide from its erstwhile main hub at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai and secondary hubs at Chennai International Airport in Chennai, Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, Cochin International Airport in Kochi and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata. With its competitors, mainly SpiceJet and IndiGo, lowering ticket fares in the following years, it was forced to follow suit, hurting overall performance resulting in steep financial losses. It dropped to second place behind IndiGo in October 2017, with a passenger market share of 17.8%. The downward slide continued and resulted in bankruptcy in 2019. Jet Airways ceased operations in April 2019. In 2020, Jet Airways was taken over by an investment company Kalrock with a view to restart operations in 2022, which however did not happen. ## History The airline was granted a scheduled airline status on 14 January 1995. It entered into a marketing agreement with KLM the same year. In 1996, the airline placed a \$375 million order for four 737-400 and six 737-800 aircraft from Boeing, which were delivered between 1997 and 2000. Jet Airways was the first airline in Southeast Asia to order the 737-800. In the financial year 1996–97, the airline carried 2.4 million passengers and had a market share of 20 percent, second highest after state-owned Indian Airlines. By this time, the airline had a fleet of twelve Boeing 737 aircraft, operating 83 daily flights to 23 domestic destinations. In 1997, the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Investment (CCFI) of the Government of India announced that foreign airlines would no longer be permitted to take an equity stake in joint ventures with Indian aviation companies, reversing the Government's earlier policy which had allowed carriers such as Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways and Lufthansa to hold a maximum 40% equity stake in their joint ventures with Indian partners. In October 1997, as per this directive, Naresh Goyal took back control of Trade Winds from its foreign investors. At the Paris Air Show in June 1999, Jet Airways announced an order worth approximately \$550 million for ten Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The airline purchased its first Boeing 737-400 simulator from CAE Inc. in 2001. By April 2001, the airline fleet had grown to 30 aircraft and was operating over 195 flights daily to 37 destinations within India. Jet Airways suffered losses for the first time since its establishment in financial year 2001–2002 as demand fell and costs increased. Jet Airways was announced as launch customer for the Embraer 175 at the Farnborough air show in 2002, with an order for ten aircraft and ten options worth \$520 million. But the deal was postponed due to the airline's financial difficulties and eventually fell through. In 2003, the Indian government decided to allow private carriers to operate international services to countries in south Asia, such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. `and Jet began preparations to launch international services.` The airline launched its first international flight in March 2004 from Chennai to Colombo. Jet Airways was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and became a public company on 28 December 2004. After the Government lifted the foreign ownership limits on Indian airlines to 49% from the previous 40%, the airline moved to raise funds via an IPO. The company's IPO in February 2005, which offered 20% of the airline's stock, saw strong interest from investors leading to oversubscription in retail, non-institutional and institutional tranches and raised Rs 18.9 billion, instantly making Naresh Goyal a paper billionaire. Towards the end of 2004, the government had announced that privately owned scheduled carriers meeting certain criteria could operate to all countries apart from those in the Middle East. Then in January 2005, the Ministry of Civil Aviation granted rights to Jet Airways to operate services to London Heathrow. The airline started its first international, long-haul flight to London in May 2005 with two-class Airbus A340-300s sub-leased from South African Airways. ### Growth and expansion In January 2006, Jet Airways announced its intention to acquire Air Sahara for US\$500 million in an all-cash deal; however, the deal fell through in June 2006. On 12 April 2007, the deal was back on track with Jet Airways agreeing to pay . On 16 April 2007, Air Sahara was renamed as JetLite and was marketed between a low-cost carrier and a full-service airline. JetLite became a wholly owned subsidiary of Jet Airways. In August 2008, Jet Airways announced its plans to integrate JetLite into Jet Airways. In October 2008, Jet Airways laid off 1,900 of its employees, who were later re-instated due to intervention from the Ministry of Civil Aviation. In October 2008, Jet Airways entered into an alliance with rival Kingfisher Airlines for code-sharing on domestic and international flights, collaboration on frequent-flyer program and sharing crew and ground handling equipment. On 8 May 2009, Jet Airways launched another low-cost brand, Jet Konnect. It operated a fleet of Boeing 737 Next Generation and ATR 72 aircraft and operated on profitable short-haul routes with higher passenger load factors. ### Consolidation In the third quarter of 2010, Jet Airways became the largest airline in India with a passenger market share of 22.6%. In July 2012, the airline officially sought government approval to join Star Alliance. Jet Airways is not a member of Star Alliance as of 2017. In June 2011, it became the first domestic airline in India to ban meat products and liquids in check-in baggage. Jet Airways merged the JetLite brand into Jet Konnect on 25 March 2012 and started offering business-class seats after the demise of Kingfisher Airlines. In 2013, Etihad Airways planned to buy a stake in the airline following the government's announcement in September 2012 that foreign airlines could take a stake of up to 49% in Indian carriers. On 24 April 2013, Jet announced that it was ready to sell a 24% stake in the airline to Etihad for US\$379 million. The deal, which was expected to be signed in January 2013, was postponed and was completed on 12 November 2013. Naresh Goyal retained 51% ownership of the stock. In 2013, the airline lowered prices and entered into a fare war with low-cost carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet due to falling passenger demand. In February 2013, the airline's market value dropped by due to falling share prices. Jet Airways made profits in the third quarter of the financial year 2013–14, after posting losses over the previous year. Jet Airways announced on 11 August 2014 that it would phase out Jet Konnect by the end of the year as part of plans to re-position itself as a uniform full-service operator. On 1 December 2014, Jet Konnect was fully merged with Jet Airways, making it the third full-service airline in India besides Air India and Vistara. In December 2015, Jet Airways announced the closure of its scissor hub at Brussels Airport by March 2016 and the opening of new hub at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport effective 27 March 2016. As of February 2016, it was the second-largest airline in India after IndiGo, with a 21.2% passenger-market share. ### Bankruptcy and cessation of services As of November 2018, Jet Airways has been reported to have a negative financial outlook due to increasing losses. In March 2019 it was reported that nearly a fourth of Jet Airways' aircraft were grounded due to unpaid lease rates. On 25 March 2019, Mr. Naresh Goyal and his wife Anitha Goyal stepped down from the board of directors. On 5 April, Indian Oil Corporation stopped supplying fuel to the airline, citing non-payment of dues as the emergency funds have still not been credited. On 17 April, the airline suspended all flight operations, due to lenders rejecting Rs 4 billion of emergency funding and its membership in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) was suspended. On 17 June, after getting no acceptable offers from Etihad Airways and Hinduja Group, lenders to Jet Airways decided to refer the company to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for bankruptcy proceedings with debt of \$1.2 billion. As the group faces insolvency proceedings in the Netherlands after failing to pay two creditors, NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal) has allowed cross-border insolvency proceedings stating that the "Dutch Trustee (Administrator) will work in cooperation with the 'Resolution Professional of India." In early 2020, Enso Group, tried to rescue the airline with Russian Far East Development Fund, and participated in talks for buying controlling stake in it from its committee of creditors(CoC), but talks fell through. ### Restart In 2020, entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan and asset management firm Kalrock, part of the Fritsch Group, purchased Jet Airways with a view to restart air operations. It was expected that Jet Airways II would take to the skies in 2022 as a full-service domestic airline with a fleet of six aircraft. On 20 May 2022, Jet Airways received its Air Operator's Certificate. However, flights did not resume in 2022, and the company did not renew its Air Operator's Certificate in 2023, leading to speculations that the Jet Airways revival is failing. In August 2023, it was reported that Jet Airways has lost it's IATA code (9W) after all flights were grounded for more than four years. A Jet Airways spokesperson maintains that the IATA code is "currently under preservation with IATA" until recommencement of operations. ## Livery The original livery was navy blue with light grey and chrome yellow. The top and bottom of the aircraft were painted in light grey with the flying sun logo in the navy blue background. In 2007, a new livery was created by Landor Associates which added yellow and gold ribbons; the design retained the dark blue and gold-accented colour scheme along with the airline's "flying sun" logo. A new yellow uniform was simultaneously introduced, created by Italian designer Roberto Capucci. Jet Airways introduced its new identity in conjunction with a global brand re-launch which included new aircraft and seating. ## Controversies ### Safety Asmin Tariq, a contractor working for the airline as a security agent at Heathrow airport was implicated in the foiled terror plot on 10 August 2006 to blow up several transatlantic airliners belonging to three different US airlines. Subsequently, the Governments of UK and Singapore requested security-related information from the Ministry of External Affairs on Jet Airways; clearance was further delayed to fly to the US. The US State Department gave the go-ahead for the airline to fly to the US on 15 November 2006. In August 2014, two pilots of Jet Airways were suspended after a plane carrying 280 passengers dropped 5,000 feet (1,500 m) mid-air en route from Mumbai to Brussels. ### Customer care On 2 December 2016, Jet Airways flight 9W7083 from Bhopal to Mumbai was held up by a large group of passengers headed for a wedding in Mumbai. There were allegations from other passengers that the wedding party was politically connected and attempted to coerce the cabin crew to disembark passengers so that additional members of their party could be accommodated. The airline claimed it was a technical glitch in their booking system which led to overbooking. ### Corruption In 2016, the airline was implicated in the Gupta family controversy in South Africa when it was alleged by former African National Congress MP Vytjie Mentor that members of the business family had offered her the position of Minister of Public Enterprises, on behalf of President Jacob Zuma, if she agreed to arrange for South African Airways to drop their India route so that Jet Airways could acquire it instead. ### Links to organised crime On 12 December 2001, an internal memo from the Indian intelligence agencies; R&AW and IB to the Indian home ministry stated that they had evidence that Jet Airways had intermittent contact with Dawood Ibrahim, Chota Shakeel and other gangs of the Indian underworld, related to financial transactions. This information was leaked to the media and parliament proceedings were stalled. Subsequently, in 2016, reports surfaced that the initial investment for Jet Airways itself had come through shell companies from the Isle of Man, and was heavily funded by the Indian underworld. This was documented in detail in the book A Feast of Vultures. ## Destinations According to its website, in 2016 Jet Airways served 57 destinations – 37 domestic and 20 international destinations in 15 countries across Asia, Europe, North America and Middle East. The airline had its primary hub in Mumbai and secondary bases in Delhi and Bangalore. The airline's first international destination, introduced in March 2004, was Colombo, flown to from Chennai. London was the airline's first long-haul destination and was launched in 2005. Since 2007, Jet Airways has had a scissors hub at Brussels Airport for onward transatlantic connections to North America, which was replaced by Amsterdam Airport Schiphol from 27 March 2016. In 2008, the airline was forced to discontinue international routes because these attracted losses due to global economic downturn; it terminated services to San Francisco and Shanghai. The airline planned to restore the Mumbai–Shanghai route by the end of 2011 but never did so. In 2012, the airline withdrew flights to New York City and closed the Delhi–Milan route in 2013. On 1 March 2016, the airline announced the integration of domestic and international operations in Mumbai airport and moved its entire operations to the newly constructed Terminal 2. ### Codeshare agreements Jet Airways had codeshare agreements with the following airlines before ceasing their operations: - Aeroméxico - Air Canada - Air France - Air Seychelles - All Nippon Airways - Bangkok Airways - China Eastern Airlines - Delta Air Lines - Etihad Airways - Fiji Airways - Garuda Indonesia - Hong Kong Airlines - Jetstar Asia Airways - Kenya Airways - KLM - Korean Air - Malaysia Airlines - Qantas - Vietnam Airlines - Virgin Atlantic ## Fleet ### Current fleet After the airline was grounded due to financial reasons, the Jet Airways fleet consists of the following as of 2022:. ### Fleet development Jet Airways placed its first order for four Boeing 737-400 and 30 Boeing 737-800 aircraft on 11 December 1996; and the first aircraft was delivered on 12 November 1997. It placed its second order for six Boeing 737-700 and two Boeing 737-900 aircraft on 14 June 1999 with deliveries starting in May 2001. The airline launched its next round of fleet expansion in 2005 when it ordered 30 Aircraft at the Paris Air Show. The airline signed deals with Airbus for ten A330 aircraft and with Boeing for ten 737 and 777 aircraft each. Long-haul routes were served using its fleet of Airbus A330-200, Airbus A330-300 and Boeing 777-300ER. The airline placed an order for 10 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on 29 September 2005 which were delivered in 2007. Jet Airways ordered 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliner on 29 December 2006 to operate on long-haul routes. On 5 January 2012, it inducted five ATR 72-600 series to operate on domestic regional routes. It placed a further order for 75 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on 23 April 2013 as part of modernization of its fleet of 737s. In April 2018 and July 2018 the airline entered an agreement to acquire an additional 75 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft each, taking its order tally to 225 Boeing 737 MAX jets. After Jet Airways ceased their operations, Boeing cancelled all of Jet Airways' remaining 737 MAX 8 orders along with the Boeing 737 MAX 9 and 10 orders and Boeing 787-9 orders due to the financial problems and airline's collapse. As a part of the airline's relaunch, reports have emerged that the airline is in talks with leading aircraft manufacturer Airbus to procure 50 narrow body Airbus A220 aircraft. Some media reports indicates that Jalan-Kalrock is in talks with aircraft OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to place an order of at least 200 aircraft of a mix of small, medium, and large narrow body jets at the Paris airshow in June 2023 for their growth plan for five years. ### Former fleet Jet Airways operated the following aircraft in the past: ## Services ### Cabin Jet Airways had three classes of service: First, Première (Business) and Economy. - First class was available only in Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The first class offered private suites; it featured seats convertible to a fully flat bed, personal LCD TVs and in-seat power supply. - Première class was available on long-haul international flights operated by Airbus A330-200 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft featured recliner seats, fully flat beds with personal LCD TVs and in-seat power. Première class in domestic flights offered recliner seats with larger leg room in a 2-2 configuration. - Economy class on long-haul aircraft had a 32 inches (810 mm) seat pitch with a footrest and the cabin was configured in 2-4-2 on the Airbus A330-200 and 3-4-3 on the Boeing 777-300ER. Economy seats on the Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 had a personal 10.6 inches (270 mm) touchscreen LCD TV. Domestic flights operated by Boeing 737 aircraft had Première and Economy classes and the ATR 72 aircraft had an all-economy class configuration. Economy class on Boeing 737 had a 30 inches (760 mm) seat pitch with personal LCD behind each seat. Meals were served in economy class until recently. They introduced buy-on-board which was named Jet Bistro. ### WiFi On 1 February 2016, Jet Airways announced the introduction of an in-flight entertainment service for streaming of entertainment content directly to Wi-Fi enabled personal devices of the passengers. ### Frequent Flyer Program Jet Airways's frequent-flyer programme was called Jet Privilege. It was rebranded as Intermiles in 2019. ## Accidents and incidents - 1 July 2007: Jet Airways Flight 3307, an ATR 72-212A (registered VT-JCE), flying on the Bhopal-Indore route was involved in an accident caused by bad weather. There were no fatalities amongst the 45 passengers and four crew, but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off. - 18 August 2015: Jet Airways Flight 555, a Boeing 737-800 (registered VT-JFA), flying on the Doha-Cochin route was involved in an accident caused by bad weather. There were no fatalities amongst the 150 passengers and crew, but the plane was severely damaged in the incident. - 27 December 2016: A Jet Airways Boeing 737-800, registration VT-JBG performing flight 9W-2374 from Goa to Mumbai (India) with 154 passengers and 7 crew, backtracked runway 26, lined up runway 26 and was accelerating the engines for takeoff when the aircraft continued to turn right, the crew rejected takeoff, the aircraft went off the right runway edge almost perpendicular, went over soft ground and across a road and came to a stop with the nose gear collapsed and both engines making ground contact. The aircraft was evacuated, 16 occupants received minor injuries as a result of the evacuation. - 30 October 2017: Jet Airways 339, flying from Mumbai to Delhi, was subject of a bomb hoax/hijacking hoax. Birju Kishore Salla, a jeweller from Mumbai, left a note in the business class lavatory claiming that 12 hijackers were on board the flight and that explosives had been placed in the cargo area, and demanded that the plane be diverted to Pakistani-administered Kashmir. After the note was found, the plane was diverted for an emergency landing in Ahmedabad, whereupon bomb disposal units searched the aircraft and found that the note was a hoax. Salla was subsequently banned from flying on Jet Airways flights for five years, and was the first person to get added to the Indian No-Fly List. ## See also - List of airlines of India - Transport in India
15,196,792	All Saints' Church, Runcorn	1,092,395,415	null	[ "1849 establishments in England", "19th-century Church of England church buildings", "Anthony Salvin buildings", "Buildings and structures in Runcorn", "Church of England church buildings in Cheshire", "Churches completed in 1849", "Diocese of Chester", "Gothic Revival architecture in Cheshire", "Gothic Revival church buildings in England", "Grade II* listed churches in Cheshire" ]	All Saints' Church is the parish church of Runcorn, Cheshire, England, sited on the south bank of the River Mersey overlooking Runcorn Gap. There is a tradition that the first church on the site was founded by Ethelfleda in 915. That was replaced, probably in about 1250, by a medieval church that was altered and extended in the 14th and 15th centuries. By the 19th century the building's structure had deteriorated and become dangerous, and it was replaced by a new church, built between 1847 and 1849 to the designs of Anthony Salvin. The church is built in local sandstone and is in Early English style with a tall steeple at the southwest corner. Some of the furniture in the church was moved from the previous building, as were some of the memorials, the majority of which are to members of the Brooke family from nearby Norton Priory. All Saints is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, arranging services on Sundays and home groups during the week, in addition to weddings and funerals, and running a community project. The church is designated as a Grade II\* listed building. ## History A church has stood on the site of the present structure for centuries. There is a tradition that the first church was founded in 915 by Ethelfleda when she built a castle nearby. Dedicated to St Bertelin, it was probably a simple structure of wood and thatch. Runcorn is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, but there is evidence that Nigel, the first baron of Halton (died 1080), conferred the church with a priest "in the days of the Conqueror". A medieval church was subsequently built on the site, during the 19th-century demolition of which Norman capitals were found in the masonry of its tower. Judging by its Early English style of architecture, the local historian H. F. Starkey estimates that the medieval church was probably built in about 1250. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century with Decorated tracery in the east window. During the same century an embattled tower was built at the west end of the church, and this was either rebuilt or increased in size in the following century. A major item of the church furniture was a pre-Reformation rood screen. It was destroyed when the church was rebuilt in the 19th century, although a few fragments were used in the construction of the present choir stalls. The nave of the church measured 52 feet (16 m) by 40 feet (12 m) and the tower was 57 feet (17 m) high. At some time the dedication of the church was changed from St Bertelin to St Bartholomew, and later to All Saints. By the 18th century the south aisle was in a serious state of decay, and in 1740 it was rebuilt in brick. In 1801 a commission reported that the church "was too small to conveniently contain the inhabitants of the parish". It was extended by enlarging the south aisle and by adding galleries to it and to the west end. The former Gothic windows were replaced by round-headed windows. During the first half of the 19th century there was increasing concern about the fabric of the church. The tower was becoming dangerous, and the vestry gave orders "that the bells were not to be rung". In 1817 it was recommended that the height of the tower should be reduced. The south wall of the chancel was leaning and only kept in position by its roof. The south aisle, built only 15 years before, was sinking, and gaps were appearing around the windows. It was concluded that the church should be demolished and replaced. Some temporary repairs were carried out but there was insufficient money available to rebuild the church at that time. In July 1843 it was reported that the church was in a "very dangerous condition", and calls were made for "necessary repairs to be made forthwith". By December of that year architectural reports had been obtained from the architectural firm of Scott and Moffatt, and from Anthony Salvin, both of which concluded that the church was beyond repair. In September 1846 the last sermon was preached from the medieval church, and by November contracts for building a new church were completed. The new church was designed by Salvin. Its foundation stone was laid at Easter 1847 by Richard Brooke, the eldest son of Sir Richard Brooke of Norton Priory, and the church was consecrated by Dr John Graham, Bishop of Chester on 11 January 1849. The church, which provided seating for 1,600 people, cost £8,052 to build, met by public subscriptions and by the parish rate. The major donors were Miss Orred, the largest land owner in the town, Sir Richard Brooke, the dean and chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Earl of Ellesmere. The stained glass in the chancel windows was donated by Sir Richard Brooke. A clock was installed in the tower in 1851, and three new lancet windows were added to the chancel in 1900. In 1910 a papal bull issued by Pope Boniface IX was found in the churchyard that referred to the dissolution of Norton Priory. ## Architecture ### Exterior The church is built of Runcorn sandstone with a slate roof, and is in Early English style. Its plan consists of a nave of five bays with north and south aisles and a clerestory, a chancel that is lower and narrower than the nave, and a steeple at the southwest corner. The steeple consists of a square tower with an octagonal spire rising to 161 feet (49 m). The steeple has corner buttresses, large louvred lancets at the bell-stage, and two tiers of lucarnes springing from the base of the tower and from the broach. At the corners of the nave and the chancel are buttresses that rise up as spirelets. On the gables of the chancel and the nave are cross finials and pinnacles. There is an organ chamber at the east end of the north aisle, and a war memorial chapel at the east end of the south aisle. The windows along the clerestory are round with inset quatrefoils; all the other windows are lancets. ### Interior The five-bay arcades are carried on square columns with angled corners and have foliated capitals. The chancel is paved with Minton encaustic tiles. The marble reredos dates from 1888, and the alabaster altar rails from 1900; both were donated by the daughter of Rev John Barclay, a former vicar of the church who died in 1866. Mural tablets, some of which were moved from the old church, commemorate members of the Brooke family and previous vicars of the parish. Also brought from the old church was "a curiously designed table said to have been used as a communion table", two sanctuary chairs (one in Jacobean style), and a chest. In addition, a royal coat of arms of George III, and a benefaction board dating from about 1700 were moved from the old church. The oldest memorial is to two women described as "both good wives" who died in 1672. The next in age is a large tablet to the memory of Thomas Brooke, who died in 1737. Two memorials are by John Bacon; one to Sir Richard Brooke (died 1792) features a putto unveiling an urn and the second, to another Sir Richard Brooke (died 1796), shows a female figure by an urn. The memorial to Thomas Brooke (died 1820) is by B. F. Hardenburg of London. A memorial to another Sir Richard Brooke (died 1865) is a brass in the form of a cross. In the nave are a number of Georgian tablets including one to John Bankes (died 1817), by T. Grindrod. The Rev John Barclay has a memorial by Williams and Clay of Warrington containing his portrait in relief. The stained glass in the chancel includes two windows with depictions of the Annunciation and the Resurrection. In the south aisle is a memorial to J. R. Hughes, who died at sea in 1874; "he is shown in the water wearing nothing but mutton-chop whiskers and a crown proffered by an angel". There is a ring of eight bells cast in 1851 by Charles and George Mears, the tenor weighing 15-3-15 in cwts-qtrs-lbs or around 800 kg, having a diameter of 39 inches (0.99 m) and tuned to the note E. ## External features A former hearse house at the southeast corner of the churchyard dates from about 1833, and has been converted for use as an electricity sub-station. It is a rectangular single-story building of red sandstone with a quarry tile roof. The door opening at the front has a wide semicircular arch with a keystone and springing blocks, above which is a string course and a cornice with moulded eaves. On the west side and at the rear are small vents with semicircular heads and keystones. The hearse house is listed at Grade II. ## Appraisal All Saints' Church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II\* listed building, having been designated on 7 December 1965. Grade II\* is the middle of the three grades of listing, and is applied to "particularly important buildings of more than special interest". Hartwell et al. in the Buildings of England series comment that the church is "more generous and rounded than many of Salvin's other later churches", and refer specifically to its "high, graceful" steeple. ## Bells and Bellringing The medieval church contained a ring of 5 bells, though not much is known about these. These were split apart when the church was demolished, with the heaviest bell being installed in Holy Trinity, Runcorn and the other four were broken up and the metal re-used in other castings. The current ring of eight bells was cast in 1850 by Charles and George Mears of Whitechapel, London, and dedicated in 1851. They are hung on two levels: bells 1 & 3 are in frames above bells 2 & 4 respectively, and swing north–south, and bells 5 - 8 are hung on the lower level swinging east/west. Unusually, bells 5 - 7 all swing the same direction rather than alternating. There is one clock hammer, fitted to strike the heaviest bell (tenor) every hour. The belfry is approximately 20' tall, and the louvres rise the complete height of the room. There is an inaccessible floor above the belfry at the base of the spire. The bells received a minor overhaul from Whitechapel in 1936, though details about what was actually carried out are largely unknown, which leads to the conclusion that the majority of the installation remains original. The ringing room is directly below the belfry, and is also approximately 20' tall. The stone is approximately 3' thick all the way through the tower, most obvious when the two ringing room windows are viewed from inside. The clock mechanism is in a wooden case high up on the southern wall of the ringing room, and is accessed for bi-weekly manual winding via a wooden ladder. There is an active band of bellringers who meet on Tuesday evenings to practice, and there is a strong focus on training and improvement due to the novice nature of the group. The bellringers are currently raising £75,000 to restore the bells, since they have fallen into major disrepair. ## Present day The church is an active parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester, and the deanery of Frodsham. Its benefice is combined with that of Holy Trinity, Runcorn to form the benefice of Runcorn All Saints with Holy Trinity. The patron of the church is Christ Church, Oxford. All Saints serves the Old Town area of Runcorn, and arranges services on Sundays, together with baptisms, thanksgivings, weddings and funerals. ## See also - Grade I and II\* listed buildings in Halton (borough) - Listed buildings in Runcorn (urban area) - List of new churches by Anthony Salvin
72,735,211	Bertha McNeill	1,169,992,973	American activist and educator (1887–1979)	[ "1887 births", "1979 deaths", "20th-century African-American educators", "20th-century African-American women", "20th-century American educators", "Activists from North Carolina", "Activists from Washington, D.C.", "American civil rights activists", "American pacifists", "American women activists", "American women's rights activists", "Catholic University of America alumni", "Howard University alumni", "People from Southport, North Carolina", "Schoolteachers from North Carolina", "Schoolteachers from Washington, D.C.", "Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people" ]	Bertha Clay McNeill (November 12, 1887 – September 21, 1979) was an American civil rights activist, peace activist, and educator. She grew up in North Carolina and earned a teaching certificate there before moving to Washington, D.C., where she studied at Howard University. During her schooling, she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the Howard University Women's Club. On graduating in 1908, she briefly taught in Baltimore, before transferring to the District of Columbia Public School System. From 1909 to 1916, she taught at the M Street High School, thereafter at Dunbar High School until 1957, when she became an adjunct professor at Howard. During her teaching career, McNeill was the faculty advisor for Dunbar High School's student newspaper, edited several journals for organizations, and contributed articles to African-American newspapers. One of the few Black activists who were members of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), McNeill joined the organization in 1934. The following year, she became chair of its Interracial Committee, later renamed the Committee on Minorities and Race Relations, where she pressed for diversification of membership and recognition of civil rights issues as part of the peace movement. She led the organization to oppose lynching and Jim Crow laws and to adopt policies against scheduling meetings and congresses in segregated facilities while actively supporting school desegregation. She also chaired the Committee on Special Problems of Branches, which was responsible for handling accusations against WILPF and its members under McCarthyism. She served as a national vice president of the US branch of WILPF for at least five terms and represented the national organization as a delegate at four international congresses. In 1954, she became the chair of the Washington, D.C., WILPF section and served in that capacity until 1960. McNeill remained active in the WILPF until her death in 1979. ## Early life and education Bertha Clay McNeill was born on November 12, 1887, in Southport, North Carolina, to Lucy Alice (née Reaves) and Henry Clay McNeill. She was the youngest child in the family which included three sons and four daughters – William, Luther, Oliver, Beulah, Mary, Elizabeth, and Bertha. Henry was a farmer, who worked in North Carolina and Maryland before retiring to Washington, D. C. Bertha attended the Gregory Normal Institute of Wilmington, North Carolina, the first school established in the city that could legally educate Black students. After graduating, she moved to Washington, D.C., in 1905, and furthered her education at Howard University, one of the Black colleges established shortly after the end of the American Civil War. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the first Black women's intercollegiate sorority in the United States, which formed in 1908 at Howard, and a charter member of the Howard University Women's Club. ## Career ### Teaching (1908–1961) On graduating from Howard in 1908 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, McNeill began working at the Colored High and Training School in Baltimore, Maryland. She was hired by the District of Columbia Public School System in 1909, teaching a second-grade class until she was transferred to the M Street High School. The first public secondary school for Blacks in Washington, D.C., from 1916 it was renamed Dunbar High School. During her tenure as an English and journalism teacher at the school, McNeill continued her education, taking courses at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the Catholic University of America, where she earned a master's degree in 1950. After retiring from Dunbar in 1957, she taught as an adjunct professor of English and reading at Howard University for four years. ### Journalism (1916–1969) McNeill was the faculty advisor to Dunbar High School's student newspaper, the Dunbar Advisor. She also wrote articles for the Cape Fear Journal, an African-American newspaper which was founded by her sister Mary's husband, Robert S. Jervay, in 1927. She encouraged her nephew Robert H. McNeill, son of her brother William, to pursue his interest in photojournalism and bought him his first camera. McNeill was editor of the journal of the National Association of College Women, the journal of the US national WILPF section, and also the Lincoln Reporter, a church newspaper of the Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ. From 1964 to 1969, she wrote a regular column for the Wilmington Journal, whose editor at the time was her nephew, Thomas C. Jervay. ## Activism (1910–1960s) In 1910, McNeill, along with women educators including Sara W. Brown, Mary Cromwell, Georgiana Simpson, and Mary Church Terrell, founded the College Alumnae Club, known from April 1923 as the National Association of College Women. That year, McNeill became president of the organization, succeeding Lucy M. Holmes. She was also a member of the League for Industrial Democracy and the Women's Trade Union League. Her activism within various organizations often overlapped, as for example when she fought women having to register for the draft along with her sorority sisters from Alpha Kappa Alpha and other organizations. As chair of the Committee on Public Affairs for the National Association of College Women, she formally wrote to the National Education Association to protest their selection of convention locations that would not allow Black attendees to lodge and required separate food, elevator, entrance, and seating arrangements. She was particularly concerned that although, for example in the Austin-Wadsworth Bill, service placement was proposed to be based on aptitude, racially discriminatory hiring policies would in fact prevent hiring for Black women based on their skills. While staunchly against the war, McNeill noted that the African American community could better contribute to the war effort if policies allowed them equal hiring opportunities and merit-based pay. Although the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was predominantly an international organization of White women with only about one percent of its membership being women of color, McNeill joined the organization in 1934, at the invitation of Addie Waites Hunton. Since 1928, the WILPF had an Interracial Committee, which was tasked with increasing the numbers of elite women of color in the organization and eliminating the early policy of segregation that had caused the loss of early members such as Mary Church Terrell. The committee was headed by Hunton until she resigned in 1935 and was replaced by McNeill. McNeill pointed out early in her tenure that while Black women were allowed to serve at the national level, in state and local organizations, they were often limited to membership of the Interracial Committee, rather than WILPF itself. Although the national organization set policy, state and local organizations had broad autonomy. In 1937, McNeill, who had been elected to serve on the national WILPF Board, proposed that the non-national Interracial Committees be dissolved because they were used by some chapters to prevent racial integration and cooperation, and in some instances did not allow Black women to join WILPF. Her position was not accepted until 1941, when the Interracial Committees were disbanded and replaced with a national Committee on Minorities and Race Relations. Despite the internal conflicts, McNeill was committed to recruiting new Black members, and in 1938 introduced Vera Chandler Foster, who organized a WILPF branch in Tuskegee, Alabama, and Lucy Diggs Slowe. She also pushed for WILPF's support of anti-lynching legislation and elimination of Jim Crow laws. She actively campaigned against conventions being held at hotels that did not allow Black delegates to stay in their facilities. McNeill served as a delegate from the United States to the Ninth International WILPF Congress held in Luhačovice, Czechoslovakia, in 1937. She was still giving lectures on peace to various women's groups at the end of the 1950s and remained active in WILPF throughout the 1960s and 1970s. ## Death and legacy McNeill died on September 21, 1979, at the Wisconsin Avenue Nursing Home, from arteriosclerosis. She is remembered as an influential member of the peace movement and a leader whose activism linked peace to freedom, as well as economic and civic justice. A chapter on her life is included in the Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century. This was the fifth volume in the series and was edited by historian Susan Ware, assisted by Stacy Braukman. The women who were included had to have died prior to 2000, and be known for being influential or for contributing to pioneering or innovative work in their era. Some of McNeill's papers are housed in the Robert H. McNeill family collection at the Library of Congress, while some of those related to her WILPF activities are located in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
427,994	Jerry Fodor	1,151,686,429	American philosopher (1935–2017)	[ "1935 births", "2017 deaths", "20th-century American Jews", "20th-century American essayists", "20th-century American philosophers", "21st-century American Jews", "21st-century American essayists", "21st-century American philosophers", "American consciousness researchers and theorists", "American logicians", "American male essayists", "American male non-fiction writers", "American philosophy academics", "Analytic philosophers", "Columbia College (New York) alumni", "Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society", "Jean Nicod Prize laureates", "Jewish linguists", "Jewish philosophers", "Linguists from the United States", "Philosophers of language", "Philosophers of logic", "Philosophers of mind", "Philosophers of psychology", "Philosophers of science", "Philosophers of social science", "Philosophy writers", "Presidents of the American Philosophical Association", "Princeton University alumni", "Rationalists", "Rutgers University faculty" ]	Jerry Alan Fodor (/ˈfoʊdər/; April 22, 1935 – November 29, 2017) was an American philosopher and the author of many crucial works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. His writings in these fields laid the groundwork for the modularity of mind and the language of thought hypotheses, and he is recognized as having had "an enormous influence on virtually every portion of the philosophy of mind literature since 1960." At the time of his death in 2017, he held the position of State of New Jersey Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Rutgers University, and had taught previously at the City University of New York Graduate Center and MIT. ## Early life and education Jerry Fodor was born in New York City on April 22, 1935, and was of Jewish descent. He received his A.B. degree (summa cum laude) from Columbia University in 1956, where he wrote a senior thesis on Søren Kierkegaard and studied with Sidney Morgenbesser, and a PhD in philosophy from Princeton University in 1960, under the direction of Hilary Putnam. ## Academic career From 1959 to 1986 Fodor was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. From 1986 to 1988 he was a full professor at the City University of New York (CUNY). From 1988 until his retirement in 2016 he was State of New Jersey Professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he was emeritus. Besides his interest in philosophy, Fodor passionately followed opera and regularly wrote popular columns for the London Review of Books on that and other topics. ## Philosophical work Fodor argued that mental states, such as beliefs and desires, are relations between individuals and mental representations. He maintained that these representations can only be correctly explained in terms of a language of thought (LOT) in the mind. Furthermore, this language of thought itself is an actually existing thing that is codified in the brain and not just a useful explanatory tool. Fodor adhered to a species of functionalism, maintaining that thinking and other mental processes consist primarily of computations operating on the syntax of the representations that make up the language of thought. For Fodor, significant parts of the mind, such as perceptual and linguistic processes, are structured in terms of modules, or "organs", which he defines by their causal and functional roles. These modules are relatively independent of each other and of the "central processing" part of the mind, which has a more global and less "domain specific" character. Fodor suggests that the character of these modules permits the possibility of causal relations with external objects. This, in turn, makes it possible for mental states to have contents that are about things in the world. The central processing part, on the other hand, takes care of the logical relations between the various contents and inputs and outputs. Although Fodor originally rejected the idea that mental states must have a causal, externally determined aspect, in his later years he devoted much of his writing and study to the philosophy of language because of this problem of the meaning and reference of mental contents. His contributions in this area include the so-called asymmetric causal theory of reference and his many arguments against semantic holism. Fodor strongly opposed reductive accounts of the mind. He argued that mental states are multiple realizable and that there is a hierarchy of explanatory levels in science such that the generalizations and laws of a higher-level theory of psychology or linguistics, for example, cannot be captured by the low-level explanations of the behavior of neurons and synapses. He also emerged as a prominent critic of what he characterized as the ill-grounded Darwinian and neo-Darwinian theories of natural selection. ### Fodor and the nature of mental states In his article "Propositional Attitudes" (1978), Fodor introduced the idea that mental states are relations between individuals and mental representations. Despite the changes in many of his positions over the years, the idea that intentional attitudes are relational has remained unchanged from its original formulation up to the present time. In that article, he attempted to show how mental representations, specifically sentences in the language of thought, are necessary to explain this relational nature of mental states. Fodor considers two alternative hypotheses. The first completely denies the relational character of mental states and the second considers mental states as two-place relations. The latter position can be further subdivided into the Carnapian view that such relations are between individuals and sentences of natural languages and the Fregean view that they are between individuals and the propositions expressed by such sentences. Fodor's own position, instead, is that to properly account for the nature of intentional attitudes, it is necessary to employ a three-place relation between individuals, representations and propositional contents. Considering mental states as three-place relations in this way, representative realism makes it possible to hold together all of the elements necessary to the solution of this problem. Further, mental representations are not only the objects of beliefs and desires, but are also the domain over which mental processes operate. They can be considered the ideal link between the syntactic notion of mental content and the computational notion of functional architecture. These notions are, according to Fodor, our best explanation of mental processes. ### The functional architecture of the mind Following in the path paved by linguist Noam Chomsky, Fodor developed a strong commitment to the idea of psychological nativism. Nativism postulates the innateness of many cognitive functions and concepts. For Fodor, this position emerges naturally out of his criticism of behaviourism and associationism. These criticisms also led him to the formulation of his hypothesis of the modularity of the mind. Historically, questions about mental architecture have been divided into two contrasting theories about the nature of the faculties. The first can be described as a "horizontal" view because it sees mental processes as interactions between faculties which are not domain specific. For example, a judgment remains a judgment whether it is judgment about a perceptual experience or a judgment about the understanding of language. The second can be described as a "vertical" view because it claims that our mental faculties are domain specific, genetically determined, associated with distinct neurological structures, and so on. The vertical vision can be traced back to the 19th century movement called phrenology and its founder Franz Joseph Gall. Gall claimed that mental faculties could be associated with specific physical areas of the brain. Hence, someone's level of intelligence, for example, could be literally "read off" from the size of a particular bump on his posterior parietal lobe. This simplistic view of modularity has been disproved over the course of the last century. Fodor revived the idea of modularity, without the notion of precise physical localizability, in the 1980s, and became one of the most vocal proponents of it with the 1983 publication of his monograph The Modularity of Mind, where he points to Gall through Bernard Hollander, which is the author cited in the references instead, more specifically Hollander's In search of the soul. Two properties of modularity in particular, informational encapsulation and domain specificity, make it possible to tie together questions of functional architecture with those of mental content. The ability to elaborate information independently from the background beliefs of individuals that these two properties allow Fodor to give an atomistic and causal account of the notion of mental content. The main idea, in other words, is that the properties of the contents of mental states can depend, rather than exclusively on the internal relations of the system of which they are a part, also on their causal relations with the external world. Fodor's notions of mental modularity, informational encapsulation and domain specificity were taken up and expanded, much to Fodor's chagrin, by cognitive scientists such as Zenon Pylyshyn and evolutionary psychologists such as Steven Pinker and Henry Plotkin, among many others. But Fodor complained that Pinker, Plotkin and other members of what he sarcastically called "the New Synthesis" have taken modularity and similar ideas way too far. He insisted that the mind is not "massively modular" and that, contrary to what these researchers would have us believe, the mind is still a very long way from having been explained by the computational, or any other, model. ### Intentional realism In A Theory of Content and Other Essays (1990), Fodor takes up another of his central notions: the question of the reality of mental representations. Fodor needs to justify representational realism to justify the idea that the contents of mental states are expressed in symbolic structures such as those of the LOT. #### Fodor's criticism of Dennett Fodor starts with some criticisms of so-called standard realism. This view is characterized, according to Fodor, by two distinct assertions. One of these regards the internal structure of mental states and asserts that such states are non-relational. The other concerns the semantic theory of mental content and asserts that there is an isomorphism between the causal roles of such contents and the inferential web of beliefs. Among modern philosophers of mind, the majority view seems to be that the first of these two assertions is false, but that the second is true. Fodor departs from this view in accepting the truth of the first thesis but rejecting strongly the truth of the second. In particular, Fodor criticizes the instrumentalism of Daniel Dennett. Dennett maintains that it is possible to be realist with regard to intentional states without having to commit oneself to the reality of mental representations. Now, according to Fodor, if one remains at this level of analysis, then there is no possibility of explaining why the intentional strategy works: > There is ... a standard objection to instrumentalism ...: it is difficult to explain why the psychology of beliefs/desires works so well, if the psychology of beliefs/desires is, in fact, false.... As Putnam, Boyd and others have emphasized, from the predictive successes of a theory to the truth of that theory there is surely a presumed inference; and this is even more likely when ... we are dealing with the only theory in play which is predictively crowned with success. It is not obvious ... why such a presumption should not militate in favour of a realist conception ... of the interpretations of beliefs/desires. ### Productivity, systematicity and thought Fodor also has positive arguments in favour of the reality of mental representations in terms of the LOT. He maintains that if language is the expression of thoughts and language is systematic, then thoughts must also be systematic. Fodor draws on the work of Noam Chomsky to both model his theory of the mind and to refute alternative architectures such as connectionism. Systematicity in natural languages was explained by Chomsky in terms of two more basic concepts: productivity and compositionality. Productivity refers to a representational system's unbounded ability to generate new representations from a given set of symbols. "John", "loves", and "Mary" allow for the construction of the sentences "John loves Mary" and "Mary loves John". Fodor's language of thought theorizes that representations are decomposable into constituent parts, and these decomposed representations are built into new strings. More important than productivity is systematicity since it does not rely on questionable idealizations about human cognition. The argument states that a cognizer is able to understand some sentence in virtue of understanding another. For example, no one who understands "John loves Mary" is unable to understand "Mary loves John", and no one who understands "P and Q" is unable to understand "P". Systematicity itself is rarely challenged as a property of natural languages and logics, but some challenge that thought is systematic in the same way languages are. Still others from the connectionist tradition have tried to build non-classical networks that can account for the apparent systematicity of language. The fact that systematicity and productivity depend on the compositional structure of language means that language has a combinatorial semantics. If thought also has such a combinatorial semantics, then there must be a language of thought. The second argument that Fodor provides in favour of representational realism involves the processes of thought. This argument touches on the relation between the representational theory of mind and models of its architecture. If the sentences of Mentalese require unique processes of elaboration then they require a computational mechanism of a certain type. The syntactic notion of mental representations goes hand in hand with the idea that mental processes are calculations which act only on the form of the symbols which they elaborate. And this is the computational theory of the mind. Consequently, the defence of a model of architecture based on classic artificial intelligence passes inevitably through a defence of the reality of mental representations. For Fodor, this formal notion of thought processes also has the advantage of highlighting the parallels between the causal role of symbols and the contents which they express. In his view, syntax plays the role of mediation between the causal role of the symbols and their contents. The semantic relations between symbols can be "imitated" by their syntactic relations. The inferential relations which connect the contents of two symbols can be imitated by the formal syntax rules which regulate the derivation of one symbol from another. ### The nature of content From the beginning of the 1980s, Fodor adhered to a causal notion of mental content and of meaning. This idea of content contrasts sharply with the inferential role semantics to which he subscribed earlier in his career. As of 2010 Fodor criticizes inferential role semantics (IRS) because its commitment to an extreme form of holism excludes the possibility of a true naturalization of the mental. But naturalization must include an explanation of content in atomistic and causal terms. #### Anti-holism Fodor has made many and varied criticisms of holism. He identifies the central problem with all the different notions of holism as the idea that the determining factor in semantic evaluation is the notion of an "epistemic bond". Briefly, P is an epistemic bond of Q if the meaning of P is considered by someone to be relevant for the determination of the meaning of Q. Meaning holism strongly depends on this notion. The identity of the content of a mental state, under holism, can only be determined by the totality of its epistemic bonds. And this makes the realism of mental states an impossibility: > If people differ in an absolutely general way in their estimations of epistemic relevance, and if we follow the holism of meaning and individuate intentional states by way of the totality of their epistemic bonds, the consequence will be that two people (or, for that matter, two temporal sections of the same person) will never be in the same intentional state. Therefore, two people can never be subsumed under the same intentional generalizations. And, therefore, intentional generalization can never be successful. And, therefore again, there is no hope for an intentional psychology. #### The asymmetric causal theory Having criticized the idea that semantic evaluation concerns only the internal relations between the units of a symbolic system, Fodor can adopt an externalist position with respect to mental content and meaning. For Fodor, in recent years, the problem of naturalization of the mental is tied to the possibility of giving "the sufficient conditions for which a piece of the world is relative to (expresses, represents, is true of) another piece" in non-intentional and non-semantic terms. If this goal is to be achieved within a representational theory of the mind, then the challenge is to devise a causal theory which can establish the interpretation of the primitive non-logical symbols of the LOT. Fodor's initial proposal is that what determines that the symbol for "water" in Mentalese expresses the property H<sub>2</sub>O is that the occurrences of that symbol are in certain causal relations with water. The intuitive version of this causal theory is what Fodor calls the "Crude Causal Theory". According to this theory, the occurrences of symbols express the properties which are the causes of their occurrence. The term "horse", for example, says of a horse that it is a horse. In order to do this, it is necessary and sufficient that certain properties of an occurrence of the symbol "horse" be in a law-like relation with certain properties which determine that something is an occurrence of horse. The main problem with this theory is that of erroneous representations. There are two unavoidable problems with the idea that "a symbol expresses a property if it is ... necessary that all and only the presences of such a property cause the occurrences". The first is that not all horses cause occurrences of horse. The second is that not only horses cause occurrences of horse. Sometimes the A(horses) are caused by A (horses), but at other times—when, for example, because of the distance or conditions of low visibility, one has confused a cow for a horse—the A (horses) are caused by B (cows). In this case the symbol A doesn't express just the property A, but the disjunction of properties A or B. The crude causal theory is therefore incapable of distinguishing the case in which the content of a symbol is disjunctive from the case in which it isn't. This gives rise to what Fodor calls the "problem of disjunction". Fodor responds to this problem with what he defines as "a slightly less crude causal theory". According to this approach, it is necessary to break the symmetry at the base of the crude causal theory. Fodor must find some criterion for distinguishing the occurrences of A caused by As (true) from those caused by Bs (false). The point of departure, according to Fodor, is that while the false cases are ontologically dependent on the true cases, the reverse is not true. There is an asymmetry of dependence, in other words, between the true contents (A= A) and the false ones (A = A or B). The first can subsist independently of the second, but the second can occur only because of the existence of the first: > From the point of view of semantics, errors must be accidents: if in the extension of "horse" there are no cows, then it cannot be required for the meaning of "horse" that cows be called horses. On the other hand, if "horse" did not mean that which it means, and if it were an error for horses, it would never be possible for a cow to be called "horse". Putting the two things together, it can be seen that the possibility of falsely saying "this is a horse" presupposes the existence of a semantic basis for saying it truly, but not vice versa. If we put this in terms of the crude causal theory, the fact that cows cause one to say "horse" depends on the fact that horses cause one to say "horse"; but the fact that horses cause one to say "horse" does not depend on the fact that cows cause one to say "horse"... ### Functionalism During the 1960s, various philosophers such as Donald Davidson, Hilary Putnam, and Fodor tried to resolve the puzzle of developing a way to preserve the explanatory efficacy of mental causation and folk psychology while adhering to a materialist vision of the world which did not violate the "generality of physics". Their proposal was, first of all, to reject the then-dominant theories in philosophy of mind: behaviorism and the type identity theory. The problem with logical behaviorism was that it failed to account for causation between mental states and such causation seems to be essential to psychological explanation, especially if one considers that behavior is not an effect of a single mental event/cause but is rather the effect of a chain of mental events/causes. The type-identity theory, on the other hand, failed to explain the fact that radically different physical systems can find themselves in the identical mental state. Besides being deeply anthropocentric (why should humans be the only thinking organisms in the universe?), the identity-type theory also failed to deal with accumulating evidence in the neurosciences that every single human brain is different from all the others. Hence, the impossibility of referring to common mental states in different physical systems manifests itself not only between different species but also between organisms of the same species. One can solve these problems, according to Fodor, with functionalism, a hypothesis which was designed to overcome the failings of both dualism and reductionism. What is important is the function of a mental state regardless of the physical substrate which implements it. The foundation for this view lies in the principle of the multiple realizability of the mental. Under this view, for example, I and a computer can both instantiate ("realize") the same functional state though we are made of completely different material stuff (see graphic at right). On this basis functionalism can be classified as a form of token materialism. ### Evolution Fodor and the biolinguist Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini co-authored the book What Darwin Got Wrong (2010), in which they describe neo-Darwinists as "distressingly uncritical" and say of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution that "it overestimates the contribution the environment makes in shaping the phenotype of a species and correspondingly underestimates the effects of endogenous variables". Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne describes this book as "a profoundly misguided critique of natural selection" and "as biologically uninformed as it is strident". Moral philosopher and anti-scientism author Mary Midgley praises What Darwin Got Wrong as "an overdue and valuable onslaught on neo-Darwinist simplicities". The book also received a positive review from mathematician and intelligent-design theorist William Dembski. ## Awards and honors Fodor was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received numerous awards and honors: New York State Regent's Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (Princeton University), Chancellor Greene Fellow (Princeton University), Fulbright Fellowship (University of Oxford), Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He won the first Jean Nicod Prize for philosophy of mind and cognitive philosophy in 1993. His lecture series for the Prize, later published as a book by MIT Press in 1995, was titled The Elm and the Expert: Mentalese and Its Semantics. In 1996–1997, Fodor delivered the prestigious John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford, titled Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong, which went on to become his 1998 Oxford University Press book of the same name. He has also delivered the Patrick Romanell Lecture on Philosophical Naturalism (2004) and the Royce Lecture on Philosophy of Mind (2002) to the American Philosophical Association, of whose Eastern Division he has served as Vice President (2004–2005) and President (2005–2006). In 2005, he won the Mind & Brain Prize. ## Criticism A wide variety of philosophers of diverse orientations have challenged many of Fodor's ideas. For example, the language of thought hypothesis has been accused of either falling prey to an infinite regress or of being superfluous. Specifically, Simon Blackburn suggested in an article in 1984 that since Fodor explains the learning of natural languages as a process of formation and confirmation of hypotheses in the LOT, this leaves him open to the question of why the LOT itself should not be considered as just such a language which requires yet another and more fundamental representational substrate in which to form and confirm hypotheses so that the LOT itself can be learned. If natural language learning requires some representational substrate (the LOT) in order for it to be learned, why shouldn't the same be said for the LOT itself and then for the representational substrate of this representational substrate and so on, ad infinitum? On the other hand, if such a representational substrate is not required for the LOT, then why should it be required for the learning of natural languages? In this case, the LOT would be superfluous. Fodor, in response, argues that the LOT is unique in that it does not have to be learned via an antecedent language because it is innate. In 1981, Daniel Dennett had formulated another argument against the LOT. Dennett suggested that it would seem, on the basis of the evidence of our behavior toward computers but also with regard to some of our own unconscious behavior, that explicit representation is not necessary for the explanation of propositional attitudes. During a game of chess with a computer program, we often attribute such attitudes to the computer, saying such things as "It thinks that the queen should be moved to the left." We attribute propositional attitudes to the computer and this helps us to explain and predict its behavior in various contexts. Yet no one would suggest that the computer is actually thinking or believing somewhere inside its circuits the equivalent of the propositional attitude "I believe I can kick this guy's butt" in Mentalese. The same is obviously true, suggests Dennett, of many of our everyday automatic behaviors such as "desiring to breathe clear air" in a stuffy environment. Some linguists and philosophers of language have criticized Fodor's self-proclaimed "extreme" concept nativism. Kent Bach, for example, takes Fodor to task for his criticisms of lexical semantics and polysemy. Fodor claims that there is no lexical structure to such verbs as "keep", "get", "make" and "put". He suggests that, alternatively, "keep" simply expresses the concept KEEP (Fodor capitalizes concepts to distinguish them from properties, names or other such entities). If there is a straightforward one-to-one mapping between individual words and concepts, "keep your clothes on", "keep your receipt" and "keep washing your hands" will all share the same concept of KEEP under Fodor's theory. This concept presumably locks on to the unique external property of keeping. But, if this is true, then RETAIN must pick out a different property in RETAIN YOUR RECEIPT, since one can't retain one's clothes on or retain washing one's hands. Fodor's theory also has a problem explaining how the concept FAST contributes, differently, to the contents of FAST CAR, FAST DRIVER, FAST TRACK, and FAST TIME. Whether or not the differing interpretations of "fast" in these sentences are specified in the semantics of English, or are the result of pragmatic inference, is a matter of debate. Fodor's own response to this kind of criticism is expressed bluntly in Concepts: "People sometimes used to say that exist must be ambiguous because look at the difference between 'chairs exist' and 'numbers exist'. A familiar reply goes: the difference between the existence of chairs and the existence of numbers seems, on reflection, strikingly like the difference between numbers and chairs. Since you have the latter to explain the former, you don't also need 'exist' to be polysemic." Some critics find it difficult to accept Fodor's insistence that a large, perhaps implausible, number of concepts are primitive and undefinable. For example, Fodor considers such concepts as EFFECT, ISLAND, TRAPEZOID, and WEEK to be all primitive, innate and unanalyzable because they all fall into the category of what he calls "lexical concepts" (those for which our language has a single word). Against this view, Bach argues that the concept VIXEN is almost certainly composed out of the concepts FEMALE and FOX, BACHELOR out of SINGLE and MALE, and so on. ## Personal life and death Fodor lived in Manhattan with his wife, the linguist Janet Dean Fodor, and had two children. Fodor died at home on November 29, 2017. ## Books - The Structure of Language, with Jerrold Katz (eds.), Prentice Hall, 1964, . - Psychological Explanation, Random House, 1968, . - The Psychology of Language, with T. Bever and M. Garrett, McGraw Hill, 1974, . - The Language of Thought, Harvard University Press, 1975, . - Representations: Philosophical Essays on the Foundations of Cognitive Science, Harvard Press (UK) and MIT Press (US), 1979, . - The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology, MIT Press, 1983, . - Psychosemantics: The Problem of Meaning in the Philosophy of Mind, MIT Press, 1987, . - A Theory of Content and Other Essays, MIT Press, 1990, . - Holism: A Shopper's Guide, with Ernie Lepore, Blackwell, 1992, . - Holism: A Consumer Update, with Ernie Lepore (eds.), Grazer Philosophische Studien, Vol 46. Rodopi, Amsterdam, 1993, . - The Elm and the Expert: Mentalese and Its Semantics, The 1993 Jean Nicod Lectures, MIT Press, 1994, . - Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong, The 1996 John Locke Lectures, Oxford University Press, 1998, . - In Critical Condition, MIT Press, 1998, . - The Mind Doesn't Work That Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology, MIT Press, 2000, . - The Compositionality Papers, with Ernie Lepore, Oxford University Press, 2002, . - Hume Variations, Oxford University Press, 2003, . - LOT 2: The Language of Thought Revisited, Oxford University Press, 2008, . - What Darwin Got Wrong, with Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010, . - Minds without meanings: an essay on the contents of concepts, with Zenon W. Pylyshyn, MIT Press, 2014, . ## See also - Computational theory of mind - Special sciences
1,987,147	EMD SDP40F	1,165,092,983	Class of diesel passenger locomotives	[ "Amtrak locomotives", "C-C locomotives", "Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States", "Electro-Motive Division locomotives", "Passenger locomotives", "Railway locomotives introduced in 1973", "Standard gauge locomotives of the United States" ]	The EMD SDP40F was a six-axle 3,000 hp (2.2 MW) C-C diesel–electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) from 1973–1974. Based on Santa Fe's EMD FP45, EMD built 150 for Amtrak, the operator of most intercity passenger trains in the United States. Amtrak, a private company but funded by the United States government, had begun operation in 1971 with a fleet of aging diesel locomotives inherited from various private railroads. The SDP40F was the first diesel locomotive built new for Amtrak and for a brief time they formed the backbone of the company's long-distance fleet. A series of derailments in the mid-1970s shattered Amtrak's confidence in the locomotive, and many railroads banned it from their tracks. Multiple investigations pointed to issues with the locomotive's trucks, the weight of the water and steam generators used for train heating, the rough and poorly maintained tracks, or the harmonic vibration of baggage cars behind the locomotive. In 1977 Amtrak decided to move on from the SDP40F in favor of the EMD F40PH, which was already in use on short-distance routes. Amtrak traded most of its fleet into EMD; the components were incorporated into new F40PHs. The remainder were traded to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) for use in freight service. The Santa Fe rebuilt the locomotives and designated them SDF40-2. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), successor to the Santa Fe, retired them in 2002. One of them is preserved, that one being ex-Amtrak No. 644. ## Background Amtrak assumed operation of most intercity rail passenger service in the United States on May 1, 1971. Until then such services were operated by various private railroads. The private railroads chose to retain their second generation passenger locomotives for freight service, or to operate the various commuter services which, by law, did not pass to Amtrak. To operate these intercity services the Amtrak had to buy or lease from the private railroads whatever locomotives remained. This left Amtrak with an aging and mechanically-incompatible fleet of diesel locomotives. The mainstays of Amtrak's road diesel fleet were veteran E units and F units, the newest of which were 10–20 years old and due for replacement. ## Design The SDP40F was a full-width cowl unit. It was based on the EMD FP45 passenger locomotive and EMD SD40-2 freight locomotive. All three shared the EMD 645E3 diesel prime mover, which developed 3,000 hp (2.2 MW). The locomotive had a gear ratio of 57:20. Maximum speed at full horsepower was 94 mph (151.3 km/h); the locomotive exceeded 100 miles per hour (160.9 km/h) in tests. The SDP40F was fitted with a Leslie Controls SL4T (S4T). There were doubts at the time about Amtrak's long-term viability, so the locomotives were designed for easy conversion to freight locomotives should Amtrak cease operation. In the early 1970s Amtrak's passenger car fleet was steam-heated; Amtrak's requirement called for two steam generators. These were located at the rear of the locomotive. Forward of the generators was a 1,350-US-gallon (5,110.3 L; 1,124.1 imp gal) water tank. This tank rested above the floorline. The lateral motion of the water within was later implicated in several derailments. The primary underbody tank was split between water and diesel fuel, carrying 2,150 US gallons (8,138.6 L; 1,790.2 imp gal) of water and 2,500 US gallons (9,463.5 L; 2,081.7 imp gal) of diesel. Provision was made for eventual conversion to head-end power (HEP), but it was never carried out. EMD based the SDP40F name on the existing SDP40. Several years earlier, EMD had made similar versions of the SDP45 and SD45 in a full-width cowl unit, which it named FP45 and F45. Although the SDP40F was externally nearly identical to the FP45, EMD chose not to give the new locomotive a similar name such as FP40. EMD wanted to avoid adding a new locomotive type to their catalog due to price controls in effect in the early 1970s. The following year, the F40C name was used for a similar locomotive ordered by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the "Milwaukee Road"), equipped with HEP instead of steam generators. There were several minor differences between the first 40 locomotives built and later examples. The most important was the installation of lower-profile cooling fans and air horns to avoid clearance problems in the Eastern US. ## History Amtrak ordered 150 SDP40Fs, in two batches. The first order, placed on November 2, 1972, was for 40 locomotives, at a cost of \$18 million. A second order, for 110 locomotives at \$50 million, followed on October 12, 1973. These orders were Amtrak's first for new-build locomotives. Amtrak deployed the original 40 locomotives on long-distance trains in the Western United States. The locomotives entered revenue service on June 22, 1973, hauling the Super Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles over the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. SDP40Fs were also used on the Burlington Northern Railroad. The arrival of the second order enabled Amtrak to deploy the SDP40Fs throughout the country, displacing the inherited E-units. ### Derailments In late 1975 J. David Ingles called the SDP40Fs the "stars of Amtrak's long-distance trains," but engine crews reported that the locomotives rode poorly compared to the E-units they had replaced. Even as Amtrak and EMD investigated the ride quality, the SDP40F was involved in a series of derailments that led to the end of its career as a passenger locomotive. Between 1974 and 1976 the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) identified thirteen incidents for which the locomotive was responsible. None of the incidents were serious, but their frequency was a concern. Most of the derailments occurred on trains with two SDP40Fs on the front and at least one trailing baggage car. While the rear truck of the second locomotive and the front truck of the baggage car were pinpointed as the source of the derailment, the actual cause of the derailments was unclear. EMD, Amtrak, the Association of American Railroads (AAR), and the FRA tested the locomotive thoroughly, with suspicion falling on the "hollow bolster" truck design. In the end, the investigators theorized that the steam generators and water tank may have made the rear of the engine too heavy and created too much lateral motion. Later FRA investigations concluded that the actual culprit was the light weight of the baggage cars, which caused harmonic vibrations when placed directly behind the much heavier SDP40F. A contributing factor was the sometimes poor quality of track the locomotive operated over. Amtrak took several corrective measures, including operating with a reduced speed on curves, emptying the smaller of the two water tanks to reduce lateral motion, and making various alterations to the trucks. The measures helped, but the trouble continued. Several railroads, including the Burlington and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), banned the "rail breakers" from their tracks; they were suspected to be causing the spreading of rails because of their lateral swaying, which may have contributed to the derailments. For the Chicago–Seattle Empire Builder, the speed restrictions added 6 hours to what had been a 46-hour schedule. Another important development was the unusually harsh winter of 1976–1977, which sidelined many of Amtrak's aging steam-heated coaches. Amtrak suspended numerous routes and pressed the new HEP-equipped Amfleet I coaches, designed for short runs, into service. The new EMD F40PH, intended for short-distance service and equipped with HEP, handled these trains. In the spring of 1977 Amtrak faced a power crisis. In addition to the SDP40Fs derailing, Amtrak was having trouble with two other six-axle designs. The GE E60CP and E60CH electric locomotives were having derailment problems. The GE P30CH had the same truck design as E60s and rode poorly, although it did not exhibit the same tendency to derail. Amtrak decided to abandon the SDP40F in favor of the F40PH, a four-axle design with none of the riding problems of the six-axle locomotives. Amtrak traded 40 SDP40Fs back to EMD. Components including the prime mover were installed into an F40PH's frame. Between 1977–1987 Amtrak traded 132 of the SDP40Fs back to EMD for F40PHRs. The SDP40F remained in service on the Santa Fe longer than elsewhere, although the arrival of HEP-equipped Superliner cars on the Western routes displaced them from there as well. The last SDP40Fs left the Amtrak roster in 1987. The remaining Amtrak SDP40F's that weren't sold to the ATSF (seen below) are presumed to have been scrapped. ### Freight use In 1984 Amtrak, low on light-duty power, traded 18 SDP40Fs to the Santa Fe for 43 switchers: 25 CF7s and 18 SSB1200s. Santa Fe rebuilt the traded locomotives for freight use. Modifications included removing the steam generators and regearing for lower speed. The locomotives were also given front steps and platforms, and notched noses in order to improve boarding access. The rebuilt locomotives were designated SDF40-2. The SDF40-2s continued in service with the BNSF Railway, successor to the Santa Fe, until their retirement in 2002. ### Preservation One SDF40-2, ex-Amtrak No. 644, was acquired by Dynamic Rail Preservation Inc. and is in Boulder City, Nevada having been previously displayed in Ogden, Utah. It has been renumbered to its Santa Fe-era 6976 number and returned to operation in November 2019, now running on the Nevada Southern Railroad.
65,334,691	Bradford Island	1,073,741,602	Island in California	[ "Islands of Contra Costa County, California", "Islands of Northern California", "Islands of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta" ]	Bradford Island is a 2,172-acre (879 ha) island of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, in Contra Costa County, California, United States. Bradford Island is inaccessible by roads, and is served by a ferry across the False River from nearby Jersey Island. Approximately 48 people lived on the island as of 2020; other uses of land include wheat farming, cattle grazing, and natural gas extraction. Bradford Island is a reclaimed peat wetland; as it lies below sea level, it is protected by flooding by levees. These, as well as a pump station and internal drainage canals, are administered by Reclamation District 2059, founded in 1921. The levees have been breached on several occasions, leading to the island becoming flooded. Bradford Island is one of eight Delta islands considered critical to the region's water quality by the California Department of Water Resources. ## Geography and ecology Bradford Island's coordinates are , and it is in the lower delta of the San Joaquin River. It falls within the Köppen climate classification of Csb (cool and dry summer Mediterranean). The San Joaquin River separates it from Sherman Island to the west, and Twitchell Island to the north. To its east, it is separated from the Webb Tract by Fisherman's Cut. No bridges go to the island; it is accessible only by a ferry across the False River from Jersey Island to its south. Mount Diablo, to the southwest, can be seen from Bradford Island. As a reclaimed wetland, Bradford Island has rich peat soil, which is used to grow wheat and graze cattle. Additionally, some land on the island is used for residences. Since Bradford Island is above part of the Rio Vista Gas Field, some land is used for natural gas wells. Due to the history of the island's reclamation, and subsidence in its interior caused by oxidization of the peat, Bradford Island has a saucer-shaped profile — it is lower in the center than at the edges. There is at least one lake on the island. The islands of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta prevent saltwater intrusion in the Delta; while freshwater flows into the region from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, so does saltwater from the Pacific Ocean through San Francisco Bay. Islands in the Delta reduce the flow of this saltwater, and Bradford Island is one of eight Delta islands considered critical to the region's water quality by the California Department of Water Resources. As it is below sea level, it is protected from flooding by levees and pumps. In 1981, the United States Geological Survey gave its elevation as 0 ft (0 m), but in 2015, the Contra Costa County Local Agency Formation Commission gave its elevation as 5 to 15 feet (1.5 to 4.6 m) below sea level. It is classified by the county as part of the "East County Delta Drainages" watershed. Ducks, cranes, swans and geese feed in the marshes of Bradford Island; Swainson's hawks, Cooper's hawks and red-tailed hawks have also been seen over the island. In December 2014, Reclamation District 2059's Board of Trustees approved a Project Funding Agreement for the removal and mitigation of Himalayan blackberry and other invasive weeds. Striped bass were good there in 1962. ## History Approximately ten thousand years ago, sea level rise at the end of the Last Glacial Period moved the Pacific Ocean inwards, creating San Francisco Bay and Suisun Bay in what were once dry valleys. Glacial meltwater flowing from the Sierra Nevada mountains deposited peat and alluvium over compacted lacustrine sediment and aeolian sand fields. The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta was built over thousands of years by the confluence of two rivers with drainage basins encompassing nearly half of California, with up to 50 feet (15 m) of organic matter being deposited in some places. The landmass currently constituting Bradford Island and Webb Tract, as it appears between the San Joaquin and False Rivers in an 1852 survey of the area made by Cadwalader Ringgold, was one of many naturally formed islands in the region. Shaped like "broad shallow saucers", these islands consisted of tule marsh surrounded by naturally-formed levees with woody foliage extending root networks downward into peat. However, spring tides and river floods could submerge the entirety of the Delta. This large expanse of tidal marshland was discovered by Native American tribes such as the Miwok and Wintun, who used it to fish, hunt and forage; while they did not cultivate it as farmland, they burned vegetation to "manage the landscape [...] to favor plants they used". In 1772, when Spanish explorer Pedro Fages found the Delta, the area was inhabited by large numbers of deer and tule elk, as well as a native population somewhere between 3,000 and 15,000. Attacks from Spanish and Mexican settlers, and a series of epidemics, decreased this population sharply. European settlement in the area began in the mid-19th century, and accelerated with the California Gold Rush; in 1846 there were about 150 Americans in the entire Central Valley, but after 1848 tens of thousands of people moved to California. Many turned to farming, as "they realized that surer fortunes could be gained by tilling the soil than by turning gravel". The Swamp Land Act of 1850 gave states the ability to purchase federally-owned "swamp and overflowed public lands" on the condition that they be reclaimed and put to productive use; in 1855, California's state legislature passed an act allowing citizens to purchase tracts of swampland for \$1 per acre (equivalent to \$ in ). In 1868, individual acreage limits for purchasers were removed, and counties were authorized to form "reclamation districts" which collected funds to administer levee improvement and maintenance; by 1871, "practically all of California's swamp and overflowed land was sold". ### Reclamation When reclamation began, the naturally-formed levees surrounding the tule marshes provided an obvious starting point for artificial levees to be constructed. Webb Tract's levees were constructed in 1870, and Bradford Island's in 1871, financed by a land grant. The reclamation project was carried out by a partnership run by George D. Roberts (for whom Roberts Island is named); his Tide Land Reclamation Company was one of the largest operating in the Delta at the time. Despite being the director of the company, Roberts did not develop Bradford Island in conjunction with it, instead entering in a partnership with other investors. The original levee project enclosed several now-independent tracts (Bradford Island, the Webb Tract, the Franks Tract, Bethel Island and Jersey Island) into one contiguous area, and cost approximately \$4 (equivalent to \$ in ) for each acre of enclosed land. The reclamation process dramatically increased the value of this land, which had been purchased for less than \$2 (\$ in ) per acre, to as much as \$50 (\$ in ) per acre. The portion of the land comprising Bradford Island and Bethel Island (called "Sand Mound Ranch" at the time) were sold to other landowners in 1872. Despite their attempts to build up and further reinforce the levees, floods in 1873 and 1874 "washed onto the pasture-land and small areas of field crops. Additional floods would occur prior to the turn of the century; John Thompson, writing in 1957, said that "probably all of" these tracts were flooded in 1878, and that "several other floodings are understood to have occurred". Fisherman's Cut, which now separates the islands, was made later; an 1887 topographic and irrigation map made by the California State Engineering Department shows them as a contiguous landmass. However, USGS maps from 1910 (surveyed from 1906 to 1908) show the cut clearly separating Bradford Island from Webb Tract. The currents in Fisherman's Cut were described as "treacherous" in 1942 press reports following a drowning there. Bradford Island would eventually be cultivated as farmland, but first found use as pasture; after reclamation was completed, it was leased as a stock range for two years by cattle barons Henry Miller and Charles Lux. By 1899 George Shima, a farmer and businessman known as the "Potato King", was reclaiming 400 acres on the island. ### 20th century Potatoes were grown on the island by George Shima in 1900 and 1901. In 1901, some land on Bradford Island was owned by Lester Morse; in 1903, several public officials purchased land on Bradford Island. Superintendent of Public Instruction T.J. Kirk bought 336 acres (136 ha), assistant superintendent and statistician Job Wood bought 102 acres (41 ha), and N.K. Foster, Secretary of the Board of Health, bought 240 acres. 123 acres (50 ha) of Foster's land would be sold in 1922. By 1907, the Meek Brothers (Horry W. and William E., the latter of whom was referred to as the "Asparagus King") owned more than 1,200 acres (490 ha) of land on the island. The capitalist Willis G. Witter owned nearly 500 acres (200 ha) of land on the island when he died in July 1907. 350 acres (140 ha) were sold in 1918 to A. B. Curtis, F. J. Coggina, and J. L. Tence. 300 acres (120 ha) of land on the island was offered to the state prison board for use as a prison farm in 1925, which was never built. 324 acres of land was sold in 1926, by H. J. McCourt to the California Pacific Title Insurance Company, and by 1929 land on Bradford Island was being listed for as much as \$250 per acre (\$ in ). By 1934, much of the island was owned by the California Delta Farms Company. In May 1938, after the discovery of the nearby Rio Vista gas field, the Standard Oil Company of California began exploring Bradford Island for hydrocarbon deposits. Drilling began in 1942 for a gasser, Jordan Unit No. 1; it had multiple producers by 1954. In January 1957, the Contra Costa Gazette reported Standard Oil's announcement that "Jordan Unit Number 1, a wildcat unit, will begin operations in Section 33, 3N-3E". In 1961, there were eight wells, tended by Joe Nichols. Standard Oil, in conjunction with Gulf Oil, filed a lawsuit against Contra Costa County in a 1966 lawsuit, claiming that the county had illegally taxed state and federal governments' royalties from drilling sites in the area. Standard Oil averred that their incomes from the Bradford Island wells had been overtaxed by \$6,439.64 (\$ in ). A 9,567 ft (2,916 m) deep exploratory well previously drilled by Standard was abandoned in 1967. In March 1970, Standard Oil began directionally drill a well under Bradford Island from Sherman Island, 1.5 m (0.0015 km) to the west. This well (Giannini No. 1) was abandoned in April. By 1990, natural gas wells on the island were being operated by the Hess Company. In 1974, a 335 acres (136 ha) tract of farmland on the island was sold for \$185,000, or approximately \$552 per acre (\$ in ). On November 29, 1903, a murder occurred on Bradford Island; a man named Katsimo was stabbed in the back by his partner, "Big Jack", over a dispute regarding the growing of vegetables. The levees were inundated, and the island was flooded, on March 26, 1907. By April, repairs on the levees were "progressing rapidly" through the use of "immense" pumps. By the time another flood occurred in January 1909, inundating many islands in the area, Bradford Island was one of several reported to be safe. By this point, land on Bradford Island had appreciated considerably; in September of that year, a 103 acres (42 ha) plot was listed for \$140 per acre (\$ in ). The Daily Gazette of Martinez reported in June 1912 that the entirety of Bradford Island was to be sold to Howard S. Dudley, an Oregon businessman, by Pierce & Company, a transaction which was completed in December of that year. Near the end of 1915, the wooden-hulled ship Princess caught fire at Bradford Island. In the 1910s, a floating general store, owned by Frank Bapsette, was operated out of an ark moored to the island. A "large moonshine still", with a capacity of 25 gallons, was confiscated in the Bridgeport Tract of Bradford Island in 1922. In June 1929, a fire burned large swaths of land on the island, when a high voltage power line operated by Pacific Gas & Electric over the island fell and ignited peat (in addition to damaging a pumping plant). In 1932, the island was flooded again, and in 1934, it would burn again. The fire, described as "the worst that [had] swept the delta district in many years", was caused by embers which had smoldered for several days in peat. It ruined 1,800 acres (730 ha) of barley, as well as two labor camps and a pump house. The fire was spread to the Webb Tract by burning shingles, where farmland and buildings would also be destroyed; a cut in the levees was dredged to assist in quenching the flames. The peat continued to smolder after being extinguished, and peaches laid out to dry in Lodi would be ruined by soot. Several days later, a "cloud of dust and cinders" would be blown from the site of the fire into Stockton, where it added to ash and smoke from other fires that were also occurring in the city. In March 1939, the state department of public works approved \$3,000 (\$ in ) in emergency repairs for storm damage incurred to the levees. The island would again flood in June 1950, when it (along with the Webb Tract and nearby Franks Tract) were inundated completely. The Army sent two radio-equipped jeeps to maintain communications, and Coast Guard airplane pilots said the situation was "critical". Five families were evacuated; two hundred people were said to be in danger from the flooding. Forty prisoners, from the nearby Marsh Creek prison farm, were forced to haul sandbags all night long, and the levees were reinforced. That night, families who lived on the island "slept in the upper portions of their homes with their belongings stacked on trucks on the levee". The United States Army Corps of Engineers would work to strengthen levees during another flood in December 1950, and Bradford Island was protected from inundation (although nearby Venice Island was sunk). Subsequent work to improve the levees was carried out in 1951 A barge ran aground on Bradford Island in April 1954; while the barge itself was empty, it was filled with gasoline fumes, which exploded. The flaming barge would drift loose, eventually coming to rest on the shores of Twitchell Island. In late 1955, waters began to rise again, and the levees of Bradford Island were seeping by December 24; by December 27, four breaks were reported, which were immediately reinforced by airmen from the Parks and Travis Air Force Bases. ### Agricultural use Many crops have been grown on the island; in the early 1900s, these included potatoes, and celery. In the 1910s, the harvest on Bradford Island came to include onions, alfalfa, and barley. In 1923, 2,000 acres (810 ha) of the island's 2,160 acres (870 ha) were irrigated for agriculture—with 200 acres (81 ha) devoted to corn, 1,000 acres (400 ha) to grain, and 800 acres (320 ha) to asparagus. Corn would be planted occasionally throughout the early 20th century (also appearing in 1938, 1945, and 1952). Asparagus farming occurred on the island as early as 1906, in which year fifteen horses were sent to the island to till asparagus fields. In 1907, the Sacramento Bee described Bradford Island as "one of the richest asparagus districts on the Sacramento", and reported that the entirety of the island was planted with asparagus, the yearly packing and shipping of which typically involved around 150 people. This was still going strong by 1915; by 1917, labor shortages caused the Meek farm to begin recruiting high school boys from nearby cities to help cut asparagus. Some of the students came from Oakland; 126 came from Berlekey. By 1920, living conditions among teenage asparagus workers on the island were found to be "alarming" by state and county officials, and arrangements were sought for some thirty of them to be sent to schools in the area. However, in 1921, the Sacramento Star said that a trip to the island "seemed to take us out of one world into another [...] where child labor laws had been forgotten", with young boys picking asparagus in 115 °F (46 °C) weather with no trees for shade. By November of that year, arrangements were being made for a motorboat to take fifteen of them to schools on nearby Jersey Island. In 1926, the "asparagus schools" were described as a success, and "becoming so well established that some pupils have returned to them every year until they are graduated". In 1923, 800 acres (320 ha) of asparagus was grown on Bradford Island. Asparagus farming on Bradford Island reached a peak around 1931; by 1934, however, as much as 1,800 acres (730 ha) the island were planted with barley, and asparagus farming had stopped completely by 1952. For several years, students were transported to the Jersey Island school by boat. In June 1923, however, the establishment of a school on Bradford Island was being considered by the county school board. The school was to be staffed for the next term by a single "emergency teacher": Josephine Ghiggioli, a recent graduate of St. Gertrude's Academy in Rio Vista. Eighteen students on the island were of appropriate age. A meeting was held to discuss the plans on July 14, and it opened on September 11, with a class of either eleven or twelve students. The incorporation of the "emergency school" into a local school district was petitioned in January 1924; the petition was accepted, and a new school district was formed on February 4 (which included Bradford Island in addition to Sand Mound and Jersey Island). By 1930, however, just five children were enrolled in the school—the minimum number necessary for the school's operation to remain funded. In 1938, the school district was suspended, and in 1940, the Board of Supervisors would declare it lapsed, adding it to the Jersey Island school district. In April 1924, a call was made to the State Housing Commission to investigate living conditions in the workers' camp operated by the L. Scatena company, which by June had been investigated and found "disgraceful". In August, one of the camps on Bradford Island was closed by Dr. C. R. Blake, county health officer. The same camp (Camp No. 5) would again be shut down in 1949. In 1931 and 1952, large amounts of the island were used for pasture. The land is capable of supporting other crops, like cannabis; in 2012, thirty cannabis plants were found growing on private property on the north side of the island. As marijuana was illegal in California at the time (it would not be legalized until 2016), a man from Bethel Island was arrested on suspicion of growing the plants. ### Late 20th century onwards In December 1955, heavy rain in the Sierra Nevada caused flooding throughout the Central Valley and Delta (in Rio Vista, water rose to 10 ft (3.0 m) above sea level) and many Delta islands had their levees overrun by water. Bradford Island was among several with "soggy levees and disappearing freeboards"; on December 26, it flooded. Bradford Island was not served by electrical utilities until 1958, and in 1961 there were still no telephones; the only means of communication with the mainland were the ferry and resident Joe Nichols' radio set. In 1969, telephone lines were finally run to the island. In November 1960, a cottage on the island burned to the ground, resulting in the deaths of two infants; county sheriff's deputies were unable to get firefighting equipment on the island in time. Their 17-year-old uncle was also killed attempting to rescue them; clothes and money were gathered for a memorial fund to replace the home and personal possessions of the family. In 1970, residents presented county supervisors with plans regarding potential improvement and development of land on the island. The suggestions mostly constituted elimination of minimum parcel sizes, expansion of the reclamation board, and requests for county assistance with community services. Additionally, a 244 acres (99 ha) tract of land on the north side of the island was under consideration to be preserved as agricultural land under the 1965 Preserve Act. In 1992, a fire burned more than half of the island, and residents were evacuated. The fire, which began on November 28, was contained within two days. In 1986, the decommissioned minesweeper USS Lucid was purchased by William Gardner, a scrap metal dealer, and brought to his residence on Bradford Island. Lucid, an oceangoing wooden ship that had seen use in the Vietnam War, was used as a floating warehouse. Gardner removed or sold everything of value from the ship, and used it as a storage building, cutting a hole in the hull on the port side near the waterline to use as a door. He was murdered over a property dispute in 2004. In 2005, his widow donated the ship to United States Navy veteran Mike Warren, whose "Save an MSO Foundation" began restoration by removing the large amount of scrap metal that had been stored in it and patching the hole. In 2011, the ship was moved to the Stockton Maritime Museum to be restored for use as a museum ship. Other structures formerly moored to Bradford Island include a century-old 1,000 sq ft (93 m<sup>2</sup>) farmhouse on a barge, which was kept tied to a pier by a farmer who lived in it while working his land on the island. In 2010, the Contra Costa Sheriff's marine patrol said that it was illegally moored, and demanded it be removed. In 2010, a fire charred hundreds of acres of land and ignited peat vegetation. Bradford Island, at the time, had not been annexed to any Contra Costa County fire district; while firefighters from the East Contra County Fire District attended the fire (and performed a voluntary evacuation which took 15 people off the island), they did not help to fight it, saying the district "only responds to fires outside its jurisdiction when lives are in jeopardy". Residents did so themselves, using hoses, tractors, and "a single water truck". The fire caused an estimated \$675,000 (equivalent to \$ in ) in property damage and burned approximately 550 acres (220 ha) of land, as well as homes, docks, and a pumping station. Another fire, in October 2015, was similarly not responded to by firefighting agencies; the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, however, used a helicopter to dump water on the fire in an attempt to contain it. By the time the fire was extinguished, fourteen utility poles had burned. In 1950, approximately 30 people lived on the island, in addition to over 1,000 head of cattle; in 1961 the Oakland Tribune reported that seven families lived there, and the Contra Costa Times mentioned eight families by 1969. However, after flooding in the early 1980s, most residents left the island: while "about 25 or 30" people lived there prior to the December 1983 flood, only one family and "three or four other people" remained in January 1984. According to the United States Census, the population of Bradford Island in 2000 was 48. In 2009, the Contra Costa Times said that "roughly 100 people [called] the island home", and an article in the Silicon Valley Mercury News similarly quoted a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff as saying that "roughly 100" people lived on Bradford Island. However, the Contra Costa County Local Agency Formation Commission cites a 2009 population figure of "approximately 63" residents, and in 2010, FireFighting News said that "not much [had] changed since" the population of 48 recorded in the 2000 census. In 2010, a resident of the island said that "about 15" people lived there year-round. In 2013, the number of residents was given by Mercury News as 13, and in 2017 the island had 8 full-time residents. A 2020 newsletter from the Reclamation District gave its population as "approximately 48". ## Governance Bradford Island is an unincorporated area near the northeast corner of Contra Costa County, in Supervisorial District III and census tract 3010. It is not part of any public healthcare service district, mosquito abatement district, municipal water district, or wastewater district. is located in the Byron Brentwood Knightsen Union Cemetery District. It consists of 64 parcels, all of which are zoned for agricultural use; the majority are zoned A-2, and two large parcels on the north side of the island are zoned A-4. Its law enforcement jurisdiction is designated PSA-6 (county-wide police protection pervices); a municipal service review of law enforcement noted that Bradford Island and the Webb Tract were the only areas of the county identified as "difficult to serve", since they are only accessible via the ferry from Jersey Island. As late as 1960, there existed no firefighting services on the island and home insurance was prohibitively expensive as a result. While it is not part of any fire protection district, it was noted in a 2009 municipal service review that the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District had been "historically providing fire service to Jersey Island, Bradford Island and Webb Tract". Bradford Island was one of the only parts of the county meeting suburban/rural standard for dispatch times, which "[called] into question the practical relevance of the State guidelines". ### Reclamation District Reclamation District 2059 (whose boundaries are coterminous with Bradford Island) was formed on 21 November 1921, to provide maintenance for levees and internal drainage systems. In the original 1921 initial formation papers of Reclamation District 2059, the boundaries of the District (and of Bradford Island, then referred to as "Bradford Tract") were described as: > Commencing at the junction of the East Bank of San Joaquin River with the North bank of False River, thence East along said North Bank of False River to the junction thereof with the West Bank of a North and South Dredger-Cut, thence north along said West bank of said Dredger-Cut to the junction thereof with the West Bank of Fisherman's Slough; thence along the West Bank of said Fisherman's Slough in a general northerly direction to the junction thereof with the South Bank of San Joaquin River, thence Westerly and thence Southerly along the south and east bank of said San Joaquin River to the point of commencement. In 1969, county supervisors appointed three valuation assessment commissioners for the District, who were directed to prepare an "operation and maintenance assessment roll for the district". The District is responsible for maintaining 7.4 miles (11.9 km) of levees around the island, one pump station, and over seven miles (11 km) of internal drainage canals. It derives revenue primarily from state and federal levee subvention grants, ferry service fees, and property assessments, which landowners pay yearly in proportion to the amount of land they own. The District operates under an amended set of bylaws, adopted in May 2018, and is managed by a board of five Trustees elected from the island's landowners by a majority vote at the District's general election. Trustees serve staggered four-year terms, and regular meetings are held monthly. Prior to this, amended bylaws had been adopted by the Board and voted on by landowners in 2014 and 2006. By August 2019, the Board served a population of 15 (according to the Contra Costa County Department of Conservation & Development) and consisted of "five landowners or legal representatives of landowners elected at large for four-year terms". In 2008, the Board of Trustees determined that the Reclamation District lacked funds necessary for several maintenance tasks (including the ferry and a pump station replacement); in 2010, a majority vote approved a proposition to change assessment procedures. Whereas assessments had previously been made on an ad valorem basis, the proposition changed them to a "special benefit" basis, in which parcels' assessments were based on the amount of special benefit derived (according to the land use code). This proposition had a 5-year sunset clause, scheduled to expire in May 2015. The reclamation district has been the subject of controversy, including a protracted dispute over its management and bylaws which received extended media coverage. In the mid-2000s, 42% of the island's acreage was owned by Paul Sosnowski, who came up with various ideas for real estate developments on his land. One was a casino; a convalescent home, golf course, fire station, "Western saloon", and winery were also put forward. Some landowners resisted Sosnowski's plans, describing them as "pipe dreams" due to the island's inaccessibility and the difficulty of securing federal, state and county permits for development on an island well below sea level. Former district trustee Michael Hamman said that "everyone wanted a rural, quiet setting and nothing changed until Paul came along [...] who's going to take a ferry to play golf for Christ's sake?" The reclamation district's board requires a majority of trustees to approve plans for the management of the island. In the district's trustee elections, votes are apportioned to trustees by the acreage of their properties (each dollar of assessment equals one vote); Sosnowski was elected to the reclamation district's board of trustees in 2006; afterwards, the board hired his personal attorney as its staff lawyer. He then amended its bylaws to "broaden its powers beyond levee maintenance". In 2006, Paul Sosnowski petitioned the district to expand its board from three to five members. Subsequently, his girlfriend became a member of the board. They gifted one percent of a single parcel to a maintenance worker at Sosnowski's marina, Steve Lucas, who then became a landowner eligible for board membership; Sosnowski's ownership of large amounts of the island permitted him to cast thousands of votes (one per acre owned) and elect Lucas to the board. Sosnowski intended to use his absolute majority to develop various businesses on the island. It was later discovered that part of Sosnowski's land had been underwater, leaving him 3.6 acres (1.5 ha) short of majority ownership; he was removed from the board as a result. ## Ferry The island has been accessible by boat for almost all of its history—a steamer landing was advertised as an amenity for tracts on the island as early as 1907. Chris Lauritzen, the operator of the first regular ferry service, began making runs between Bradford Island and Jersey Island in 1922. However, as the island became more densely inhabited, residents began to petition for improved access. A proposal was made in 1946 to construct a bridge from Bethel Island to the Webb Tract, via the northeastern part of Franks Tract (which had not yet been submerged); this would have allowed much easier access to Bradford Island. However, the plan did not come to fruition. In 1948, a flat-bottom dowager, the Victory II, was constructed for the specific purpose of serving as a ferry between the four islands (Jersey Island, Bradford Island, Webb Tract and Franks Tract. 64 ft (20 m) long and 27 ft (8.2 m) wide, with a displacement of 100 short tons (91 t) when loaded, the ferry was built with two separate propellers at opposite ends (rather than a forward and reverse gear). It was operated by C. A. Lauritzen and his father. In 1949, residents asked the county's Board of Supervisors to improve ferry service, saying that "the area was isolated from 5pm until 8am each day" and that they "might as well be in jail". The request was taken under advisement, and a surveyor sent to make reconnaissance surveys. By 1951, ferry slips were under construction at Jersey Island, Bradford Island, and Franks Tract; upon their completion, the Victory II would begin making "hourly runs". In January 1959, a proposal for the county to purchase and operate the ferry service was rejected; its annual operating costs at the time were \$30,000 (equivalent to \$ in ). In October, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors announced that bids would open on November 10 for a five-year contract to provide ferry service between the four islands. Other options (such as forming a tax district to buy the ferry) had proven unsuccessful or undesirable. The requirements for the contract included a 50 short tons (45 t) capacity (or twelve automobiles), and a guarantee of twelve trips per day from Monday through Saturday (as well as six on Sunday). The Victory II was scheduled to make her final voyage on October 31, and afterwards be sold for an asking price of \$65,000 (equivalent to \$ in ). Due to the inaccessibility of the islands without any ferry services, Lauritzen agreed to operate a "smaller boat for passengers only" until public bidding for the contract opened in November. On November 19, a contract was signed with M.W. Bartee to provide emergency ferry service for the next 30 days, with the option available for two 30-day extensions. December 1, however, was set as a deadline for residents to decide between a tax increase or future suspension of the ferry service. Residents, however, said that their tax burden was unfairly high (for example, over \$34,000 in taxes was paid to county school districts annually while only one child there was of school age). At the hearing on that day, an agreement was made to create a taxing district, bids were opened for a ten-year ferry contract, and Bartee was released from his obligations on the emergency contract (for which ferry service had not actually been started yet). Instead, temporary services would be provided by John Vitale; a hearing for the formation of the taxing district was scheduled for December 22, and bids for the 10-year contract were to open on January 5. Several days later, a temporary ferry service contract was signed with Lauritzen until May 10. The lowest bid received, on January 6, was \$63,000 (equivalent to \$ in ), to be carried out by Jack F. Freitas. In 1969, Freitas was still operating the ferry; in September of that year, it was restricted to "only foot traffic" for two weeks, due to Coast Guard inspections. In 1972, \$60,000 was approved for repair of ferry slips; 25% of the cost was paid by county service area M-1, and the remainder was paid by a special tax levy. In that same year, Daniel Pringle (who had operated the ferry for some time) died. By 1974, Freitas was the "last passenger ferry captain of Contra Costa County"; by 1975, the ferry was being operated by Louis Immethun. In 1975, legal disputes regarding the ferry began again. On September 21, the county's board of supervisors authorized legal action against Immethun by the reclamation districts of both Bradford Island and the Webb Tract, due to suspension of the day's last ferry run. The reclamation districts alleged that the contract for ferry service, which was defined as ending at 5:00 PM, included a final run at 5:00 PM (as had been the case prior to Immethun taking over the service). Landowners on the island said that they had suffered economic losses, and that schoolchildren on the island were unable to participate in after-school activities, due to the reduction in service. The Contra Costa County Superior Court subsequently issued a court order requiring Immethun to resume making the 5 PM runs until October 26, at which date a hearing was scheduled. In May 1977, the case was settled, and the Superior Court ruled that the vessel was required to make a "straggler run" at the end of each day. In 1978, the cost of operating the ferry began to "stir up a storm" for the county budget, as tax revenues had decreased significantly despite the contract being set to expire in 1988. In June, county officials were reported saying that they would "try to work out an agreement with the operator to charge tolls". By August, the county's Board of Supervisors entered an agreement to pay the ferry line with property taxes collected from the islands, as well as county gasoline taxes. Ferry service was eventually suspended in June 1980; while the Board of Supervisors met in July and committed \$33,000 (equivalent to \$ in ) to restore services, the county was sued by a fish farm operator in October for the service interruption. By December, litigation was dropped, as a tentative agreement had been reached for the county to purchase the ferry service from Immethun outright for approximately \$170,000 (\$ in ). The plan was approved in April 1981, for a final cost of \$227,000 (\$ in ). Ferry service, which had run for fifty continuous years prior to the 1980 interruption, resumed in November of that year. In 1987, however, the county's subsidy was halted due to a dispute with a landowner; the next year, it was determined that the ferry would shut down permanently in January 1989, with no alternative proposed. The ferry captain, Bob Landrun, said "it's like they took away the road in front of your home". A "temporary bailout" was approved in February; the shutdown was postponed until May. By March 1990, however, the Victory II remained in regular operation; funds were provided when the county "just about doubled the taxes on the land". In May 1994, the ferry became inoperable when its engines (which were 47 years old) broke; service was restored in July, after a tense period in which "tempers flared, patience grew thin and petty disputes escalated into big arguments". In 1999, stripers to six pounds were caught at Bradford Island. In 1975, a 523 ft (159 m) freighter (the Rice Queen) ran aground near Bradford Island. In 1959, a number of houses in Oakland, "whose only fault [was] that they lay in the path of a new freeway", were moved on barges to new locations in the Bay Area; one was sent to Bradford Island. 16 gas wells and three natural gas lines owned by PG&E, as of 2008. \$21.6 million in assets, according to the Sacramento Bee in 2008. "Among those unlikely to be saved" in 2008. "Our argument is that at some point in the future, you abandon that island". Catfish were "red hot" in 1960. In December 1964, waters rose in the region, causing a "400-foot landslide" to occur at Bradford Island. However, crews "held their own" and the island was protected from total inundation. Ferry service to the island, contained within County Service Area M-1, is administered by the Delta Ferry Authority, of which the District is a part. —the ferry's service area was only formed in 1960. In 1987, a joint-power agreement was formed between Bradford Island's reclamation district (RD 2059) and Webb Tract's reclamation district (RD 2026) to split the cost of the ferry's operation. Its total operating cost is approximately \$9,000 per month. The ferry, Victory II, costs \$7.50 for a round trip, but landowners of record (people listed on the title of a piece of property) can obtain passes allowing them, as well as their domestic partners and family members, to take the ferry for free. The District has several part-time employees (a District Manager and Levee Superintendent), and several contract employees who carry out support services (a District Engineer and District Legal Counsel). The ferry occasionally closes for Coast Guard inspections. ## Levees Bradford Island's levees, initially constructed in 1871, have been monitored since their construction: in 1914, when storms threatened to flood islands of the Delta, farm owners hired watchmen to immediately report levee breaks, and dredgers were being "held in readiness to be towed to the first point of alarm by powerful tugs", and farm owners "moved all of the machinery and farm implements on [the island] to the levees where they [would] be protected as much as possible". In January 1973, the levees were protected from flooding again, as county officials sandbagged them during a period of heavy rainfall. In January 1980, during the "Battle of the Delta", three floating cranes were sent to Bradford Island to shore up levees during heavy flooding from "ocean-sized waves" (which had at that point already inundated the Webb Tract). By January 26, ninety state workers had been sent to stack sandbags. On December 2, 1983, governor George Deukmejian declared a state of emergency. In January 1984, the island was still flooded, with restoration expected to take months. The levees are now administered by Reclamation District 2059. The Contra Costa Local Agency Formation Commission estimated the annual cost of this maintenance at \$2,500 per mile (\$1,553 per kilometer) based on expenditures from fiscal year 2012–2013. From 1924 to 1956, they were tended by Joe Nichols, an island resident who also assisted in the construction of the schoolhouse. The levees have experienced a number of breaches and failures, and the island has been flooded as a result on numerous occasions. On 3 December 1983, a storm caused a 600-foot (180 m) breach in the levees, flooding the island completely. Residents were evacuated by ferry, and most did not return. While the Governor of California's request for national disaster status was rejected by the federal government in January, the Small Business Administration declared the island a disaster loan area in February, authorizing federal assistance to displaced families. Cleanup costs were expected to be approximately \$6 million (equivalent to \$ in ). In February 1998, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel worked to restore levee damage done by storms in the area. On 27 August 2009, additional levee damage occurred when a freighter, the 570-foot (170 m) Tasman Resolution, ran aground on the north side of the island. The accident occurred at 8:30 pm in calm, clear weather, causing 12 feet (3.7 m) of damage to the rock base and washing out a 150-foot (46 m) section of the levee. The damage required \$800,000 (equivalent to \$ in ) in repairs, performed by the Coast Guard). While 100 people were planned to be evacuated from the island the day after, deputies found only nine, of whom eight refused to leave – the single evacuee was taken by boat to nearby Bethel Island for the night. In 2014, substantial improvements were made to the levee system, which included supplementing them with rip-rap, reinforcing back slopes, and raising the levee crowns. As of these improvements, seven miles of levees met or exceeded Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) standards, with 0.5 miles (0.80 km) along the northern boundary with the San Joaquin River needing rehabilitation. In July 2014, an emergency drought barrier was placed across the False River, and in August 2014, a levee improvement upgrade to meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 100-year flood protection standard was "fast approaching [its] conclusion". In 2015, a "Muscle Wall" was placed on the low spots of the island's levees "just in time" for a 4.43 foot (1.35 m) high tide on July 2, and work to remove the drought barrier began in September. In 2015, during a District levee inspection, goats were found to be "running rampant" on the levee crown, slopes and neighboring properties, potentially contributing to levee erosion. As District policy forbids goats on the levees, landowners were encouraged to contact Bradford Reclamation District with any sightings of, or information in connection to, goats on the levees. In August 2018, the reclamation district declared the island in a state of emergency due to seepage occurring on a 25-foot-wide (7.6 m) section of levee. Emergency repairs were conducted, in which holes were repaired with steel sheet piles in a "temporary fix" for an estimated cost of \$200,000 (equivalent to \$ in ).
13,795,064	S&Man	1,169,760,116	2006 pseudo-documentary film by J. T. Petty	[ "2000s American films", "2000s English-language films", "2006 films", "American documentary films", "Films directed by J. T. Petty", "Magnolia Pictures films" ]	S&Man (pronounced Sandman) is a 2006 American pseudo-documentary film that examines the underground subculture of horror films. It contains interviews with filmmakers and other participants in the low budget indie horror scene, as well as film professor and author Carol J. Clover. The second half of the film also features a scripted plot, which stars comedian Erik Marcisak as the fictional filmmaker Eric Rost. The film discusses why some people enjoy underground horror films involving fetishes. Although the film is presented as a documentary, it has a fictional subplot in addition to its nonfiction elements. S&Man was shown at the reRun Gastropub Theater in New York City, film festivals, and released on home video. ## Summary Director J.T. Petty interviews Carol J. Clover, exploitation film actress Debbie D. (along with Debbie's husband and a sexologist), and the underground horror directors Bill Zebub and Fred Vogel. These interviews are interspersed with clips from various horror films. The character of Eric Rost is also introduced, presented as an additional real-life filmmaker being interviewed. In the fictional subplot of the film, Petty (playing himself) begins to suspect that Eric Rost is not a horror director but a producer of unsimulated snuff films. Fictional clips from Rost's films, the titular S&Man video series, are shown. They are all shot in the first person and contain no dialogue. Rost refuses to give Petty the contact information of any of the actresses who appear in his films, and Rost is shown spying extensively on women he considers for roles. It ultimately remains ambiguous whether or not Rost's films depict real-life violence. ## Interviewees - Bill Zebub – A veteran director of low-budget horror exploitation films. - Fred Vogel – The head of Toetag Pictures. He began his career as a special effects artist and later directed August Underground and August Underground's Mordum. - Debbie D. – An actress who stars in low-budget horror exploitation films; she is interviewed along with a sexologist and her husband, a forensic psychologist. - Carol J. Clover – Film professor and author of Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in Modern Horror. ## Cast - J.T. Petty as himself. - Erik Marcisak as Eric Rost. ## Production S&Man's director J. T. Petty originally intended the film to focus on a man who lived near his childhood home; the man often spied on, and filmed, his neighbors. The footage led to an indictment towards "the peeper", who recorded 191 videotapes of Petty's childhood neighborhood. The indictment implied the footage should be viewed in court, but the people in the neighborhood opposed this owing to privacy concerns. Petty said of the 191 videotapes, "I admired the peeping tom; he had made movies that were frightening and titillating and real." The idea of using a camera to record his neighbor's house for hours fascinated him so much that he decided to direct a film about it. Although he had already secured funding, Petty was left without a subject since "the peeper" wanted nothing to do with the film. Petty decided to focus on three directors, who did not direct films aimed at the general public; they directed simulated snuff films, involving murder and sexual assault. Petty found the directors — Zebub, Vogel, and Marcisak, Petty's friend who played the fictional director Rost — at the Chiller Convention, an underground horror event. ## Release ### Film festivals and theater S&Man premiered in the Toronto International Film Festival's "Midnight Madness", a section which features a variety of films from new directors, in 2006. Twitch Film reported that the film's release at the Toronto International Film Festival caused controversy both offline and online, but TMZ reported that the film was popular at the festival. It was shown again at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, in 2006, and UnionDocs in Brooklyn, New York, in 2009. S&Man had a theatrical release at the reRun Gastropub Theater in New York City in 2010. ### Home video The DVD and Blu-ray of the film were released on 12 October 2010. The DVD and Blu-ray releases both include deleted scenes, other unused material, and two commentary tracks (one featuring Petty and Marcisak, the other featuring Zebub). ### Reception Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called the film "a queasy glimpse into bargain-basement sleaze," but also praised it as "cleverly executed". Nick Schager of The Village Voice criticized the pseudo-documentary conceit as "a transparent and uninformative gimmick". Meg Hewings of Hour Community reviewed the film negatively overall, describing it as "puzzling" and "somewhat pointless". Joe Leydon of Variety described the film as an "uncomfortably close look at underground horror" and speculated that the film "could scare up a cult following on the midnight screening circuit".
5,458,559	Drive Slow	1,173,743,658	2005 single by Kanye West	[ "2005 songs", "2006 singles", "Kanye West songs", "Music videos directed by Hype Williams", "Paul Wall songs", "Roc-A-Fella Records singles", "Song recordings produced by Kanye West", "Songs written by Kanye West", "Songs written by Paul Wall" ]	"Drive Slow" is a song by American rapper Kanye West. The song features guest appearances from fellow rappers Paul Wall and GLC, and additional vocals by American recording artist Tony "Penafire" Williams. It was produced by West, who wrote the song alongside the featured artists. The song originally appeared on Kanye West's second studio album, Late Registration, and was also included on Paul Wall's debut studio album, The Peoples Champ, as well. Drive Slow was released on a 12" vinyl on June 6, 2006 by Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam as the fifth and final single from the album. A hip hop track, it contains elements of jazz. The song features a sample of Hank Crawford's cover version of "Wildflower". The lyrics of the song use car culture for a metaphor discussing people's fast-paced lifestyles, and also give warnings of certain dangers. "Drive Slow" received universal acclaim from music critics, frequently being praised for its lyrical content. Some highlighted Paul Wall's verse, while other critics complimented the production. Despite being acclaimed, the song did not receive significant airplay. It has been certified gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). West performed the song for his debut live album, Late Orchestration (2006). A remix of "Drive Slow" was recorded, which includes a feature from rapper T.I. After receiving a call from West, he recorded his verse for the remix. An accompanying music video premiered via MTV, though was never released. In the video, Mali drives West around the neon lights of the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas. West, Paul Wall, GLC, and T.I. performed the remix at Power 106's Powerhouse 2006 event. ## Background and recording Paul Wall revealed that his verse on "Drive Slow" was originally the first verse the rapper wrote for his single "Sittin' Sidewayz" (2005). However, he thought the rhymes "didn't really go hand-in-hand with that beat" despite liking them, and decided to save the verse for a future collaboration with "someone big like Slim Thug". After he had made grills for West and been in a Houston studio with him, Paul Wall ended up connecting with him for a collaboration. He admitted that the two of them collaborating on a song "was unbelievable" due to West's iconic status, recalling him and a friend being confronted by two detectives as he got off the plane at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to meet up with West. Paul Wall elaborated, explaining because of them not having "anything illegal" in their bags that they questioned if the detectives were "for real" and said he expected "to get Punk'd". Later, the driver of his car to the studio was pulled over by a police officer for skipping a red light while Paul Wall was in the back seat and he confessed to thinking, "They didn't get me in the airport because how I handled them, but now they playing. They really punking me." Paul Wall revealed that he persuaded the officer to let him leave by saying he was late for a studio session with West and the officer eventually let him go to the studio while telling him, "This has nothing to do with you." After the collaboration had been recorded, Paul Wall recalled that he did not believe it was included on Late Registration until DJ Drama contacted him. In June 2005, it was reported that British rapper M.I.A. had been previously slated to appear on the album before its final track listing revealed her not featured. West announced that she declined the opportunity to collaborate with him, due to her being "really busy;" M.I.A.'s schedule included her releasing multiple projects and promoting her single "Galang" (2003). He had requested her to feature on "Drive Slow", though Paul Wall filled in for her appearance. Alongside him, the song features GLC and contains additional vocals from Tony "Penafire" Williams. West solely handled the production of the song and co-wrote it with Paul Wall and GLC. Explaining the song during a listening session for the album in June 2005, West said: "This is one of my favourite tracks; that's my 'Big Pimpin." With its light groove, the song significantly marked West giving a "cautionary rap" to those who came from his area. ## Composition and lyrics Musically, "Drive Slow" is a hip hop track, with syrup influences. The track includes elements of jazz, which was described as being mashed with "narcotic funk" by The A.V. Club. The song contains a looped sample of the alto sax from a Hank Crawford recording of a cover version of "Wildflower" by the Canadian band Skylark. The track features a light beat groove. Paul Wall contributes one verse, with him rapping 16 lines. For the last 30 seconds of "Drive Slow", the track is chopped and screwed; the speed slows down to 16 revolutions per minute (RPM). In the lyrics, car culture is used to create a metaphor about living a fast lifestyle. The lyrics also provide warnings of the dangers brought on by fame, wealth, and luxury. West starts the song by recalling versions of childhood stories, which include him raving about an American car driver named Mali, as he reminiscences on being young, broke and ambitious, before the featured artists start rapping. In a performance that was called "hypnotic" by Blender, Paul Wall expresses his love for candy paint and vintage rims. Certain lyrics of the song give an endorsement to kerb crawling. ## Release and reception On August 30, 2005, "Drive Slow" was released as the sixth track on West's second studio album Late Registration. Prior to release, the song had been played during a listening session for the album at Sony Music Studios in New York City on August 5, 2005. The song was later included as the eleventh track on Paul Wall's second studio album The Peoples Champ, released on September 13, 2005. On June 6, 2006, a 12" vinyl was released for the song in the United States, through Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam. "Drive Slow" was the B-side to the vinyl, while fellow album track "We Major" was the A-side. The song had a lack of airplay, which West himself admitted. On September 1, 2021, "Drive Slow" was awarded a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for amassing 500,000 certified units in the US. "Drive Slow" was met with universal acclaim from music critics, who generally praised the lyrical content. Writing for Blender, Jonah Weiner lauded the song as the album's "most dynamic paradox", calling it a "salute to car culture" while praising Paul Wall's verse and West's production. Sean Fennessey of Pitchfork labeled the song "woozy" and complimented the verse from Paul Wall, highlighting his lyricism. Tiny Mix Tapes reviewer Matty G named the song one of the highlights of Late Registration, admitting that it gives some people "what will probably be their first taste of screw music" while hailing Paul Wall's feature for blending with the beat. Entertainment Weekly critic David Browne opined that the song "starts with West spinning childhood stories", before "guest rappers overtake him". Comparing "Drive Slow" to fellow album track "Crack Music", The Guardian's Alexis Petridis said the lyrics "initially offer a cheerful endorsement of kerb crawling" before the song is chopped and screwed. Petridis admitted that the technique being used "entirely changes the song's mood" and concluded by saying the song suggests West "effortlessly outstripping his peers" with "more ideas, better lyrics, bigger hooks, greater depth". In The New York Times, Jon Pareles noted West "tries to be the same endearing, socially conscious guy" that he portrayed on his debut studio album The College Dropout (2004) by reflecting on when he was "young, broke and ambitious". Some reviewers directed praise specifically towards the production. Nathan Rabin from The A.V. Club commented that the song contains "strange yet hypnotic mashing of jazzy film-noir atmospherics and screwed-up narcotic funk", which he stated "amply" rewards repeated listens. In a review of Late Registration for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau cited the song as being among the "secret brilliance" and called it a "star-as-shorty reminiscence" that "winds down into a dire fog". Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine analyzed that the song's speed is cranked down "in a furtive nod to the 'chopped and screwed' craze", which de-emphasizes "the sound's druggy haze" while "seemingly aiming for a thoughtful brood". He continued, describing the chopping and screwing as a transgression that "explains why most of the pop-cultural cognoscenti are feeling the itch to rewire [West's] jaw". Prefix Mag writer Matthew Gastieir commended the song's production, noting it for being "where Kanye's already syrupy laid-back jazz meets Screw". For Time, Josh Tyrangiel selected the song as one of the album's best tracks. ## Live performances and appearances in media On September 29, 2005, West delivered a performance of the song at Abbey Road Studios in London for his debut live album Late Orchestration (2006). While showcasing artists signed to his record label GOOD Music, West performed the song with GLC for South by Southwest (SXSW) at the Levi's/Fader Fort on March 21, 2009. Early copies of The Peoples Champ were distributed with a bonus disc, which included an extended version of "Drive Slow". In 2008, American record producer J. R. Rotem used a vocal sample of the song to produce rapper The Game's track "LAX Files" from his third studio album LAX. ## Remix The remix of "Drive Slow" features a guest appearance by rapper T.I. Discussing the collaboration, West called T.I. "the hottest rapper out". The rapper recounted receiving a call from West and being asked to get on the song with a verse, while he admitted it felt strange that "the song was already five, six minutes long". T.I. said he questioned West about what he should do, who reassured him that he only needed to contribute a verse; the rapper then recorded his verse. Despite being one that loves the remix, T.I. recalled not having heard it played in full often, further stating: "I've never heard anywhere — any club, any radio station — the whole thing played from start to finish and I'm the last the verse [sic] [laughs]." He went on to compare the remix to fellow rapper Big Sean's "Control" (2013) that features Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica, explaining that nobody has "heard Jay Electronica's verse yet" on the over 7–minutes long track. In the lyrics, T.I. raps reflectively. An accompanying music video, directed by West collaborator Hype Williams, premiered on MTV; however, the video did not have an official release. Paul Wall said of his collaboration with Williams that it is "a highlight of any artis[t's] career". T.I. imposed the question to him of, "What are you going to do with this mini movie? This is a short film." It was filmed in Reno and at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas, in Nevada. The music video features cameos from Paul Wall and T.I. The video shows cars in the neon lights of Las Vegas throughout. Mali drives West around, after she was tricked into doing so by him and Williams. At two minutes and four seconds in, the Reno Arch is shown. To further promote the remix, West, Paul Wall, GLC, and T.I. performed it live at Power 106's summer fest Powerhouse 2006. For the performance, T.I. arrived in a style reminiscent of the backpacker era of the early 1990s, wearing Ralph Lauren clothing and a leather backpack. ## Track listing US 12" vinyl A-side 1. "We Major" (Clean) 2. "We Major" (Dirty) 3. "We Major" (Instrumental) B-side 1. "Drive Slow" (Clean) 2. "Drive Slow" (Dirty) 3. "Drive Slow" (Instrumental) ## Credits and personnel Information taken from Late Registration'' liner notes. Recording - Recorded at The Record Plant (Hollywood, CA) and Chalice Recording Studios (Hollywood, CA) - Mixed at Chalice Recording Studios (Hollywood, CA) Personnel - Kanye West – songwriter, producer - Paul Slayton – songwriter - Leonard Harris – songwriter - Anthony Kilhoffer – recorder - Richard Reitz – recorder, assistant engineer - Andrew Dawson – recorder - Mike Dean – mix engineer - Nate Connelly – assistant engineer - Mike Mo – assistant engineer - Tony "Penafire" Williams – additional vocals ## Certifications ## Release history
42,988,738	The Boat Race 1979	1,158,188,932	null	[ "1979 in English sport", "1979 in rowing", "1979 sports events in London", "March 1979 sports events in the United Kingdom", "The Boat Race" ]	The 125th Boat Race took place on 17 March 1979. Held annually, the event is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames. The 150th anniversary race was won by Oxford by 3+1⁄2 lengths. For the first time in 50 years, neither crew featured foreign rowers, while Cambridge's stroke was replaced just hours before the race. Goldie won the reserve race in the slowest time in the history of the race while Cambridge won the Women's Boat 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"). The race was first held in 1829, and since 1845 has taken place on the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London. The rivalry is a major point of honour between the two universities, as of 2014 it is followed throughout the United Kingdom and broadcast worldwide. Oxford went into the race as reigning champions, having won the 1978 race after Cambridge sank. Cambridge, however, led overall with 68 victories to Oxford's 55 (excluding the "dead heat" of 1877). The race was sponsored for the third consecutive year by Ladbrokes. Former Oxford Blue Ronnie Howard was the umpire for the race. To allow for television viewing, the start time of the race (2 p.m.) was an hour earlier than the traditional flood tide. The first Women's Boat Race took place in 1927, but did not become an annual fixture until the 1960s. Up until 2014, the contest was conducted as part of the Henley Boat Races, but as of the 2015 race, it is held on the River Thames, on the same day as the men's main and reserve races. The reserve race, contested between Oxford's Isis boat and Cambridge's Goldie boat has been held since 1965. It usually takes place on the Tideway, prior to the main Boat Race. Oxford were being coached for the sixth consecutive time by Daniel Topolski who had himself rowed in the 1967 and 1968 races. As coach, Topolski had suffered just one defeat. Cambridge's head coach was Czechoslovak former international rower Bohumil Janoušek; although a double Olympic medallist, he was still cautious of the event: "It's a peculiar race. The distance, the bends, the fact that only two crews race, the fact that during the course you encounter all sorts of water and wind conditions." Janoušek had been employed in order to prevent Cambridge losing for the fourth consecutive time, an occurrence which last took place following the 1912 race. Preparations for the race were hampered by appalling weather conditions: horizontal sleet and snow made practice rows challenging. ## Crews Both crews weighed an average of 13 st 4 lb (84.2 kg); Henderson, the Cambridge cox weighed 13 pounds (5.9 kg) more than his Dark Blue counterpart. In the week leading up to the race however, Cambridge's Andy Grey was struck down by gastroenteritis. While he recovered, his roommate John Woodhouse became ill and withdrew from the race three hours prior to the event. Woodhouse was replaced by Graham Phillips (who weighed 8 pounds (4 kg) less than Woodhouse) and the Light Blue boat was reorganised, with Phillips rowing at three and Nick Davies moving to stroke. Oxford's crew contained four returning Blues, with Boris Rankov making the second of what would become six appearances in the race. Cambridge welcomed back four Blue rowers and the cox Henderson, all of whom had rowed the previous year. ## Race Oxford won the toss (for the fifth consecutive year) and elected to start from the Surrey station. Conditions were calm – Desmond Hill writing in The Daily Telegraph described the river as "glassy" – and the tide, as a result of the earlier start time, was very weak. Within a minute of the start Oxford were clear of Cambridge and held a lead of two lengths by Craven Cottage. They passed the Mile Post five seconds ahead, and extended their lead to eight seconds by the time the crews shot Hammersmith Bridge. Davies brought two pushes out of the Light Blues at Chiswick Eyot but Oxford maintained their lead and passed the finishing post in 20 minutes 33 seconds, 3+1⁄2 lengths ahead of Cambridge. It was Oxford's fourth consecutive victory and their fifth in six years. Taking place 30 minutes before the main race, the reserve race saw Cambridge's Goldie defeat Oxford's Isis by twelve lengths and thirty seconds. As of 2014, the winning time of 22 minutes 50 seconds is the slowest time in the history of the event. It was Goldie's third consecutive victory, and their eleventh in thirteen years. Cambridge won the 34th Women's Boat Race, making it their third in a row, and their sixteenth victory in seventeen years. ## Reaction Oxford cox, Peter Berners-Lee suggested: "I got some help from the tide at the beginning, but very little later. I was expecting a neck-and-neck race and I couldn't believe we were a length up at Fulham."
7,594,224	1967 Football League Cup final	1,150,180,414	Association football match	[ "1966–67 Football League", "1967 sports events in London", "EFL Cup finals", "March 1967 sports events in the United Kingdom", "Queens Park Rangers F.C. matches", "West Bromwich Albion F.C. matches" ]	The 1967 Football League Cup Final was an association football match between Queens Park Rangers (QPR) and West Bromwich Albion on 4 March 1967 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 1966–67 Football League Cup, the seventh season of the Football League Cup, a football competition for the teams in The Football League. This was the first final to be decided over a single game; the six previous finals were contested over two legs. QPR were appearing in their first final, while Albion were appearing in their second after winning the previous final in 1966. As QPR were in the Third Division they played one more round than Albion who received a bye in the first round. Therefore, QPR progressed through six rounds to reach the final, whereas Albion progressed through five. Matches up to the semi-final were contested on a one-off basis with the exception of the semi-finals which were contested over two-legs, with a match at each team's home ground. QPR's matches were generally close affairs, they only won by a three two goal margin or more in three of their matches. Albion's matches were almost all comfortable victories. Their biggest margin of victory was five goals when they beat Aston Villa 6–1. While the only match did not win was the second leg of the semi-final against West Ham United, which was drawn 2–2. Watched by a crowd of 97,952, Albion took the lead in the first half when Clive Clark scored in the 7th minute. He scored again later in the half to give Albion a 2–0 lead at half-time. QPR reduced the deficit in the 63rd minute when Roger Morgan scored and then levelled the match 12 minutes later courtesy of a goal by Rodney Marsh. Mark Lazarus scored a third goal for QPR in the 81st minute, as QPR won the match 3–2 to win the League Cup for the first time. QPR's victory caused a problem for the Football Association as typically the League Cup winner would qualify for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, but one of the criteria for that competition was that the team must come from the highest tier of that country's league system. QPR was replaced in the following season's European competition by a First Division side. ## Road to Wembley ### Queens Park Rangers On the first day of the 1966–67 Football League Cup on 23 August 1966, QPR played Colchester United at their home ground of Loftus Road, winning 5–0. In the third round, they defeated Welsh team Swansea City on 2–1. They were drawn against Leicester City in the following round. Three goals in the second half saw QPR come back from being 2–1 down to win the match by 4–2. The first of these goals was a rebound off Leicester goalkeeper Gordon Banks after a shot by Rodney Marsh, then a shot by Les Allen went through a Leicester goalmouth packed with defenders, and the final goal came from Mark Lazarus in similar circumstances to the Allen goal. QPR were put under pressure in their match against Carlisle United, but Marsh scored twice more for Rangers to give them the 2–1 victory. Until the first leg of the semi-final against Birmingham City, QPR had not won an away match during their League Cup campaign. They were one goal down at half time, and again were forced to recover the deficit during the second half. In the 55th minute, Marsh scored his 34th goal of the season, he headed the ball into the goal after a corner kick from Allen. Marsh was involved again in QPR's second and third goal as he set up Roger Morgan for the second, and then back heeled the ball through to Lazarus for the third. QPR's fourth and final goal saw Marsh hit a header direct from a free kick to Allen who scored. The second leg secured QPR's first trip to Wembley, and marked the first time that a team from the Third Division had reached any Wembley final. They won the game 3–1, but they did not score until the last twelve minutes of the match. ### West Bromwich Albion Bobby Hope led Albion to a victory at the start of their League Cup campaign, having received a bye past the first round, scoring a hat-trick as the team went on to defeat Aston Villa 6–0. Albion played Manchester City on 5 October 1966 in the third round, and although they won the game 4–2, they were pressed hard for the victory. Albion went a goal down after nine minutes against Northampton Town, but came back to win 3–1. Their semi-final was a rematch of the 1966 Football League Cup Final, with West Ham United the opposition over two legs. Albion took a commanding lead in the first leg with a 4–0 victory, a goal from Dennis Clarke and a hat-trick from Jeff Astle. West Ham captain Bobby Moore urged his team to push Albion hard in the second leg, even in the closing stages of the match when they still had all four goals from the first leg to catch up with. Goals from Geoff Hurst and Johnny Byrne for West Ham were cancelled out by goals from Stan Jones and Clarke by the 60th minute. The match finished with 2–2, thus Albion progressed due to a 6–2 aggregate victory. ## Match ### Background It was decided at a Football Association Council meeting on 26 September 1966 to host the League Cup at Wembley Stadium for the first time. The final had previously been decided over two legs, but the move to Wembley coincided with a change in format to a single leg final. Albion were the defending champions and were aiming to become the first team to retain the Cup. The winner of the League Cup typically went on to play in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Albion were still in the competition at the time of the final, although they had recently lost 3–0 to Bologna in the first leg of the third round. Queens Park Rangers's strip for the final was all-white, instead of their normal white and blue hoops. West Browmwich Albion wore their away strip, which was all-red. Each team's supporters did not have a limit on the number of tickets they were allowed to purchase. This was despite a limit of 15,000 for FA Cup finals which were also held at Wembley. A crowd of nearly 100,000 was expected to be inside the stadium, although only highlights were to be shown on television. ### First-half Rangers started the slower of the two sides, with Albion passing the ball with some considerable pace. Any QPR attack stagnated once someone attempted to pass the ball through to Rodney Marsh or Les Allen, who were overwhelmed by the numbers of Albion defensive players. Albion's first goal came in the seventh minute as the ball was worked down the left hand side of the pitch by Tony Brown, Bobby Hope and finally Doug Fraser, before Clive Clark's shot went through a gap in QPR's defence. The Albion supporters began provocatively chanting "easy", although QPR were immediately on the attack with Albion goalkeeper Dick Sheppard saving a shot from Frank Sibley. QPR continued to be outplayed for the most part by their First Division opponents. In the twenty fifth minute, Clark once again ran with the ball down the left hand side of the pitch, outrunning QPR's Ron Hunt, before crossing it into the path of Jeff Astle. His subsequent shot was saved by QPR goalkeeper Peter Springett, who managed to push the ball around the post. QPR briefly had a chance for a counterattack as Mark Lazarus found himself on the halfway line with the ball, before taking it around Ian Collard and found the Albion defence out of position, leaving him with a clear path to goal. But the opposition players were gaining on him as he approached the penalty area, with the attack falling apart shortly afterwards. Nine minutes before half time, QPR found themselves under attack by Albion again with some cross pitch passing resulting in Clark's second goal of the game. QPR had a corner just before half time which fell to the feet of club captain Mike Keen, but his shot went off the post. The game went into half time at 2–0 to Albion. ### Second-half The teams came out for the second half, and Rangers began an attack almost immediately. A series of short, quick passes from Marsh and Roger Morgan released Allen but he was not quick enough to make something of the chance. A high pass from Keen followed, striking defender Clarke in the back, from which the Albion defence were forced to clear. The attacks continued to come from Rangers as Lazarus passed the ball through to Marsh who took the ball around two defenders, but his shot went over the bar. QPR were rewarded for their perseverance in the sixty-third minute as Lazarus took the ball around Albion captain Graham Williams, crossing the ball in for Morgan, who scored with a header to reduce the deficit to a single goal. Albion's sole goalscoring opportunity of the second half came afterwards; Clark took the ball on a lengthy run before crossing it into the box, across an open goal with no Albion player there to tap the ball in and put the game beyond QPR's reach. Fifteen minutes from the end of the match QPR equalised, Marsh's shot with his right foot went in off the post. A corner followed for QPR who were now dominating Albion with their style of play. Allen crossed it in to Lazarus, but the Albion goalkeeper saved the shot with his legs. With eight minutes to go, one of Albion defenders mis-kicked the ball in their own penalty area. Hunt rushed in for the chance but Sheppard once again saved the game for Albion. The ball ran free to Mike Lazarus who tapped the ball into the back of an empty net to increase the scoreline to 3–2 in QPR's favour. A final attack from QPR came in the closing moments of the game as Lazarus took the ball past two defenders and into the box, his subsequent shot hit the outside of the post and went wide. ### Details Match rules - 90 minutes. - 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary. - Replay if scores still level. - One named substitute. Sources: ## Post match QPR's victory was the first occasion a team from the Third Division had won a major trophy in England. Both teams received £18,000 as their share of the gate receipts. QPR's victory created a problem for the Football League management committee. On previous occasions, one of the three nominations for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was the winner of the League Cup. However, the Fairs Cup committee required that only teams from the highest tier of a nation's league system could enter. In the end, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Liverpool qualified for the following season's competition. QPR paraded the trophy in front of the crowd in their following home match at Loftus Road, where they defeated AFC Bournemouth 4–0. The 1966–67 season saw QPR do a double, winning the Third Division title as well. The season is considered to be the most successful season in the club's history. Albion reached the final again in 1970, where they were once again runners-up, this time to Manchester City. QPR did not reach the final until 1986 when they lost against Oxford United. Before the match against Sheffield Wednesday on 11 March 2007, the 1967 cup winning team were paraded at half time at Loftus Road to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the win. In the 2002–03 Second Division play-off final QPR wore an all-white strip in reference to their Football League Cup victory. As of 2017, QPR's victory in the 1967 Football League Cup remains the only major trophy the club has won.
56,681,988	Paleomerus	1,172,469,972	Extinct genus of arthropods	[ "Controversial taxa", "Fossil taxa described in 1956", "Fossils of Poland", "Fossils of Sweden", "Strabopida" ]	Paleomerus is a genus of strabopid, a group of extinct arthropods. It has been found in deposits from the Cambrian period (Atdabanian epoch). It is classified in the family Strabopidae of the monotypic order Strabopida. It contains two species, P. hamiltoni from Sweden and P. makowskii from Poland. The generic name is composed by the Ancient Greek words παλαιός (palaiós), meaning "ancient", and μέρος (méros), meaning "part" (and therefore, "ancient part"). Paleomerus is one of the oldest arthropods, being sometimes interpreted as the model of the first arachnomorphs. It is part of the order Strabopida, a poorly known group closely related to the aglaspidids of uncertain affinities, often being ignored by researchers and authors due to the poor preservation and abundance of their fossils. It has been suggested that Paleomerus and the closely related Strabops could be synonymous with each other, since they differ only in the size of the telson (the posteriormost division of the body) and the position of the eyes. These two genera were originally deferred by a hypothetical twelfth segment in Paleomerus, but after the discovery and description of a fourth specimen of P. hamiltoni, it has been shown that this segment actually represents the tail of the animal. ## Description As the other strabopids, Paleomerus was a small-sized arthropod. The bigger species was P. hamiltoni at 9.3 centimetres (3.7 inches), while the smaller P. makowskii reached only 7.3 cm (2.9 in). Within Strabopida, the closely related Strabops thacheri exceeded the length of Paleomerus with 11 cm (4.3 in), while Parapaleomerus sinensis reached a total length of 9.2 cm (3.6 in). Like some other arthropod clades, the strabopids possessed segmented bodies and jointed appendages (limbs) covered in a cuticle composed of proteins and chitin. The arthropod body is divided into two tagmata (sections); the frontal prosoma (head) and posterior opisthosoma (abdomen). The appendages were attached to the prosoma, and although they are unknown in strabopids (except for one undescribed specimen of Parapaleomerus), it is most likely they owned several pairs of them. Although the chemical composition of the strabopid exoskeleton is unknown, it was probably mineralized (with inorganic substances), sturdy and calcareous (containing calcium). The head of the strabopids was very short, the back was rounded and lacked trilobation (being divided in three lobes), the abdomen was composed by eleven segments and succeeded by a thick tail-like spine, the telson. In Paleomerus, the prosoma was parabolic (approximately U-shaped), and the opisthosoma can increase or decrease in width slightly or strongly. It was very flexible, possibly being able to flex laterally and roll up itself. The telson was trapezoidal, broad and tapering. Paleomerus may be the best model of a primitive arachnomorph. Paleomerus differs from Strabops only in the position of the eyes, which are farther from each other and closer to the margin than in Strabops, and the size of the telson, being shorter and broader than in the latter. ## History of research Paleomerus has two species described; all other described strabopid genera are monotypic. The Norwegian paleontologist and geologist Leif Størmer erected the genus based on two specimens (Ar. 47071, holotype, and Ar. 47073, the paratype) and tentatively classified it under the order Aglaspida in its own family, Paleomeriidae (also spelled Paleomeridae). Paleomerus is translated to "ancient part", with its name derived from the Ancient Greek words παλαιός (palaiós, ancient) and μέρος (méros, part). The designated type species, P. hamiltoni, is named after Count Hugo Hamilton, who sent both fossils to the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm. In this species, the prosoma was short and had a parabolic shape with a somewhat concave posterior border. The posterolateral borders were rounded and lacked spines. The compound eyes appear as anterolateral reniform (bean-shaped) elevations in the surface of the prosoma. The opisthosoma increased slightly its width in the third and fourth segments, then decreased slightly until the seventh segment. All the tergites (the dorsal part of the segments) were similar, superimposing strongly on each other, with the half of the first segment being hidden under the prosoma. The rest of tergites were more slightly superimposed, indicating a great flexibility and even the ability to roll up itself. The telson was trapezoidal, but Størmer mistook it as the twelfth segment of the body, suggesting a hypothetical lanceolate (lance-shaped) or fan-shaped telson. It is estimated that the size of this species was of 9.3 cm (3.7 in) judging by the length of the paratype. In 1971, the Swedish geologist and paleontologist Jan Bergström described a new specimen of P. hamiltoni, RM Ar. 47170, found in the same place as the previous two. This new poorly preserved fossil contains molds of the first eleven segments, with a total corporal length estimated at 6.4 cm (2.5 in, being slightly larger than the holotype). Bergström tentatively removed Strabopidae (at that time containing Strabops and Neostrabops) and Paleomeridae (only Paleomerus) from the order Aglaspidida based on the fact that the head tagma was too short to accommodate the six pairs of appendages then assumed to be present in aglaspidids. Instead, he classified them in an uncertain order in the Merostomoidea class together with the emeraldellids. Ironically, Bergström speculated that the number of pairs of appendages present in the three genera could be fewer than seven, as well as including a possible antennal segment. This is currently observed as an overestimate. A study published by Derek Ernest Gilmor Briggs et al. in 1979 has shown that the aglaspidid Aglaspis spinifer had between four and five pairs of appendages, but not six, weakening Bergström's argument. In 1983, the Polish paleontologist Stanisław Orłowski described a second species of Paleomerus from the Ociesęki Sandstone Formation. Named Paleomerus makowskii, the specific name of this species honors the professor Henryk Makowski and is known by only one specimen with an almost completely preserved exoskeleton (IGPUW/Ag/1/1, housed at the Geological Faculty, Warsaw University). In this species, the exoskeleton was ovate, increasing its width from the prosoma to the fifth segment and rapidly decreasing posteriorly. It had a convex shape, with the second and third segments being the most convex. The prosoma was smooth, short, rounded on the front and with somewhat concave posterior borders. It was 1.7 cm (0.7 in) long and 4.2 cm (1.6 in) wide. The eyes were placed anterolaterally and rose slightly from the surface of the prosoma, with the left eye being the only one preserved. While segments 1-4 are complete, segments 5-10 are partially destroyed. The first ten segments are all alike, overlapping each other almost half the length in each segment. The eleventh was very different from the rest, being longer and less broad and with a straight anterior border. Both sides bent downwards and the posterior border was rounded. This segment measured approximately 1.1 cm (0.4 in) in length and 1.9 cm (0.7 in) in width. The telson was flat and trapezoidal, with the posterior edge being concave, although this may be due to poor preservation. It measured 1.3 cm (0.5 in) long and 2 cm (0.8 in) wide. Following Størmer, Orłowski interpreted the telson as the twelfth segment. The total length of P. makowskii is estimated at 7.3 cm (2.9 in), with a maximum width of 5 cm (2 in). Although the outline of the body and the proportions between the prosoma and opisthosoma suggest an assignment to Paleomerus, P. makowskii differs from P. hamiltoni in its great width and in the form of the eleventh segment and telson, as well as in the eyes, placed in elevations with vertical and straight lateral walls. In 1997, Bergström and his partner Hou Xian-guang, a Chinese paleontologist, completely removed Strabopidae (recognizing Paleomeridae as a junior synonym), as well as the family Lemoneitidae (containing Lemoneites), from the order Aglaspidida to erect a new order, Strabopida, this time suggesting a number of no more than two pairs of appendages. However, this new clade remained under the similarly-named Aglaspida subclass. A year later, the British paleontologists Jason Andrew Dunlop and Paul Antony Selden eliminated Strabopida from the suborder Aglaspidida and classified them as the sister taxa of the latter based on the lack of aglaspidid apomorphies (distinctive characteristics), such as the lack of genal spines (a spine placed in the posterolateral part of the prosoma). The authors who support this change have reinforced this argument by the trapezoidal form of the telson of Paleomerus and Strabops, in contrast to the long styliform (pen-shaped) telson of the aglaspidids. In 2004, the paleontologists O. Erik Tetlie and Rachel A. Moore described a fourth specimen of P. hamiltoni from the Mickwitzia Sandstone, PMO 201.957, housed at the Paleontologisk Museum, Oslo. Thanks to this new specimen, it was possible to confirm that Paleomerus did not possess twelve segments, but eleven, eliminating all the differences between Strabopidae and Paleomeridae (and therefore, making Paleomeridae redundant). It was also possible to notice an extra difference of Paleomerus and Strabops, the dimensions of the telson, being shorter and wider in the first than in the last one. Finally, Tetlie and Moore conclude that the phylogenetic position of the strabopids will be difficult to determine without further material that preserves the ventral morphology. Subsequent authors have preferred to omit the strabopids from their analyses due to the poor abundance and preservation of their fossils, although the most accepted classification at the moment is of arthropods closely related to the Aglaspidida order, but not within it. ## Classification Paleomerus is classified in the order Strabopida, in the clade Arachnomorpha, along with Strabops, Parapaleomerus and potentially Khankaspis. It was described originally in 1956 as an intermediate form between xiphosurans (commonly known as horseshoe crabs) and eurypterids. It would not be until 1997 when the order Strabopida was described, but there is still doubt if the exclusion of them from Aglaspidida was really correct. The current status of the strabopids is of aglaspid-like arthropods of uncertain affinities. Paleomerus shares with the other strabopids a series of characteristics that distinguish them from all the other arthropods. These are an abdomen divided into eleven segments followed by a thick spine (the telson), a short head with sessile compound eyes and a rounded back. Like Strabops, Paleomerus possessed prominent dorsal eyes, however, there is no evidence of this in the fossils of Parapaleomerus. The great similarity that Strabops and Paleomerus share has cast doubt on many authors about whether both genera are really synonymous or not. Størmer described Paleomerus as an intermediate form between Xiphosura and Eurypterida, only highlighting a unique feature different from Strabops, a twelfth segment. Nevertheless, a fourth specimen of the type species found in Sweden has shown that this extra segment actually represented the telson of the animal, making them virtually indistinguishable. Although this should convert both genera into synonyms, over time more differences have been highlighted, which are the position of the eyes (closer to each other and farther from the margin in Strabops than in Paleomerus) and the size of the telson (longer and narrower in Strabops than in Paleomerus), which keep them as separate but closely related genera. The cladogram below published by Jason A. Dunlop and Paul A. Selden (1998) is based on the major chelicerate groups (in bold, Aglaspida, Eurypterida and Xiphosurida, Scorpiones and other arachnid clades) and their outgroup taxa (used as a reference group). Strabops and Paleomerus are shown as the sister taxa of Aglaspida. Note that there are several outdated elements. For example, Lemoneites was remitted to the Glyptocystitida order of echinoderms in 2005. ## Paleoecology Paleomerus fossils have been discovered in Lower Cambrian deposits of Sweden and Poland. The lanceolate body of Paleomerus could have facilitated rapid movements in the water, while the great flexibility of the abdomen would have allowed great agility and ability to spin in any direction. All this suggests that Paleomerus was an able swimmer who could even have rolled up itself on the sandy bottom of the sea as a method of protection. Due to the lack of knowledge of the ventral area, it is difficult to determine anything else about the paleoecology of Paleomerus. In the Mickwitzia Sandstone, where the specimens of P. hamiltoni were found, fossils of several other organisms have been found, such as the brachiopods Mickwitzia monilifera and M. pretiosa, the problematic indeterminate animal Torellella laevigata or the salterellid Volborthella tenuis. These and other fossils, as well as the occurrence of green mineral grains (probably glauconite), indicate that P. hamiltoni lived in a well ventilated marine environment. In addition, P. makowskii has been associated in the Ociesęki Sandstone Formation with the trilobites Holmia kjerulf, Kjerulfia orcina, Schmidtiellus panowi and Ellipsocephalus sanctacrucensis, alongside various indeterminate species of gastropods, brachiopods and hyoliths.
2,966,130	Japanese battleship Settsu	1,156,661,358	Imperial Japanese Navy's Kawachi-class battleship	[ "1911 ships", "Kawachi-class battleships", "Maritime incidents in July 1945", "Ships built by Kure Naval Arsenal", "Shipwrecks in the Inland Sea", "World War I battleships of Japan", "World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean" ]	Settsu (摂津) was the second and last of the Kawachi-class dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the first decade of the 20th century. Following the Japanese ship-naming conventions, Settsu was named after Settsu Province, now a part of Osaka prefecture. During World War I she bombarded German fortifications at Qingdao during the siege of Qingdao in 1914, but saw no other combat. She was placed in reserve in 1919 and was disarmed in 1922 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. Two years later, Settsu was converted into a target ship and she played a minor role at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. At the beginning of the Pacific War in 1941, the ship was used in an attempt to deceive the Allies as to the locations and activities of the Japanese aircraft carriers. Settsu reverted to her normal role as a target ship for the rest of the war; she was badly damaged when Allied aircraft carriers struck the naval base at Kure Naval District in July 1945. The ship was refloated after the war and scrapped in 1946–1947. ## Background The Kawachi-class was ordered on 22 June 1907 under the 1907 Warship Supplement Program after the Russo-Japanese War as Japan's first dreadnoughts, although their construction was delayed by a severe depression. Their design was based on the Aki with a uniform 12-inch (305 mm) main-gun armament, although cost considerations prevented all the guns from having the same barrel length. ## Design and description Unlike her sister ship, Kawachi, Settsu had a clipper bow that made her 7 feet (2.1 m) longer than her sister. The ship had an overall length of 533 feet (162.5 m), a beam of 84 feet 2 inches (25.7 m), and a normal draft of 27 feet 10 inches (8.5 m). She displaced 21,443 long tons (21,787 t) at normal load. Her crew ranged from 999 to 1100 officers and enlisted men. Settsu was fitted with a pair of license-built Curtis steam turbine sets, each set driving one propeller, using steam from 16 Miyabara water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of 25,000 shaft horsepower (19,000 kW) for a design speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). She carried enough coal and fuel oil to give her a range of 2,700 nautical miles (5,000 km; 3,100 mi) at a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Settsu's main armament consisted of four 50-caliber 12-inch 41st Year Type guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure, and eight 45-caliber 12-inch 41st Year Type guns mounted in four twin-gun turrets, two on each side of the superstructure. Settsu's secondary armament was ten 45-caliber 6-inch/45 guns, mounted in casemates in the sides of the hull, and eight 40-caliber quick-firing (QF) 4.7-inch 41st Year Type guns. The ship was also equipped with a dozen 40-caliber 3-inch 4th Year Type guns and four others were used as saluting guns. In addition, the battleship was fitted with five submerged 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside and one in the stern. The waterline main belt of the ship had a maximum thickness of 12 inches amidships. It tapered to a thickness of 5 inches (127 mm) at the ends of the ship. A 6-inch (152 mm) strake of armor protected the casemates. The barbettes for the main guns were 9–11 inches (229–279 mm) thick. The armor of Settsu's main gun turrets had a maximum thickness of 11 inches. The deck armor was 1.1 inches (29 mm) thick and the conning tower was protected by 6 to 10 inches of armor. ## Construction and career Settsu was laid down at Kure Naval Arsenal on 18 January 1909. She was launched on 30 March 1911 and completed on 1 July 1912 at a cost of ¥11,010,000. Captain Morihide Tanaka assumed command on 1 December and the ship was assigned to the First Squadron. She spent most of the following year training and patrolling off the coast of China. When World War I began in August 1914, Settsu was at Kure. Together with her sister Kawachi, she bombarded German fortifications in October–November 1914 during the final stage of the siege of Qingdao. Settsu was assigned to the First Squadron until 1 December 1916 when she was placed in reserve for a refit at Kure. Upon its completion on 1 December 1917, the ship was assigned to the Second Squadron until 23 July 1918 when she rejoined the First Squadron. By this time, all 12 of the 3-inch 4th Year Type guns were removed and four 3-inch 4th Year Type anti-aircraft guns were added. Two of the torpedo tubes were also removed. On 28 October 1918, Settsu was the flagship for Emperor Taishō for the naval review held off Yokohama as well as the review held on 9 July 1919. Settsu was placed in reserve on 6 November 1919 and reboilered during an overhaul that lasted from 1 April 1920 to 21 August 1921. While transporting Empress Teimei back to Tokyo after she toured several shrines where she prayed for the health of her husband, the ship was caught in a typhoon that forced her escorting destroyer, Warabi, ashore, but did not damage the battleship. She was disarmed in Kure in 1922 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty and stricken from the navy list on 1 October 1923. Her guns were turned over to the Imperial Japanese Army for use as coastal artillery; two of her main gun turrets were installed on Tsushima Island, one each in 1929 and 1936. The rest of her guns were placed in reserve and scrapped in 1943. The following year, she was converted into a target ship with the removal of one boiler room and her center funnel. Her armor was reinforced to be able to absorb hits from 203-millimeter (8 in) shells and 30-kilogram (66 lb) practice bombs. These changes reduced her maximum speed to 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) and her displacement to 16,130 long tons (16,390 t) In early February 1925, Settsu towed the incomplete hulk of the battleship Tosa, which had been used for gunnery and torpedo damage experiments, from Kure to the Bungo Channel where it was scuttled on 8 February. Between October 1935 and 1937, Settsu was converted to radio-control which allowed her to be maneuvered by operators aboard the destroyer Yakaze. Armor on the deck, funnels, and bridge was added to strengthen her ability to survive hits. In late August 1937, Settsu, under the command of Captain Naomasa Sakonju, transported a battalion of the Sasebo 4th Special Naval Landing Force to the Shanghai area in the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The troops were transferred offshore to the light cruiser Natori and the Yakaze for transportation up the Yangtze River. During 1940, the ship was modified to make it suitable to train carrier pilots, and was used extensively by bomber pilots practicing for the attack on Pearl Harbor. She participated in the fleet review by Emperor Hirohito on 11 October 1940 in Tokyo Bay. At the beginning of the Pacific War, Settsu, under the command of Captain Chiaki Matsuda sailed from Taiwan to the vicinity of the Philippines and simulated the radio traffic of all six aircraft carriers of the 1st Air Fleet as well as the light carriers Zuihō and Ryūjō in an effort to deceive Allied intelligence as to the locations and activities of the Japanese carriers. For most of the rest of the war, she was stationed in the Inland Sea and used for bomb and torpedo training. In March–June 1944, she served as a target for the 522nd and 762nd Naval Air Groups. During this time, she was fitted with a number of license-built Hotchkiss 25 mm Type 96 light AA guns, depth charges and a hydrophone. During the U.S. Navy carrier air attack on Kure on 24 July 1945, Settsu was attacked by 30 Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters near Etajima. She was struck by one bomb that killed two men and wounded another two; five near misses started a serious leak in the starboard engine room. Captain Masanano Ofuji decided to run his ship aground on Etajima to prevent her from sinking. All of Settsu's 25 mm guns were subsequently removed and the ship was used as a floating barracks. Four days later, the ship was again attacked by carrier aircraft that hit her twice more with bombs. She was abandoned the next day. Settsu was stricken from the navy list on 20 November and her hulk was raised in June 1946 and towed to Kure where scrapping was completed in August 1947.
19,000,294	2009 Kobalt Tools 500	1,163,199,592	null	[ "2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series", "2009 in sports in Georgia (U.S. state)", "March 2009 sports events in the United States", "NASCAR races at Atlanta Motor Speedway" ]	The 2009 Kobalt Tools 500 was the fourth stock car race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on March 8, 2009, in Hampton, Georgia, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, before a crowd of 94,400 attendees. The circuit is an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The 325-lap race was won by Penske Racing Championship's Kurt Busch from a second position start. Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports took second, with Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards in third. Mark Martin won his first pole position since the 2001 season by posting the fastest lap in qualifying, and he held the lead for the first six laps, until Busch overtook him on the seventh lap. He lost it after the first pit stop cycle to Ryan Newman but he passed him on the 18th lap to retake the position. After that, Busch ceded the lead to Jimmie Johnson after a refuelling problem during a pit stop, but he returned to the lead on lap 103. At the green–white–checker restart on lap 330, Edwards was in the first position, but he was passed by Kurt Busch on the outside lane soon after, and the latter held off Gordon for the remainder of the race to win. There were eleven cautions and thirteen lead changes amongst eight different drivers during the course of the event. The victory was Busch's first of the season, his second at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the 19th of his career, since he debuted in the 2000 season. The result advanced him from seventh to third in the Drivers' Championship; 46 points behind Gordon (whose second-place finish enabled him to increase his points advantage over Clint Bowyer). In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet lowered Ford's lead to two points, while Toyota and Dodge were tied for third with 33 races left in the season. The race had a television audience of 8,877,000 million. ## Background The Kobalt Tools 500 was the fourth out of thirty-six scheduled stock car races of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on March 8, 2009, in Hampton, Georgia, at Atlanta Motor Speedway; an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The standard track at Atlanta Motor Speedway is a 1.54 mi (2.48 km) four-turn quad-oval. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, and the back stretch are banked at five degrees. Before the race, Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon led the Drivers' Championship with 459 points, ahead of Clint Bowyer in second, and Matt Kenseth third. Greg Biffle and David Reutimann were fourth and fifth, and Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Bobby Labonte, Kevin Harvick, and Michael Waltrip rounded out the top twelve. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Ford led with 22 points; Chevrolet were in second place with 18 points. Toyota placed third with 16 points, and Dodge were fourth with ten points. Kyle Busch was the race's defending champion from the 2008 event. Starting from the Atlanta round, NASCAR established a regulation that determines how long the restart zone is on each track. This added to a new rule devised by NASCAR at the start of the season, when they created a zone from which the race leader was required to commence the race for better consistency. NASCAR's vice-president of competition Robin Pemberton explained series officials would double the figure of the pit road speed limit, and then establish it as the distance in feet of the restart area, "It will be twice the pit-road speed. It’s a means to get variable lengths in there for the race track itself. It’s something the garage area asked us to do. Is it perfect; maybe, maybe not. But, it’s a start." ## Practice and qualifying Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race; one on Friday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, and the second, scheduled for 45 minutes, was shortened to 20 minutes because of fog delaying qualifying for the Camping World Truck Series round. The final session ran for an hour. In the first practice session, Mark Martin was fastest with a 30.180 seconds lap, ahead of Harvick in second, and Brian Vickers in third. David Stremme was fourth-fastest, Juan Pablo Montoya placed fifth, and Kasey Kahne sixth. Kurt Busch, Edwards, Marcos Ambrose, and A. J. Allmendinger rounded out the session's top ten competitors. Forty-seven drivers attempted to qualify on Friday evening, according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Martin took his first pole position since the 2001 Pontiac Excitement 400, and the 42nd of his career, with a time of 29.640 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Kurt Busch whose best lap was 0.108 seconds behind because of his slower corner entry speed. Jamie McMurray was the highest-placed Ford driver in third. Montoya qualified fourth after a minor loss of car control leaving turn four, Biffle took fifth, and Denny Hamlin sixth. Jimmie Johnson, Joe Nemechek (the fastest driver to qualify on merit outside the top 35), Kyle Busch, and Harvick completed the top ten starters. The four drivers who did not qualify were Todd Bodine, Scott Riggs, Jeremy Mayfield, and Geoff Bodine. Tony Raines withdrew prior to qualifying. Martin said afterward, "I feel like a rookie, I really, really do. I'm still shaking. I thought I ran out of talent in turn four. There was no possible way to hold my foot on the floor and not hit the wall, back end first, in turn four. But that was really fun. I live to scare myself like that." On Saturday morning Biffle was the fastest driver in the second practice session with a time of 30.030 seconds. Edwards was second, and Stremme in third. Hamlin was fourth-fastest, Kenseth came fifth, and Jeff Gordon sixth. Kyle Busch, Montoya, David Ragan, and Johnson followed in positions seven through ten. Later that day, Edwards paced the final practice session with a lap of 30.880 seconds, with Kahne three-hundredths of a second behind in second. Hamlin was third-fastest; Kurt Busch came fourth, McMurray placed fifth, and Biffle was sixth. Stremme was seventh-fastest, Jeff Gordon eighth, Martin ninth, and Aric Almirola completed the top ten ahead of the race. During practice, Martin Truex Jr. was in pain due to a small kidney stone. He was transported directly to the infield medical centre to undergo an examination, and later to Spalding Regional Medical Center in Griffin, Georgia for observation and further treatment. Because of NASCAR's drug regulations, he elected to forgo medications while passing the stone so that he could compete in the race. ### Qualifying results ## Race Live television coverage of the event, the 100th in NASCAR Cup Series competition at Atlanta Motor Speedway, commenced in the United States on Fox at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (UTC−04:00). Around the start of the race, weather conditions were clear and warm with the air temperature at 73.3 °F (22.9 °C). Lead pastor Chris Patton of Southside Church in Peachtree City, Georgia began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Country music artist and songwriter Richie McDonald performed the national anthem, and the command for drivers to start their engines was given by Kelly Brown, vice president of merchandising for Lowe's. During the pace laps, Ragan dropped to the rear of the field because of an engine change. Poor track grip caused drivers to battle for control of their cars during the event. The race commenced at 2:18 local time. Martin maintained the first position on the entry to turn one. The first caution was waved on the next lap as Reed Sorenson made contact with the wall lining the track at turn one after a car component failure. He drove to his garage for repairs. Martin held the lead at the lap six restart, followed by Kurt Busch and McMurray. On the following lap, Kurt Busch passed below Martin to take the lead. Labonte triggered the second caution five laps later, when he spun entering turn three, but avoided damage to his car. During the caution, some drivers including Kurt Busch, made pit stops for tires and car adjustments. Nemechek led for one lap before making his pit stop on the 14th lap. Ryan Newman then took the lead, and held it at the restart on lap 16. Kurt Busch overtook Martin for second place on the next lap. On the 18th lap, Kurt Busch steered right to the outside lane and passed Newman to reclaim the first position. Hamlin got ahead of Newman for second two laps later. Martin attempted to do the same for third, but he was unsuccessful. After starting 16th, Jeff Gordon advanced to ninth by the 23rd lap. Similarly, Edwards was in seventh by lap 31 after beginning from 29th place. Eight laps later, Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost tenth to Kyle Busch. Green flag pit stops for tires, fuel, and car adjustments began on lap 53. Fourteen laps later, a tire escaped from Ambrose's pit crew, and rested approximately 70 ft (21 m) in the infield. Ambrose's gas man and firefighter Jimmy Watts ran across the grass, and was within 25 yd (23 m) of the track when he retrieved the tire. Because Watts ventured into the infield, considered by NASCAR to be part of the track, and with cars leaving turn four at near to 200 mph (320 km/h), series officials waved the third caution. NASCAR officials escorted Watts from pit road, and he was suspended for the remainder of the event. Kurt Busch made a second pit stop after a refuelling problem at a prior stop. The caution meant 15 drivers were on the lead lap, and Johnson led at the lap-74 restart. Two laps later, Jeff Gordon's clutch developed a problem. On lap 78, Edwards overtook Hamlin for second. Edwards got past Johnson on the outside lane for the lead on the 81st lap. Three laps later, Johnson was passed by Hamlin on the inside line while in slower traffic for the third position. On the 103rd lap, Kurt Busch passed Edwards around the outside to claim the first position. Labonte spun on the frontstretch on the lap, necessitating the fourth caution. Under caution, lapped drivers made pit stops for adjustments to their cars. At the lap 112 restart, Kurt Busch kept the lead over Edwards and Bowyer. Edwards drove on the inside lane, while Kurt Busch ran on the outside line. As some drivers began another phase of green flag pit stops on the 155th lap, the fifth caution came out when fluids were found in turn two. Kurt Busch again held the lead at the lap 162 restart, followed by Bowyer. Two laps later, Bowyer fell to fifth when Jeff Gordon, Johnson, and Edwards got past him. He lost a further position to Martin on lap 166. Jeff Gordon caught and overtook Kurt Busch for first on the 172nd lap, but he did not hold it, as Kurt Busch re-passed him before crossing the start-finish line. On lap 183, Ambrose's car billowed smoke, and he stopped on the apron below the track. The sixth caution was issued two laps later as debris was located on the track. The leaders elected to make pit stops for tires and car adjustments during the caution. Truex led lap 190 but Kurt Busch was first at the lap 192 restart. Ragan made contact with his teammate Biffle on the 196th lap, causing him to go sideways into the wall, and prompting Biffle to regain control of his car. Six laps later, Kurt Busch glanced the wall, and Jeff Gordon passed him for the lead, but lost it to Busch before the conclusion of the lap. On lap 204, Sam Hornish Jr. collided with the turn one wall, drifted back down the track, and collected Bill Elliott, prompting the seventh caution. The leaders, including Kurt Busch, chose to make pit stops for car adjustments and tires during the caution. Jeff Gordon took the lead and held it at the lap 209 restart, with Kurt Busch in second and Martin third. Five laps later, the eighth caution was given; Martin cut his right-rear tire, and went backward into the turn one barrier. His car sustained heavy rear sheet metal damage but he continued to pit road. The leaders again made pit stops under caution. Jeff Gordon led at the lap 222 restart. Hamlin was passed around the outside by Kurt Busch for third on lap 235. Five laps later, he caught and overtook Johnson for the second position. Kurt Busch narrowed Jeff Gordon's lead, and passed him on the outside lane leaving turn four to retake the lead on the 251st lap. The ninth caution came out nine laps later as debris from Robby Gordon's car was located in turn four. During the caution, the leaders went to pit road for fuel, tires and car adjustments. The restart on lap 265 was led by Kurt Busch from Vickers, and Bowyer. On lap 267, Scott Speed hit the wall leaving turn four, and slid into the front of Ragan's car. Biffle was collected by Speed, and was spun into the outside wall, and Jeff Burton went through the grass, activating the tenth caution. Five drivers elected not to make pit stops under caution. Kurt Busch led the field back to racing speed on the lap 275 restart, with Vickers second. Earnhardt was passed by Stewart, and Burton after running close by Almirola on lap 279, and fell to 14th. Vickers reduced the lead of Kurt Busch, when the final caution was necessitated after Robby Gordon's tire shredded and scattered debris on the circuit. All of the leaders, including Kurt Busch, made pit stops for tires and fuel. Edwards won the race off pit road, and led on the green–white–checker restart (extending the race to 330 laps) on lap 329. Edwards lost the lead on the outside lane to Kurt Busch on the backstretch, and he was then passed by Jeff Gordon. Kurt Busch held off Jeff Gordon on the final lap to take his first win of the season, his second at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the 19th of his career. Jeff Gordon finished second, ahead of Edwards in third. Harvick was fourth, and Vickers fifth. Bowyer, Kahne, Stewart, Johnson, and Truex completed the top ten finishers. There were thirteen lead changes among eight different drivers during the course of the race, Kurt Busch led six times for a total of 234 laps, more than any other driver. ### Post-race Kurt Busch appeared in victory lane after his Polish victory lap to celebrate his first victory of the season in front of a crowd of 94,400 attendants; the win earned him \$164,175. Kurt Busch thanked his team for providing him with a car that won him the race, "This car was unbelievable. I guess good things come to those who wait. I just drove (against) the track, not the competition, We had strong pit stops, a great-handling car, a strong motor and a great assistant spotter." Jeff Gordon was encouraged with his second-place finish, "It was a great day for us, though. Just driving to the front, battling up front, leading laps, battling for the lead at times. We lost a little something there in the long runs there, middle of the way on and those guys were a little bit stronger than us. But on the restarts, we were real strong." Edwards said of his third-place finish, “Third place, considering our pit debacle down there — we were boxed in, It was just a bad pit stall selection and it didn’t work out like we planned, but we made the most of it.” Two days after the race, it was announced that Watts was suspended for the next four races of the season by NASCAR for transgressing Section 12–1: "actions detrimental to stock car racing", and Article 9-15-U, a regulation which forbids crew members from entering the boundaries of the track while cars were circulating for any reason. Additionally, he was placed on probation until December 31, 2009. Crew chief Frank Kerr was also put on probation until the end of the year because he was deemed responsible for Watts' actions. NASCAR stated that had Watts not ventured into the infield, they would have waved the caution once all cars had made their pit stops. Watts admitted to reacting inappropriately and apologized for his actions. According to Ambrose, the decision to suspend Watts was the correct move to take, "It was a disaster. But I think the penalty was a good one. You can't have guys running out to the race track. It's just not the thing to do. Jimmy is a great guy. He went on instinct. You can't blame the guy for that, either. I mean, he just went on a reaction and it was the wrong reaction. He needs to be an example for others not to do the same." The result of the race meant Jeff Gordon extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 43 points ahead of Bowyer in second place. By winning the race, Kurt Busch advanced from seventh to third, while Edwards' third-place finish meant he was in the third position after being in eighth place going into the race. Kenseth fell to fifth in the standings. Stewart, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Kahne, Biffle, Vickers, and Reutimann rounded out the top twelve drivers. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet cut Ford's lead to two points. Dodge tied with Toyota in third place with 33 races left in the season. The event had a television audience of 8,877,000 million; it took 3 hours, 59 minutes and 1 second to complete the race, and the margin of victory was 0.332 seconds. ### Race results ## Standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Manufacturers' Championship standings - Note: Only the top twelve positions are included for the driver standings.
73,976,292	Syssomonas	1,170,073,479	Genus of protists	[ "Opisthokont genera", "Taxa described in 2017" ]	Syssomonas is a monotypic genus of unicellular flagellated protists containing the species Syssomonas multiformis. It is a member of Pluriformea inside the lineage of Holozoa, a clade containing animals and their closest protistan relatives. It lives in freshwater habitats. It has a complex life cycle that includes unicellular amoeboid and flagellated phases, as well as multicellular aggregates, depending on the growth medium and nutritional state. ## Life stages Syssomonas multiformis is a species of unicellular protists with naked cells (lacking any shell or scales) that presents with a variety of life forms during their complex life cycle. These forms include: round flagellate cells (7–14 μm in diameter) with one posterior flagellum, amoeboflagellate (i.e. with both flagella and pseudopodia) cells, amoeboid non-flagellar cells, and spherical cysts. They can also form clusters of multiple cells. ### Unicellular stages: flagellar, amoeboid and cyst In the flagellate swimming stage, the most common stage in their life cycle, the cells of Syssomonas resemble a typical opisthokont cell, reminiscent of animal sperm cells or chytrid zoospores. There is one smooth flagellum that emerges from the middle-lateral point of the cell, turns back, and directs backwards during swimming. While swimming, the fast beating of the flagellum can create the appearance of two flagella. The swimming cells rotate, and can suddenly stop and change direction of the movement. Solitary cells can attach temporarily to a substrate through the anterior part of the cell body, and produce water flow by rapid flagellar beating, resembling choanoflagellates or choanocytes from sponges. Floating cells move downwards to transform into amoeboflagellates by generating wide lobopodia and thin short filopodia, and slowing the flagellar beating. The amoeboflagellates can crawl along the substrate through their anterior lobopodia. The amoeboflagellate stages of Syssomonas can lose the flagellum by three different ways: discarding it abruptly, retracting it into the cell when stretched out, or coil under the cell and then retract into the cell as a spiral. As a result they become the amoeboid stage, which produces thin short filopodia and sometimes have two contractile vacuoles. Both amoebae and amoeboflagellates can turn back into flagellates. The amoeboid stage can retract its filopodia and become a round cyst, in which palintomic cell division (i.e. rapid cell divisions without cytoplasmic growth in between, a characteristic of animal embryonic cleavage) can occur, generating 2, 4, 8 or 16 flagellated cells that are released from inside the cyst. ### Aggregative multicellular stages Cells of Syssomonas can merge partially and form temporary aggregations of about 3–10 cells, usually shapeless and observed near the bottom of the water column. They can also aggregate by joining only flagellated cells together, with their flagella directed outwards, resembling the rosette-like colonies of choanoflagellates. Both aggregations break up easily, and their cell membranes are not fused. In solid cultures, solitary cells can sometimes merge completely at the bottom of the Petri dish into a syncytium-like or pseudoplasmodium structure, in which the nuclei do not merge. From these syncytia, budding of daughter cells occurs. This phenomenon of budding from syncytia has not been observed in any other eukaryotes, although the formation of multinucleated cells as a result of aggregation of multiple cells is known in other protist lineages (dictyostelids in Eumycetozoa, Copromyxa in Tubulinea, acrasids in Excavata, Sorogena in Alveolata, Sorodiplophrys in Stramenopiles, Guttulinopsis in Rhizaria, and Fonticula alba within the opisthokonts). The transition from an amoeboid filopodial stage to an aggregative stage is also observed in another holozoan, Capsaspora owczarzaki. The formation of Syncytia also occurs in animals; the cytoplasm of glass sponges, teguments of flatworms, and the skeletal muscles and placenta of mammals are all syncytial structures. The merging of cells in Syssomonas attracts, likely by chemical signaling, other nearby cells that actively swim and try to attach to the aggregates. This appears to be the only method by which aggregates grow, as opposed to cell division. ## Ecology Syssomonas multiformis was isolated from a freshwater pool in Vietnam. The organism can survive temperatures ranging from 5 to 36 °C. It feeds on the cytoplasmic content of other eukaryotes of similar size, which is an unusual trait among unicellular holozoans. In particular, it is a predator of heterotrophic chrysomonads and bodonids (e.g. Parabodo caudatus and Spumella species). They can also engulf bacteria and small debris, in a similar manner to choanoflagellates. In contrast to many other eukaryotic protists, Syssomonas cells do not possess any extruding organelles for hunting. Instead, they attach to the prey cell and suck out their cytoplasm without ingesting the cell membrane. They feed better on inactive, slow or dead cells or cysts. Likely by chemical signaling, after one cell attaches to the prey, many other Syssomonas cells become attracted to the same prey cell and try to attach to it. Several cells can suck out the cytoplasm of the same prey cell jointly. They use short pseudopodia to feed on clusters of bacteria. Afterwards, they form a large food vacuole at the posterior cell end. However, bacteria alone are not sufficient nutrition for Syssomonas: without any eukaryotic prey, their cells die or form resting cysts. ## Evolution As a lineage of Holozoa, Syssomonas is one of many protist groups closely related to animals and is therefore a subject of research in the search for the origin of animal multicellularity. The first phylogenomic analyses including Syssomonas recovered the genus as the sister taxon of Corallochytrium. Together, they compose the clade Pluriformea, which was recovered as the sister taxon of Filozoa. An alternative hypothesis places Pluriformea as the sister group of Ichthyosporea in a clade known as Teretosporea. The following cladogram displays the position of Syssomonas among the opisthokonts, according to the first hypothesis:
2,621,810	1982 kidnapping of Iranian diplomats	1,168,647,930	1982 unsolved kidnapping incident during the Lebanese Civil War	[ "1980s missing person cases", "1982 crimes in Lebanon", "1982 in Iran", "1982 in Israel", "1982 kidnapping of Iranian diplomats", "Assassinated Iranian diplomats", "Attacks on diplomatic missions in Lebanon", "Attacks on diplomatic missions of Iran", "Diplomatic immunity and protection", "Diplomatic incidents", "Iran–Israel relations", "Iran–Lebanon relations", "Israeli–Lebanese conflict", "Israel–Lebanon relations", "July 1982 events in Asia", "Kidnapped Iranian people", "Kidnapped diplomats", "Kidnappings in Lebanon", "Lebanese Civil War", "Missing person cases in Lebanon", "Terrorist incidents in Asia in 1982" ]	Three Iranian diplomats as well as a reporter for Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) were abducted in Lebanon on 4 July 1982. None of them have been seen since. The missing individuals are Ahmad Motevaselian, military attaché for Iran's embassy in Beirut; Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, chargé d'affaires at the embassy; Taghi Rastegar Moghadam, an embassy employee; and Kazem Akhavan, IRNA photojournalist. Motevaselian was also an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member in command of an Iranian expeditionary force in Lebanon. They were stopped at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon by the Lebanese Forces commanded by Samir Geagea. Speculation about their fate has circulated since their abduction. Iranian officials believe that they were handed over to Israel after they were kidnapped and are still alive and being held in Israeli territory. Israel said that the diplomats were captured by militia under Elie Hobeika. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that the diplomats were believed to be executed by Phalange shortly after their abduction. Geagea as well as Hobeika's bodyguard Robert Hatem also said that they were executed while under the Phalange's custody. The diplomats' disappearance is regularly commemorated in Iran. Both the Iranian and Lebanese governments have tried to gain information about their whereabouts. According to Nazih Mansour, former member of the Lebanese parliament, the case has turned into a political issue, rather than a judicial one since some of the involved people such as Samir Geagea have become political figures. ## Background During the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Ahmad Motevaselian, a military attaché for Iran's embassy in Beirut; Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, chargé d'affaires at the embassy; and Taghi Rastegar Moghadam, an embassy employee, were sent on diplomatic mission to Lebanon along with Kazem Akhavan, an IRNA photojournalist covering the events in Lebanon. Ahmad Motevaselian was the best-known of the abductees because of his service in the Iran–Iraq War. The 27th Mohammad Rasoul-Allah Brigade, under his command, played an important role in Liberation of Khorramshahr, a "turning point" in the war. According to the US State Department and Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Motevaselian was in command of the IRGC expeditionary force supporting Shia militias like Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley to fight against the Israeli invasion. According to Mohsen Rezai, currently secretary of the Expediency Council, he had been chosen to lead the Iranian expeditionary force in Lebanon because of his success in crushing the 1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran. Lebanese Phalanges Party was a Christian militia operating in Lebanon at the time, allied to Israel. Israeli–Phalange relations began 1948 and reached its climax in mid-1970s. At the time of the kidnapping, Israel was besieging west of Beirut. ## Kidnapping Amid the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the four Iranian diplomats were traveling from Iran's embassy in Damascus to Beirut. On the highway between Jounieh and Beirut, after reaching the al-Barbareh checkpoint in northern Lebanon, Lebanese Phalange forces headed by Samir Geagea stopped and detained the diplomats. According to the Rai al-Youm on-line newspaper, Biar Rizq, known as "Akram", and Abdeh Raji, known as "Captain", were involved in the abduction, with the latter commanding the checkpoint. According to Lebanese judiciary sources, the abducted individuals were imprisoned under the supervision of Elie Hobeika, then a Phalangist, in Karantina, Beirut for 20 days and were moved to the Adonis prison in Beirut. ## Fate of abducted diplomats ### Israeli detention speculation In the aftermath of the incident, Iran accused Israel of kidnapping and holding the diplomats in their jails, and called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to clarify their whereabouts. In November 1994, Iranian ambassador in Lebanon, Homayoun Alizadeh, said that the four abductees were held alive in Israeli prisons. Similarly, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, former Iranian ambassador in Lebanon, said that there were "concrete evidences" proving that they were alive, held in Israel. The assertion was repeated years later by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's ex-president, and Iran's Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan. The Iranian Parliament speaker's senior advisor in July 2017 argued that the kidnapped Iranian diplomats are in Tel Aviv's prison and have not been killed, according to the Tehran Times. In 1997 the Prisoners' Friends Association, an Israel-based prisoners' aid organization, said that a released prisoner had seen the four disappeared Iranians in Atlit Prison in Israel two years previously, which was denied by a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister. Israel has said it does not know what happened to the diplomats and that it believes that they were kidnapped by a Lebanese militant group and executed shortly after their abduction. According to the Iranian Fars News Agency, Israel has made contradictory comments on the issue by rejecting the allegation of diplomats being surrendered to it, and saying that they are already dead. Elie Hobeika had an interview with the London-based Al-Wasat magazine which was published on 31 August 1997. The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) said that the interview substantiated the abduction of the diplomats and their handing over to Israel by Geagea's group. The group was known for its close ties with Israel and for handing over many Lebanese and foreigners to Israel during its invasion of Lebanon. Later in 2016, according to a report by the London-based pan-Arab daily Rai al-Youm, translated to English by Fars News Agency, a recently released Greek prisoner from Israeli jails informed the Iranian embassy in Athens that he had seen the four abducted individuals alive in Israeli jails. The report also said that Ahmad Habibollah Abu Hesham, known as a "spiritual father" of prisoners of Israeli jails, had made a similar comment that Motavesellian and the others were alive in Atlit detainee camp after visiting and inspecting prisoners in Israeli jails. Abu Hesham died in what Rai al-Youm said was a "made up accident by Israel." However, Israel has rejected the allegation of detaining the Iranian diplomats and journalist who were abducted in Lebanon, according to Reuters report. ### Death speculation According to Geagea, the Iranians died some time after their capture. Robert Hatem, code-named "Cobra", Hobeika's security chief in the early 1980s, said that Hobeika was responsible for the diplomats' "kidnapping and murder". According to Ronen Bergman in his book The Secret War with Iran, Hatem told Israeli agents in 1993 and 2000 that he himself had probably killed at least one of the Iranians, Ahmad Motevasselian, and that he could clearly remember the Iranians' execution. Hatem is described as sketching the electrical torture tool for the Iranians. "Right at the beginning, we found that one of them spoke Arabic. I don't know why but they killed him right away," said Hatem according to Bergman. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that it was believed that they were then buried at a site where construction later obliterated their graves. Ali Qusair, a journalist from the Iranian-based Press TV and Sayyed Raed Mousavi, son of the kidnapped Sayyed Mohsen Mousavi, discussed the diplomats' fate in an interview with Karim Pakradouni, former head of Phalangists. Referring to his conversation with Assaad Chaftari, a senior intelligence official of Lebanese Forces, Pakradouni believed that the abducted diplomats could have been killed before reaching Karantina. ## Political response In 2016, Adnan Mansour, the Lebanese ex-minister of foreign affairs and emigrants and ex-ambassador to Iran, stated that Iran and Lebanon had not stopped investigating the fate of the diplomats. He stated that the first responsibility lies with the Lebanese side, because the abduction had occurred in Lebanese territory. Nazih Mansour, former member of the Lebanese parliament, had been the official lawyer of one of the families. Speaking to IRNA, he said that the progress of the case in Lebanese courts was very slow. Mansour also said that after so many years, the case had turned into a political issue rather than a judicial one. In 2014 Mohammad Fathali, Iranian Ambassador to Beirut, said that Iran had seen no serious action by the international community and human rights bodies regarding the abduction of the Iranian diplomats in Lebanon and their fate. In a statement issued in 2015, Iran expressed appreciation for efforts by the Lebanese government and international figures, including a 2008 letter from Lebanon to the UN confirming the abduction, to bring international attention to this case. In July 2018, at the 36th anniversary commemoration of the kidnapping, Iran's Foreign Ministry pointed out that there was sufficient proof that the kidnapped Iranian diplomats were moved to Israel, according to Mehr News. Hezbollah had included the fate of the diplomats in indirect negotiations for a prisoner exchange with the Israelis after the 2006 war and in the 2008 Israel–Hezbollah prisoner exchange agreement, Israel agreed to give a report on the fate of the four Iranians. The report stated that the four were captured by a group of Christian militia led by Elie Hobeika, who was later murdered in 2002. According to Fars News, during the 37th anniversary ceremony held in Lebanon to commemorate the kidnapped Iranian diplomats, the senior advisor to the Iran Parliament Speaker divulged that Iran and Lebanon would prolong their association in order to solve the case of the abducted Iranian diplomats. According to the Middle East Monitor, the Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan urged Israel to answer for the security and safety of the four abducted Iranian diplomats. ## Commemoration The disappearance of the abducted diplomats is annually commemorated in Iran. ## See also - 2013 Iranian diplomat kidnapping - List of kidnappings - List of people who disappeared - Lebanese Civil War - Attack on the Iranian Embassy in London (2018)
460,321	Diving cylinder	1,167,399,252	Cylinder to supply breathing gas for divers	[ "Breathing gases", "Pressure vessels", "Underwater breathing apparatus" ]	A diving cylinder or diving gas cylinder is a gas cylinder used to store and transport high pressure gas used in diving operations. This may be breathing gas used with a scuba set, in which case the cylinder may also be referred to as a scuba cylinder, scuba tank or diving tank. When used for an emergency gas supply for surface supplied diving or scuba, it may be referred to as a bailout cylinder or bailout bottle. It may also be used for surface-supplied diving or as decompression gas . A diving cylinder may also be used to supply inflation gas for a dry suit or buoyancy compensator. Cylinders provide gas to the diver through the demand valve of a diving regulator or the breathing loop of a diving rebreather. Diving cylinders are usually manufactured from aluminium or steel alloys, and when used on a scuba set are normally fitted with one of two common types of cylinder valve for filling and connection to the regulator. Other accessories such as manifolds, cylinder bands, protective nets and boots and carrying handles may be provided. Various configurations of harness may be used by the diver to carry a cylinder or cylinders while diving, depending on the application. Cylinders used for scuba typically have an internal volume (known as water capacity) of between 3 and 18 litres (0.11 and 0.64 cu ft) and a maximum working pressure rating from 184 to 300 bars (2,670 to 4,350 psi). Cylinders are also available in smaller sizes, such as 0.5, 1.5 and 2 litres, however these are usually used for purposes such as inflation of surface marker buoys, dry suits and buoyancy compensators rather than breathing. Scuba divers may dive with a single cylinder, a pair of similar cylinders, or a main cylinder and a smaller "pony" cylinder, carried on the diver's back or clipped onto the harness at the side. Paired cylinders may be manifolded together or independent. In technical diving, more than two scuba cylinders may be needed. When pressurised, the gas is compressed up to several hundred times atmospheric pressure. The selection of an appropriate set of diving cylinders for a diving operation is based on the amount of gas required to safely complete the dive. Diving cylinders are most commonly filled with air, but because the main components of air can cause problems when breathed underwater at higher ambient pressure, divers may choose to breathe from cylinders filled with mixtures of gases other than air. Many jurisdictions have regulations that govern the filling, recording of contents, and labelling for diving cylinders. Periodic testing and inspection of diving cylinders is often obligatory to ensure the safety of operators of filling stations. Pressurised diving cylinders are considered dangerous goods for commercial transportation, and regional and international standards for colouring and labelling may also apply. ## Terminology The term "diving cylinder" tends to be used by gas equipment engineers, manufacturers, support professionals, and divers speaking British English. "Scuba tank" or "diving tank" is more often used colloquially by non-professionals and native speakers of American English. The term "oxygen tank" is commonly used by non-divers; however, this is a misnomer since these cylinders typically contain (compressed atmospheric) breathing air, or an oxygen-enriched air mix. They rarely contain pure oxygen, except when used for rebreather diving, shallow decompression stops in technical diving or for in-water oxygen recompression therapy. Breathing pure oxygen at depths greater than 6 metres (20 ft) can result in oxygen toxicity. Diving cylinders have also been referred to as bottles or flasks, usually preceded with the word scuba, diving, air, or bailout. Cylinders may also be called aqualungs, a genericized trademark derived from the Aqua-lung equipment made by the Aqua Lung/La Spirotechnique company, although that is more properly applied to an open circuit scuba set or open circuit diving regulator. Diving cylinders may also be specified by their application, as in bailout cylinders, stage cylinders, deco cylinders, sidemount cylinders, pony cylinders, suit inflation cylinders, etc. ## Parts The functional diving cylinder consists of a pressure vessel and a cylinder valve. There are usually one or more optional accessories depending on the specific application. ### The pressure vessel The pressure vessel is a seamless cylinder normally made of cold-extruded aluminium or forged steel. Filament wound composite cylinders are used in fire fighting breathing apparatus and oxygen first aid equipment because of their low weight, but are rarely used for diving, due to their high positive buoyancy. They are occasionally used when portability for accessing the dive site is critical, such as in cave diving. Composite cylinders certified to ISO-11119-2 or ISO-11119-3 may only be used for underwater applications if they are manufactured in accordance with the requirements for underwater use and are marked "UW". The pressure vessel comprises a cylindrical section of even wall thickness, with a thicker base at one end, and domed shoulder with a central neck to attach a cylinder valve or manifold at the other end. Occasionally other materials may be used. Inconel has been used for non-magnetic and highly corrosion resistant oxygen compatible spherical high-pressure gas containers for the US Navy's Mk-15 and Mk-16 mixed gas rebreathers. #### Aluminium An especially common cylinder provided at tropical dive resorts is the "aluminium-S80" which is an aluminium cylinder design with an internal volume of 0.39 cubic feet (11.0 L) rated to hold a nominal volume of 80 cubic feet (2,300 L) of atmospheric pressure gas at its rated working pressure of 3,000 pounds per square inch (207 bar). Aluminium cylinders are also often used where divers carry many cylinders, such as in technical diving in water which is warm enough that the dive suit does not provide much buoyancy, because the greater buoyancy of aluminium cylinders reduces the amount of extra buoyancy the diver would need to achieve neutral buoyancy. They are also sometimes preferred when carried as "sidemount" or "sling" cylinders as the near neutral buoyancy allows them to hang comfortably along the sides of the diver's body, without disturbing trim, and they can be handed off to another diver or stage dropped with a minimal effect on buoyancy. Most aluminium cylinders are flat bottomed, allowing them to stand upright on a level surface, but some were manufactured with domed bottoms. When in use, the cylinder valve and regulator add mass to the top of the cylinder, so the base tends to be relatively buoyant, and aluminium drop-cylinders tend to rest on the bottom in an inverted position if near neutral buoyancy. For the same reason they tend to hang at an angle when carried as sling cylinders unless constrained. The aluminium alloys used for diving cylinders are 6061 and 6351. 6351 alloy is subject to sustained load cracking and cylinders manufactured of this alloy should be periodically eddy current tested according to national legislation and manufacturer's recommendations. 6351 alloy has been superseded for new manufacture, but many old cylinders are still in service, and are still legal and considered safe if they pass the periodic hydrostatic, visual and eddy current tests required by regulation and as specified by the manufacturer. The number of cylinders that have failed catastrophically is in the order of 50 out of some 50 million manufactured. A larger number have failed the eddy current test and visual inspection of neck threads, or have leaked and been removed from service without harm to anyone. Aluminium cylinders are usually manufactured by cold extrusion of aluminium billets in a process which first presses the walls and base, then trims the top edge of the cylinder walls, followed by press forming the shoulder and neck. The final structural process is machining the neck outer surface, boring and cutting the neck threads and O-ring groove. The cylinder is then heat-treated, tested and stamped with the required permanent markings. Aluminium diving cylinders commonly have flat bases, which allows them to stand upright on horizontal surfaces, and which are relatively thick to allow for rough treatment and considerable wear. This makes them heavier than they need to be for strength, but the extra weight at the base also helps keep the centre of gravity low which gives better balance in the water and reduces excess buoyancy. #### Steel In cold water diving, where a person wearing a highly buoyant thermally insulating dive suit has a large excess of buoyancy, steel cylinders are often used because they are denser than aluminium cylinders. They also often have a lower mass than aluminium cylinders with the same gas capacity, due to considerably higher material strength, so the use of steel cylinders can result in both a lighter cylinder and less ballast required for the same gas capacity, a two way saving on overall dry weight carried by the diver. Steel cylinders are more susceptible than aluminium to external corrosion, particularly in seawater, and may be galvanized or coated with corrosion barrier paints to resist corrosion damage. It is not difficult to monitor external corrosion, and repair the paint when damaged, and steel cylinders which are well maintained have a long service life, often longer than aluminium cylinders, as they are not susceptible to fatigue damage when filled within their safe working pressure limits. Steel cylinders are manufactured with domed (convex) and dished (concave) bottoms. The dished profile allows them to stand upright on a horizontal surface, and is the standard shape for industrial cylinders. The cylinders used for emergency gas supply on diving bells are often this shape, and commonly have a water capacity of about 50 litres ("J"). Domed bottoms give a larger volume for the same cylinder mass, and are the standard for scuba cylinders up to 18 litres water capacity, though some concave bottomed cylinders have been marketed for scuba. Steel alloys used for dive cylinder manufacture are authorised by the manufacturing standard. For example, the US standard DOT 3AA requires the use of open-hearth, basic oxygen, or electric steel of uniform quality. Approved alloys include 4130X, NE-8630, 9115, 9125, Carbon-boron and Intermediate manganese, with specified constituents, including manganese and carbon, and molybdenum, chromium, boron, nickel or zirconium. Steel cylinders may be manufactured from steel plate discs, which are cold drawn to a cylindrical cup form, in two or three stages, and generally have a domed base if intended for the scuba market, so they cannot stand up by themselves. After forming the base and side walls, the top of the cylinder is trimmed to length, heated and hot spun to form the shoulder and close the neck. This process thickens the material of the shoulder. The cylinder is heat-treated by quenching and tempering to provide the best strength and toughness. The cylinders are machined to provide the neck thread and o-ring seat (if applicable), then chemically cleaned or shot-blasted inside and out to remove mill-scale. After inspection and hydrostatic testing they are stamped with the required permanent markings, followed by external coating with a corrosion barrier paint or hot dip galvanising and final inspection. An alternative production method is backward extrusion of a heated steel billet, similar to the cold extrusion process for aluminium cylinders, followed by hot drawing and bottom forming to reduce wall thickness, and trimming of the top edge in preparation for shoulder and neck formation by hot spinning. The other processes are much the same for all production methods. #### Cylinder neck The neck of the cylinder is the part of the end which is shaped as a narrow concentric cylinder, and internally threaded to fit a cylinder valve. There are several standards for neck threads, these include: - Taper thread (17E), with a 12% taper right hand thread, standard Whitworth 55° form with a pitch of 14 threads per inch (5.5 threads per cm) and pitch diameter at the top thread of the cylinder of 18.036 millimetres (0.71 in). These connections are sealed using thread tape and torqued to between 120 and 150 newton-metres (89 and 111 lbf⋅ft) on steel cylinders, and between 75 and 140 N⋅m (55 and 103 lbf⋅ft) on aluminium cylinders. Parallel threads are made to several standards: - M25x2 ISO parallel thread, which is sealed by an O-ring and torqued to 100 to 130 N⋅m (74 to 96 lbf⋅ft) on steel, and 95 to 130 N⋅m (70 to 96 lbf⋅ft) on aluminium cylinders; - M18x1.5 parallel thread, which is sealed by an O-ring, and torqued to 100 to 130 N⋅m (74 to 96 lbf⋅ft) on steel cylinders, and 85 to 100 N⋅m (63 to 74 lbf⋅ft) on aluminium cylinders; - 3/4"x14 BSP parallel thread, which has a 55° Whitworth thread form, a pitch diameter of 25.279 millimetres (0.9952 in) and a pitch of 14 threads per inch (1.814 mm); - 3/4"x14 NGS (NPSM) parallel thread, sealed by an O-ring, torqued to 40 to 50 N⋅m (30 to 37 lbf⋅ft) on aluminium cylinders, which has a 60° thread form, a pitch diameter of 0.9820 to 0.9873 in (24.94 to 25.08 mm), and a pitch of 14 threads per inch (5.5 threads per cm); - 3/4"x16 UNF, sealed by an O-ring, torqued to 40 to 50 N⋅m (30 to 37 lbf⋅ft) on aluminium cylinders. - 7/8"x14 UNF, sealed by an O-ring. The 3/4"NGS and 3/4"BSP are very similar, having the same pitch and a pitch diameter that only differs by about 0.2 mm (0.008 in), but they are not compatible, as the thread forms are different. All parallel thread valves are sealed using an O-ring at top of the neck thread which seals in a chamfer or step in the cylinder neck and against the flange of the valve. #### Permanent stamp markings The shoulder of the cylinder carries stamp markings providing required information about the cylinder. Universally required markings include: - Identification of the manufacturer - Manufacturing standard, which will identify the material specification - Serial number - Date of manufacture - Charging pressure - Capacity - Mark of the accredited testing agency - Date of each revalidation test A variety of other markings may be required by national regulations, or may be optional. ### The cylinder valve The purpose of the cylinder valve or pillar valve is to control gas flow to and from the pressure vessel and to provide a connection with the regulator or filling hose. Cylinder valves are usually machined from brass and finished by a protective and decorative layer of chrome plating. A metal or plastic dip tube or valve snorkel screwed into the bottom of the valve extends into the cylinder to reduce the risk of liquid or particulate contaminants in the cylinder getting into the gas passages when the cylinder is inverted, and blocking or jamming the regulator. Some of these dip tubes have a plain opening, but some have an integral filter. Cylinder valves are classified by four basic aspects: the thread specification, the connection to the regulator, pressure rating, and other distinguishing features. Standards relating to the specifications and manufacture of cylinder valves include ISO 10297 and CGA V-9 Standard for Gas Cylinder Valves. The other distinguishing features include outlet configuration, handedness and valve knob orientation, number of outlets and valves (1 or 2), shape of the valve body, presence of a reserve valve, manifold connections, and the presence of a bursting disk overpressure relief device. Cylinder threads may be in two basic configurations: Taper thread and parallel thread. The valve thread specification must exactly match the neck thread specification of the cylinder. Improperly matched neck threads can fail under pressure and can have fatal consequences. The valve pressure rating must be compatible with the cylinder pressure rating. Parallel threads are more tolerant of repeated removal and refitting of the valve for inspection and testing. ### Accessories Additional components for convenience, protection or other functions, not directly required for the function as a pressure vessel. #### Manifolds A cylinder manifold is a tube which connects two cylinders together so that the contents of both can be supplied to one or more regulators. There are three commonly used configurations of manifold. The oldest type is a tube with a connector on each end which is attached to the cylinder valve outlet, and an outlet connection in the middle, to which the regulator is attached. A variation on this pattern includes a reserve valve at the outlet connector. The cylinders are isolated from the manifold when closed, and the manifold can be attached or disconnected while the cylinders are pressurised. More recently, manifolds have become available which connect the cylinders on the cylinder side of the valve, leaving the outlet connection of the cylinder valve available for connection of a regulator. This means that the connection cannot be made or broken while the cylinders are pressurised, as there is no valve to isolate the manifold from the interior of the cylinder. This apparent inconvenience allows a regulator to be connected to each cylinder, and isolated from the internal pressure independently, which allows a malfunctioning regulator on one cylinder to be isolated while still allowing the regulator on the other cylinder access to all the gas in both cylinders. These manifolds may be plain or may include an isolation valve in the manifold, which allows the contents of the cylinders to be isolated from each other. This allows the contents of one cylinder to be isolated and secured for the diver if a leak at the cylinder neck thread, manifold connection, or burst disk on the other cylinder causes its contents to be lost. A relatively uncommon manifold system is a connection which screws directly into the neck threads of both cylinders, and has a single valve to release gas to a connector for a regulator. These manifolds can include a reserve valve, either in the main valve or at one cylinder. This system is mainly of historical interest. Cylinders may also be manifolded by a removable whip, commonly associated with dual outlet cylinder valves, and the on board emergency gas supply of a diving bell is usually manifolded by semi-permanent metal alloy pipes between the cylinder valves. #### Valve cage Also known as a manifold cage or regulator cage, this is a structure which can be clamped to the neck of the cylinder or manifolded cylinders to protect the valves and regulator first stages from impact and abrasion damage while in use, and from rolling the valve closed by friction of the handwheel against an overhead (roll-off). A valve cage is often made of stainless steel, and some designs can snag on obstructions. #### Cylinder bands Cylinder bands are straps, usually of stainless steel, which are used to clamp two cylinders together as a twin set. The cylinders may be manifolded or independent. It is usual to use a cylinder band near the top of the cylinder, just below the shoulders, and one lower down. The conventional distance between centrelines for bolting to a backplate is 11 inches (280 mm). #### Cylinder boot A cylinder boot is a hard rubber or plastic cover which fits over the base of a diving cylinder to protect the paint from abrasion and impact, to protect the surface the cylinder stands on from impact with the cylinder, and in the case of round bottomed cylinders, to allow the cylinder to stand upright on its base. Some boots have flats moulded into the plastic to reduce the tendency of the cylinder to roll on a flat surface. It is possible in some cases for water to be trapped between the boot and the cylinder, and if this is seawater and the paint under the boot is in poor condition, the surface of the cylinder may corrode in those areas. This can usually be avoided by rinsing in fresh water after use and storing in a dry place. The added hydrodynamic drag caused by a cylinder boot is trivial in comparison with the overall drag of the diver, but some boot styles may present a slightly increased risk of snagging on the environment. #### Cylinder net A cylinder net is a tubular net which is stretched over a cylinder and tied on at top and bottom. The function is to protect the paintwork from scratching, and on booted cylinders it also helps drain the surface between the boot and cylinder, which reduces corrosion problems under the boot. Mesh size is usually about 6 millimetres (0.24 in). Some divers will not use boots or nets as they can snag more easily than a bare cylinder and constitute an entrapment hazard in some environments such as caves and the interior of wrecks. Occasionally sleeves made from other materials may be used to protect the cylinder. #### Cylinder handle A cylinder handle may be fitted, usually clamped to the neck, to conveniently carry the cylinder. This can also increase the risk of snagging in an enclosed environment. #### Dust caps and plugs These are used to cover the cylinder valve orifice when the cylinder is not in use to prevent dust, water or other materials from contaminating the orifice. They can also help prevent the O-ring of a yoke type valve from falling out. The plug may be vented so that the leakage of gas from the cylinder does not pressurise the plug, making it difficult to remove. ## Pressure rating The thickness of the cylinder walls is directly related to the working pressure, and this affects the buoyancy characteristics of the cylinder. A low-pressure cylinder will be more buoyant than a high-pressure cylinder with similar size and proportions of length to diameter and in the same alloy. ### Working pressure Scuba cylinders are technically all high-pressure gas containers, but within the industry in the United States there are three nominal working pressure ratings (WP) in common use; low pressure (2400 to 2640 psi — 165 to 182 bar), standard (3000 psi — 207 bar), and high pressure (3300 to 3500 psi — 227 to 241 bar). US-made aluminum cylinders usually have a standard working pressure of 3,000 pounds per square inch (210 bar), and the compact aluminum range have a working pressure of 3,300 pounds per square inch (230 bar). Some steel cylinders manufactured to US standards are permitted to exceed the nominal working pressure by 10%, and this is indicated by a '+' symbol. This extra pressure allowance is dependent on the cylinder passing the appropriate higher standard periodical hydrostatic test. Those parts of the world using the metric system usually refer to the cylinder pressure directly in bar but would generally use "high pressure" to refer to a 300 bars (4,400 psi) working pressure cylinder, which can not be used with a yoke connector on the regulator. 232 bar is a very popular working pressure for scuba cylinders in both steel and aluminium. ### Test pressure Hydrostatic test pressure (TP) is specified by the manufacturing standard. This is usually 1.5 × working pressure, or in the United States, 1.67 × working pressure. ### Developed pressure Cylinder working pressure is specified at a reference temperature, usually 15 °C or 20 °C. and cylinders also have a specified maximum safe working temperature, often 65 °C. The actual pressure in the cylinder will vary with temperature, as described by the gas laws, but this is acceptable in terms of the standards provided that the developed pressure when corrected to the reference temperature does not exceed the specified working pressure stamped on the cylinder. This allows cylinders to be safely and legally filled to a pressure that is higher than the specified working pressure when the filling temperature is greater than the reference temperature, but not more than 65 °C, provided that the filling pressure does not exceed the developed pressure for that temperature, and cylinders filled according to this provision will be at the correct working pressure when cooled to the reference temperature. ### Pressure monitoring The internal pressure of a diving cylinder is measured at several stages during use. It is checked before filling, monitored during filling and checked when filling is completed. This can all be done with the pressure gauge on the filling equipment. Pressure is also generally monitored by the diver. Firstly as a check of contents before use, then during use to ensure that there is enough left at all times to allow a safe completion of the dive, and often after a dive for purposes of record keeping and personal consumption rate calculation. The pressure is also monitored during hydrostatic testing to ensure that the test is done to the correct pressure. Most diving cylinders do not have a dedicated pressure gauge, but this is a standard feature on most diving regulators, and a requirement on all filling facilities. There are two widespread standards for pressure measurement of diving gas. In the United States and perhaps a few other places the pressure is measured in pounds per square inch (psi), and the rest of the world uses bar. Sometimes gauges may be calibrated in other metric units, such as kilopascal (kPa) or megapascal (MPa), or in atmospheres (atm, or ATA), particularly gauges not actually used underwater. ## Capacity There are two commonly used conventions for describing the capacity of a diving cylinder. One is based on the internal volume of the cylinder. The other is based on nominal volume of gas stored. ### Internal volume The internal volume is commonly quoted in most countries using the metric system. This information is required by ISO 13769 to be stamped on the cylinder shoulder. It can be measured easily by filling the cylinder with fresh water. This has resulted in the term 'water capacity', abbreviated as WC which is often stamp marked on the cylinder shoulder. It's almost always expressed as a volume in litres, but sometimes as mass of the water in kg. Fresh water has a density close to one kilogram per litre so the numerical values are effectively identical at two decimal places accuracy. #### Standard sizes by internal volume These are representative examples, for a larger range, the on-line catalogues of the manufacturers such as Faber, Pressed Steel, Luxfer, and Catalina may be consulted. The applications are typical, but not exclusive. - 22 litres: Available in steel, 200 and 232bar, - 20 litres: Available in steel, 200 and 232bar, - 18 litres: Available in steel, 200 and 232 bar, used as single or twins for back gas. - 16 litres: Available in steel, 200 and 232bar, used as single or twins for back gas. - 15 litres: Available in steel, 200 and 232 bar, used as single or twins for back gas - 12.2 litres: Available in steel 232, 300 bar and aluminium 232 bar, used as single or twins for back gas - 12 litres: Available in steel 200, 232, 300 bar, and aluminium 232 bar, used as single or twins for back gas - 11 litres: Available in aluminium, 200, 232 bar used as single or twins for back gas or sidemount - 10.2 litres: Available in aluminium, 232 bar, used as single or twins for back gas - 10 litres: Available in steel, 200, 232 and 300 bar, used as single or twins for back gas, and for bailout - 9.4 litres: Available in aluminium, 232 bar, used for back gas or as slings - 8 litres: Available in steel, 200 bar, used for Semi-closed rebreathers - 7 litres: Available in steel, 200, 232 and 300 bar, and aluminium 232 bar, back gas as singles and twins, and as bailout cylinders. A popular size for SCBA - 6 litres: Available in steel, 200, 232, 300 bar, used for back gas as singles and twins, and as bailout cylinders. Also a popular size for SCBA - 5.5 litres: Available in steel, 200 and 232 bar, - 5 litres: Available in steel, 200 bar, used for rebreathers - 4 litres: Available in steel, 200 bar, used for rebreathers and pony cylinders - 3 litres: Available in steel, 200 bar, used for rebreathers and pony cylinders - 2 litres: Available in steel, 200 bar, used for rebreathers, pony cylinders, and suit inflation - 1.5 litres: Available in steel, 200 and 232 bar, used for suit inflation - 0.5 litres: Available in steel and aluminium, 200 bar, used for buoyancy compensator and surface marker buoy inflation ### Nominal volume of gas stored The nominal volume of gas stored is commonly quoted as the cylinder capacity in the USA. It is a measure of the volume of gas that can be released from the full cylinder at atmospheric pressure. Terms used for the capacity include 'free gas volume' or 'free gas equivalent'. It depends on the internal volume and the working pressure of a cylinder. If the working pressure is higher, the cylinder will store more gas for the same volume. The nominal working pressure is not necessarily the same as the actual working pressure used. Some steel cylinders manufactured to US standards are permitted to exceed the nominal working pressure by 10% and this is indicated by a '+' symbol. This extra pressure allowance is dependent on the cylinder passing the appropriate periodical hydrostatic test and is not necessarily valid for US cylinders exported to countries with differing standards. The nominal gas content of these cylinders is based on the 10% higher pressure. For example, common Aluminum 80 (Al80) cylinder is an aluminum cylinder which has a nominal 'free gas' capacity of 80 cubic feet (2,300 L) when pressurized to 3,000 pounds per square inch (210 bar). It has an internal volume of approximately 11 litres (0.39 cu ft). #### Standard sizes by volume of gas stored - Aluminum C100 is a large (13.l l), high-pressure (3,300 pounds per square inch (228 bar)) cylinder. Heavy at 42.0 pounds (19.1 kg). - Aluminum S80 is probably the most common cylinder, used by resorts in many parts of the world for back gas, but also popular as a sling cylinder for decompression gas, and as side-mount cylinder in fresh water, as it has nearly neutral buoyancy. These cylinders have an internal volume of approximately 11 litres (0.39 cu ft) and working pressure of 3,000 pounds per square inch (207 bar). They are also sometimes used as manifolded twins for back mount, but in this application the diver needs more ballast weights than with most steel cylinders of equivalent capacity. - Aluminium C80 is the high-pressure equivalent, with a water capacity of 10.3 L and working pressure 3,300 pounds per square inch (228 bar). - Aluminum S40 is a popular cylinder for side-mount and sling mount bailout and decompression gas for moderate depths, as it is small diameter and nearly neutral buoyancy, which makes it relatively unobtrusive for this mounting style. Internal volume is approximately 5.8 litres (0.20 cu ft) and working pressure 3,000 pounds per square inch (207 bar). - Aluminum S63 (9.0 L) 3,000 pounds per square inch (207 bar), and steel HP65 (8.2 L) are smaller and lighter than the Al80, but have a lower capacity, and are suitable for smaller divers or shorter dives. - Steel LP80 2,640 pounds per square inch (182 bar) and HP80 (10.1 L) at 3,442 pounds per square inch (237 bar) are both more compact and lighter than the Aluminium S80 and are both negatively buoyant, which reduces the amount of ballast weight required by the diver. - Steel HP119 (14.8 L), HP120 (15.3 L) and HP130 (16.0 L) cylinders provide larger amounts of gas for nitrox or technical diving. ## Physical dimensions Cylinders made from seamless steel and aluminium alloys are described here. The constraints on filament wound composite cylinders will differ: There are a small number of standardised outside diameters as this is cost effective for manufacture, because most of the same tooling can be shared between cylinders of the same diameter and wall thickness. A limited number of standard diameters is also convenient for sharing accessories such as manifolds, boots and tank bands. Volume within a series with given outside diameter is controlled by wall thickness, which is consistent for material, pressure class, and design standard, and length, which is the basic variable for controlling volume within a series. Mass is determined by these factors and the density of the material. Steel cylinders are available in the following size classes, and possibly others: - OD = 83mm, 0.8 to 1.8 litres - OD = 100mm, 2.0 to 4.75 litres - OD = 115mm, 2.5 to 5.0 litres - OD = 140mm, 4.0 to 15.0 litres - OD = 160mm, 6.0 to 16.0 litres - OD = 171mm, 8.0 to 23.0 litres - OD = 178mm, 8.0 to 35.0 litres - OD = 204mm, 10.0 to 40.0 litres - OD = 229mm, 20.0 to 50.0 litres - OD = 267mm, 33.0 to 80.0 litres Wall thickness varies depending on location, material, pressure rating and practical considerations. The sides of the cylindrical section are sufficient to withstand the stresses of a large number of cycles to test pressure, with an allowance for a small amount of material loss due to general corrosion and minor local damage due to abrasion and normal wear and tear of use, and a limited depth of local damage due to pit and line corrosion and physical damage. The amount of damage and material loss allowed is compatible with the visual inspection rejection criteria. Steel cylinders are designed for test stresses to be below the fatigue limit for the alloy. The wall thickness is roughly proportional to diameter for a given test pressure and material strength – if the diameter is double, the basic wall thickness will also double. Wall thickness is also proportional to working pressure and test pressure for a given diameter and material specification. The cylindrical section has the lowest wall thickness, and it is consistent within manufacturing tolerances for the entire cylindrical section. End thickness allows for considerably more wear and tear and corrosion on the bottom of the cylinder, and the shoulder is made thicker to allow for the variabilities inherent in the manufacturing process for closing the end, and for any stress raisers due to the process of permanent stamp marking. To a large extent bottom thickness distribution of a steel cylinder and shoulder thickness of all metal cylinders are influenced by the manufacturing process, and may be thicker than strictly necessary for strength and corrosion tolerance. Faber steel cylinders to CE standards have slightly decreased in mass for the same cylinder size from 2023. A 200 bar 15 litre cylinder with 203mm outside diameter domed bottom, reduced from 16.2kg to 145kg. The equivalent 232 bar cylinder reduced from 18.2 to 16.7kg. ### Buoyancy characteristics The density of a cylinder is concentrated in the ends, which are relatively thick walled and have a lower enclosed volume per unit mass. The details vary depending on the specification, but this tendency is common to both steel and aluminium cylinders, and is more extreme in flat or dished ends. As a consequence, long narrow cylinders are less dense than short wide cylinders for the same material and the same end configuration, while for the same internal volume, a short wide cylinder is heavier than a long narrow cylinder. Buoyancy of a diving cylinder is only of practical relevance in combination with the attached cylinder valve, scuba regulator and regulator accessories, as it will not be used underwater without them. These accessories are attached to the top of the cylinder, and both decrease the buoyancy of the combined unit and move the centre of gravity towards the top (valved end). This affects the cylinder orientation for sling and side mount. Back mounted cylinder sets are generally not removed during a dive, and the buoyancy characteristics can be allowed for at the start of the dive, by ensuring that the diver has sufficient reserve buoyancy to float with the cylinders full, and sufficient ballast to remain submerged when the cylinders are all empty. The buoyancy compensator must be sufficient to provide some positive buoyancy at all depths with full cylinders. Adjustments to ballasting can compensate for other buoyancy variables. Inability to remain consistently immersed at the shallowest decompression stop can lead to incomplete decompression and increased risk of decompression sickness. The change in buoyancy of a diving cylinder during the dive can be more problematic with side-mounted cylinders, and the actual buoyancy at any point during the dive is a consideration with any cylinder that may be separated from the diver for any reason. Cylinders which will be or handed off to another diver should not change the diver's buoyancy beyond what can be compensated using their buoyancy compensator. Cylinders with approximately neutral buoyancy when full generally require the least compensation when detached, as they are likely to be detached for staging or handed off when relatively full. This is less likely to be a problem for a solo diver's bailout set, as there will be fewer occasions to remove it during a dive. Side-mount sets for tight penetrations are expected to be swung forward or detached to pass through tight constrictions, and should not grossly affect trim or buoyancy during these maneuvers. A major manufacturer of steel cylinders, Faber Industrie Spa, claim that their steel cylinders are neutral or slightly negative when empty, but do not specify which pressure rating this refers to, or whether this takes into account the cylinder valve. ## Applications and configurations Divers may carry one cylinder or multiples, depending on the requirements of the dive. Where diving takes place in low risk areas, where the diver may safely make a free ascent, or where a buddy is available to provide an alternative air supply in an emergency, recreational divers usually carry only one cylinder. Where diving risks are higher, for example where the visibility is low or when recreational divers do deeper or decompression diving, and particularly when diving under an overhead, divers routinely carry more than one gas source. Diving cylinders may serve different purposes. One or two cylinders may be used as a primary breathing source which is intended to be breathed from for most of the dive. A smaller cylinder carried in addition to a larger cylinder is called a "pony bottle". A cylinder to be used purely as an independent safety reserve is called a "bailout bottle" or Emergency Gas Supply (EGS). A pony bottle is commonly used as a bailout bottle, but this would depend on the time required to surface. Divers doing technical diving often carry different gases, each in a separate cylinder, for each phase of the dive: - "travel gas" is used during the descent and ascent. It is typically air or nitrox with an oxygen content between 21% and 40%. Travel gas is needed when the bottom gas is hypoxic and therefore is unsafe to breathe in shallow water. - "bottom gas" is only breathed at depth. It is typically a helium-based gas which is low in oxygen (below 21%) or hypoxic (below 17%). - "deco gas" is used at the decompression stops and is generally one or more nitrox mixes with a high oxygen content, or pure oxygen, to accelerate decompression. - a "stage cylinder" is a cylinder holding reserve, travel or deco gas. They are usually carried "side slung" (sling mounted), clipped on either side of the diver to the harness of the backplate and wing or buoyancy compensator, rather than on the back, and may be left on the distance line to be picked up for use on return (stage dropped). Commonly divers use aluminium stage cylinders, particularly in fresh water, because they are nearly neutrally buoyant and can be removed underwater with less effect on the diver's overall buoyancy. - "Suit inflation gas" may be taken from a breathing gas cylinder or may be supplied from a small independent cylinder. For safety, divers sometimes carry an additional independent scuba cylinder with its own regulator to mitigate out-of-air emergencies should the primary breathing gas supply fail. For much common recreational diving where a controlled emergency swimming ascent is acceptably safe, this extra equipment is not needed or used. This extra cylinder is known as a bail-out cylinder, and may be carried in several ways, and can be any size that can hold enough gas to get the diver safely back to the surface. ### Open-circuit scuba For open-circuit scuba divers, there are several options for the combined cylinder and regulator system: - Single cylinder consists of a single large cylinder, usually back mounted, with one first-stage regulator, and usually two second-stage regulators. This configuration is simple and cheap but it has only a single breathing gas supply: it has no redundancy in case of failure. If the cylinder or first-stage regulator fails, the diver is totally out of air and faces a life-threatening emergency. Recreational diver training agencies train divers to rely on a buddy to assist them in this situation. The skill of gas sharing is trained on most entry level scuba courses. This equipment configuration, although common with entry-level divers and used for most sport diving, is not recommended by training agencies for any dive where decompression stops are needed, or where there is an overhead environment (wreck diving, cave diving, or ice diving) as it provides no functional redundancy. - Single cylinder with dual regulators consists of a single large back mounted cylinder, with two first-stage regulators, each with a second-stage regulator. This system is used for diving where cold water makes the risk of regulator freezing high and functional redundancy is required. It is common in continental Europe, especially Germany. The advantage is that a regulator failure can be solved underwater to bring the dive to a controlled conclusion without buddy breathing or gas sharing. However, it is hard to reach the valves, so there may be some reliance on the dive buddy to help close the valve of the free-flowing regulator quickly. - Main cylinder plus a small independent cylinder: this configuration uses a larger, back mounted main cylinder along with an independent smaller cylinder, often called a "pony" or "bailout cylinder". The diver has two independent systems, but the total 'breathing system' is now heavier, and more expensive to buy and maintain. - The pony is typically a 2- to 5-litre cylinder. Its capacity determines the depth of dive and decompression duration for which it provides protection. Ponies may be fixed to the diver's buoyancy compensator (BC) or main cylinder behind the diver's back, or can be clipped to the harness at the diver's side or chest or carried as a sling cylinder. Ponies provide an accepted and reliable emergency gas supply but require that the diver is trained to use them. - Another type of small independent air source is a hand-held cylinder filled with about 85 litres (3.0 cu ft) of free air with a diving regulator directly attached, such as the Spare Air. This source provides only a few breaths of gas at depth and is most suitable as a shallow water bailout. - ' or independent doubles consists of two independent cylinders and two regulators, each with a submersible pressure gauge. This system is heavier, more expensive to buy and maintain and more expensive to fill than a single cylinder set. The diver must swap demand valves during the dive to preserve a sufficient reserve of gas in each cylinder. If this is not done, then if a cylinder should fail the diver may end up having an inadequate reserve. Independent twin sets only work well with air-integrated computers which can monitor two or more cylinders. The complexity of switching regulators periodically to ensure both cylinders are evenly used may be offset by the redundancy of two entirely separate breathing gas supplies. The cylinders may be mounted as a twin set on the diver's back, or alternatively can be carried in a sidemount configuration where penetration of wrecks or caves requires it, and where the cylinder valves are in easy reach. - Plain manifolded twin sets, or manifolded doubles with a single regulator, consist of two back mounted cylinders with their pillar valves connected by a manifold but only one regulator is attached to the manifold. This makes it relatively simple and cheap but means there is no redundant functionality to the breathing system, only a double gas supply. This arrangement was fairly common in the early days of scuba when low-pressure cylinders were manifolded to provide a larger air supply than was possible from the available single cylinders. It is still in use for large capacity bailout sets for deep commercial diving. - ' or manifolded doubles with two regulators, consist of two back mounted cylinders with their pillar valves connected by a manifold, with a valve in the manifold that can be closed to isolate the two pillar valves. In the event of a problem with one cylinder the diver may close the isolation valve to preserve gas in the cylinder which has not failed. The advantages of this configuration include: a larger gas supply than from a single cylinder; automatic balancing of the gas supply between the two cylinders; thus, no requirement to constantly change regulators underwater during the dive; and in most failure situations, the diver may close a valve to a failed regulator or isolate a cylinder and may retain access to all the remaining gas in both the tanks. The disadvantages are that the manifold is another potential point of failure, and there is a danger of losing all gas from both cylinders if the isolation valve cannot be closed when a problem occurs. This configuration of cylinders is often used in technical diving. - ''' are a configuration of independent cylinders used for technical diving. They are independent cylinders with their own regulators and are carried clipped to the harness at the side of the diver. Their purpose may be to carry stage, travel, decompression, or bailout gas while the back mounted cylinder(s) carry bottom gas. Stage cylinders carry gas to extend bottom time, travel gas is used to reach a depth where bottom gas may be safely used if it is hypoxic at the surface, and decompression gas is gas intended to be used during decompression to accelerate the elimination of inert gases. Bailout gas is an emergency supply intended to be used to surface if the main gas supply is lost. - Side-mount cylinders are cylinders clipped to the harness at the diver's sides which carry bottom gas when the diver does not carry back mount cylinders. They may be used in conjunction with other side-mounted stage, travel and/or decompression cylinders where necessary. Skilled side-mount divers may carry as many as three cylinders on each side. This configuration was developed for access through tight restrictions in caves. Side mounting is primarily used for technical diving, but is also sometimes used for recreational diving, when a single cylinder may be carried, complete with secondary second stage (octopus) regulator, in a configuration sometimes referred to as monkey diving. - A is a cylinder, usually rigged for sling or side-mount, that can be passed (handed off) to another diver for use during a contingency or a planned part of a dive, by a rescuer or a support or stand-by diver. The handing over of the cylinder allows the receiving diver to maneuver independently of the donor, and the hand-off procedure should not compromise either diver's ability to maintain neutral buoyancy if it is needed for safety. ### Rebreathers Diving cylinders are used in rebreather diving in two roles: - As part of the rebreather itself. The rebreather must have at least one source of fresh gas stored in a cylinder; many have two and some have more cylinders. Due to the lower gas consumption of rebreathers, these cylinders typically are smaller than those used for equivalent open-circuit dives. Rebreathers may use internal cylinders, or may also be supplied from "off-board" cylinders, which are not directly plumbed into the rebreather, but connected to it by a flexible hose and coupling and usually carried side slung. \* oxygen rebreathers have an oxygen cylinder \* semi-closed circuit rebreathers have a cylinder which usually contains nitrox or a helium based gas. \* closed circuit rebreathers have an oxygen cylinder and a "diluent" cylinder, which contains air, nitrox or a helium based gas. - Rebreather divers also often carry an external bailout system if the internal diluent cylinder is too small for safe use for bailout for the planned dive. The bailout system is one or more independent breathing gas sources for use if the rebreather should fail: - Open-circuit: One or more open circuit scuba sets. The number of open-circuit bailout sets, their capacity and the breathing gases they contain depend on the depth and decompression needs of the dive. So on a deep, technical rebreather dive, the diver will need a bail out "bottom" gas and a bailout "decompression" gas(es). On such a dive, it is usually the capacity and duration of the bailout sets that limits the depth and duration of the dive - not the capacity of the rebreather. - Closed-circuit: A second rebreather containing one or more independent diving cylinders for its gas supply. Using another rebreather as a bail-out is possible but uncommon. Although the long duration of rebreathers seems compelling for bail-out, rebreathers are relatively bulky, complex, vulnerable to damage and require more time to start breathing from, than easy-to-use, instantly available, robust and reliable open-circuit equipment. ### Surface supplied diver emergency gas supply Surface supplied divers are usually required to carry an emergency gas supply sufficient to allow them to return to a place of safety if the main gas supply fails. The usual configuration is a back mounted single cylinder supported by the diver's safety harness, with first stage regulator connected by a low-pressure hose to a bailout block, which may be mounted on the side of the helmet or band-mask or on the harness to supply a lightweight full-face mask. Where the capacity of a single cylinder in insufficient, plain manifolded twins or a rebreather may be used. For closed bell bounce and saturation dives the bailout set must be compact enough to allow the diver to pass through the bottom hatch of the bell. This sets a limit on the size of cylinders that can be used. ### Emergency gas supply on diving bells Diving bells are required to carry an onboard supply of breathing gas for use in emergencies. The cylinders are mounted externally as there is insufficient space inside. They are fully immersed in the water during bell operations, and may be considered diving cylinders. ### Suit inflation cylinders Suit inflation gas may be carried in a small independent cylinder. Sometimes argon is used for superior insulation properties. This must be clearly labelled and may also need to be colour coded to avoid inadvertent use as a breathing gas, which could be fatal as argon is an asphyxiant. ### Other uses of compressed gas cylinders in diving operations Divers also use gas cylinders above water for storage of oxygen for first aid treatment of diving disorders and as part of storage "banks" for diving air compressor stations, gas blending, surface supplied breathing gas and gas supplies for decompression chambers and saturation systems. Similar cylinders are also used for many purposes not connected to diving. For these applications they are not diving cylinders and may not be subject to the same regulatory requirements as cylinders used underwater. ## Gas calculations It is necessary to know the approximate length of time that a diver can breathe from a given cylinder so that a safe dive profile can be planned. There are two parts to this problem: The capacity of the cylinder and the consumption by the diver. ### The cylinder's capacity to store gas Two features of the cylinder determine its gas carrying capacity: - internal volume : this normally ranges between 3 litres and 18 litres for single cylinders. - cylinder gas pressure : when filled this normally ranges between 200 and 300 bars (2,900 and 4,400 psi), but the actual value should be measured for a real situation, as the cylinder may not be full. At the pressures which apply to most diving cylinders, the ideal gas equation is sufficiently accurate in almost all cases, as the variables that apply to gas consumption generally overwhelm the error in the ideal gas assumption. To calculate the quantity of gas: Volume of gas at atmospheric pressure = (cylinder volume) x (cylinder pressure) / (atmospheric pressure) In those parts of the world using the metric system the calculation is relatively simple as atmospheric pressure may be approximated as 1 bar, So a 12-litre cylinder at 232 bar would hold almost 12 × 232 / 1 = 2,784 litres (98.3 cu ft) of air at atmospheric pressure (also known as free air). In the US the capacity of a diving cylinder is specified directly in cubic feet of free air at the nominal working pressure, as the calculation from internal volume and working pressure is relatively tedious in imperial units. For example, in the US and in many diving resorts in other countries, one might find aluminum cylinders of US manufacture with an internal capacity of 0.39 cubic feet (11 L) filled to a working pressure of 3,000 psi (210 bar); Taking atmospheric pressure as 14.7 psi, this gives 0.39 × 3000 / 14.7 = 80 ft<sup>3</sup> These cylinders are described as "80 cubic foot cylinders", (the common "aluminum 80"). Up to about 200 bar the ideal gas law remains useful and the relationship between the pressure, size of the cylinder and gas contained in the cylinder is approximately linear; at higher pressures this linearity no longer applies, and there is proportionally less gas in the cylinder. A 3-litre cylinder filled to 300 bar will only carry contain 810 litres (29 cu ft) of atmospheric pressure air and not the 900 litres (32 cu ft) expected from the ideal gas law. Equations have been proposed which give more accurate solutions at high pressure, including the Van der Waals equation. Compressibility at higher pressures also varies between gases and mixtures of gases. ### Diver gas consumption There are three main factors to consider: - the rate at which the diver consumes gas, specified as surface air consumption (SAC) or respiratory minute volume (RMV) of the diver. In normal conditions this will be between 10 and 25 litres per minute (L/min) for divers who are not working hard. At times of extreme high work rate, breathing rates can rise to 95 litres per minute. For International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) commercial diving gas planning purposes, a working breathing rate of 40 litres per minute is used, whilst a figure of 50 litres per minute is used for emergencies. RMV is controlled by blood CO<sub>2</sub> levels, and is usually independent of oxygen partial pressures, so does not change with depth. The very large range of possible rates of gas consumption results in a significant uncertainty of how long the supply will last, and a conservative approach is required for safety where an immediate access to an alternative breathing gas source is not possible. Scuba divers are expected to monitor the remaining gas pressure sufficiently often that they are aware of how much is still available at all times during a dive. - ambient pressure: the depth of the dive determines this. The ambient pressure at the surface is 1 bar (15 psi) at sea level. For every 10 metres (33 ft) in seawater the diver descends, the pressure increases by 1 bar (15 psi). As a diver goes deeper, the breathing gas is delivered at a pressure equal to ambient water pressure, and the amount of gas used is proportional to the pressure. Thus, it requires twice as much mass of gas to fill the diver's lungs at 10 metres (33 ft) as it does at the surface, and three times as much at 20 metres (66 ft). The mass consumption of breathing gas by the diver is similarly affected. - time at each depth. (usually approximated as time at each depth range) To calculate the quantity of gas consumed: gas consumed = surface air consumption × time × ambient pressure Metric examples: A diver with a RMV of 20 L/min at 30 msw (4 bar), will consume 20 x 4 x 1 = 80 L/min surface equivalent. A diver with a RMV of 40 L/min at 50 msw (6 bar) for 10 minutes will consume 40 x 6 x 10 = 2400 litres of free air – the full capacity of a 12-litre 200 bar cylinder. Imperial examples: A diver with a SAC of 0.5 cfm (cubic feet per minute) at 100 fsw (4 ata) will consume 0.5 x 4 x 1 = 2 cfm surface equivalent. A diver with a SAC of 1 cfm at 231 fsw (8 ata) for 10 minutes will consume 1 x 8 x 10 = 80 ft<sup>3</sup> of free air – the full capacity of an 80 ft<sup>3</sup> cylinder Keeping this in mind, it is not hard to see why technical divers who do long deep dives require multiple cylinders or rebreathers, and commercial divers normally use surface-supplied diving equipment, and only carry scuba as an emergency gas supply. ### Breathing gas endurance The amount of time that a diver can breathe from a cylinder is also known as air or gas endurance. Maximum breathing duration (T) for a given depth can be calculated as T = available air / rate of consumption which, using the ideal gas law, is T = (available cylinder pressure × cylinder volume) / (rate of air consumption at surface) × (ambient pressure) This may be written as $1$ T = (P<sub>C</sub>-P<sub>A</sub>)×V<sub>C</sub>/(SAC×P<sub>A</sub>) with T = Time P<sub>C</sub> = Cylinder Pressure V<sub>C</sub> = Cylinder internal volume P<sub>A</sub> = Ambient Pressure SAC = Surface air consumption in any consistent system of units. Ambient pressure (P<sub>A</sub>) is the surrounding water pressure at a given depth and is made up of the sum of the hydrostatic pressure and the air pressure at the surface. It is calculated as $2$ P<sub>A</sub> = D×g×ρ + atmospheric pressure with D = depth g = Standard gravity ρ = water density in a consistent system of units For metric units, this formula can be approximated by $3$ P<sub>A</sub> = D/10 + 1 with depth in m and pressure in bar Ambient pressure is deducted from cylinder pressure, as the quantity of air represented by P<sub>A</sub> can in practice not be used for breathing by the diver as it required to balance the ambient pressure of the water. This formula neglects the cracking pressure required to open both first and second stages of the regulator, and pressure drop due to flow restrictions in the regulator, both of which are variable depending on the design and adjustment of the regulator, and flow rate, which depends on the breathing pattern of the diver and the gas in use. These factors are not easily estimated, so the calculated value for breathing duration will be more than the real value. However, in normal diving usage, a reserve is always factored in. The reserve is a proportion of the cylinder pressure which a diver will not plan to use other than in case of emergency. The reserve may be a quarter or a third of the cylinder pressure or it may be a fixed pressure, common examples are 50 bar and 500 psi. The formula above is then modified to give the usable breathing duration (BT = breathing time) as $4$ BT = (P<sub>C</sub>-P<sub>R</sub>)×V<sub>C</sub>/(SAC×P<sub>A</sub>) where P<sub>R</sub> is the reserve pressure. For example, (using the first formula (1) for absolute maximum breathing time), a diver at a depth of 15 meters in water with an average density of 1020 kg/m<sup>3</sup> (typical seawater), who breathes at a rate of 20 litres per minute, using a dive cylinder of 18 litres pressurized at 200 bars, can breathe for a period of 72 minutes before the cylinder pressure falls so low as to prevent inhalation. In some open circuit scuba systems this can happen quite suddenly, from a normal breath to the next abnormal breath, a breath which may not be fully drawn. (There is never any difficulty exhaling). The suddenness of this effect depends on the design of the regulator and the internal volume of the cylinder. In such circumstances there remains air under pressure in the cylinder, but the diver is unable to breathe it. Some of it can be breathed if the diver ascends, as the ambient pressure is reduced, and even without ascent, in some systems a bit of air from the cylinder is available to inflate buoyancy compensator devices (BCDs) even after it no longer has pressure enough to open the demand valve. Using the same conditions and a reserve of 50 bar, the formula (4) for usable breathing time is as follows: Ambient pressure = water pressure + atmospheric pressure = 15 msw/10 bar per msw + 1 = 2.5 bar Usable pressure = fill pressure - reserve pressure = 200 bar - 50 bar = 150 bar Usable air = usable pressure × cylinder capacity = 150 bar × 18 litres per bar = 2700 litres Rate of consumption = surface air consumption × ambient pressure = 20 litres per minute per bar × 2.5 bar = 50 litres/min Usable breathing time = 2700 litres / 50 litres per min = 54 minutes This would give a dive time of 54 min at 15 m before reaching the reserve of 50 bar. ### Reserves It is strongly recommended by diver training organisations and codes of practice that a portion of the usable gas of the cylinder be held aside as a safety reserve. The reserve is intended to provide gas for longer than planned decompression stops or to provide time to resolve underwater emergencies. The size of the reserve depends upon the risks involved during the dive. A deep or decompression dive warrants a greater reserve than a shallow or a no stop dive. In recreational diving for example, it is recommended that the diver plans to surface with a reserve remaining in the cylinder of 500 psi, 50 bar or 25% of the initial capacity, depending on the teaching of the diver training organisation. This is because recreational divers practicing within "no-decompression" limits can normally make a direct ascent in an emergency. On technical dives where a direct ascent is either impossible (due to overhead obstructions) or dangerous (due to the requirement to make decompression stops), divers plan larger margins of safety. The simplest method uses the rule of thirds: one third of the gas supply is planned for the outward journey, one third is for the return journey and one third is a safety reserve. Some training agencies teach the concept of minimum gas, rock bottom gas management or critical pressures which allows a diver to calculate an acceptable reserve to get two divers to the surface in an emergency from any point in the planned dive profile. Professional divers may be required by legislation or industry codes of practice to carry sufficient reserve gas to enable them to reach a place of safety, such as the surface, or a diving bell, based on the planned dive profile. This reserve gas is usually required to be carried as an independent emergency gas supply (EGS), also known as a bailout cylinder, set or bottle. This usually also applies to professional divers using surface-supplied diving equipment. ### Weight of gas consumed The density of air at sea level and 15 °C is approximately 1.225 kg/m<sup>3</sup>. Most full-sized diving cylinders used for open circuit scuba hold more than 2 kilograms (4.4 lb) of air when full, and as the air is used, the buoyancy of the cylinder increases by the weight removed. The decrease in external volume of the cylinder due to reduction of internal pressure is relatively small, and can be ignored for practical purposes. As an example, a 12-litre cylinder may be filled to 230 bar before a dive, and be breathed down to 30 bar before surfacing, using 2,400 litres or 2.4 m<sup>3</sup> of free air. The mass of gas used during the dive will depend on the mixture - if air is assumed, it will be approximately 2.9 kilograms (6.4 lb). The loss of the weight of the gas taken from the cylinder makes the cylinder and diver more buoyant. This can be a problem if the diver is unable to remain neutrally buoyant towards the end of the dive because most of the gas has been breathed from the cylinder. The buoyancy change due to gas usage from back mounted cylinders is easily compensated by carrying sufficient diving weights to provide neutral buoyancy with empty cylinders at the end of a dive, and using the buoyancy compensator to neutralise the excess weight until the gas has been used. ## Filling Diving cylinders are filled by attaching a high-pressure gas supply to the cylinder valve, opening the valve and allowing gas to flow into the cylinder until the desired pressure is reached, then closing the valves, venting the connection and disconnecting it. This process involves a risk of the cylinder or the filling equipment failing under pressure, both of which are hazardous to the operator, so procedures to control these risks are generally followed. Rate of filling must be limited to avoid excessive heating, the temperature of cylinder and contents must remain below the maximum working temperature specified by the applicable standard. A flexible high pressure hose used for this purpose is known as a filling whip. ### Pre-fill inspection and recording of details Before filling a cylinder the filling operator may be required by regulations, code of practice, or operations manual, to inspect the cylinder and valve for any obvious external defects or damage, and to reject for filling any cylinder that does not comply with the standards. It may also be required to record cylinder details in the filling log. ### Filling from a compressor Breathing air supply can come directly from a high-pressure breathing air compressor, from a high-pressure storage system, or from a combined storage system with compressor. Direct charging is energy intensive, and the charge rate will be limited by the available power source and capacity of the compressor. A large-volume bank of high-pressure storage cylinders allows faster charging or simultaneous charging of multiple cylinders, and allows for provision of more economical high-pressure air by recharging the storage banks from a low-power compressor, or using lower cost off-peak electrical power. The quality of compressed breathing air for diving is usually specified by national or organisational standards, and the steps generally taken to assure the air quality include: - use of a compressor rated for breathing air, - use of compressor lubricants rated for breathing air, - filtration of intake air to remove particulate contamination, - positioning of the compressor air intake in clean air clear of known sources of contaminants such as internal combustion exhaust fumes, sewer vents etc. - removal of condensate from the compressed air by water separators. This may be done between stages on the compressor as well as after compression. - filtration after compression to remove remaining water, oil, and other contaminants using specialized filter media such as desiccants, molecular sieve or activated carbon. Traces of carbon monoxide may be catalyzed to carbon dioxide by Hopcalite. - periodical air quality tests, - scheduled filter changes and maintenance of the compressor ### Filling from high-pressure storage Cylinders may also be filled directly from high-pressure storage systems by decanting, with or without pressure boosting to reach the desired charging pressure. Cascade filling may be used for efficiency when multiple storage cylinders are available. High-pressure storage is commonly used when blending nitrox, heliox and trimix diving gases, and for oxygen for rebreathers and decompression gas. Nitrox and trimix blending may include decanting the oxygen and/or helium, and topping up to working pressure using a compressor, after which the gas mixture must be analysed and the cylinder labeled with the gas composition. ### Temperature change during filling Compression of ambient air causes a temperature rise of the gas, proportional to the pressure increase. Ambient air is typically compressed in stages, and the gas temperature rises during each stage. Intercoolers and water cooling heat exchangers can remove this heat between stages. Charging an empty dive cylinder also causes a temperature rise as the gas inside the cylinder is compressed by the inflow of higher pressure gas, though this temperature rise may initially be tempered because compressed gas from a storage bank at room temperature decreases in temperature when it decreases in pressure, so at first the empty cylinder is charged with cold gas, but the temperature of the gas in the cylinder then increases to above ambient as the cylinder fills to the working pressure. Wet filling: Excess heat can be removed by immersion of the cylinder in a cold water bath while filling. However, immersion for cooling can also increase the risk of water contaminating the valve orifice of a completely depressurized tank and being blown into the cylinder during filling. Dry filling: Cylinders may also be filled without water-bath cooling, and may be charged to above the nominal working pressure to the developed pressure appropriate to the temperature when filled. As the gas cools to ambient temperature, the pressure decreases, and will reach rated charging pressure at the rated temperature. ### Safety and legal issues Legal constraints to filling scuba cylinders will vary by jurisdiction. In South Africa cylinders may be filled for commercial purposes by a person who is competent in the use of the filling equipment to be used, who knows the relevant sections of the applicable standards and regulations, and has written permission from the owner of the cylinder to fill it. The cylinder must be in test and suitable for the gas to be filled, and the cylinder may not be filled above the developed pressure for the temperature reached when it is filled. An external inspection of the cylinder must be made, and specified details of the cylinder and fill must be recorded. If the fill is of a gas other than air, the analysis of the completed fill must be recorded by the filler and signed by the customer. If the residual pressure in a cylinder presented for filling does not produce a reasonably strong outflow of gas from the valve when opened the filler may refuse to fill the cylinder unless an acceptable reason is given for it being empty, as there is no way for the filler to check if it has been contaminated. ### Gas purity and testing Diving cylinders should only be filled with suitably filtered air from diving air compressors or with other breathing gases using gas blending or decanting techniques. In some jurisdictions, suppliers of breathing gases are required by legislation to periodically test the quality of compressed air produced by their equipment and to display the test results for public information. The standards for industrial gas purity and filling equipment and procedures may allow some contaminants at levels unsafe for breathing, and their use in breathing gas mixtures at high pressure could be harmful or fatal. ### Handling of specialty gases Special precautions need to be taken with gases other than air: - oxygen in high concentrations is a major cause of fire and rust. - oxygen should be very carefully transferred from one cylinder to another and only ever stored in containers that are cleaned and labeled for oxygen service. - gas mixtures containing proportions of oxygen other than 21% could be extremely dangerous to divers who are unaware of the proportion of oxygen in them. All cylinders should be labeled with their composition. - cylinders containing a high oxygen content must be cleaned for the use of oxygen and their valves lubricated only with oxygen service grease to reduce the chance of combustion. Specialty mixed gas charging will almost always involve supply cylinders of high purity gas sourced from an industrial gas supplier. Oxygen and helium should be stored, mixed and compressed in well ventilated spaces. Oxygen because any leaks could constitute a fire hazard, and helium because it is an asphyxiant. Neither gas can be identified by the unaided human body. ### Gas contamination Contaminated breathing gas at depth can be fatal. Concentrations which are acceptable at the surface ambient pressure will be increased by the pressure of depth and may then exceed acceptable or tolerable limits. Common contaminants are: carbon monoxide - a by-product of combustion, carbon dioxide - a product of metabolism, and oil and lubricants from the compressor. Keeping the cylinder slightly pressurized at all times during storage and transportation reduces the possibility of inadvertently contaminating the inside of the cylinder with corrosive agents, such as sea water, or toxic material, such as oils, poisonous gases, fungi or bacteria. A normal dive will end with some pressure remaining in the cylinder; if an emergency ascent has been made due to an out-of-gas incident, the cylinder will normally still contain some pressure and unless the cylinder had been submerged deeper than where the last gas was used it is not possible for water to get in during the dive. Contamination by water during filling may be due to two causes. Inadequate filtration and drying of the compressed air can introduce small quantities of fresh water condensate, or an emulsion of water and compressor lubricant, and failing to clear the cylinder valve orifice of water which may have dripped from wet dive gear, which can allow contamination by fresh or seawater. Both cause corrosion, but seawater contamination can cause a cylinder to corrode rapidly to the extent that it may be unsafe or condemned after even a fairly short period. This problem is exacerbated in hot climates, where chemical reactions are faster, and is more prevalent where filling staff are badly trained or overworked. ### Catastrophic failures during filling The blast caused by a sudden release of the gas pressure inside a diving cylinder makes them very dangerous if mismanaged. The greatest risk of explosion exists while filling, but cylinders have also been known to burst when overheated. The cause of failure can range from reduced wall thickness or deep pitting due to internal corrosion, neck thread failure due to incompatible valve threads, or cracking due to fatigue, sustained high stresses, or overheating effects in aluminum. Tank bursting due to overpressure may be prevented by a pressure-relief burst disc fitted to the cylinder valve, which bursts if the cylinder is overpressurised and vents air at a rapid controlled rate to prevent catastrophic tank failure. Accidental rupture of the burst disc can also occur during filling, due to corrosive weakening or stress from repeated pressurization cycles, but is remedied by replacement of the disc. Bursting discs are not required in all jurisdictions. Other failure modes that are a hazard while filling include valve thread failure, which can cause the valve to blow out of the cylinder neck, and filling whip failure. ## Periodic inspection and testing of diving cylinders Most countries require diving cylinders to be checked on a regular basis. This usually consists of an internal visual inspection and a hydrostatic test. The inspection and testing requirements for scuba cylinders may be very different from the requirements for other compressed gas containers due to the more corrosive environment. A hydrostatic test involves pressurising the cylinder to its test pressure (usually 5/3 or 3/2 of the working pressure) and measuring its volume before and after the test. A permanent increase in volume above the tolerated level means the cylinder fails the test and must be permanently removed from service. An inspection includes external and internal inspection for damage, corrosion, and correct colour and markings. The failure criteria vary according to the published standards of the relevant authority, but may include inspection for bulges, overheating, dents, gouges, electrical arc scars, pitting, line corrosion, general corrosion, cracks, thread damage, defacing of permanent markings, and colour coding. Very few cylinders are failed by the hydrostatic test. Almost all cylinders that fail are failed according to visual inspection criteria. When a cylinder is manufactured, its specification, including manufacturer, working pressure, test pressure, date of manufacture, capacity and weight are stamped on the cylinder. After a cylinder passes the test, the test date, (or the test expiry date in some countries such as Germany), is punched into the shoulder of the cylinder for easy verification at fill time. The international standard for the stamp format is ISO 13769, Gas cylinders - Stamp marking. Filling station operators may be required to check these details before filling the cylinder and may refuse to fill non-standard or out-of-test cylinders. ### Intervals between inspections and tests A cylinder is due to be inspected and tested at the first time it is to be filled after the expiry of the interval as specified by the United Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, Model Regulations, or as specified by national or international standards applicable in the region of use. - In the United States, an annual visual inspection is not required by the USA DOT, though they do require a hydrostatic test every five years. The visual inspection requirement is a diving industry standard based on observations made during a review by the National Underwater Accident Data Center. - In European Union countries a visual inspection is required every 2.5 years, and a hydrostatic test every five years. - In Norway a hydrostatic test (including a visual inspection) is required 3 years after production date, then every 2 years. - Legislation in Australia requires that cylinders are hydrostatically tested every twelve months. - In South Africa a hydrostatic test is required every 4 years, and visual inspection every 2 years for cylinders to be refilled by a filling station within the jurisdiction of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993. Eddy current testing of neck threads must be done according to the manufacturer's recommendations. ### Procedures for periodic inspections and tests If a cylinder passes the listed procedures, but the condition remains doubtful, further tests can be applied to ensure that the cylinder is fit for use. Cylinders that fail the tests or inspection and cannot be fixed should be rendered unserviceable after notifying the owner of the reason for failure. Before starting work the cylinder must be identified from the labelling and permanent stamp markings, and the ownership and contents verified, and the valve must be removed after depressurising and verifying that the valve is open. Cylinders containing breathing gases do not need special precautions for discharge except that high oxygen fraction gases should not be released in an enclosed space because of the fire hazard. Before inspection the cylinder must be clean and free of loose coatings, corrosion products and other materials which may obscure the surface. The cylinder is inspected externally for dents, cracks, gouges, cuts, bulges, laminations and excessive wear, heat damage, torch or electric arc burns, corrosion damage, illegible, incorrect or unauthorised permanent stamp markings, and unauthorised additions or modifications. Unless the cylinder walls are examined by ultrasonic methods, the interior must be visually inspected using sufficient illumination to identify any damage and defects, particularly corrosion. If the inner surface is not clearly visible it should first be cleaned by an approved method which does not remove a significant amount of wall material. When there is uncertainty whether a defect found during visual inspection meets the rejection criteria, additional tests may be applied, such as ultrasonic measurement of pitting wall thickness, or weight checks to establish total weight lost to corrosion. While the valve is off, the threads of cylinder and valve are checked to identify the thread type and condition. The threads of cylinder and valve must be of matching thread specification, clean and full form, undamaged and free of cracks, burrs and other imperfections. Ultrasonic inspection may be substituted for the pressure test, which is usually a hydrostatic test and may be either a proof test or a volumetric expansion test, depending on the cylinder design specification. Test pressure is specified in the stamp markings of the cylinder. Valves that are to be reused are inspected and maintained to ensure they remain fit for service. Before fitting the valve the thread type must be checked to ensure that a valve with matching thread specification is fitted. After the tests have been satisfactorily completed, a cylinder passing the test will be marked accordingly. Stamp marking will include the registered mark of the inspection facility and the date of testing (month and year). Records of a periodic inspection and test are made by the test station and kept available for inspection. If a cylinder fails inspection or testing and cannot be recovered, the owner must be notified before making the empty cylinder unserviceable. ### Cleaning Internal cleaning of diving cylinders may be required to remove contaminants or to allow effective visual inspection. Cleaning methods should remove contaminants and corrosion products without undue removal of structural metal. Chemical cleaning using solvents, detergents and pickling agents may be used depending on the contaminant and cylinder material. Tumbling with abrasive media may be needed for heavy contamination, particularly of heavy corrosion products. External cleaning may also be required to remove contaminants, corrosion products or old paint or other coatings. Methods which remove the minimum amount of structural material are indicated. Solvents, detergents and bead blasting are generally used. Removal of coatings by the application of heat may render the cylinder unserviceable by affecting the crystalline microstructure of the metal. This is a particular hazard for aluminium alloy cylinders, which may not be exposed to temperatures above those stipulated by the manufacturer. ### Service life The service life of steel and aluminium diving cylinders is limited by the cylinder continuing to pass visual inspection and hydrostatic tests. There is no expiry date based on age, length of service or number of fills. ## Safety Before any cylinder is filled, verification of inspection and testing dates and a visual examination for external damage and corrosion are required by law in some jurisdictions, and are prudent even if not legally required. Inspection dates can be checked by looking at the visual inspection label and the hydrostatic test date is stamped on the shoulder of the cylinder. Before use the user should verify the contents of the cylinder and check the function of the cylinder valve. This is usually done with a regulator connected to control the flow. Pressure and gas mixture are critical information for the diver, and the valve should open freely without sticking or leaking from the spindle seals. Failure to recognize that the cylinder valve was not opened or that a cylinder was empty has been observed in divers conducting a pre-dive check. Breathing gas bled from a cylinder may be checked for smell. If the gas does not smell right it should not be used. Breathing gas should be almost free of smell, though a very slight aroma of the compressor lubricant is fairly common. No smell of combustion products or volatile hydrocarbons should be discernible. A neatly assembled setup, with regulators, gauges, and delicate computers stowed inside the BCD, or clipped where they will not be walked on, and stowed under the boat bench or secured to a rack, is the practice of a competent diver. As the scuba set is a life support system, no unauthorised person should touch a diver's assembled scuba gear, even to move it, without their knowledge and approval. Full cylinders should not be exposed to temperatures above 65 °C and cylinders should not be filled to pressures greater than the developed pressure appropriate to the certified working pressure of the cylinder. Cylinders should be clearly labelled with their current contents. A generic "Nitrox", "Heliox", or "Trimix" label will alert the user that the contents may not be air, and must be analysed before use. A nitrox label requires analysis of oxygen fraction, and assumes that the rest is nitrogen, and a trimix label requires analysis of both oxygen and helium fractions for full information for decompression. In some parts of the world a label is required specifically indicating that the contents are air, and in other places a colour code without additional labels indicates by default that the contents are air. In other places the default assumption is that the contents of any cylinder with a scuba cylinder valve are air, regardless of cylinder colour, unless specifically labelled to indicate other contents. In a fire, the pressure in a gas cylinder rises in direct proportion to its absolute temperature. If the internal pressure exceeds the mechanical limitations of the cylinder and there are no means to safely vent the pressurized gas to the atmosphere, the vessel will fail mechanically. If the vessel contents are ignitable or a contaminant is present this event may result in an explosion. ### Accidents The major diving accident and fatality research studies that have been conducted globally including work by the Divers Alert Network, the Diving Incident Monitoring Study, and Project Stickybeak have each identified cases where the mortality was associated with the diving cylinder. Some recorded accidents associated with diving cylinders: - Valve ejected due to mix up with valve threads 3/4"NPSM and 3/4"BSP(F) caused damage to a dive shop compressor room. - A valve ejected during filling due to incompatible thread killed the operator by impact to the chest. - A valve failed on a diver's emergency cylinder on a diving support vessel during preparation for a dive injuring five divers. The cylinder valve was ejected at 180 bar due to incompatible thread. Pillar valve was M25x2 parallel thread and cylinder was a 3/4′′x14 BSP parallel thread. - A valve ejected due to incompatible thread (metric valve in imperial cylinder) injured commercial diver by impact on the back of the helmet during preparations for a dive. Cylinder had been under pressure for several days following hydrostatic testing, and no particular triggering event was identified. Diver was knocked down and bruised but protected from serious injury by the helmet. - Diving instructor's leg nearly amputated by ejected valve while attempting to remove valve from pressurised cylinder. - Valve ejected during filling due to thread failure, sank dive boat. Vented bursting disk retainers in the cylinder valves had been replaced by solid screws. - Filling hose failure severely injured operator when the hose hit his face. The wound exposed the jaw bone, and 14 stitches were needed to close the wound. Cases of lateral epicondylitis have been reported caused by the handling of diving cylinders. ### Handling Cylinders should not be left standing unattended unless secured so that they can not fall in reasonably foreseeable circumstances as an impact could damage the cylinder valve mechanism, and conceivably fracture the valve at the neck threads. This is more likely with taper thread valves, and when it happens most of the energy of the compressed gas is released within a second, and can accelerate the cylinder to speeds which can cause severe injury or damage to the surroundings. ### Long-term storage Breathing quality gases do not normally deteriorate during storage in steel or aluminium cylinders. Provided there is insufficient water content to promote internal corrosion, the stored gas will remain unchanged for years if stored at temperatures within the allowed working range for the cylinder, usually below 65 °C. If there is any doubt, a check of oxygen fraction will indicate whether the gas has changed (the other components are inert). Any unusual smells would be an indication that the cylinder or gas was contaminated at the time of filling. However some authorities recommend releasing most of the contents and storing cylinders with a small positive pressure. Aluminium cylinders have a low tolerance for heat, and a 3,000 pounds per square inch (210 bar) cylinder containing less than 1,500 pounds per square inch (100 bar) may lose sufficient strength in a fire to explode before the internal pressure rises enough to rupture the bursting disc, so storing aluminium cylinders with a bursting disc has a lower explosion risk in case of fire if stored either full or nearly empty. ### Transportation Diving cylinders are classified by the UN as dangerous goods for transportation purposes (US: Hazardous materials). Selecting the Proper Shipping Name (well known by the abbreviation PSN) is a way to help ensure that the dangerous goods offered for transport accurately represent the hazards. IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) 55th Edition defines the Proper Shipping Name as "the name to be used to describe a particular article or substance in all shipping documents and notifications and, where appropriate, on packagings". The International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG Code) defines the Proper Shipping Name as "that portion of the entry most accurately describing the goods in the Dangerous Goods List which is shown in upper-case characters (plus any letters which form an integral part of the name)." #### International air International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air states that provided that pressure in diving cylinders is less than 200 kilopascals (2 bar; 29 psi), these can be carried as checked in or carry-on baggage. It maybe necessary to empty the cylinder to verify this. Once emptied, the cylinder valve should be closed to prevent moisture entering the cylinder. Security restrictions implemented by individual countries may further limit or forbid the carriage of some items permitted by ICAO, and airlines and security screening agencies have the right to refuse the carriage of certain items. #### Europe Since 1996 the carriage of dangerous goods legislation of the UK has been harmonized with that of Europe. Road transport The 2009 (amended 2011) UK Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations (CDG Regulations) implement the European Agreement Concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR). Dangerous goods to be carried internationally in road vehicles must comply with standards for the packaging and labelling of the dangerous goods, and appropriate construction and operating standards for the vehicles and crew. The regulations cover transportation of gas cylinders in a vehicle in a commercial environment. Transportation of pressurised diving gas cylinders with a combined water capacity of less than 1000 litres on a vehicle for personal use is exempt from ADR. Transport of gas cylinders in a vehicle, for commercial purposes, must follow basic legal safety requirements and, unless specifically exempted, must comply with ADR. The driver of the vehicle is legally responsible for the safety of the vehicle and any load being carried, and insurance for the vehicle should include cover for the carriage of dangerous goods. Diving gases, including compressed air, oxygen, nitrox, heliox, trimix, helium and argon, are non-toxic, non flammable, and may be oxidizer or asphyxiant, and are rated in Transport category 3. The threshold quantity for these gases is 1000 litres combined water capacity of the cylinders. Pressure must be within the rated working pressure of the cylinder. Empty air cylinders at atmospheric pressure are rated in Transport category 4, and there is no threshold quantity. Commercial loads below the 1000 litres threshold level are exempt from some of the requirements of ADR, but must comply with basic legal and safety requirements, including: - Driver training - Cylinders should be transported in open vehicles, open containers or trailers, with a gas-tight bulkhead separating driver from load. If cylinders must be carried inside a vehicle it must be well ventilated. - Ventilation. Where gas cylinders are carried inside a vehicle, in the same space as people, the windows should be kept open to allow air to circulate. - Cylinders must be secured so that they cannot move during transport. They shall not project beyond the sides or ends of the vehicle. It is recommended that cylinders are transported vertically, secured in an appropriate pallet. - Cylinder valves must be closed whilst in transit and checked that there are no leaks. Where applicable, protective valve caps and covers should be fitted to cylinders before transporting. Cylinders should not be transported with equipment attached to the valve outlet (regulators, hoses etc.). - A fire extinguisher is required on the vehicle. - Gas cylinders may only be transported if they are in-date for periodic inspection and test, except they may be transported when out of date for inspection, testing or disposal. - Cylinders should be kept cool (at ambient temperatures) and not stowed in places where they will be exposed to sources of excessive heat. - Product identification labels attached to cylinders to identify the contents and provide safety advice must not be removed or defaced. - It is not necessary to mark and label the vehicle if carrying dangerous goods below the threshold level. The use of hazard labels can assist the emergency services, and they may be displayed, but all hazard labels must be removed when the relevant dangerous goods are not being transported. - When the journey is complete the gas cylinders should be immediately unloaded from the vehicle. All loads above the threshold must comply with the full requirements of ADR. #### United States Transportation of hazardous materials for commercial purposes in the USA is regulated by Code of Federal Regulations Title 49 - Transportation, (abbreviated 49 CFR). A cylinder containing 200 kPa (29.0 psig/43.8 psia) or greater at 20 °C (68 °F) of non-flammable, nonpoisonous compressed gas, and being transported for commercial purposes is classified as HAZMAT (hazardous materials) in terms of 49 CFR 173.115(b) (1). Cylinders manufactured to DOT standards or special permits (exemptions)issued by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and filled to the authorized working pressure are legal for commercial transport in the USA under the provisions and conditions of the regulations. Cylinders manufactured outside the USA may be transported under a special permit, and these have been issued for solid metal and composite cylinders with working pressures of up to 300 bar (4400 psi) by several manufacturers. Surface transport Commercial transportation of breathing gas cylinders with a combined weight of more than 1000 pounds may only be done by a commercial HAZMAT transportation company. Transport of cylinders with a combined weight of less than 1000 pounds requires a manifest, the cylinders must have been tested and inspected to federal standards, and the contents marked on each cylinder. Transportation must be done in a safe manner, with the cylinders restrained from movement. No special licence is required. DOT regulations require content labels for all cylinders under the regulations, but according to PSI, labelling of breathing air will not be enforced. Oxygen or non-air oxidizing (O<sub>2</sub> ≥ 23.5% ) mixtures must be labelled. Private (non-commercial) transport of scuba cylinders is not covered by this regulation. Air transport''' Empty scuba tanks or scuba tanks pressurized at less than 200 kPa are not restricted as hazardous materials. Scuba cylinders are only allowed in checked baggage or as a carry-on if the cylinder valve is completely disconnected from the cylinder and the cylinder has an open end to allow for a visual inspection inside. ## Surface finish, colour-coding and labeling Aluminium cylinders may be marketed with an external paint coating, a low temperature powder coating, plain or coloured anodised finish, bead-blasted matt finish, brushed finish, or mill finish (no surface treatment). The material is inherently fairly corrosion resistant if kept clean and dry between uses. Coatings are generally for cosmetic purposes or for legal colour coding requirements. Steel cylinders are more sensitive to corrosion when wet, and are usually coated to protect against corrosion. The usual finishes include hot-dip galvanisation, zinc-spray, and heavy duty paint systems. Paint may be applied over zinc coatings for cosmetic purposes or color coding. Steel cylinders without anti-corrosion coatings rely on the paint to protect against rusting, and when the paint is damaged, they will rust on the exposed areas. This can be prevented or delayed by repair of the painted finish. ### Worldwide The colours permitted for diving cylinders vary considerably by region, and to some extent by the gas mixture contained. In some parts of the world there is no legislation controlling the colour of diving cylinders. In other regions the colour of cylinders used for commercial diving, or for all underwater diving may be specified by national standards. In many recreational diving settings where air and nitrox are the widely used gases, nitrox cylinders are identified with a green stripe on yellow background. Aluminium diving cylinders may be painted or anodized and when anodized may be coloured or left in their natural silver. Steel diving cylinders are usually painted, to reduce corrosion, often yellow or white to increase visibility. In some industrial cylinder identification colour tables, yellow shoulders means chlorine and more generally within Europe it refers to cylinders with toxic and/or corrosive contents; but this is of no significance in scuba since gas fittings would not be compatible. Cylinders that are used for partial pressure gas blending with pure oxygen may also be required to display an "oxygen service certificate" label indicating they have been prepared for use with high partial pressures and gas fractions of oxygen. ### European Union In the European Union gas cylinders may be colour-coded according to EN 1098-3. In the UK this standard is optional. The "shoulder" is the domed top of the cylinder between the parallel section and the pillar valve. For mixed gases, the colours can be either bands or "quarters". - Air has either a white (RAL 9010) top and black (RAL 9005) band on the shoulder, or white (RAL 9010) and black (RAL 9005) "quartered" shoulders. - Heliox has either a white (RAL 9010) top and brown (RAL 8008) band on the shoulder, or white (RAL 9010) and brown (RAL 8008) "quartered" shoulders. - Nitrox, like Air, has either a white (RAL 9010) top and black (RAL 9005) band on the shoulder, or white (RAL 9010) and black (RAL 9005) "quartered" shoulders. - Pure oxygen has a white shoulder (RAL 9010). - Pure helium has a brown shoulder (RAL 9008). - Trimix has a white, black and brown segmented shoulder. These breathing gas cylinders must also be labeled with their contents. The label should state the type of breathing gas contained by the cylinder. #### Offshore Breathing gas containers for offshore use may be coded and marked according to IMCA D043. IMCA colour coding for individual cylinders allows the body of the cylinder to be any colour that is not likely to cause misinterpretation of the hazard identified by the colour code of the shoulder. ### South Africa Scuba cylinders are required to comply with the colours and markings specified in the current revision of SANS 10019. This requirement applies where the cylinders will be filled or used in any situation where the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 applies. - Cylinder colour is Golden yellow with a French grey shoulder. - Cylinders containing gases other than air or medical oxygen must have a transparent adhesive label stuck on below the shoulder with the word NITROX or TRIMIX in green and the composition of the gas listed. - Cylinders containing medical oxygen must be black with a white shoulder. ## Manufacturers Cylinder manufacturers identify their products using their registered stamp marking on the cylinder shoulder. Steel cylinders: - Avesta Jernverks AB (Sweden) - Dalmine (Italy)(historical) - Eurocylinder Systems AG (Apolda, Germany) - Faber Industrie SpA (Cividale del Friuli, Italy) - Industrie Werke Karlsruhe Aktiengesellschaft (IWKA) (Germany)(historical) - Pressed Steel Tank (United States) - Vítkovice Cylinders a.s. (Ostrava, Czechia) - Worthington Cylinders GesmbH (Austria) - Josef Heiser (Austria), now Worthington Cylinders GesmbH - Worthington Cylinder Corporation (United States) Aluminium cylinders: - Catalina Cylinder Corp (United States) - Hulett Cylinders (South Africa) (historical) - Luxfer (United Kingdom, United States, France) (They announced in 2021 they are leaving the aluminum production market in the USA.) Luxfer Gas Cylinders is based in Riverside, California, and has manufacturing facilities in the U.S., England, Canada, China and India. - SM Gerzat (France) now Luxfer, France - Walter Kidde and Co (United States)(historical) - Metal Impact (United States) ## See also - Bottled oxygen (for climbing and mountaineering)
34,508,121	Siege of Tyana	1,144,937,114	Siege of the Arab-Byzantine wars	[ "700s conflicts", "700s in the Byzantine Empire", "700s in the Umayyad Caliphate", "707", "708", "709", "Battles in medieval Anatolia", "Byzantine Cappadocia", "History of Niğde Province", "Sieges involving the Byzantine Empire", "Sieges involving the Umayyad Caliphate", "Sieges of the Arab–Byzantine wars" ]	The siege of Tyana was carried out by the Umayyad Caliphate in 707–708 or 708–709 in retaliation for a heavy defeat of an Umayyad army under Maimun the Mardaite by the Byzantine Empire in c. 706. The Arab army invaded Byzantine territory and laid siege to the city in summer 707 or 708. The date is uncertain, as virtually each of the extant Greek, Arabic, and Syriac parallel sources has in this respect a different date. Tyana initially withstood the siege with success, and the Arab army faced great hardship during the ensuing winter and was on the point of abandoning the siege in spring, when a relief army sent by Emperor Justinian II arrived. Quarrels among the Byzantine generals, as well as the inexperience of a large part of their army, contributed to a crushing Umayyad victory. Thereupon the inhabitants of the city were forced to surrender. Despite the agreement of terms, the city was plundered and largely destroyed, and according to Byzantine sources its people were made captive and deported, leaving the city deserted. ## Background In 692/693, the Byzantine emperor Justinian II (r. 685–695, 705–711) and the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) broke the truce that had existed between Byzantium and the Umayyad Caliphate since 679, following the failed Muslim attack on the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. The Byzantines secured great financial and territorial advantages from the truce, which they extended further by exploiting the Umayyad government's involvement in the Second Muslim Civil War (680–692). However, by 692 the Umayyads were clearly emerging as the victors in the conflict, and Abd al-Malik consciously began a series of provocations to bring about a resumption of warfare. Justinian, confident in his own strength based on his previous successes, responded in kind. Finally, the Umayyads claimed that the Byzantines had broken the treaty and invaded Byzantine territory, defeating the imperial army at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 693. In its aftermath, the Arabs quickly regained control over Armenia and resumed their attacks into the border zone of eastern Asia Minor, that would culminate in the second attempt to conquer Constantinople in 716–718. Furthermore, Justinian was deposed in 695, beginning a twenty-year period of internal instability that almost brought the Byzantine state to its knees. ## Arab campaign against Tyana As part of these Arab raids, an invasion under a certain Maimun al-Gurgunami ("Maimun the Mardaite") took place, which raided Cilicia and was defeated by a Byzantine army under a general named Marianus near Tyana. The dating of this expedition is unclear; although the primary account, by al-Baladhuri, places it under Abd al-Malik (who died in 705), it is commonly dated to 706 by modern scholars. According to Baladhuri, this Maimun had been a slave of Caliph Muawiyah's sister, who had fled to the Mardaites, a group of Christian rebels in northern Syria. After the Mardaites had been subdued, the general Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, who had heard of his valour, liberated him and entrusted him with a military command, and later swore to avenge his death. As a result, Maslama launched another attack aimed at Tyana, with his nephew al-Abbas ibn al-Walid as co-commander. The chronology of the expedition is again unclear: the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes the Confessor puts it in A.M. 6201 (708/709 AD, and possibly even 709/710), but Arab sources date it to A.H. 88 and 89 (706/707 AD and 707/708 AD respectively). As a result, the siege has been variously dated to 707–708 AD and 708–709 AD. The Arabs besieged the city, employing siege engines to bombard its fortifications. They managed to destroy part of the wall, but were unable to enter the city. Despite launching several assaults, the defenders successfully drove them back. The siege continued into winter, and the Arabs began to suffer greatly from shortage of food, so that they began contemplating abandoning the siege altogether. In the spring, however, Justinian II, who had been restored to the Byzantine throne in 705, assembled a relief army under the generals Theodore Karteroukas and Theophylact Salibas and sent it towards Tyana. The Byzantine chroniclers record that the regular troops were complemented by armed peasants, numerous but lacking in any military experience. Modern historians consider this an indication of the dire situation of the regular Byzantine army, partly as a result of Justinian's purge of the officer corps after his restoration, and partly due to the losses suffered in the war with the Bulgars. As the relief army approached Tyana, it was confronted by the Arabs, and in the ensuing battle, the Byzantines were routed. According to Theophanes, the two Byzantine generals quarrelled among themselves, and their attack was disorderly. The Byzantines lost many thousand dead, and the captives also numbered in the thousands. The Arabs captured the Byzantine camp and took all the provisions they had brought along for the beleaguered city, allowing them to continue the siege. The inhabitants of Tyana now despaired of any succour, and as their own supplies dwindled they began negotiations for a surrender. The Arabs promised to allow them to depart unharmed, and the city capitulated after a siege of nine months (in March according to Michael the Syrian, in May–June according to al-Tabari). Theophanes reports that the Arabs broke their promise and enslaved the entire population, which was deported to the Caliphate, but no other source confirms this. After looting the town, the Arabs razed it to the ground. ## Aftermath The chroniclers report that after sacking Tyana, Abbas and Maslama divided their forces and campaigned in Byzantine territory. Again the chronology, as well as the identity of the targets, is uncertain. The primary sources give 709 or 710 as the dates, which could mean that these raids happened in the immediate aftermath of Tyana or in the year after. Abbas raided Cilicia and from there turned west as far as Dorylaion, while Maslama seized the fortresses of Kamouliana and Heraclea Cybistra near Tyana, or, according to another interpretation of the Arabic sources, marched also west and took Heraclea Pontica and Nicomedia, while some of his troops raided Chrysopolis across from Constantinople itself. Arab raids continued for the next years, and were carried out even while a huge army under Maslama was besieging Constantinople in 717–718. After the failure of this undertaking, Arab attacks continued, but they were now concerned with plunder and prestige, rather than outright conquest. Although the Umayyad attacks of the early 8th century were successful in gaining control of the border districts of Cilicia and the region around Melitene, and despite their destruction of Byzantine strongholds like Tyana in the following decades, the Arabs were never able to permanently establish a presence west of the Taurus Mountains, which thus came to delineate the Arab-Byzantine frontier for the next two centuries.
39,743,229	McDonnell Douglas Phantom in UK service	1,171,914,109	British combat aircraft	[ "1960s British attack aircraft", "1960s British fighter aircraft", "Fleet Air Arm", "McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II", "Royal Air Force" ]	The United Kingdom (UK) operated the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II as one of its principal combat aircraft from 1968 to 1992. The UK was the first export customer for the F-4 Phantom, which was ordered in the context of political and economic difficulties around British designs for the roles that it eventually undertook. The Phantom was procured to serve in both the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) in several roles including air defence, close air support, low-level strike and tactical reconnaissance. Although assembled in the United States, the UK's early Phantoms were a special batch built separately with a significant amount of British technology as a means of easing the pressure on the domestic aerospace industry in the wake of major project cancellations. Two variants were initially built for the UK: the F-4K variant was designed from the outset as an air defence interceptor to be operated by the FAA from the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers, and the F-4M version was procured for the RAF to serve in the tactical strike and reconnaissance roles. In the mid-1980s, a third Phantom variant was obtained when fifteen second-hand F-4J aircraft were purchased to augment the UK's air defences following the Falklands War. The Phantom entered service with both the FAA and the RAF in 1969. In FAA service, while primarily intended for fleet air defence, it had a secondary strike role. In the RAF it was soon replaced in its initial tasks by other aircraft designed specifically for strike, close air support and reconnaissance, and instead was moved to the air defence mission. By the mid-1970s, the Phantom had become the UK's principal interceptor, a role in which it continued until the early 1990s. ## Background In the late 1950s, the British Government began the process of replacing its early second-generation jet combat aircraft in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Fleet Air Arm (FAA). At the time, the British aerospace industry was still the major provider of aircraft to the British Armed Forces, and designs from several companies were in service. The 1957 Defence White Paper precipitated a significant change in the industry, as the Government compelled major aerospace manufacturers to amalgamate using new aircraft contracts as an incentive. As a result, two large groups emerged; the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), formed by the amalgamation of English Electric, Vickers-Armstrongs, Bristol, and Hunting; and Hawker Siddeley Aviation, which came from the merger of Hawker Siddeley with Folland, de Havilland, and Blackburn. At this time, the RAF wished to replace the English Electric Canberra light bomber in the long-range interdictor role, and the Hawker Hunter in the close air support role, while the Royal Navy (RN) sought an aircraft to assume the fleet air defence role from the de Havilland Sea Vixen. BAC, through its English Electric subsidiary, had begun developing a new high-performance strike aircraft, the TSR-2, which was intended for long-range, low-level strike missions with conventional and tactical nuclear weapons, as well as tactical reconnaissance. Hawker Siddeley was also developing the P.1154, a proposed supersonic version of its P.1127 V/STOL demonstrator, that could be marketed to both the RAF and RN to fulfil several roles, including close air support, air superiority, and fleet air defence. During the early 1960s, aircraft development became increasingly expensive, resulting in major projects often becoming mired in political and economic concerns. The TSR-2 project experienced increasing cost overruns, and the P.1154 was subject to the ongoing inter-service rivalry between the RN and RAF. This led to two wildly differing specifications being submitted for the P.1154 that were impossible to fulfil with a single airframe. In February 1964, the RN withdrew from the P.1154 project, and moved to procure a new fleet air defence interceptor. It eventually selected the McDonnell F-4 Phantom then in service with the United States Navy (USN) as its primary air defence aircraft, intended to be operated from both existing and planned aircraft carriers. This better suited the RN, as the Phantom had two engines (providing redundancy in the event of an engine failure), was cheaper than the P.1154, and was available immediately. In October the same year, the general election brought the Labour Party back into power. The new government undertook a defence review, which led to the publication in February 1966 of a white paper that cancelled several projects, including both the P.1154 and the TSR-2. As a consequence, the government had to find alternatives to replace the Canberra and Hunter for the RAF. To replace the Canberra in the long-range role (which was intended for the TSR-2), the F-111 was selected, with plans for a redesigned variant; the roles undertaken by the Hunter (for which P.1154 was to be procured) would be undertaken by a further purchase of F-4 Phantoms. The RN was happy with the Phantom as its Sea Vixen replacement, given that the type had been operational in the fleet air defence role with the USN since 1961. USN Phantoms had also successfully undertaken touch-and-go landings on HMS Hermes and HMS Victorious. During her 1966 Far East deployment, Victorious was able to successfully launch and recover USN Phantoms from the carrier USS Ranger. The RAF was less enthusiastic, as the Phantom was not optimised for the close air support role, and had been selected as its Hunter replacement more as a way of decreasing the per-unit cost of the overall UK order. Partly as a means of maintaining employment in the British aerospace industry, agreement was reached that major portions of the UK's Phantoms would be built domestically. Hawker Siddeley Aviation was appointed as McDonnell's primary UK partner in January 1965, to be responsible for repair, maintenance, design and modification work on Phantoms for the RAF and RN at Brough Aerodrome. Further work was delegated to BAC, at its Warton facility, and to Short Brothers in Belfast. The F-4J variant, which was then the primary version in service with the USN, was the basis for the UK aircraft, subject to major redesign. The most significant change was the use of the larger and more powerful Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan in place of the General Electric J79 turbojet to allow operations from the RN's smaller carriers. To accommodate the larger engines, BAC redesigned and built the entire rear fuselage section. The Westinghouse AN/AWG-10 radar carried by the F-4J was to be procured and built under licence by Ferranti. Approximately half of the structure and equipment of the UK's Phantoms was produced by British manufacturers; all the components were then shipped to St Louis for assembly by McDonnell. The changes to the aircraft led to the two variants being given their own separate series letters, the FAA version being designated as the F-4K and the RAF version as the F-4M. Initially, there was an intention to procure up to 400 aircraft for the RN and the RAF, but the development cost for the changes to accommodate the new engines meant that the per-unit price eventually ended up three times the price of an F-4J. Due to government policy, the budget for the Phantom procurement was fixed, therefore these costs could not be evened out by a large production run and only 170 were ordered. ## Operational history ### Prototypes The British Government ordered four prototypes (two F-4K and two F-4M), together with a pair of pre-production F-4K aircraft. The first UK Phantom, a prototype F-4K (designated YF-4K), initially flew on 27 June 1966 at the McDonnell plant in St. Louis. The second made its first flight on 30 August 1966. The two pre-production F-4K aircraft were constructed alongside the prototypes, and were initially used for fit check trials of the various systems to be fitted. The first was used for catapult/arrestor and deck landing trials, and the second was primarily for testing the radar and missile systems. All four were delivered to the UK from 1969 to 1970 for continued test work by the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE), Ministry of Defence Procurement Executive, Rolls-Royce, and BAC (and later its successor, British Aerospace). The first F-4M prototype (designated YF-4M) first flew on 17 February 1967, and was also used for fit checks before delivery to the UK. ### F-4K Phantom FG.1 #### Royal Navy In 1964, the Phantom was ordered for the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) to serve as the RN's primary fleet air defence aircraft, with a secondary strike capability. It was intended that these aircraft would operate from the decks of four aircraft carriers: HMS Eagle and HMS Ark Royal, which would be rebuilt to enable the operation of the aircraft; and two planned new ships. The requirements for the intended force of four aircraft carriers meant that five squadrons of Phantoms would be needed. In its 1966 Defence White Paper, the Government decided to cancel the two new carriers, and begin a gradual rundown of fixed-wing aviation in the Royal Navy, which led to a reduction in the total order from 140 to 48, with options for another seven. The intention was to form a pair of front-line squadrons, each of twelve aircraft, that would operate from the two remaining, heavily modernised fleet carriers. The remaining 24 aircraft were to be used to form a training unit, and to provide a reserve pool in the event of aircraft losses. The RN received its first F-4K Phantoms, which carried the British designation FG.1, in April 1968. These were assigned to 700P Naval Air Squadron (700P NAS), which was to serve as the Intensive Flying Trials Unit. Upon completion of the successful flight trials, 767 Naval Air Squadron was commissioned in January 1969 as the FAA's training squadron. This was followed at the end of March 1969 by 892 Naval Air Squadron, which was commissioned as the RN's first operational Phantom unit. During 892 NAS's initial work up, three of its aircraft were entered in the Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic Air Race, a competition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first trans-Atlantic flight. One aircraft set a record of four hours and 46 minutes for the west to east crossing between Floyd Bennett Field in New York City and Wisley Airfield outside London, a record that stood for five years. At the same time as the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) was receiving its first aircraft, the A&AEE had three FG.1s delivered to its 'C' Squadron for flight deck trials aboard Eagle. Two sets of trials were successfully carried out in March and June 1969; the first comprised approaches and touch-and-go landings, while the second set of trials involved full catapult launch and arrested recovery. As a result of the reheat from the Spey turbofans, the ship's jet blast deflectors (JBD) were not used; instead a steel plate was fixed to the deck to absorb the heat of the engines building to launch, and fire hoses were used after each launch to prevent them melting. Ark Royal had entered refit to accommodate the Phantom in 1967; this involved the ship undergoing a major reconstruction, including several elements to allow operation of the aircraft; the flight deck was increased in area and fully angled to 81⁄2°, the arresting gear was replaced with a new water-spray system to accommodate the Phantom's higher weight and landing speed, and bridle catchers and water-cooled JBDs were fitted to the catapults. Once this work was complete, Eagle was scheduled to undergo a similar modernisation. In 1968, the government announced plans to completely phase out fixed-wing aviation in the Royal Navy, decommissioning all of its aircraft carriers by 1972. This led to the intended refit of Eagle being cancelled, and the options for seven additional FG.1s not being taken up. As a consequence, it was decided to further reduce the FAA's Phantom fleet to 28 aircraft. The 1970 change of government led to a reprieve for the Fleet Air Arm, as it was decided that the cost of refitting Ark Royal was too much for only two more years of use, which led to it being retained in service as the RN's sole aircraft carrier. Because it was believed that 892 NAS would be the final carrier-based fixed-wing squadron to be commissioned into the FAA, their Phantoms each bore a capital Omega (Ω) letter on their tail fins, intended to symbolise their place at the end of the RN's era of fixed-wing aviation. Ark Royal embarked 892 NAS as part of her air group for the first time in 1970, with 12 aircraft. The first operational use of the RN's Phantoms had come in 1969, when 892 NAS had embarked for training with the US aircraft carrier USS Saratoga in the Mediterranean, and had undertaken air defence missions alongside the ship's own F-4Js. This deployment showed the necessity for the modifications fitted to Ark Royal; during the initial launches from Saratoga, the heat from the afterburners caused the deck plates to distort, leading to subsequent catapult launches being undertaken at reduced weight without the use of re-heat. During Ark Royal'''s first three-year commission, 892 NAS, which had initially used RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset as its home base, moved to RAF Leuchars in Fife, where, during the periods when it was not embarked, it undertook Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) duties alongside the RAF's 43 Squadron. At the same time, 767 NAS was disbanded as the RN's Phantom training unit; the squadron had been the joint training unit for both the FAA and the RAF in using the FG.1. In its place, an RAF-operated Phantom Training Flight was established at RAF Leuchars in August 1972. The Phantom served in the FAA until 1978, when Ark Royal was withdrawn from service, leaving no ship in the RN capable of operating the type. The final catapult launch from Ark Royal was a Phantom of 892 NAS on 27 November 1978 during the disembarkation of the air group at the end of the ship's final deployment; the squadron's aircraft were delivered to RAF St Athan in Glamorgan, south Wales, where they were handed over to the RAF. During the type's service with the RN, ten of the FAA's fleet of twenty-eight aircraft were lost in crashes. #### Royal Air Force Following the cancellation of the planned refit of HMS Eagle to allow her to operate the Phantom, twenty airframes that had originally been ordered for the FAA were diverted to the Royal Air Force (RAF) to serve in the air defence role. At the time, the RAF's primary interceptor was the English Electric Lightning, which had comparatively poor range, loiter time, and weapons fit. These limitations hampered its effectiveness, especially in long interceptions of Soviet Air Forces and Soviet Naval Aviation bombers and reconnaissance aircraft over the North Sea and North Atlantic. A new Phantom squadron was formed at RAF Leuchars, the UK's most northerly air defence base at the time, to take advantage of the improvements that the Phantom provided over the Lightning: it could carry more fuel, and had consequently better range and endurance; it was fitted with a more powerful radar; and it could carry more missiles (up to eight, compared to two for the Lightning). On 1 September 1969, 43 Squadron was formed at Leuchars, operating as part of the UK's northern Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) zone alongside the Lightnings of 11 Squadron and 23 Squadron. In 1972, when 11 Squadron was redeployed to join 5 Squadron at RAF Binbrook, it was replaced at Leuchars by the RN Phantoms of 892 NAS. Upon the withdrawal of HMS Ark Royal'' in 1978, the Phantoms of the FAA were handed over to the RAF and used to form a second squadron at Leuchars. At the time, 111 Squadron was stationed at Leuchars operating the FGR.2 version of the Phantom, having been there since 1975. In 1979, to save costs resulting from the differences between the FG.1 and FGR.2, the squadron converted to the ex-Navy aircraft and the FGR.2 airframes were distributed to other Phantom units. Upon 111 Squadron's conversion to the FG.1, the Phantom Training Flight, which had been resident at Leuchars since 1972, was disbanded, and responsibility for all Phantom conversion training turned over to 228 Operational Conversion Unit (228 OCU). Both 43 and 111 Squadrons retained the FG.1 until 1989, when they converted to the new Tornado F.3. Following the standing down of the two operational squadrons and the final withdrawal of the type from service, the bulk of the RAF's FG.1 Phantoms were scrapped. The RAF lost eight of their FG.1s in crashes throughout the type's twenty-year service. #### Operators (FG.1) - United Kingdom - Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) - Royal Navy - 700P Naval Air Squadron - 767 Naval Air Squadron - 892 Naval Air Squadron - - No. 43 Squadron - No. 64 (R) Squadron - No. 111 Squadron - Phantom Training Flight ### F-4M Phantom FGR.2 #### Close air support Following the cancellation of both the TSR-2 and P.1154 programmes, the RAF was still left with a requirement for aircraft in the long-range strike, close air support, and reconnaissance roles. This resulted in orders for two aircraft types, the General Dynamics F-111K, intended for the long-range interdiction role, and the F-4M Phantom, which would be used for close air support; both aircraft were to be fitted for reconnaissance. The F-111K was cancelled within a year of being ordered, but the order for 150 Phantoms went ahead alongside the Phantom order for the RN; the final 32 units of the RAF order were eventually cancelled. The RAF Phantom, given the designation FGR.2, was broadly similar to the naval version, with some minor variations in terms of engines, avionics and structure relating to its use as a land-based rather than carrier-based aircraft. The first RAF Phantom unit was 228 Operational Conversion Unit, which was stood up in August 1968. The Phantom entered operational service as part of Strike Command in May 1969, when 6 Squadron was formed at RAF Coningsby in the tactical strike role. 54 Squadron was formed in September the same year, followed by 41 Squadron in 1972 as a tactical reconnaissance unit. A further four squadrons were formed under the auspices of RAF Germany in 1970 and 1971: 2 Squadron, 14 Squadron, 17 Squadron, and 31 Squadron, all at RAF Brüggen. Along with their conventional strike role, 14, 17, and 31 Squadrons were assigned a tactical nuclear strike role by Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SACEUR), using weapons supplied by the United States. After initial work-up, 2 Squadron operated from RAF Laarbruch in the tactical reconnaissance role. The aircraft assigned to the two tactical reconnaissance units were fitted with a pod containing four optical cameras, an infrared linescan and a sideways looking radar. During the 1970s, France and the UK were developing a new aircraft, the SEPECAT Jaguar, which could fill the RAF tactical strike and reconnaissance missions: the Jaguar was introduced into service in 1974, and led to a re-think of the Phantom's role as, at the same time, the limitations of the Lightning as an interceptor were becoming more apparent. The conversion of the RAF's FGR.2 squadrons to operate the Jaguar, combined with its procurement of the Blackburn Buccaneer, meant that it was possible to begin transferring Phantoms to operate purely as interceptors in the air defence role. #### Air defence In October 1974, 111 Squadron converted from the Lightning to the Phantom FGR.2, becoming the first unit to operate the type in the air defence role (notwithstanding 43 Squadron, which had used the FG.1 version since 1969). As more Jaguars were delivered, Phantoms were released enabling existing Lightning squadrons to be converted; 19 Squadron and 92 Squadron, the forward-deployed air defence units in Germany, converted in 1976 and 1977 respectively, at the same time moving from RAF Gütersloh, which was the closest RAF base to the East German border, to RAF Wildenrath, taking advantage of the Phantom's superior range over the Lightning. Three other UK based squadrons, 23, 29 and 56, were also converted between 1974 and 1976. 111 Squadron, which had been the first unit to use the FGR.2 as an interceptor, converted to the FG.1 version in 1979 following the transfer of the RN's remaining airframes to the RAF. The Phantom subsequently served as the RAF's primary interceptor for over a decade until the introduction into service of the Panavia Tornado F.3 in 1987. When Phantoms were first delivered to interceptor squadrons, they remained in the grey-green disruptive colouration camouflage scheme more associated with the strike and close air support missions they had originally undertaken. During the late 1970s, the RAF began experimenting with new colours for its air defence units, and 56 Squadron was tasked with trialling proposed new schemes. In October 1978, a Phantom FGR.2 of 56 Squadron became the first to be painted in the new "air superiority grey" colour, combined with small, low-visibility roundels and markings. Although the roundel remained in low-visibility colours, individual squadron markings eventually returned to more observable sizes and colours. In May 1982, three Phantoms from 29 Squadron were forward deployed to RAF Wideawake on Ascension Island to provide air cover for the RAF's operations during the Falklands War, replacing Harriers of 1 Squadron, which were transiting to the war zone. In October 1982, following the end of the conflict and the reconstruction of the runway, 29 Squadron detached nine of its aircraft to RAF Stanley to provide air defence for the Falkland Islands. In March 1983, 23 Squadron took up the role, remaining stationed there until October 1988, when they were replaced by 1435 Flight. Initially, it was intended that Phantoms and Tornados would serve alongside each other. A total of 152 Tornado F.3s were ordered for the RAF, enough to convert four squadrons of Phantoms and two of Lightnings, but insufficient to completely convert every air defence squadron. The intention was to retain a pair of UK based Phantom squadrons at RAF Wattisham, alongside a pair of Tornado units at RAF Coningsby to provide air defence cover for the southern half of the UK Air Defence Region. Another two squadrons stationed in Germany would also be retained. However, the end of the Cold War saw the Phantom withdrawn from service under the Options for Change defence review. This saw the disbanding of 228 Operational Conversion Unit in January 1991, with the Phantom Training Flight, which had previously operated FG.1 training between 1972 and 1978, re-established for twelve months to run refresher courses on the type. As part of the gradual run down of the RAF's presence in Germany, the two forward-based units were to be disbanded, and there would also be a reduction in the number of air defence squadrons, leading to the two UK-based units being disbanded in late 1992. Just prior to the final withdrawal of the Phantom, it was recalled operationally as a result of Operation Granby, the UK's participation in the First Gulf War, when aircraft from 19 and 92 Squadrons were forward deployed to provide air defence cover at RAF Akrotiri; this was to replace the Tornados that had been originally deployed there on exercise, and were subsequently sent to the Gulf region. Following their withdrawal from service, with a few exceptions, the bulk of the RAF's FGR.2 fleet was scrapped. Over their service life, 37 FGR.2s were lost to crashes. #### Operators (FGR.2) ### F-4J(UK) Phantom F.3 In 1984, following the deployment of a squadron of Phantoms to the Falkland Islands, the government decided that the resulting gap in the UK's air defences needed to be filled, and so sought to purchase another squadron of Phantoms. Because the aircraft in RAF service were a special production batch built to UK specifications, it was not possible to obtain identical aircraft. A total of 15 airframes, each with no more than 4,300 hours, were selected from among the best of the ex-USN F-4Js stored at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. The F-4J was chosen because it was the variant from which the RAF's F-4Ks and F-4Ms were developed, and was thus the closest available to the British aircraft. However, three of the initially selected airframes had to be rejected, and were replaced with three alternatives. The 15 that were ultimately procured were extensively refurbished at the Naval Air Rework Facility at Naval Air Station North Island, and brought to a standard almost equivalent to the F-4S, which was the last variant in service with the USN, the only differences being the absence of leading-edge slats and a helmet gun sight. The major difference between the F-4J and the British Phantoms was the absence of the Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan, the former being fitted with the General Electric J79-10B turbojet. Initially capable of carrying the AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles (AAM), they were soon made compatible with the Skyflash and SUU-23A gun pod, bringing them into line with the rest of the RAF's Phantoms. Despite modifications to allow them to operate with the rest of the fleet, the F-4Js retained the vast bulk of the equipment they were originally fitted with, even requiring their crews to use American flying helmets. Although the new Phantoms were assigned a British designation as the F.3, to avoid confusion with the incoming Tornado ADV (the definitive version of which was also designated F.3) they were generally referred to as the F-4J(UK). They were assigned to 74 Squadron at RAF Wattisham in Suffolk, which stood up in October 1984, two months after the first flight. When they were procured, the fifteen airframes were expected to have a five-year service lifespan; ultimately, the F.3 was retained through the transition to the Tornado, which began entering service in 1987, remaining in operation for seven years. In 1990, thanks to the conversion of F-4M squadrons to the Tornado, the RAF were able to transfer the best of its remaining FGR.2s to 74 Squadron, which meant that the F.3 was able to be withdrawn in January 1991. With a couple of exceptions, all of the RAF's F-4Js were broken up for scrap. One of the 15 airframes was lost in a crash in 1987, killing both crew members. #### Operators (F.3) - - No. 74 Squadron ## Variations ### Between the FG.1 and FGR.2 The Phantom FG.1 and FGR.2 as built were similar, being fitted with broadly the same turbofan jet engines and avionics, although there were minor differences. The FG.1 was initially fitted with the Mark 201 version of the Rolls-Royce Spey, while the FGR.2 had the Mark 202; the Mark 201 had an unacceptable time lag between throttle movement and engine response, which was remedied in the 202. The 201 was eventually upgraded to the Mark 203 version, which had a modified control system for the afterburner, allowing it to light faster and enable power to be applied quickly in the event of a bolter on the small decks of the RN's aircraft carriers. Both variants were fitted with a version of the same avionics package; the FG.1 was fitted with the AN/AWG-11, which differed primarily in having a nose radome that was hinged and able to fold backwards against the aircraft's fuselage to allow for storage in the hangar of an aircraft carrier; the system was designed to be integrated with both the AGM-12 Bullpup missile and the WE.177 free-fall nuclear weapon as required. The AN/AWG-12 fitted to the FGR.2 was not foldable, and featured a better ground mapping mode, to take into account the strike role for which the type was originally procured; allied to this was a Ferranti inertial navigation/attack system (removed when the type converted to the air defence role). Additionally, as the FGR.2 was procured to undertake the tactical reconnaissance mission, 30 airframes were specifically wired to allow carriage of the reconnaissance pod developed by EMI. It was also configured to be able to control the SUU-23/A gun pod; FG.1s used by the RAF were also able to use the gun pod, but the RN's FG.1s lacked this capability. ### Between British Phantoms and other Phantoms Although there were minor differences between the two types of Phantom built for the UK, there were many significant ones between the British Phantoms and those built for the United States. The most obvious was the substitution of the Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan for the General Electric J79 turbojet. The Spey was shorter but wider than the J79, which meant that the British Phantoms' intakes had to be redesigned for a higher airflow, making them 20% larger (with a consequent increase in drag), while the fuselage was widened by 152 millimetres (6 inches). The position of the afterburner also meant that the rear of the fuselage had to be made deeper. Auxiliary intake doors were fitted on the rear fuselage. Performance estimates of the British Phantom compared to its American equivalent indicated that the former had a 30% shorter take-off distance, 20% faster climb to altitude, higher top speed, and longer range. The Spey was more efficient at lower altitudes, and had better acceleration at low speed, giving British Phantoms better range and acceleration, which was shown during the deployment of 892 NAS to the Mediterranean aboard USS Saratoga in 1969, when the F-4K was repeatedly quicker off the deck than the F-4J used by the Americans. It was less efficient at higher altitudes, the British Phantoms lacking speed compared to J79-powered versions owing to the increased drag of the re-designed fuselage. This discrepancy became apparent when the F-4J was obtained by the UK in 1984; it was regarded as being the best of the three variants to serve in the RAF. The small size of the aircraft carriers HMS Eagle and HMS Ark Royal, from which the RN's Phantoms were intended to operate, compared to the USN carriers of the period, meant that the F-4K version required significant structural changes compared to the F-4J, from which it was descended, and which performed a similar role. As well as the folding nose radome to allow for storage in the smaller hangars of the British ships, it had to have a significantly strengthened undercarriage to account for higher landing weights (British policy was to bring back unused ordnance). The F-4J featured a nosewheel oleo that extended by 20 inches (51 centimetres) to provide the correct attitude for launch from American catapults. The F-4K's nose wheel oleo extended by 40 inches (100 centimetres) to increase the take-off attitude (the extension of the nose wheel put the Phantom at a 9° attitude) due to the shorter and less powerful British catapults. It was also fitted with drooping ailerons, enlarged leading edge flaps, and a slotted tailplane, and increased flap and leading edge blowing, all to improve the lift and handling characteristics of the aircraft during operation from the much smaller carriers of the Royal Navy. As the Phantom continued in service, other changes were made, most notably the Marconi ARI.18228 Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) fitted on top of the vertical stabiliser of FG.1 and FGR.2 Phantoms in the mid-1970s, but not to the F.3, which retained the original RWR in fairings on the leading edges of the wings. The F.3 also retained its original AN/AWG-10 radar, which was upgraded to AN/AWG-10B standard as part of the procurement package, making it both clearer and more reliable than the derived AN/AWG-11 and AN/AWG-12 units in the FG.1 and FGR.2. From 1978, the Skyflash AAM, derived from the AIM-7 Sparrow, began to be delivered to RAF Phantom units, and was used concurrently with the Sparrow; all three UK Phantom variants were eventually fitted to operate the Skyflash. ### Aircraft production The first batch of F-4 Phantoms produced for the United Kingdom received aircraft registrations in the XT range, with a total of 44 production models (20 × FG.1 and 24 × FGR.2), as well as the four prototypes and two pre-production models being given XT serial numbers. The bulk of the UK's specially built Phantoms were delivered with XV serials (94 × FGR.2 and 28 × FG.1), while the two cancelled sets of airframes (32 × FGR.2 and 7 × FG.1) also received XV numbers. The second-hand examples (15 × F.3) obtained in 1984 received serials in the ZE range. ### Other UK Phantom proposals Although the Phantom was ordered in 1966, the variants that were eventually constructed were not the first to be offered to the UK. McDonnell Aircraft had been conducting studies into the possibility of the Royal Navy using the Phantom on its carriers since 1959. #### Other proposed Spey-powered Phantoms McDonnell concluded that more power was needed than the J79 turbojet could provide to operate from the smaller decks of British carriers, and as a result, consulted Rolls-Royce about whether the RB-168 Spey turbofan, then in development for use in the Blackburn Buccaneer, could be fitted to the aircraft. In 1960, McDonnell approached the Royal Air Force with its model number 98CJ, which was an F4H-1 (later F-4B) with various modifications, including the installation of the Spey Mk.101 turbofan. McDonnell continued studies, proposing afterburning Mk.101 engines in 1962, while trials of an F-4B fitted with an extendable nose wheel oleo took place aboard USS Forrestal in 1963. In 1964, the company proposed the model 98FC, which was identical to the F-4D variant, but would have been fitted with the RB.168-25R. #### RF-4M A further proposal came after the order for the F-4M was being finalised, and was a result of the UK's need for an aircraft to perform the tactical reconnaissance role. For this, McDonnell offered two options: - The standard F-4M fitted with a reconnaissance pod in place of the centreline external fuel tank; - A modified airframe, designated as RF-4M, with the reconnaissance equipment carried internally. Although the RF-4M would have had some advantages, it was discounted as the cost would have been greater, with consequently fewer aircraft purchased, while only those that had been modified would have been able to undertake the reconnaissance mission. Ultimately, the RAF chose the standard F-4M and external pod, which allowed all of its aircraft to perform all designated roles. #### F-4(HL) Another McDonnell proposal was a variation of the carrier-based Phantom, with the goal of improving catapult performance and lowering approach speeds. The F-4(HL), also known as Model 98HL, was planned as a Spey-powered aircraft with a longer fuselage and wingspan, less sweep, stabilators with increased area, and air intakes with auxiliary blow-in doors to increase airflow at low speeds. This proposal was not taken forward. ## Replacement ### Panavia Tornado In the early 1970s, the RAF issued an Air Staff Requirement (ASR) for the development of a new interceptor intended to replace both the Phantom and the Lightning. An early proposal was McDonnell Douglas's plan for a Phantom with a variable-geometry wing. This was rejected by the RAF owing to the fact that there was little apparent improvement in performance over the existing Phantom, and that it might affect the development of the Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA). An alternative idea was to take the MRCA, which evolved into the Panavia Tornado, and develop an interceptor version. The UK's partners in the MRCA project displayed no enthusiasm for this air defence version of the Tornado, so the UK alone began the process, and the authorisation for what came to be known as the Tornado Air Defence Variant (ADV) was issued in March 1976. The initial plan was for the Tornado to replace the remaining two squadrons of Lightnings, as well as all seven squadrons of Phantoms. While the Tornado was in development, the RAF looked at interim measures to replace the Phantom, which had been in service for over a decade by 1980, and was beginning to suffer from fatigue; one proposal was the lease or purchase of F-15 Eagles to re-equip 19 and 92 Squadrons, the units stationed in Germany. Further suggestions were that up to 80 F-15s be procured, to replace the Phantom and Lightning squadrons then in service, or even cancel the Tornado entirely and purchase the F-15 with UK adaptations (specifically fitting of the AI.24 Foxhunter radar developed for the Tornado, and the Skyflash air-to-air missile). In the end, the F-15 option was not seriously considered, as it was felt there would not be time or cost savings over the Tornado ADV. The Tornado ultimately replaced the Phantom in four squadrons; the two FG.1 units, plus two FGR.2 units (23 and 29 Squadrons), while 56 and 74 Squadrons, and the two Germany based units (19 and 92 Squadrons) retained the Phantom. ### BAe Sea Harrier In the 1970s, the RN was developing what was known as the 'Through-Deck Cruiser', a 20,000-ton ship with a full-length flight deck intended to embark a squadron of large anti-submarine warfare helicopters. Almost as soon as the first ship, HMS Invincible, was ordered, another specification was added to the design: as well as the helicopters, a small squadron of STOVL aircraft would form part of the air group to act as a deterrent to long-range reconnaissance aircraft. This concept initially dated back to 1963, when the prototype Hawker Siddeley P.1127 Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft undertook initial landings aboard HMS Ark Royal, while three years later, a pre-production Hawker Siddeley Kestrel (which subsequently became the Harrier), conducted a series of extensive trials from HMS Bulwark, which proved the concept of using vertical landing aircraft aboard carriers. As a result, a navalised version of the Harrier was developed. Over the life of the design process, the Sea Harrier's air defence role was augmented by responsibility for reconnaissance and maritime strike missions. In March 1980, 14 months after 892 Naval Air Squadron was decommissioned and its Phantoms handed over to the RAF, 800 Naval Air Squadron was formed as the first operational Sea Harrier squadron. ### Aircraft replaced by and replacing the Phantom Sir Sydney Camm, the Chief Designer at Hawker for many years, once said that no British aircraft could be considered a success until it was able to match the capabilities of the Phantom. In the RAF and RN, it was the direct replacement in squadron service for a total of four different aircraft types, comprising nine separate variants. In turn, the Phantom was replaced in squadron service by three different aircraft (see table): ## Aircraft on display The below list details aircraft that were placed on display after service with the Royal Air Force or Royal Navy. The remaining aircraft were either lost in crashes or scrapped following withdrawal. ### YF-4K (prototype) - XT596 — Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, England. ### F-4K - XT597 — Bentwaters Cold War Museum, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England – not on public display. - XT864 — Ulster Aviation Society, Maze-Long Kesh, Lisburn, Northern Ireland. - XV426 — City of Norwich Aviation Museum, Norwich, Norfolk, England (cockpit section only) - XV582 — South Wales Aviation Museum, St Athan, Wales. - XV586 — RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, England – stored not on display. ### F-4M - XT891 — RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, England. - XT899 — Kbely Museum, Czech Republic. - XT905 — Bentwaters Cold War Museum, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England – not on public display. - XT914 — Wattisham Airfield, Suffolk, England. - XV401 — Bentwaters Cold War Museum, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. - XV406 — Solway Aviation Museum, Carlisle Airport, Cumbria, England. - XV408 — Tangmere Military Aviation Museum, West Sussex, England. - XV415 — RAF Boulmer, Alnwick, Northumberland, England. - XV424 — Royal Air Force Museum London, Colindale (former RAF Hendon), London, England. - XV470 — RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus – stored and not on public display. - XV474 — Imperial War Museum Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England. - XV497 — Bentwaters Cold War Museum, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, England. ### F-4J(UK) - ZE359 — American Air Museum, Duxford Aerodrome, Cambridgeshire, England; painted in USN VF-74 Squadron markings. - ZE360 — Defence Fire Training and Development Centre, Manston Airport, Kent, England – not on public display. ### Future preservation In October 2019, the British Phantom Aviation Group (BPAG) announced plans to restore two of the remaining Phantoms not on public display, with the aim of finding display locations for them. In partnership with the 74 Squadron Association, the BPAG obtained ZE360, a Phantom F.3 stored at Manston in Kent, and one of only two remaining complete examples, with the ultimate goal of displaying it in its original RAF markings. The other planned restoration is of XT597, one of the two pre-production FG.1 aircraft that was used for its entire career by the A&AEE. Upon restoration, this will form part of the BPAG's collection. ## Specifications (F-4K) The F.3 retained a high degree of American equipment, and was longer, lighter, and faster at altitude. The FG.1 and FGR.2 were broadly identical, with the only significant difference, aside from those already stated, being the ability of the FGR.2 to carry the dedicated reconnaissance pod built by EMI, and containing the following: - 2 × F.135 forward facing camera - 4 × F.95 oblique facing camera - Texas Instruments RS700 infra-red linescan - MEL/EMI Q-Band sideways looking reconnaissance radar ## Phantom bases The Royal Air Force operated the Phantom from a number of bases in the UK, Germany, and the Falkland Islands during its operational service, while the Royal Navy initially based its Phantom units at its main air station at RNAS Yeovilton; following the disbanding of the FAA's dedicated training squadron, its sole operational Phantom squadron was subsequently moved to take up residence at the RAF's base at RAF Leuchars.
163,459	Serpico	1,173,557,090	1973 biographical-crime film by Sidney Lumet	[ "1970s American films", "1970s English-language films", "1970s biographical drama films", "1970s police films", "1973 crime drama films", "1973 films", "American biographical drama films", "American crime drama films", "American police detective films", "Crime films based on actual events", "Drama films based on actual events", "Films about corruption in the United States", "Films about police corruption", "Films about police misconduct", "Films about the New York City Police Department", "Films about whistleblowing", "Films adapted into television shows", "Films based on biographies", "Films directed by Sidney Lumet", "Films featuring a Best Drama Actor Golden Globe winning performance", "Films produced by Martin Bregman", "Films scored by Mikis Theodorakis", "Films set in New York City", "Films set in the 1960s", "Films set in the 1970s", "Films shot in New York City", "Films with screenplays by Norman Wexler", "Films with screenplays by Waldo Salt", "New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct", "Paramount Pictures films" ]	Serpico is a 1973 American biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino in the title role. The screenplay was adapted by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler from the book of the same name written by Peter Maas with the assistance of its subject, Frank Serpico. The story details Serpico's struggle with corruption within the New York City Police Department during his eleven years of service, and his work as a whistleblower that led to the investigation by the Knapp Commission. Producer Dino De Laurentiis purchased the rights from Maas. Agent Martin Bregman joined the film as co-producer. Bregman suggested Pacino for the main part, and John G. Avildsen was hired to direct the film. Pacino met with Serpico to prepare for the role early in the summer of 1973. After Avildsen was dismissed, Lumet was hired as his replacement. On a short notice, he selected the shooting locations and organized the scenes; the production was filmed in July and August. Upon its release, Serpico became a critical and commercial success. At the same time, the film drew criticism from police officers. It received nominations at the Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. Pacino earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, while Salt and Wexler received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. ## Plot NYPD Officer Frank Serpico is rushed to the hospital, having been shot in the face. Chief Sidney Green fears that Serpico was shot by another cop. The rest of the film is shown as a long flashback. Serpico graduates from the police academy with big ideas for improving the police force's community relations. He dresses like an actual civilian instead of wearing the department's standard plainclothes dress, which is easily recognizable. While he is chasing a burglar, other officers fail to recognize him as one of their own, and shoot at him. He realizes that deviating from protocols can be dangerous. Serpico reports an attempted bribe to a high-ranking investigator, who chuckles and advises him to keep the money. Serpico soon learns that corruption is rampant in the police department. Forced to accompany officers as they collect payoffs from criminals and small businesses, Serpico refuses to accept his share of the money. He makes several attempts to alert superiors to the corruption but is rebuffed every time. Other officers learn that he is reporting them and he begins to fear for his life. Serpico and his well-connected friend Blair go to the mayor's assistant, who promises a real investigation and support but is stymied by political pressure. Ostracized, frustrated, and fearful, Serpico sinks into depression, which ruins his relationship with his girlfriend. He begins brutalizing well-connected suspects who had been bribing other officers and thought themselves protected. Finally, Serpico informs Captain McClain that he has reported his experiences to oversight agencies outside the police force. Furious, McClain tells the other officers. Blair uses his connections to arrange a personal interview with the district attorney, who tells Serpico that if he testifies to a grand jury, a major investigation will follow. The DA limits his questions and prevents Serpico from revealing the ubiquity of corruption in the police force. Serpico and Blair take their story to The New York Times. After his allegations are printed, his superiors retaliate by assigning him to a dangerous narcotics squad in Brooklyn. During a raid on a drug trafficker's apartment, Serpico's partners hold back at a critical moment and Serpico gets shot in the face. After a long, painful recovery, he testifies before the Knapp Commission, a government inquiry into NYPD corruption. An epilogue states that Frank Serpico resigned from the NYPD on June 15, 1972, was awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor for "conspicuous bravery in action", and moved to Switzerland. ## Cast In addition, F. Murray Abraham appears in an uncredited role as the team lead of Serpico's four man unit, setting Serpico up to be shot in the face at a drug bust. Judd Hirsch appears as one of the cops in the hospital, also uncredited. ## Background After Frank Serpico recovered from being shot, he helped Peter Maas write Serpico. Detective David Durk, who also appeared in front of the Knapp Commission, planned to sell the rights of their story for a film adaptation. Early negotiations included Paul Newman in the role of Durk, and Robert Redford as Serpico. Serpico distanced himself from the project, as he felt that he would be merely portrayed as a sidekick. Script writer John Gregory Dunne turned down the project, as he felt "there was no story". Director Sam Peckinpah, as well as Newman and Redford left the project. After the success of several of his films in the 1960s, and the first years of the 1970s, producer Dino De Laurentiis decided to move from Italy to the United States. The change in financing laws further regulated the Italian film industry, and the producer settled in New York City. Following their collaboration on The Valachi Papers, De Laurentiis purchased the rights to Maas's book. Maas received US\$400,000 (equivalent to \$ million in ) and participation in the film, while the rights for his work were secured before the March 1973 publication of the book. Initially, De Laurentiis' found resistance to the project from Paramount Pictures. The studio considered that "enough cop movies" had been made. In turn, De Laurentiis was supported by Charles Bluhdorn, president of Gulf+Western who wanted the film to be made. De Laurentiis later declared that "no American producer would have had the courage" to depict police corruption in a motion picture. Maas's agent, Sam Cohn, was approached by agent Martin Bregman. Bregman expressed his interest to also produce the film after reading an article in New York magazine about the book. Bregman proposed one of his signed actors, Al Pacino to play the lead. Waldo Salt was chosen to write the screenplay adaptation. The first draft did not impress Maas, De Laurentiis or Bregman. Bregman felt that the result was "very political", and that the story did not reflect what the producers desired to portray on the film. Bregman and Maas then directed Salt to the parts of the book they envisioned to be reflected on the screenplay. The second draft was considered a substantial improvement by the production team. Bregman took the treatment to Pacino, who initially did not find the film interesting. Salt then visited Pacino with the re-worked script, that convinced him to consider the part. A meeting with Serpico, Maas and Pacino was then arranged for the actor to meet the subject of the film. Upon meeting him, Pacino was fully convinced to accept the part. John G. Avildsen was then chosen to direct the film. Salt's work did not satisfy Avildsen, who threatened to leave the project unless he could bring Norman Wexler to write the screenplay. They had previously worked together in Avildsen's Joe. Both then traveled to Switzerland, to visit Serpico at home, and work the details. Time to work on the production was constricted due to Pacino's commitment to The Godfather Part II. Further disagreement arose between Avildsen and Bregman regarding the script, and then the selection of the filming locations. Upon finding resistance to his plans, Avildsen threatened Bregman of quitting multiple times. An aggravated Bregman then called for a meeting with the production team, in order to cause the director to quit in front of witnesses. Avildsen had insisted on a meeting with Bregman and De Laurentiis to shoot a scene in the real home of Serpico's parents for authenticity. The producers felt that the structure could not accommodate the production team and equipment efficiently. The escalating tension on the meeting resulted in De Laurentiis firing Avildsen, and the director quit in return. Avildsen's account for the reason of his dismissal was that he refused to cast Cornelia Sharpe as Leslie. Sharpe was at the time dating Bregman. Avildsen would later declare that he should have treated the situation "with more finesse". Sidney Lumet was then hired to complete the job for his reputation as an effective director under a tight schedule. Pacino was shortly distracted from the project by an offer to play the lead in Lenny, but ultimately he turned it down. To prepare for Serpico, he rode with police officers for a night, but he decided it was not enough. A method actor, he felt that he needed to spend time with Serpico. Pacino and Serpico met several times in Montauk, New York, where the actor rented a house for the summer season. Pacino was moved by Serpico's conviction to reform the NYPD, and became more committed to the project. In character, Pacino often walked through areas of the city that were considered dangerous at the time. While waiting in traffic, he attempted to arrest a truck driver, as he was enraged by the exhaust fumes. He was refused service at a Manhattan restaurant for the appearance he kept for the film. ## Production Lumet organized the 107 speaking parts that took place in 104 different locations. The longest scenes took up two-and-a-half pages of the screenplay, while the average was one page. A budget of \$3.3 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) was assigned. Two weeks of rehearsal were held. Pacino had learned Salt's screenplay, and he agreed with Lumet that Wexler's revised version improved the structure, but that the dialogue was impoverished. Lumet allowed the actors to improvise certain dialogues, and he also allowed their creative input for the scenes. The cast selected dialogues from both scripts as the filming progressed. Though he had already a good knowledge of New York locations, Lumet considered the work "physically brutal, and emotionally tough". The principal photography on Serpico began in early July 1973. The film was planned to be released before Christmas, with four-and-a-half months for the crew to complete the movie. Filming took place in July and August. The story of the film encompassed 11 years, from 1960 through 1971. To accommodate the scenes around Pacino's facial hair, the film was shot in reverse. Pacino started with long beard and hair. He was shaved to a mustache, and then eventually his hair was cut, and he was clean-shaven for the beginning of the film. Lumet decided each day if Pacino was to be further shaven, and the crew prepared fake beards in case they were required. Winter conditions were simulated, as the team had to defoliate trees and cut shrubs. Special make-up was used to absorb the sweat, and to keep the actors' skin dry. The cast wore winter coats, and their skin was made to look bluish, while their breath had to be visible. The director followed Serpico's desire for the winter to look "cold and heavy", and the summer "idyllic and hazy". The team had difficulty to find locations suitable for the scenes set in the 1960s, since graffiti did not become common until 1970. Lumet shot up to 35 different setups daily. The team had to move three times a day on an average. Each location had to be cleared of cars that did not belong to the particular period, and extras could not feature long hair, or non-period wardrobe. Hairdressers were present with the crew. Multiple locations in the city including Harlem, South Bronx, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and Astoria, Queens were used. Lewisohn Stadium was featured shortly before its demolition. The party scene was shot at Sidney Kingsley's Fifth Avenue loft. The NYPD cooperated with the director, and allowed him to film in four active police stations. Serpico's apartment had to be built by the crew. It featured a fixed ceiling, and movable walls. As with Serpico's original apartment, it was located in Greenwich Village. Through lighting, Lumet and cinematographer Arthur Ornitz chose to maintain a "warm look" on the location. Different techniques were used to reflect moods, and the changes that the character went through the years. Lumet focused on portraying Serpico's struggle to balance his work and personal life, and his increased isolation and alienation, as his efforts produced slow results. The director decided to portray him "darker and darker". As the film progressed, the cast costumes became darker in color, until the courtroom scene, where all the actors wore dark tones. Lumet told Charles Champlin: "I was trying to negate color, to make a picture in color that was not colorful". Meanwhile, he wanted Serpico's fellow officers to be "men with charm, who were all the more evil for being human and understandable". Lumet finished shooting the film in 51 days, on budget. The film was edited by Dede Allen. Allen received the scenes from Lumet directly after they were shot. She had a limit of 48 hours to finish her work for its delivery to the sound department. Lumet did not want to add a score to the picture, but he decided he would do it before De Laurentiis commissioned one. He learned that Mikis Theodorakis was released from prison in Greece. He was able to locate him in Paris, as the composer quickly left his country of origin. Theodorakis accepted Lumet's offer, and flew to New York City the next day. He met with the director, who played the movie for him the day of his arrival. Theodorakis agreed that it should not have a soundtrack, but he offered a composition of his to add to the film. Theodorakis had arranged a tour of the United States with a Greek orchestra and told Lumet that he could not be present for the spotting session. Lumet offered the help of Bob James, who would sit with the director for the spotting. To inform of the progress of the sessions and possible changes on the arrangements, James flew to the cities where Theodorakis appeared in order to work the details together. ## Release The film was released on December 5, 1973 in New York, and on December 18 in Los Angeles. The opening week in New York garnered \$123,000. Serpico was released nationwide on February 6, 1974. The film was a critical and commercial success. It grossed between \$23.4 million and \$29.8 million. Serpico attended the premiere of the film, but he did not finish watching it. Serpico felt "distant" from the end results. On an interview with Pauline Kael for The New Yorker, he concluded that it "didn't give a sense of frustration you feel when you're not able to do anything". According to Lumet's account, he met Serpico shortly before the production. The director asked him to stay clear of the set, to not make Pacino "self-conscious" regarding his portrayal. Serpico watched the film in its entirety for the first time in 2010. In a later interview, he declared that Lumet barred him from the set after he interrupted the shooting of a scene that in real life "never happened". Serpico also criticized the dismissal of Avildsen by the production team. Serpico and Avildsen remained friends, and shared a property on Long Island for three years in the 1980s. New York City Police Commissioner Michael Codd stated that the film "tends to imply that Serpico was the only honest cop in the whole department". Detective Durk was not pleased with Serpico. Durk, who was depicted in the character of Bob Blair, felt that the movie would deter other policemen to denounce corruption. On an interview with The New York Times, he considered that the movie was unfair to honest police officers. Durk stated that the end of the film conveyed that "the cost of honesty is martyrdom", and Serpico's departure for Switzerland showed him "wounded and frustrated". Meanwhile, Bronx district attorney Burton B. Roberts declared that it "bears absolutely no relationship to the truth". Lumet defended his artistic license on the portrayal of the story, as he felt he desired to make a film that "people believed in". Bregman dismissed the critics, as he felt that the real names were not relevant for viewers in cities outside New York. Maas dismissed Durk's claims regarding honest policemen and asked "where were they?" ## Critical reception ### Premiere reception The New York Times felt that the film was "galvanizing" for Pacino's performance, and by the "tremendous intensity" of Lumet's direction. The publication considered the film at the same time "disquieting" for its use of fictional names, as the reviewer felt that it diminished the role of Durk. Meanwhile, it called Theodorakis's soundtrack "redundant and dumb". The New York Daily News delivered a favorable review of the film. It rated it four stars out of five, and called it "a triumph of intelligence, compassion and style". A follow-up critic by the publication deemed Pacino's acting a "masterful performance", as the reviewer remarked "he walks like a cop. He talks like a cop. He even seems to think as a cop". The review also praised Lumet and his "talent for achieving social realism". The Record considered it "one of the finest films of the year". While it felt that the portrayal of Serpico was "too righteous and obsessive", the review favored Pacino, but felt that his performance was "sometimes a little too intense". It praised the photography of New York City as authentic, and credited Ornitz and Allen's work for it. The Village Voice wrote a mixed review. It criticized the focus of the film on Serpico, and the minor role the screenplay writers gave to the character that represented Durk. The reviewer considered that Serpico was "worth seeing" for Pacino's performance. Variety deemed Pacino's acting "outstanding", and Lumet's a combination of "gritty action and thought-provoking comment". For Newhouse News Services it was an "exciting movie", but the review remarked that it was "weakened" by its focus on Serpico. The news agency attributed the minimization of the other characters to avoid "possible lawsuits". The Los Angeles Times acclaimed Serpico. Charles Champlin called Pacino "one of the handful of genuine star actors in American films". Salt and Wexler's screenplay was hailed as "almost documentary reality", and its treatment of the main character "a complex and evolving portrait". The reviewer also remarked that the romances and break-ups were presented with "unhackneyed honesty". The contributions of the supporting cast were well noted. Champlin felt that Allen's work was considered to be "high on the list" for an Academy Award nomination and deemed Theodorakis' music "effective". ### Wide release reception Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars, noting its treatment of corruption as its "principal strength and weakness" and adding that Serpico "loses the perspective" that "corruption ... begins and ends with individuals making active and passive decisions". The Philadelphia Inquirer celebrated the film's critic of police corruption, despite its "embellishments and omissions" on the story. Pacino's performance was called "riveting", and the piece praised the "sharply individualized characterizations" by Tony Roberts, Jack Kehoe, John Randolph, Biff McGuire, Barbara Eda-Young and Cornelia Sharpe. Meanwhile, also for Philadelphia Inquirer, investigative journalist Greg Walter lamented its portrayal of police officers as "snarling, insipid ass(es)". Walter felt that Maas' book was "coldly objective", but that the director's work delivered characters that were "one-dimensional caricatures". The Boston Globe welcomed Lumet's "melodramatic efficiency". The publication considered the story "heavily repetitious", but favored its "quick pace". It regarded Ornitz's camerawork as "the right documentary look", while it lamented Theodorakis' score as "disruptive" and "out of character". Esquire further criticized Theodorakis, as the reviewer opined that his "composing voice ought to be silenced". Meanwhile, the piece praised Allen's work. The Miami Herald hailed the use of "street talk" instead of the "language of actors and actresses" by Salt, Wexler and Maas. It praised Lumet and Ornitz's photography that "generate the smells, sounds and styles of the city". It considered Pacino's acting "predictably excellent", and it favored Theodorakis' music. The Detroit Free Press suggested that Serpico would be a breakthrough role for Pacino as an actor, and called his work "fascinating". The newspaper defined the film as an "encouraging morality tale". Meanwhile, San Francisco Examiner observed Pacino's acting to be "a brilliant, solidly thought out performance". The publication added that the supporting cast's contributions "never satisfactorily fleshed out". Regarding Lumet, the reviewer felt that he directed the film with "skill and vigor". The Cincinnati Enquirer attributed the commercial success of the film to Pacino's acting, and to the film's depiction of "hard, cold, grit and grime reality". For The Evening Sun reviewer Lou Cedrone expressed his doubts about Durk's "gratis talk of defamation of the police image". Cedrone considered that Durk "comes off very nicely" on the film, and defended Lumet's choice to "emphasize the action rather than the definition". Meanwhile, it viewed the use of "Neapolitan" music as "foolish perhaps, but not touching". It declared Pacino's contribution "a magnificent performance". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found Serpico to be "meticulously crafted, intelligently written, unflinchingly honest". The publication noted the "fidelity" with which the director captured New York, and that the city "becomes more than just a background". It summed Pacino's acting as "naturalistic, flawlessly convincing". The Honolulu Advertiser attributed Pacino's "brilliant portrayal" to turn an "ordinary cop movie" into "extraordinary". The review favored Lumet, the writers and the supporting cast. The Austin American-Statesman highlighted realism in producing a "fascinating film". The Fort Worth Star-Telegram celebrated Pacino's "towering performance". Roberts' performance was noted as a "standout". Sharpe and Eda Young's appearances as Serpico's love interests were deemed to be "played with restrained excellence". The newspaper opined that the film was "15 minutes too long", but that viewers would not "realize the length until you're outside looking at your watch". The Kansas City Star detailed the criticism the film received from police officers, and Serpico's discontent with the production. The piece noted that despite the fictional additions, Serpico was a "superrealistic dramatization". Meanwhile, Wexler and Salt were praised for the authentic use of profanity in the dialogues. The Times opened its review applauding Serpico's denunciation of police corruption, while it pointed that the film "exceeds (the) expectations" of the viewers for it to be "powerfully dramatic". Lumet's "accurate eye for surroundings" was remarked, and the reviewer hailed Pacino and the supporting cast. ### Later reviews AllMovie gave Serpico five stars out of five. The review described the situation in the United States following the Watergate scandal, and how the "bureaucratic depravity touched a cultural nerve". It welcomed the film's "documentary-style realism". The A.V. Club received it positively, the reviewer felt that Serpico expressed "artful, character-driven slices of life". In its later review, The Village Voice declared that the "Watergate-era time capsule of hippie fashions" that the film presented "ought to look pretty dated", but that the story "feels depressingly relevant". ## Legacy On September 21, 1975, Serpico was premiered on television on The ABC Sunday Night Movie. It was released on VHS in 1991, and on DVD in 2002. The film was then made available in Blu-ray in 2013. Masters of Cinema released Serpico in the United Kingdom on Blu-ray in 2014. It contained three video documentaries about the film, a photo gallery with an audio commentary by Lumet and a forty-four page booklet. A television series based on Maas's book and the motion picture was broadcast on NBC between September 1976 and January 1977, with David Birney as Serpico. Fourteen episodes were broadcast, and one was never aired. The series was preceded by a pilot film, Serpico: The Deadly Game, which was broadcast in April 1976. The main character in the 1976 Italian film The Cop in Blue Jeans was inspired by Serpico. In the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, a poster of Serpico is featured in the room of its main character, Tony Manero. The film is referenced in 1994's Natural Born Killers by the character Dwight McClusky. The poster of the film is featured in the room of the main character of 1997's Boogie Nights. Serpico was mentioned in the 1995 film Get Shorty. In a 2004 Corner Gas episode, "The Taxman", local cops Davis and Karen talk about the film and Karen tries to rent it at the video store. In a 2007 episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "Bums: Making a Mess All Over the City", Charlie imitates Pacino’s performance after the gang buys an out of commission police car. The film was referenced in a 2016 episode of El ministerio del tiempo as the reason for the nickname of one of its main characters, "Pacino". Among other police films, Serpico influenced the Hong Kong action cinema. ## Accolades The film received Academy Awards nominations for Best Actor (Al Pacino) and Best Adapted Screenplay. The script won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Theodorakis was nominated for both the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. Sidney Lumet was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Direction and the Directors Guild of America Award. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Pacino won his first Golden Globe award for Best Actor in 1974. For his performance, he also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Pacino's role as Frank Serpico ranked at number forty on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains. Meanwhile, Serpico also ranked at number eighty-four on AFI's AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers, a list of America's most inspiring films.
17,020,236	Laid Back (album)	1,171,263,233	null	[ "1973 debut albums", "Albums with cover art by Mati Klarwein", "Capricorn Records albums", "Gregg Allman albums" ]	Laid Back is the debut studio solo album by American singer-songwriter Gregg Allman, released in October 1973 by Capricorn Records. Allman, best known as the vocalist/lyricist/organist of the Allman Brothers Band, first began considering a solo career after internal disagreements with that group. He developed the album as a small creative outlet wherein he would assume full control, and he co-produced the album alongside Johnny Sandlin. Laid Back was largely recorded in March 1973 at Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon, Georgia, with additional recording and mixing taking place at the Record Plant by Manhattan Recording Engineer, Jim Reeves in New York City. The album explores Allman's varying influences, including rhythm and blues and soul music. It consists of several cover songs, originals, and a traditional hymn, and contains performances from a host of musicians, most notably Scott Boyer and Tommy Talton on guitars, Bill Stewart on drums, and Charlie Hayward on bass guitar. The album was created while Allman also worked on Brothers and Sisters, the fourth Allman Brothers album. The album title was a studio term Allman coined for relaxing a song's tempo, while its cover was painted by Abdul Mati Klarwein. Upon its release, Laid Back received positive reviews from music critics, and it peaked at number 13 on Billboard's Top LPs & Tape chart. To support the album, Allman embarked on an ambitious tour, consisting of a full band and an entire string orchestra. Two singles were released to promote the record, with lead single "Midnight Rider" becoming a top 20 hit in the U.S. and Canada. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1974 for shipping 500,000 copies in the U.S., making it one of Allman's best-selling albums. ## Background Gregg Allman first began exploring music during his teen years in Daytona Beach, Florida. He and his brother, Duane Allman, founded their first band, the Allman Joys, in the mid-1960s. That group evolved into the Hour Glass, which recorded two albums for Liberty Records between 1967 and 1968. Subsequently, the duo founded the Allman Brothers Band, which grew in fame in the early 1970s due to their live shows, which combined traditional electric blues, jazz-style improvisation and self-penned instrumentals. Their 1971 live album At Fillmore East represented a commercial and artistic breakthrough. Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash later that year, but the band continued on, recording 1972's Eat a Peach, a hybrid live/studio album that became an even greater success, shipping gold and peaking at number four on Billboard's Top 200 Pop Albums chart. The death of his brother profoundly impacted Allman, who had trouble coping with the loss. According to band historian John Lynskey, his "melancholy attitude, combined with a yearning to do something different musically, lead him to actively pursue the notion of putting out a record of his own." He first enlisted the help of friend Deering Howe, whom he and the Brothers would often visit when performing in New York. Howe was an heir to his family's International Harvester fortune, which allowed him the time to become a part of "the fast crowd that hung out with rock stars such as Jimi Hendrix [and] Mick Jagger," according to Jean Dubail of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He agreed to financially assist Allman on recording demos to free him from what he dubbed "the bullshit with Capricorn Records in Macon". The duo first flew to Miami's Criteria Studios, where they recorded 3–4 tracks in May 1972. They later decamped to Advantage Street Studios in New York, where they recorded several more in July 1972. Allman was heavily inebriated, and the sessions were largely difficult, according to Howe. During that same period, the Allman Brothers Band began rehearsals at Capricorn Studios for what would become their fourth studio album, Brothers and Sisters. Allman brought the band the song "Queen of Hearts", which he had worked on for, by that point, a year and a half. He was inebriated at the time, and the members would not consider the song. "That song just ain't saying nothing," his bandmates told him. Later that night, he returned to Capricorn to work alone. He worked for forty-two hours, slept for six, and returned for a final session that wound up lasting a further twenty-eight hours. "Mentally and physically exhausted," he was unhappy with his output, and discarded the tape reels in a trash can, hoping to set them aflame. Johnny Sandlin—who was serving as producer of Brothers and Sisters, and was a longtime friend—walked in and convinced Allman to start over. Sandlin offered to produce Allman's solo effort, and Allman asked Sandlin to assemble a new team of musicians to help record the LP. ## Recording and production Laid Back was further developed throughout late 1972, with Allman and Sandlin continuing to record between September and December. Work stalled on Laid Back as production commenced on Brothers and Sisters, though the two were worked on roughly concurrently. Work began in earnest in March 1973, after Brothers and Sisters was completed. Sandlin helped hire various session musicians to perform on the album, including Bill Stewart on drums and Charlie Hayward on bass guitar. David Brown also played bass, as did Sandlin on several songs. Scott Boyer and Tommy Talton, also of the band Cowboy, play guitar on the LP and were a large influence on its sound. Boyer contributes pedal steel guitar on several songs, notably "These Days", with Talton adding slide and acoustic guitar; in addition, both sang backing harmonies on many tracks. Allman likened the album's presence to a mistress, noting that the rest of the band were not thrilled. It slowed down progress on their own album, and it created tension between the group, particularly between Allman and guitarist Dickey Betts. Nevertheless, several Allman Brothers members made appearances on Laid Back, including Jaimoe, who provided congas, and Chuck Leavell, a new addition to the Brothers, who added piano. Leavell stayed in Macon after leaving Dr. John's band, and found himself contributing to both albums. Allman felt Leavell's style of playing fit the album perfectly: "He'd give you exactly what you wanted, without any questions, and if he embellished on a song, he made it even better." Unlike with the Brothers, none of the songs were performed live—or "road-tested"—before their release, with the album's eight songs being developed and arranged in the studio. The experience recording the album was a pleasurable one, according to all involved. Talton, reflecting in 2019, said the chemistry between the musicians were at a high, which he attributed to the fact that he, Boyer, and Leavell lived together during production. "That camaraderie created a bond [...] The studio became our playground, our clubhouse." Talton credited Sandlin with creating an open, collaborative environment, noting that the musicians were free to enter the control room and make suggestions. Leavell expounded upon the studio atmosphere in 2019: > I recall just how happy everyone was in the studio. Gregg especially seemed very relieved and pleased to be doing something different to keep his mind off the loss of his brother, as well as the challenges the Allman Brothers had. Johnny did a masterful job in helping Gregg guiding things, taking Gregg's suggestions and making them happen, while also encouraging us to be ourselves and contribute in our own way. ## Composition Musically, Laid Back focuses on heartfelt, melancholy ballads; Leavell said the agenda was to create a "more mellow, less fierce" album in comparison to the Allman Brothers Band. "If I had to boil it down to one word, I would say 'melodic.' This was a more melodic record," he said in 2019. Talton said that none of the musicians were focused on making the album sonically different from Allman's main project, it simply happened. Opening the album is a version of "Midnight Rider", which Allman first composed and recorded for the Allman Brothers Band's second album, Idlewild South in 1970. For the new recording, Allman aimed for a "swamp"-like atmosphere, "with the image of moss hanging off the trees, alligators and fog, darkness, [and] witches," he later wrote. Boyer and Allman came up with the creeping acoustic guitar intro, which sets the tone for the rest of the track. "Queen of Hearts", the song that prompted Allman to develop the album, follows with an opening guitar line courtesy of guest guitarist Buzz Feiten. The song shifts to the 11/8 time signature after the second verse, which was unintentional: "I didn't know I had written a song in 11/8 until someone told me!" Allman said in 1997. "Queen of Hearts" also features a prominent saxophone accompaniment from David "Fathead" Newman. "Please Call Home" was first recorded on Idlewild South. Allman reinterprets the song for Laid Back, using a gospel choir and Talton's guitar playing. Allman performs his signature Hammond B3 on the track. The song is followed by "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing", written by songwriter and saxophonist Oliver Sain and first recorded by Fontella Bass and Bobby McClure, who had a top five hit with it on the R&B charts in 1964. John Lynskey writes that the tune "brings a rollicking sense of New Orleans exuberance to [the album]." Newman again performs saxophone on the track, which was by all accounts a simple one to record for the team. "That was just flat-out fun to cut; we all had a blast on that one," Leavell remembered. "These Days" opens side two of the original LP. It was written by singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, whom Allman and his brother shared a home with during their time living in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. Allman then became enamored with Browne's songwriting, and his rendition of "These Days" includes a plaintive performance from Boyer on four-pedal Gibson steel guitar. Allman was initially worried it might sound too country, but was satisfied with Boyer's playing. Browne was impressed with Allman's cover; he later wrote that Allman "made that song twice as good as it was before he sang it." "Multi-Colored Lady" begins with a delicate finger-picked guitar intro, leading into a narrative about a "lonely, heartbroken young woman." Talton viewed it to be the epitome of the album's sound. Boyer wrote the song "All My Friends", which was originally released on Cowboy's 1971 album 5'll Getcha Ten. Allman and his bandmates had been renting a home in Macon they dubbed the Big House for several years, and the LP was a favorite of theirs. He double-tracked himself performing lead and harmony vocals for the song. "I've always loved the Everly Brothers style of harmony, but I didn't want it to just follow the traditional 1–3–5 pattern," he recalled. Talton plays a dual guitar solo, which was Sandlin's idea. The LP closes with the popular Christian hymn, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?". Allman and Sandlin are credited with re-arranging the piece, which includes a choir of Macon church singers of the time, as well as a coterie of Capricorn staff and musicians. Lynskey writes that the chorus of voices gives the track a "family-fueled, Southern choir feeling." ## Artwork and title The album cover was painted by Abdul Mati Klarwein, best known for creating the artwork to Miles Davis's Bitches Brew (1970). Allman was introduced to him through a friend. Allman did not have the time to come sit for the painting, so Klarwein worked with a photograph. Allman commented on the cover in his 2012 memoir, My Cross to Bear: "I loved [it]; I thought it turned out perfect. It cost me \$1,500 back then, but today it would like \$50,000, maybe even \$150,000." In his later years, Allman would attempt to purchase the original painting used for the album sleeve, but was unable to afford to. Allman's girlfriend at the time (and later wife) Janice Blair appears on the album's sleeve, riding a horse. The album's title was an inside reference to a studio term Allman coined for when a song had too much energy and needed to be more relaxed, or "laid back." He spoke more on the term in his later autobiography, My Cross to Bear: > I've always pictured it this way: go at it as if you were Mr. Natural, that R. Crumb character. Mr. Natural's feet always got to where he was going before his head did, so "laid back" means don't dive in there headfirst. When I got the guys together who were going to play on my record, I told them to picture a Freak Brother, and they laughed for about half an hour, but they got it. ## Reception Reviewing the album for Rolling Stone, Tony Glover said "Laid Back isn't quite what you'd expect from Gregg's work with the Brothers Band. Instead, it's a moody LP, often tinged with grandeur, and maybe just a little too rich and one-colored in spots. But on the whole, a moving look at another side of a finely charismatic singer/writer." Billboard named it a "Spotlight" pick among its Top Album Picks in November 1973, with the reviewer deeming it "a masterpiece of a set ... featuring exceptional displays of vocal and instrumental talent in many musical areas." Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in Creem, saying Allman "proves that drawling slowly isn't the same as singing soulfully." In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Christgau reassessed the album more favorably; while still believing Allman sounded melancholy because of "a limited formal imagination", he conceded that the singer "puts a lot into 'These Days' and 'Midnight Rider,' and that the reason you can listen to such originals as "Please Call Home" and "Multicolored Lady" isn't the writing." AllMusic later said: "Recorded in the same year as the Brothers and Sisters album, this solo debut release is a beautiful amalgam of R&B, folk, and gospel sounds, with the best singing on any of Gregg Allman's solo releases." In 2006, Tom Moon of NPR reviewed the album as a part of his "Shadow Classics" series, calling it "amazing stuff, deep and intense yet nowhere near the decibel levels of his work with the [Allman Brothers] band. ... But he's equally compelling — maybe even more so — in a quieter space, when he's less fired up." ## Tour To promote the album, Allman embarked on a nationwide tour with the musicians who helped record the album as his band. Long inspired by Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen (1970), Allman hired a string orchestra to accompany the group. Drawn from the New York Philharmonic, it consisted of three cellos, six violins, and seven violas. The tour lasted one month and performed exclusively in upscale theaters, which Allman requested for the best sound quality possible. He found performing with the orchestra strikingly different than singing with the Allman Brothers Band, having to adjust his normal singing volume to blend better. A live album of material from the tour was released as The Gregg Allman Tour later that year, to help recoup costs for the tour. "I was really pleased with how the tour went. Some nights were better than others, but they were all good," Allman would later recall. ## Legacy Laid Back was Allman's personal favorite solo album he produced; he regarded it as the "pride and joy" of his solo recording career. He and his later manager, Michael Lehman, would often have "warm and meaningful conversations" about the album in the last years of his life. In 2019, Universal announced a two-disc deluxe edition of Laid Back, containing the original album in remastered form, as well as early mixes, alternate versions, and demos. In addition, the original album was reissued on vinyl for the first time in four decades. The deluxe set was produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Bill Levenson, with band historian John P. Lynskey serving as associate producer and providing an essay in the liner notes. Among the highlights on the collection are all of the demos captured by Howe in 1972, including "God Rest His Soul", a tribute to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and a cover of "Rollin' Stone" by Muddy Waters. The set also includes two songs repurposed on later albums: "Never Knew How Much", a song later re-recorded for the Allman Brothers' 1981 release, Brothers of the Road, and "Song for Adam", another Jackson Browne ballad that Allman reapproached on his final solo effort, 2017's Southern Blood. A bonus live version of "Melissa", captured at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey during the ensuing solo tour in 1974, rounds out the set. "To bring the collection full circle to its inspiration, Allman dedicates the song to Duane," observed David Browne of Rolling Stone. Levenson observed that the chronologically-arranged tracks "told such an interesting story about an artist in distress who is looking for ways to cope." ## Track listing All tracks composed by Gregg Allman; except where indicated ## Personnel Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. Musicians - Gregg Allman – vocals, Hammond organ, acoustic guitar - Tommy Talton – acoustic, electric and slide guitars, dobro and tambourine - Scott Boyer – acoustic, electric and steel guitars, electric piano - Buzz Feiten – guitar - Jim Nalls – guitar - David Brown – bass - Charlie Hayward – bass - Johnny Sandlin – bass - Max Cahn – violin - Tony Posk – violin - Paul Hornsby – organ, keyboards, clavinet - Chuck Leavell – acoustic and electric pianos, vibes - David "Fathead" Newman – saxophone - Bill Stewart – drums - Jai Johanny Johanson – percussion, conga - Butch Trucks – percussion, cabasa - Carl Hall – background vocals - Hilda Harris – background vocals - Cissy Houston – background vocals - Emily Houston – background vocals - June McGruder – background vocals - Helene Miles – background vocals - Linda November – background vocals - Eileen Gilbert – background vocals - Maretha Stewart – background vocals - Albertine Robinson – background vocals - Ed Freeman – strings and horn arrangements, conductor Production - Johnny Sandlin – producer, arranger, engineer - Jim Reeves – engineer - David Boyd – personal manager - Ovie Sparks – engineer - Buddy Thornton – engineer - George Marino – engineer, mastering - Abdul Mati Klarwein – album cover art ## Charts ## Certifications
52,659,656	Crossover (Adventure Time)	1,167,793,793	null	[ "2016 American television episodes", "Adventure Time (season 7) episodes", "Television episodes about parallel universes" ]	"Crossover" is the twenty-third episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by Sam Alden and Jesse Moynihan, from an outline by showrunner Adam Muto, Jack Pendarvis, and head writer Kent Osborne. The episode, which debuted on January 28, 2016 on Cartoon Network, guest stars Kumail Nanjiani as Prismo, Lou Ferrigno as Bobby, and James Kyson as Big Destiny. The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Finn and Jake crossover into Farmworld (an alternate dimension first created in the episode "Finn the Human") to stop Farmworld-Finn and the Jake-Lich from using an alternate version of the Enchiridion to open up doorways into all dimensions. After a long and drawn-out battle, Finn, Jake, and Farmworld-Finn team up to stop the Jake-Lich. Finn and Jake are able to use a magical device given to them by Prismo to remove the essence of the Lich from Farmworld Jake, returning Farmworld to normal. "Crossover" was the first of several seventh-season episodes that Moynihan and Alden would work on; the two had previously collaborated on the sixth-season episode "The Mountain". Moynihan focused part of his attention on making sure that this episode would line up with the logic established in the fifth-season episode "Finn the Human" regarding alternate realities. Upon its airing, the episode was seen by 1.13 million viewers. It received largely positive reviews from critics, with several praising Nanjiani's voice work, as well as the aesthetic and design of the episode itself. ## Plot ### Background In the fourth-season finale, "The Lich", the series' main villain, the Lich (voiced by Ron Perlman), manages to open a portal to access the time room of Prismo (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani). In the fifth-season premiere, "Finn the Human", it is revealed that Prismo is a being that can grant wishes, and the Lich wishes for all life in the multiverse to be extinguished. Finn and Jake also enter Prismo's time room, and to undo the Lich's cataclysmic request, Finn wishes that "the Lich never even ever existed". Consequently, Finn is transported into a new "wish-altered reality", dubbed "Farmworld". In this version of Ooo, magic has been lost and the essence of the Lich was never released into the world via the detonation of a "mutagenic bomb". Furthermore, in this reality, Finn lives with his family and a non-magical dog named Jake. During the course of "Finn the Human", Finn finds the ice crown, a magical artifact. When he puts it on, he releases the essence of the Lich (who then possesses Farmworld-Jake's body), and re-introduces magic into the world. In "Jake the Dog", Jake, who has been still stuck in Prismo's time room after Finn is teleported to Farmworld, eventually wishes that the Lich's original request had merely been for "Finn and Jake to go home". With Jake's wish to seemingly undo what both the Lich and Finn wished for, Prismo believes that everything has been reset. ### Events Prismo summons Finn and Jake to his time room and reveals that Farmworld is still in existence; Farmworld-Finn has teamed up with the Jake-Lich, which could lead to destruction of all life in the multiverse. Prismo is powerless to stop this from occurring, and so he sends Finn and Jake to Farmworld with a device called "The Maid", which will clean up "all class-A inter-dimensional bung-ups." Once in the Farmworld universe, Finn and Jake discover that Farmworld-Finn has frozen all of that reality's humans in order to "save them". It is also revealed that the Jake-Lich has been possessing Big Destiny (voiced by James Kyson), gathering up the jewels needed to activate the Farmworld-version of the Enchiridion, so as to open up a portal to the multiverse. Eventually, Finn and Jake are discovered, and the portal is opened. Just as the Jake-Lich is about to kill Jake, Finn's grass-arm activates, severing Jake-Lich's hand. Farmworld-Finn realizes he has been used by Jake-Lich, and he teams up with Finn and Jake. The portal is closed, and Finn manages to use The Maid to remove the Lich's essence from Farmworld-Jake's body. With their work complete, Finn and Jake are taken back to Prismo's time room. Out of pity for his alternate reality self, Finn convinces Prismo to destroy Farmworld's ice crown, allowing Farmworld-Finn to reunite with his family. Finn despondently watches this transpire, while Jake tries to comfort him as they watch. ## Production The story for "Crossover" was developed by showrunner Adam Muto, Jack Pendarvis, and lead writer Kent Osborne. Sam Alden and Jesse Moynihan collaborated on the storyboard, which was submitted for network approval May 18, 2015, and eventually animated by Rough Draft Studios in South Korea. Supervising direction for the episode was carried out by Andres Salaff, whereas Sandra Lee handled the episode's art direction. This was Alden and Moynihan's first episode together since the sixth season episode "The Mountain". The episode sees the return of guest stars Ron Perlman, Kumail Nanjiani, and James Kyson; they reprise their characters Jake-Lich, Prismo, and Big Destiny, respectively. The episode also features Lou Ferrigno as Bobby, the Farmworld-version of the hero Billy. Some scenes in this episode reference other media works. According to Pendarvis, the visual appearance of the Jake-Lich was based on a scene from Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), which featured a mutant dog with a man's face. During the episode's final scene, Farmworld Finn's father is seen emerging out of a block of ice. Alden revealed on Twitter that he had specifically storyboarded this sequence to mirror a similar scene in "Escape from the Citadel" that had been storyboarded by Steve Wolfhard, which featured Finn's father Martin emerging from a crystal prison cell. It was Alden's intention for these two scenes to mirror each other, given their similar content. With the episode assigned to Alden and Moynihan, fellow storyboard artist Tom Herpich began to worry that the show would not be able to adequately explain why Farmworld continued to exist after the result of Jake's wish in "Jake the Dog". Herpich's concern caused Moynihan to also worry, and several discussions with Muto did little to quell his unease. In order to overcome this issue, Moynihan storyboarded several scenes featuring Prismo explaining why Farmworld continued to exist. Moynihan claimed that these additions were to ensure that "this shit made sense." In the end, however, these scenes were deemed unnecessary, and as such were excised from the episode. The sequences that depict the multiverse were designed by Moynihan, and to get the details right, he asked storyboard revisionist Julia Srednicki's father, who was a former quantum physicist, for assistance. Julia Srednicki's father provided several "articles and diagrams", which Moynihan then used when storyboarding the episode. ## Reception "Crossover" aired on January 28, 2016. It was seen by 1.13 million viewers and scored a 0.29 Nielsen rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic (Nielsen ratings are audience measurement systems that determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States), which means that the episode was seen by 0.29 percent of all individuals aged 18 to 49 years old who were watching television at the time of the episode's airing. The episode received positive reviews from critics. Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club awarded it an "A", calling it "a thrilling episode with some very impressive visuals". He also wrote that it "ends with a significant, unexpected emotional gut punch that takes advantage of the undercurrent of tragedy that runs through this post-post-apocalyptic series." Sava was complimentary towards Moynihan and Alden's storyboarding sensibilities, specifically highlighting their ability to balance the darker and more humorous aspects of the episode. Finally, the review also applauded Nanjiani's voice work, as well as the episode's "bold color choices and dramatic compositions that intesify the impact of the story". Andrew Tran of Overmental wrote that the episode's plot deviceparallel universes"call[s] attention to the most basic function of fiction: to imaginatively, counterfactually ponder what never happened so we can understand what did happen, and perhaps more importantly, so we can edit our perspectives on reality." In regards to the latter point, Tran highlighted similarities between the episode, and news stories of the day, writing: > It looks as though every wish granted in this way causes an entirely new dimension to be born and exist independently and irrevocably, which is an intriguing idea for the current moment. Today’s headlines are littered with activists and would-be revisionists attempting to either confront or whitewash this atrocity, or that new perspective, to either insert or obliterate narratives from history books, and effectively from the public consciousness. Hence, parallel dimension episodes are very much about historical authority and the fluidity of prevailing worldviews, and the threat that even a backwater dimension like Farmworld poses to Adventure Time‘s multiverse suggests that even the unlikeliest narrative, the most insane conspiracy theory, the most fringe historical revision, has a shot at existence, a chance to influence. K-K Bracken of The Geekiary applauded the return of the Lich as well as Prismo, and she complimented the episode's creative dialogue and neologism, writing, "This kind of dialogue is not only giggle-worthy, it’s also sneaking in vocabulary lessons for its target audience." Bracken also noted that Moynihan and Alden had good chemistry and that, in regards to Alden alone, "if this episode is any indication his future with the program looks bright indeed." ## Explanatory notes
1,428,356	Battle of Trois-Rivières	1,144,058,621	Battle of the American Revolutionary War	[ "1776 in the Province of Quebec (1763–1791)", "Battles involving Canada", "Battles involving Great Britain", "Battles involving the United States", "Battles of the American Revolutionary War in Canada", "Battles of the Canadian campaign", "Conflicts in 1776", "Conflicts in Quebec", "Heritage sites in Mauricie", "History of Trois-Rivières", "National Historic Sites in Quebec" ]	The Battle of Trois-Rivières was fought on June 8, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. A British army under Quebec Governor Guy Carleton defeated an attempt by units from the Continental Army under the command of Brigadier General William Thompson to stop a British advance up the Saint Lawrence River valley. The battle occurred as a part of the American colonists' invasion of Quebec, which had begun in September 1775 with the goal of removing the province from British rule. The crossing of the Saint Lawrence by the American troops was observed by Quebec militia, who alerted British troops at Trois-Rivières. A local farmer led the Americans into a swamp, enabling the British to land additional forces in the village, and to establish positions behind the American army. After a brief exchange between an established British line and American troops emerging from the swamp, the Americans broke into a somewhat disorganized retreat. As some avenues of retreat were cut off, the British took a sizable number of prisoners, including General Thompson and much of his staff. This was the last battle of the war fought on Quebec soil. Following the defeat, the remainder of the American forces, under the command of John Sullivan, retreated, first to Fort Saint-Jean, and then to Fort Ticonderoga. ## Background The Continental Army, which had invaded Quebec in September 1775, suffered a severe blow in the disastrous attack on Quebec City on New Year's Eve in 1775. Following that loss, Benedict Arnold and the remnants of the army besieged Quebec until May 1776. Early on May 6, three Royal Navy ships sailed into Quebec Harbour. Troops on these ships were immediately sent into the city and, not long after, General Guy Carleton formed them up and marched them out to the American siege camp. General John Thomas, then in command of the American forces, had already been making arrangements to retreat, but the British arrival threw his troops into a panic. He led a disorganized retreat that eventually reached Sorel on about May 18. ### British forces at Trois-Rivières Throughout the month of May and into early June, ships carrying troops and war supplies continued to arrive at Quebec. By June 2, Carleton had added the 9th, 20th, 29th, 53rd and 60th regiments of foot, along with General John Burgoyne, to his command. Also arriving in the fleet were Hessian troops from Brunswick commanded by Baron Riedesel. After the Americans' flight early in May, Carleton took no significant offensive steps but on May 22, he sent ships carrying elements of the 47th and 29th Foot to Trois-Rivières under Allan Maclean's command. Brigadier General Simon Fraser led more forces to Trois-Rivières on June 2. By June 7, the forces on the ground at Trois-Rivières had grown to nearly 1,000, and 25 ships carrying additional troops and supplies were anchored in the river near the village and for several miles upriver. ### American arrangements Since Thomas's retreat was instigated by the early arrival of three ships of the fleet carrying only a few hundred troops, he was unaware of the true size of the British army. In a war council at Sorel on May 21, which included representatives of the Second Continental Congress, a decision was reached to make a stand at Deschambault, between Trois-Rivières and Quebec. This decision was reached based on sketchy reports and rumors of the British troop strengths and was dominated by the non-military Congressional representatives. Thomas contracted smallpox on May 21, from which he died on June 2. He was briefly replaced by Brigadier General William Thompson, who relinquished command to General John Sullivan when he arrived on June 5 at Sorel with further reinforcements from Fort Ticonderoga. On June 5, just hours before Sullivan's arrival, Thompson sent 600 troops under the command of Colonel Arthur St. Clair toward Trois-Rivières with the goal of surprising and beating back the small British force believed to be there. Sullivan, on his arrival at Sorel, immediately dispatched Thompson with an additional 1,600 men to follow. These forces caught up with St. Clair at Nicolet, where defenses against troop movements on the river were erected the next day. On the night of June 7, Thompson, St. Clair, and about 2,000 men crossed the river, landing at Pointe du Lac, a few miles above Trois-Rivières. ## Battle The American crossing had been seen by a local militia captain, who rushed to the British camp at Trois-Rivières and reported to General Fraser. Thompson left 250 men to guard the landing and headed the rest towards Trois-Rivières. Unfamiliar with the local terrain, he convinced Antoine Gautier, a local farmer, to guide the men to Trois-Rivières. Gautier proceeded, apparently intentionally, to lead the American army into a swampy morass from which it took them hours to extricate themselves. In the meantime, the British, having been alerted to the American presence, proceeded to land troops from the fleet and formed battle lines on the road outside the village. Ships were also sent up to Pointe du Lac, where they drove the American guards there to flee across the river with most of the boats. Some of the Americans, led by Thompson, made their way out of the swamp to be confronted by HMS Martin, which drove them back into the swamp with grapeshot. A column of men under Colonel Anthony Wayne fared only a little better, arriving out of the swamp only to face Fraser's formation. A brief exchange of fire took place: but the Americans, clearly outmatched by Fraser's forces, broke and ran, leaving arms and supplies behind. Portions of the American force retreated to the edge of the woods, which gave them some cover, and attempted to engage some of the British troops: but fire from those troops kept them off the road and fire from some of the ships in the river kept them from the shore. St. Clair and a number of men made it back to the landing site, only to find it occupied by the British troops. Only by returning to the swampy woods and continuing to flee upriver did these men escape capture at that time. Wayne eventually managed to form a rear guard of about 800 men, which attempted an attack on the British position; but they were driven back into the woods. Wayne then led a staggered retreat, in which companies of men slipped away, with the woods giving cover to hide their true numbers. General Carleton arrived in Trois-Rivières late in the action. A detachment of British forces led by Major Grant had taken control of a bridge over the Rivière-du-Loup, a critical crossing for the Americans retreating along the north shore of the Saint Lawrence. Carleton ordered Grant to withdraw, allowing most of the Americans to escape, either because he did not want to deal with large numbers of prisoners or because he wanted to demoralize the Americans further. A significant number of Americans did not make it that far, and were captured. These included General Thompson and seventeen of his officers. It was not until June 13 that the British finished rounding up the stragglers. In all, 236 captives were taken. Brendan Morrissey says that about 30 Americans were killed in the battle, while Howard Peckham gives a figure of 50 Americans killed. ## Aftermath Scattered fragments of the American army made their way overland on the northern shore to Berthier, where they crossed over to Sorel. Some did not return until June 11. Sullivan, who counted 2,500 effective troops under his command, at first wanted to make a stand at Sorel, but smallpox, desertions, and word that the British fleet was again under sail to come upriver convinced him it was time to retreat. By June 17, the Continental Army had left the province; but not before it had attempted to burn Montreal, as well as destroying Fort Saint-Jean and any boats of military value capable of navigating Lake Champlain. Carleton ordered most of the British army to sail upriver toward Sorel on June 9, but they did not actually leave until he joined them on June 13. A detachment of 1200 men under Fraser marched up the northern shore toward Berthier and Montreal. The British fleet arrived at Sorel late on the 14th; the Americans had left there just that morning. Elements of the British army entered Montreal on June 17, and also arrived at Fort Saint-Jean in time to see the last Americans (the very last one reported to be Benedict Arnold) push away from its burning remnants. The captives were treated quite generously by Carleton. Although the conditions of their imprisonment were not always good, he provided them with clothing, and eventually had all but the officers transported to New York and released. ## Legacy A site near the Le Jeune bridge was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1920 in order to commemorate the battle. There are three plaques in the city of Trois-Rivières commemorating aspects of the battle. A plaque honouring the British participants was placed at the National Historic Site by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. A plaque honouring the American dead was placed in the Parc Champlain by the Daughters of the American Revolution in August 1985. The third plaque honours Antoine Gauthier for his role in misleading the American troops. During the American retreat from Quebec, and in this battle, wounded soldiers were treated at the Ursuline convent in Trois-Rivières. Congress never authorized payment for these services and the convent has retained the bill. By the early 21st century, the original bill of about £26 was estimated to be equivalent to between ten and twenty million Canadian dollars, if compound interest was applied. On July 4, 2009, during festivities marking the town's 375th anniversary, American Consul-General David Fetter symbolically repaid the debt to the Ursulines with a payment of C\$130.
8,288,142	HMS Boadicea (H65)	1,093,866,011	B-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, sunk by enemy action in Lyme Bay	[ "1930 ships", "A- and B-class destroyers", "Destroyers sunk by aircraft", "Maritime incidents in June 1944", "Naval magazine explosions", "Protected Wrecks of the United Kingdom", "Ships built on the River Tyne", "Ships sunk by German aircraft", "World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom", "World War II shipwrecks in the English Channel", "Wreck diving sites in the United Kingdom" ]	HMS Boadicea was a B-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy (RN) around 1930. Initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, she was transferred to the Home Fleet in 1936. Before her departure, the ship evacuated civilians from Spain during the beginning of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. Boadicea later spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. During World War II, the ship spent the bulk of the war on convoy escort duty in British waters and participated in the Battle of the Atlantic, Operation Torch, the Russian Convoys, and in the Normandy landings. Badly damaged by German dive bombers in 1940, she was sunk almost exactly four years later by German aircraft. ## Description Boadicea displaced 1,360 long tons (1,380 t) at standard load and 1,790 long tons (1,820 t) at deep load. The ship had an overall length of 323 feet (98.5 m), a beam of 32 feet 3 inches (9.8 m) and a draught of 12 feet 3 inches (3.7 m). She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, driving two shafts, which developed a total of 34,000 shaft horsepower (25,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph). Steam for the turbines was provided by three Admiralty 3-drum boilers. Boadicea carried a maximum of 390 long tons (400 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 4,800 nautical miles (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). The ship's complement was 134 officers and ratings, although it increased to 142 during wartime. The ship mounted four 45-calibre quick-firing (QF) 4.7-inch Mk IX guns in single mounts, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, Boadicea had two 40-millimetre (1.6 in) QF 2-pounder Mk II AA guns mounted on a platform between her funnels. She was fitted with two above-water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes. One depth charge rail and two throwers were fitted; 20 depth charges were originally carried, but this increased to 35 shortly after the war began. The ship was fitted with a Type 119 ASDIC set to detect submarines by reflections from sound waves beamed into the water. By October 1940, the ship's anti-aircraft armament was increased when the rear set of torpedo tubes was replaced by a 3-inch (76.2 mm) (12-pounder) AA gun. The 'Y' gun was later removed to compensate for the additional depth charges added. When Boadicea was converted into an escort destroyer at the end of 1943, her 'A' gun was replaced by a Hedgehog anti-submarine spigot mortar and additional depth charge stowage replaced the 12-pounder high-angle gun. In addition, two QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns were added to deal with surfaced submarines at close range and the 2-pounder guns were replaced by 20-millimetre (0.8 in) Oerlikon autocannon and four additional Oerlikon guns were also added. ## Construction and service The ship was ordered on 4 March 1929 from Hawthorn Leslie, under the 1928 Naval Programme. She was laid down at Hebburn-on-Tyne on 11 July 1929, and launched on 23 September 1930, as the fifth RN ship to carry this name. Boadicea was completed on 9 April 1931 at a cost of £225,325, excluding items supplied by the Admiralty such as guns, ammunition and communications equipment. After her commissioning, she was assigned to the 4th Destroyer Flotilla with the Mediterranean Fleet until 1936. She was damaged whilst refuelling at sea with the battleship Revenge on 15 March 1935; her repairs lasted until 18 April. Later that year she was deployed to Famagusta, Cyprus, and Haifa, Palestine to assist British forces in putting down riots from December 1935 – January 1936. Boadicea had to return to Haifa in June to help put down the beginnings of the Arab Revolt. Afterwards the ship was deployed to Cartagena and Valencia to evacuate civilians at the start of the Spanish Civil War before beginning a refit at Portsmouth that lasted until 26 September. She remained with the 4th Flotilla until January 1939 and made multiple deployments off the coast of Spain enforcing the embargo until April 1938 when she was again refitted. After leaving the 4th Flotilla, Boadicea served as the plane guard for the aircraft carriers of the Mediterranean Fleet for a few months until she became the emergency destroyer at the Nore. She was attached to the Reserve Fleet at Portland for the Fleet Review in August 1939. On 29 August, Boadicea was assigned to the 19th Destroyer Flotilla based at Dover where she escorted the troopships of the British Expeditionary Force through October. The ship was then transferred to the 22nd Destroyer Flotilla at Harwich for two months before rejoining the 19th Flotilla where she escorted convoys through the English Channel. On 4 March 1940, she towed the oil tanker Charles F. Meyer to Southampton Water after that ship struck a mine. Boadicea began a refit at Chatham Dockyard on 2 May and was not operational until she sailed for Le Havre, France on 9 June to assist in the evacuation of British troops before advancing German troops. The next afternoon, she was severely damaged by Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers that knocked out her engines and boilers. After all depth charges and torpedoes were jettisoned to reduce her topweight and temporary repairs made to the holes in her hull, Boadicea was towed by the destroyer Ambuscade and the tugboat Krooman to Dover. Repairs at Portsmouth lasted until 14 February 1941 and included the installation of a Type 286 short-range surface search radar. Upon completions, the ship was assigned to Home Fleet and participated in the search for the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau which had broken out into the North Atlantic. In March, Boadicea was transferred to the 4th Escort Group at Greenock for convoy escort duties and remained with them until February 1942 when the group was disbanded. She was then assigned to the Western Approaches Command until July. The ship was detached to escort Convoys PQ 15 and Convoy QP 12 to and from Murmansk in April–May. Boadicea was refitted between August and October, after which she escorted a convoy to Gibraltar as part of the preparations for Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa. She escorted British ships to Oran during the invasion and was struck by a shell from a French L'Adroit-class destroyer on 8 November that did little damage. Three days later, the ship was escorting the empty ocean liner when the latter ship was torpedoed. The destroyer attempted to take the troopship under tow, but was unable to save the ship. Boadicea rescued 449 passengers and crew and delivered them to Gibraltar. Upon her return home, the ship was assigned to the 20th Escort Group where she escorted Convoys JW 51A, JW 53 and RA 53 to and from Russia. She was badly damaged by sea ice during the latter convoy in March and required repairs that lasted until May. Upon their completion, Boadicea was transferred to Freetown, Sierra Leone where she served as a local escort. On 19 July, she rescued 220 survivors from the torpedoed ocean liner . The ship returned to the Home Fleet in September and briefly assigned to the 8th Escort Group before she started her conversion into an escort destroyer in November. This included the addition of Type 271 target indication radar and the replacement of the Type 286 radar by a Type 290. After this was completed in January 1944, Boadicea rejoined the 8th Escort Group and escorted Convoys JW 57, RA 58 and RA 59 to Russia from February through April. In preparation for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, she was transferred to Portsmouth where she escorted convoys arriving in England as well as the convoys across the Channel. Boadicea was sunk on 13 June off Portland Bill by German aircraft while escorting a convoy of merchant ships to France. Sources differ as to the weapons used and the aircraft that carried them; some say Fritz X missiles fired by Dornier Do 217s belonging to KG 100 or torpedoes dropped by Junkers Ju 88s. The weapons caused a magazine explosion and Boadicea sank quickly, with only 12 of her crew of 182 surviving. The ship is included on the Chatham Naval Memorial; her wreck is 16 miles (26 km) southwest of the Isle of Portland at in 53 metres (174 ft) of water. Her bow is blown off forward of the engine rooms and her stern section is upright and reasonably intact. The wreck site is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
31,460,808	Big Fat Bass	1,171,620,526	2011 song by Britney Spears	[ "2011 songs", "Britney Spears songs", "House music songs", "Song recordings produced by will.i.am", "Songs written by will.i.am", "Will.i.am songs" ]	"Big Fat Bass" is a song recorded by American singer Britney Spears for her seventh studio album, Femme Fatale (2011). It features the vocal collaboration of American rapper will.i.am. The house song was written and produced by will.i.am as a celebration to the bass and its influence on club music. The song contains a double entendre gender metaphor sung by Spears. "Big Fat Bass" received mixed reviews from contemporary music critics, who deemed it an instant radio and club hit, and also considered it the most old-school work on the album. However, a few reviews considered it as an unfortunate collaboration with will.i.am, and dismissed Spears' heavily processed vocals. Following the release of Femme Fatale, "Big Fat Bass" charted at number 31 on the South Korean International Singles chart, and at number 18 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Digital Songs for a week. Spears performed the song at Rain Nightclub, Good Morning America and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The performance on the latter aired after three months due to technical problems. She has also performed it during the Femme Fatale Tour (2011). ## Background and composition Spears spoke to V about the sessions for Femme Fatale, commenting that she had been recording the album for two years. On February 8, 2011, Spears tweeted she was in the studio with will.i.am, recording a song for the album. Later, the producer described the collaboration as "a monster. It's mean, pretty, edgy, next level. [...] She's singing fresh over it. It's something that today needs," and unveiled a teaser of the song through a blog message on February 28, 2011. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Spears commented that she is a fan of the Black Eyed Peas, due the fact that the band "make[s] incredibly catchy, fun pop/dance records and I LOVE will.i.am's style. I have always wanted to do a song with him and would love to work with him more in the future. He is so interesting." will.i.am also praised Spears for the song, saying, "Thank you Britney for collaborating it was a pleasure working with you. Thank you for trusting my instincts. You're a doll." "Big Fat Bass" was written and produced by will.i.am, and Spears recorded her vocals for the song at Ethernet Studios in Los Angeles, California and at The Record Plant in Hollywood, California. "Big Fat Bass" is a house song with a length of four minutes and forty-five seconds. will.i.am revealed that the song celebrates bass — which he considers the most important element in club music. "Big Fat Bass" opens with piano-infused background and an electronically altered voice of will.i.am singing, "Big fat bass/the big fat bass." As the beat begins, Spears start to rap "I can be the treble, baby/You can be the bass/You can be the bass." Nicole James of MTV News considered the "dramatic piano/house music intro" of the song reminiscent to "Another Night" (1993) by Real McCoy, while Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote that it recalls "When I Hear Music" by Debbie Deb. The song's lyrics also intercalates with a double entendre gender metaphor, where Spears sings "It's gettin bigger/The bass is getting bigger". Spears' vocals were also deemed as heavily processed, yet similar to the ones of Fergie and Rihanna. ## Critical reception Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote that "Big Fat Bass" is "the most old-school work" on Femme Fatale, with Robert Copsey of Digital Spy considering the album's production "polished, intriguing and – best of all – fun", exemplifying the piano breakdown in the song. Keith Caulfield of Billboard said he could "completely hear this track blasting in a club, with Spears cooing 'I can be your treble' while the crowd screams back 'you can be my bass!'." The Daily Collegian's stated that the song is "catchy", yet different from "Till the World Ends" and "Hold It Against Me", and added that "the combined star power of Spears and Will.i.am would have surely made it a radio hit." The Independent journalist Andy Gill noted that the album sounds more programmed than natural, but said that the song "sticks to dancefloor essentials". David Buchanan of Consequence of Sound thought that the song "might as well be a B-side to 'The Time (Dirty Bit)' (otherwise known as the most annoying Black Eyed Peas song ever created)." Both Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic and About.com reviewer Bill Lamb selected it as a top song on Femme Fatale. Lamb further added that the song "will leave you laughing as you sing along on the dance floor." Rudy Klapper of Sputnikmusic wondered how "Big Fat Bass" is not a Black Eyed Peas song, and further commented that "for every ill-advised will.i.am guest spot... there's an out-of-left field flute... solo that actually works." Thomas Conner of the Chicago Sun-Times considered the song "one unfortunate collaboration," while saying Spears "herself could beat [will.i.am] in a rap battle." Similarly, Eric R. Danton of the Hartford Courant deemed the "banal" song as "characteristically vapid, with a refrain that quickly progresses from inane to annoying." Robert Everett-Green of The Globe and Mail wrote that "Big Fat Bass" is a "verseless tune", and commented that "[will.i.am] thought it would be fun to make [Spears] sound like Rihanna" on the song. Braulio Lorentz of Billboard Brasil said that "even will.i.am can't save [the album]" with "Big Fat Bass". The Idolator staff noted that the song has "all the strengths and weaknesses of your average Black Eyed Peas tune – it's catchy but repetitive, danceable with pretty inconsequential lyrics, and has the potential to become annoying if played too frequently." Writing for Glamour, Christopher Rosa thought it "strips Spears of all personality and leaves her stranded in a sea of headache-inducing beats", and he named it Spears's sixth-worst song of all-time. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone was critical: "Imagine how bad a Will.I.Am production for Britney called 'Big Fat Bass' might be. Now multiply that by 10. You have just imagined 'Big Fat Bass.'" ## Live performances Spears first performed "Big Fat Bass" at Rain Nightclub in the Palms Casino Resort on March 25, 2011. Following the performance of "Hold It Against Me", she emerged from a speaker box and danced around the stage, sporting a body-hugging latex bodysuit. The song was remixed for the performance with elements of "Womanizer", "3", "Gimme More" and "I'm a Slave 4 U". Jocelyn Vena of MTV News stated that the performance had Spears' fans amazed. The singer also taped performances of "Hold It Against Me", "Big Fat Bass" and "Till the World Ends" at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on March 27, 2011, that aired on Good Morning America on March 29, 2011. Pop Crush's Cristin Maher noted that the singer "definitely let loose more as she popped and locked alongside her dancers, but still failed to wow us with her dancing." The same day, Spears performed the set on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. However, the performance of "Big Fat Bass" aired on May 24, 2011 due to technical problems. The song was added to the setlist of 2011's Femme Fatale Tour. Spears sported a pink latex and lace jacket during the performance, which had a similar setting to early performances of the song. Additionally, will.i.am appeared in the backdrops. ## Credits and personnel Technical - Recorded and Engineered at Ethernet Studios in Los Angeles, California and The Record Plant in Hollywood, California - Mixed at The Record Plant in Hollywood, California Personnel - Britney Spears – lead vocals - will.i.am – guest vocals, songwriting, producer, piano, synths, programming, vocal recording - DJ Ammo – additional programming, synths, piano - Dylan "3D" Dresdow – mixing - Padraic "padlock" Kerin – vocal recording Source: ## Charts For the week ending April 7, 2011, "Big Fat Bass" debuted at number 31 on the South Korean International Singles Chart, selling 8,874 digital downloads. It also charted on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Digital Songs on April 16, 2011 at number 18.
23,558,015	Tawang Monastery	1,159,284,947	Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, India	[ "Buddhist monasteries in Arunachal Pradesh", "Buddhist temples in India", "Gelug monasteries and temples", "Religious organizations established in the 1680s", "Tourism in Northeast India" ]	Tawang Monastery, located in Tawang city of Tawang district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, is the largest monastery in India. It is situated in the valley of the Tawang Chu, near the small town of the same name in the northwestern part of Arunachal Pradesh, in close proximity to the Chinese and Bhutanese border. Tawang Monastery is known in Tibetan as Gaden Namgyal Lhatse, which translates to "the divine paradise of complete victory." It was founded by Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso in 1680–1681 in accordance with the wishes of the 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso. It belongs to the Gelug school of Vajrayana Buddhism and had a religious association with Drepung Monastery of Lhasa, which continued during the period of British rule. The monastery is three stories high. It is enclosed by a 925 feet (282 m) long compound wall. Within the complex there are 65 residential buildings. The library of the monastery has valuable old scriptures, mainly Kangyur and Tengyur. ## Etymology The full name of the monastery is Tawang Galdan Namgye Lhatse. 'Ta' means "horse", 'wang' means "chosen", which together forms the word 'Tawang', meaning "the location selected by horse". Further, 'Gadan' means "paradise", 'Namgyal' means "complete victory" and 'Lhatse' means "divine". Thus, the full meaning of the 'Tawang Galdan Namgye Lhatse' is the "site chosen by the horse is the divine paradise of complete victory". ## Location The monastery is situated near the top of a mountain, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3,000 m), with a commanding view of the Tawang Chu valley, which comprises snow-capped mountains and coniferous forest. It is bounded on its southern and western flanks by steep ravines formed by streams, a narrow spur on the north and a gently sloping ground on the east. The monastery is entered from the northern direction along a sloping spur, which has alpine vegetation. Nearby Tawang Town, named after the monastery, is well connected by road, rail and air services. Bhalukpong, which is the nearest rail head, is 280 kilometres (170 mi) away by road. Tezpur Airport is the nearest airport at a road distance of 350 kilometres (220 mi). ## Legends Three legends are narrated to the establishment of the monastery. In the first legend it is said that location of the present Monastery was selected by a horse which belonged to Merag Lama Lodre Gyatso who was on a mission assigned to him by the 5th Dalai Lama to establish a Monastery. After an intense search, when he failed to locate a suitable place, he retired into a cave to offer prayers seeking divine intervention to choose the site. When he came out of the cave, he found his horse missing. He then went in search of the horse and finally found it grazing at the top of a mountain called Tana Mandekhang, which in the past was the palace of King Kala Wangpo. He took this as a divine and auspicious guidance and decided to establish the monastery at that location. Seeking the help of the local people, Mera Lama established the monastery at that location in the latter part of 1681. The second legend of the derivation of the name Tawang is linked to Terton Pemalingpa, diviner of treasures. At this location, he is stated to have given "initiations" of Tamdin and Kagyad, which resulted in the name "Tawang". ‘Ta’ is an abbreviated form for "Tamdin" and ‘Wang’ means "initiation". According to the third legend, a white horse of the Prince of Lhasa had wandered into Monpa region. People, who went in search of the horse, found the horse grazing at the present location of the monastery. The people of the area then worshipped the horse and the location where it was found and venerated it every year. Eventually, to honour the sacred site, the Tawang Monastery was built at the site. One more legend narrated is about the goddess painted on a thangka in the monastery which is of Palden Lhamo. This female deity is compared to the Hindu Goddess Kali. Like Kali, Palden Lhamo's thangka is drawn in black colour, with flaming eyes, dressed in skirt made of tiger skin, and a garland of skulls around her neck. A moon disc adorns her hair, similar to the one seen on Shiva. She is also associated with Goddess Saraswati and Ma Tara. Legend also states that in the past she had lived in Sri Lanka as the consort of a demon king who practiced human sacrifice. As she was not supportive of this practice she fled from the kingdom. As she was running away, the king shot her with an arrow, which struck the backside of the mule that she was riding. When she drew out the arrow, it left a gaping hole in the mule's back, and through this gap Palden Lhamo could watch the teachings of Lord Buddha. ## History The monastery was founded by Merek Lama Lodre Gyamsto in 1680–81 at the behest of the 5th Dalai Lama, who was his contemporary. When Merek Lama was experiencing difficulties in building the monastery at the chosen location of Tsosum, the ancient name for Tawang, the 5th Dalai Lama issued directives to the people of the area to provide him all help. To fix the perimeter of the Dzong, the Dalai Lama had also given a ball of yarn, the length of which was to form the limit of the monastery. Prior to the dominance of the Gelug sect of Buddhism in Tawang, the Nyingmapa or the Black Hat sect of Buddhism was dominant and this resulted in their hegemony and even hostile approach towards the founder, Merek Lama. This problem was compounded by the Drukpas of Bhutan, who also belonged to the Nyingmapa sect, who even tried to invade and take control of Tawang. Hence, when the Tawang monastery was built like a fort structure, a strategic location was chosen from the defense point of view. In 1844, Tawang Monastery had entered into two agreements with the East India Company. One agreement, signed on 24 February, pertained to surrender by the Monpas of their right to the Karlapara Duar in return for an annual fee (posa) of Rs 5,000, and another, dated 28 May, related to the Shardukpens to abide by any order of the British administration in India in return for an annual fee of Rs 2,526 and seven annas. Tawang officials used to travel almost to the plains of Assam to collect monastic contributions. According to Pandit Nain Singh of the Trignometrical Survey of India, who visited the monastery in 1874–75, the monastery had a parliamentary form of administration, known as the Kato, with the Chief Lamas of the monastery as its members. It was not dependent on the Dzonpan (head of Tsona Monastery) and Government of Lhasa, and this aspect was supported by G.A. Nevill who had visited the monastery in 1924. Until 1914, this region of India was under the control of Tibet. However, under the Simla Agreement of 1913-14, the area came under the control of the British Raj. Tibet gave up several hundred square miles of its territory, including the whole of the Tawang region and the monastery, to the British. This disputed territory was the bone of contention for the 1962 India China war, when China invaded India on 20 October 1962 from the northeastern border, forcing the Indian army to retreat. They occupied Tawang, including the monastery, for six months, but did not desecrate it. China claimed that Tawang belonged to Tibet. It is one of the few monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism that have remained protected from Mao's Cultural Revolution without any damage. Before this war, in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama had fled from Tibet, and after an arduous journey, crossed into India on 31 March 1959, and had reached Tawang and taken shelter in the monastery for a few days before moving to Tezpur. 50 years later, in spite of strong protests by China, the Dalai Lama's visit on 8 November 2009 to Tawang Monastery was a monumental event to the people of the region, and the abbot of the monastery greeted him with much fanfare and adulation. As of 2006 the monastery had 400 monks, and the number was reported to be 450 in 2010. Tawang Manuscript Conservation Centre was established in the monastery in August 2006, which has curated 200 manuscripts, and 31 manuscripts have been treated for preservation. In November 2010, it was reported that the monastery was threatened by a risk of landslide, with The Times of India reporting "massive landslides around it". Professor Dave Petley of Durham University in the United Kingdom (UK), an acknowledged landslide expert, wrote: "the northern flank of the site appears to consist of a landslide scarp ... The reasons for this are clear – the river, which flows towards the south, is eroding the toe of the slope due to the site being on the outside of the bend. In the long term, erosion at the toe will need to be prevented if the site is to be preserved." The monastery currently has control over 17 gompas in West Kameng district. The monastery has administrative control over two dzongs, each headed by a monk; the Darana Dzong built in 1831 and the Sanglem Dzong, also known as Talung Gompa, in the south-west part of Kameng district. These dzongs not only collect taxes but also preach Buddhism to the Monpas and Sherdukpens of Kameng. The monastery owns cultivable lands in the villages of Soma and Nerguit and a few patches in some other villages which are tilled and cultivated by farmers, who share the produce with the monastery. The present resident head of the monastery is the incarnate Gyalsy Rinpochey. The Dalai Lama also visited Tawang Monastery in 2017. ## Features ### Entrance and outer walls At the entrance to the monastery there is colourful gate structure, known as the Kakaling, which is built in the shape of a "hut-like structure", with side walls built of stone masonry. The roof of the Kakaling features mandalas, while the interior walls have murals of divinities and saints painted on them. A distinctive mural, the ninth mural from the southwest west corner of the southern wall, is of Ningmecahn, the protector deity of the Bon religion, who is considered the guardian deity of the Tawang region. Ahead of the main gate of the Kakaling, to its south, is another entry, an open gate. The main entrance to the monastery, to the south of the open gate, has massive doors fitted on the northern wall. This outer wall is 925 feet (282 m) in length, with heights varying from about 10–20 feet (3.0–6.1 m). Apart from the main gate, the southern side of the monastery has another entry gate, which also has a massive door. Nearer to the gate, there are two small openings in the wall which provide the complete view of the exterior part of the eastern wall that connects to the Kakaling. According to a legend, the 5th Dalai Lama had given a roll of thread to be bound around the walls of the monastery to denote the extent to which the monastery should be built. ### Main buildings The monastery, built like a large mansion, is triple storied with a large assembly hall, ten other functional structures and with 65 residential quarters for students, Lamas and monks. The monastery has a school and its own water supply facility, and a centre for Buddhist cultural studies. The ground floor of the monastery is where ritual dances are performed. The walls of the monastery also have a profusion of thangkas of Buddhist deities and saints. Curtains are suspended over the balcony and these are painted with Buddhist symbols. Within the precincts of the monastery there are residential buildings to accommodate about 700 monks, which now houses 450 monks. The abbot of the monastery resides in a house located near the gate at the southeastern corner of the monastery. A notable feature on the wall of the front porch on the ground floor is a footprint on a stone slab. It is said that this footprint belonged to a resident of the monastery, who was a water carrier, known as Chitenpa. He served in the monastery for a long time and on one fine day he announced that he had completed his service to the monastery and then stamped his left foot on the stone slab which created a dented formation of his step. This step is venerated as a miracle in view of a belief among the people of the region that such an imprint on a stone slab could only be created by a divine person who was a true devotee of the monastery. #### Main temple (Dukhang) The main temple in the monastery, to the west of the entry gate, is known as the Dukhang ('Du' means "assembly" and 'Khang' means "building"). It was built in 1860–61. A large image of Buddha of 18 feet (5.5 m) height is deified; it is gilded and decorated, and is in a lotus position. This image is on the northern face of the assembly hall and is installed over a platform and its head extends up to the first floor. Next to the Buddha image there is a silver casket that holds a special thangka of the goddess Sro Devi (Palden Lhamo), which is the guardian deity of the monastery. It is said that it was painted with the blood drawn from the nose of the 5th Dalai Lama, which renders an ethereal "living quality" to the thanka. This thangka image, also known as Dri Devi, was donated to the monastery by the 5th Dalai Lama. The main temple fell into a dilapidated condition and was renovated in 2002 in the traditional Buddhist architectural style. It has been exquisitely decorated with paintings, murals, carvings, sculptures and so forth. ### Library and texts The monastery has a printing press for printing religious books using paper made locally. Wooden blocks are used for printing. The books are used usually by the literate Monpa Lamas who refer to it for conducting religious rituals. The entire second floor houses the library. It contains the scriptures of Gyetengpa, Doduipa, Mamtha, Kangyur, Tengyur and Zungdui, which have been affected due to insect attacks. The collection in the library consists of two printed books of Tengyur (in 25 volumes), which are commentaries on Buddhist teachings; three sets of Kangyur, the translated version of the canons of Buddhist teachings; and Chanjia Sangbhums in five volumes. Of the three sets of Kangyur, two are handwritten and one is printed. The printed sets are in 101 volumes. One handwritten set has 131 volumes and the other 125 volumes; the letters of these 125 books are washed in gold. The religious text, Gyentongpa, has letters washed in gold in all its pages. At some stage, some of the sacred scriptures were lost and the reason was attributed to the monks of the Tsona monastery who used to visit Tawang during winter time. In the past, these monks had demanded that the gilded image of the Buddha be gifted to them. This was not accepted by the Lamas of the Tawang Monastery and as result the Tsona Lamas refused to part with some of the sacred texts and records of the Tawang Monastery which were with them. They again took away more books in 1951. ## Customs and festivals Monpas, who belong to the Gelug sect, are the dominant sect of the Kameng region. Many Monpa boys join the monastery and become monks. When young boys join the monastery to train, it is on the condition that it is a lifetime commitment. If a monk wishes to leave the monastery, a heavy penalty is levied. According to a past custom, in a family of three sons, the middle son was conscripted to the monastery and in a family of two sons the youngest son was inducted into the monastery. The main Monpa festivals held in the monastery are the Choksar, Losar, Ajilamu, and Torgya. Choksar is the festival when the Lamas recite religious scriptures in the monasteries. Following the religious recitations, the villagers carry the scriptures on their back and circumambulate their agricultural land seeking blessings for the good yield of crops without any infestations by pests and to protect against attack by wild animals. In the Losar festival, which marks the beginning of the Tibetan New Year, people visit the monastery and offer prayers. Torgya, also known as Tawang-Torgya, is an annual festival that is exclusively held in the monastery. It is held according to the Buddhist calendar days of 28th to 30th of Dawachukchipa, which corresponds to 10 to 12 January of the Gregorian calendar, and is a Monpa celebration. The objective of the festival is to ward off evil spirits and ushering all round prosperity and happiness to the people in the ensuing year. During the three-day festival, dances performed by artists in colorful costumes and masks are held in the courtyard, including the Pha Chan and the Losjker Chungiye, the latter of which is performed by the monks of the monastery. Each dance represents a myth and costumes and masks represent animal forms such as cows, tigers, sheep, monkeys and so forth.
1,161,224	West Pier	1,173,187,910	Ruined 19th century pier in Brighton, England	[ "2000s fires in the United Kingdom", "2003 disasters in the United Kingdom", "2003 fires in Europe", "2003 in England", "Articles containing video clips", "Burned buildings and structures in the United Kingdom", "Fires in England", "Grade I listed buildings in Brighton and Hove", "Pier fires", "Piers in Sussex" ]	The West Pier is a ruined pier in Brighton, England. It was designed by Eugenius Birch and opened in 1866. It was the first pier to be Grade I listed in England but has become increasingly derelict since its closure to the public in 1975. As of 2023 only a partial metal framework remains. The pier was constructed during a boom in pleasure pier building in the 1860s, and was designed to attract tourists to Brighton. It was the town's second pier, joining the Royal Suspension Chain Pier that opened in 1823. The West Pier was extended in 1893, and a concert hall was added in 1916. The pier reached its peak attendance at this time, with 2 million visitors between 1918 and 1919. Its popularity began to decline after World War II, and concerts were replaced by a funfair and tearoom. A local company took over ownership of the pier in 1965, but could not meet the increasing costs of maintenance and filed for bankruptcy. The pier closed to the public in 1975 and fell into disrepair and gradually collapsed. Major sections fell into the sea during storms in late 2002, and two separate fires, both thought to be arson, in March and May 2003 destroyed most of the remaining structure, leading to English Heritage declaring it beyond repair. Some structured demolition took place in 2010 to make way for the i360 observation tower; further structural damage from storms has occurred since. The West Pier Trust owns the remains and has proposed various renovation plans. Some schemes have been opposed by local residents and the owners of the nearby Palace Pier, claiming unfair competition. ## History ### 19th century The West Pier was constructed during a boom in pleasure pier building in the 1860s, during which 22 new piers were erected across Britain. It was designed by architect Eugenius Birch as a place for seaside visitors to enjoy fresh sea air. Some wealthy residents in the nearby Regency Square objected to construction, complaining that the planned toll houses at the entrance would spoil the view of the sea from their homes. It was felt that the pier would have a positive effect on property values in the town, so the pier was approved. Construction began in 1863 and the pier opened to the public on 6 October 1866. The pier's length was 1,115 feet (340 m) with a width of 310 feet (94 m) at the pierhead. It was built with cast iron threaded columns screwed into the seabed. The superstructure's ironwork was manufactured by Robert Laidlaw, featuring an "oriental" style. By the opening, the pier was fitted with gas lamps with ornamental serpent designs, which had been directly influenced by similar examples inside the nearby Royal Pavilion. The pier had ornamental houses, two toll houses and glass screens at the pierhead to protect visitors from the weather. A New Scientist report covering Britain's piers called the pier Birch's "masterpiece". In 1893, the pierhead was extended under the supervision of Birch's nephew, Peregrine, who added a pavilion with a capacity for 1,400 people. After the Royal Suspension Chain Pier was demolished following a storm in 1896, the West Pier became the only one on Brighton's seafront until the construction of the Palace Pier. ### 20th century In April 1900, seven sailors from HMS Desperate drowned in bad weather as they approached the pier. By the early 20th century, the earlier priority of good sea air on the pier had been replaced with a desire for public entertainment. The pier reached record levels of attendance in the early 20th century, attracting around 1.5 million visitors between 1910 and 1911. Attendance fell due to the onset of World War I, but increased afterwards, with around 2 million people visiting between 1918 and 1919. Competition with the Palace Pier led to a new concert hall, designed by local architects Clayton & Black. The 19th-century bandstand was demolished between 1914 and 1916. It was replaced by an eight-sided grand concert hall, constructed from cast-iron arches. It opened on 20 April 1916 with a concert by the King's Royal Rifles silver band, made up of war veterans. The concert hall had an in-house orchestra by November, and ticket sales for concerts accounted for 43% of the pier's revenue by 1920. The West Pier was favoured by locals, while the Palace Pier was used more by day trippers. A top-deck entrance was added to the hall in 1932. The pier's central decking was removed during World War II to prevent enemy landings, and its popularity began to decline. On 26 November 1944, a Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoon fighter hit the pier, crashing onto the beach. The pilot sustained head injuries. The fighter was one of four aircraft escorting a VIP flight. The concert hall was converted into a tea room and the theatre redesigned as a restaurant in the early 1950s. A funfair was added around the same time. By the 1960s, the pier was suffering from serious financial difficulties. In 1965, it was bought by a company owning some seafront hotels and entertainment venues. They had ambitions for the pier but were unable to cope with increasing maintenance costs. Some portions of wood and iron from the pier fell on the beach, and the pierhead was closed in 1970 due to safety concerns. The pier was Grade II listed in 1969 and the council served compulsory repair notices, but the company was unable to afford them and opted for voluntary liquidation. The remainder of the pier was closed in 1975 when the Brighton Corporation declined to buy it, passing control to the Crown Estate Commissioners. ## Restoration attempts After 1975, attempts were made to restore the pier. Supporters complained that the council was more interested in developing Brighton Marina. In 1982, the pier became the only one in Britain to be awarded Grade I listed status. The West Pier Trust was formed to save the pier, and bought it from the council in 1983 for a peppercorn fee of £100, although the council also demanded £800,000 required for immediate repairs before it could be opened to the public. A proposal to restore the pier with a 60-metre (200 ft) ferris wheel failed after the backer went bankrupt. ### Decline and damage The pier suffered structural damage due to the Great Storm of 1987, and access from the shore was removed for safety reasons in 1991. The West Pier Trust continued to offer regular tours of the pier throughout the 1990s. In 1998, the National Lottery pledged £14 million to restore the pier, but the West Pier Trust was unable to find a suitable partner to help with restoration. The owners of the Palace Pier, who had become financially self-sufficient under their own means, claimed unfair competition. In 2001, English Heritage identified the pier as the most at-risk Grade I listed structure in the United Kingdom. In December 2002, the pier partially collapsed during a storm, when a walkway connecting the concert hall and pavilion fell into the sea. The following month, the concert hall in the middle of the pier fell over, leaving the entire structure close to total collapse. On 28 March 2003, the pavilion at the pierhead caught fire. Fire crews were unable to save the building from destruction because the collapsed walkway prevented them from reaching it. As fire investigators were unable to access the site for safety reasons, the cause of the fire remains unknown, although it is thought to have been arson. A more severe fire, also thought to have been intentional, burned through 11 and 12 May 2003, consuming most of what was left of the concert hall. On 23 June 2004, high winds caused the middle of the pier to collapse completely. The following month, English Heritage declared the pier beyond repair. The West Pier Trust remained adamant that they would soon begin full restoration work. Retired boxer and local resident Chris Eubank criticised the delays, saying he could raise the money himself in six months. In December 2004, the Trust confirmed the restoration would not be going ahead after their plans were rejected by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The pier was partially demolished in February 2010, partly to make way for the planned i360 observation tower. In February 2014, due to stormy weather, the pier split in half and a large part of the centre fell into the sea. Waves swept away the eastern side of the damaged metal skeleton, which remained after the 2003 fire. A selection of artefacts rescued from the pier is exhibited in the Brighton Fishing Museum. A further section of the pier collapsed in February 2016. Part of the southwest corner of the pier collapsed overnight during Storm Claudio in November 2022. The construction of the i360 revived interest in building a new West Pier on the site of the original. The West Pier Trust was hopeful that it could be in place by 2026 in time for the pier's 160th anniversary. By October 2016, the trust had concluded that restoration of the original West Pier was beyond any practical means. In 2019, the Trust sought to restore a Victorian-era octagonal kiosk that was salvaged from the pier in 1996 and planned to raise the estimated cost of about £750,000 using a crowdfunding campaign among other avenues. It also started periodic auctioning of various remains and fragments of the pier to fund a new seaside learning centre at the site of the original kiosk. Another Brighton-based organisation, City Partnerships, proposed construction of a new pier in the original location, which would be free to enter like the original and complement the nearby Brighton Palace Pier but this was opposed by the West Pier Trust as unrealistic. ## Art In 2010, the West Pier was illuminated with 3D mapping lasers as part of a series of artworks by Josef O'Connor to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Tiger. The pier was illuminated by computer-controlled laser drawings to make it appear and disappear on the horizon, giving the appearance of reconnecting it to the shore. ## Media appearances The pier can be seen in several films, including Oh! What a Lovely War (1968), Villain (1971) and Carry On Girls (1973) which was filmed on the pier and in locations nearby in Brighton. It was also prominently featured in the French comedy La Course à l'échalote (1975), starring Pierre Richard and Jane Birkin. In 1969 the West Pier appeared as a location in Thames Television's Public Eye (TV series) Series 4, Episode 6. The Comedian's Graveyard. Shot on location the episode features the ballroom and pier. In Nick Cave's novel The Death of Bunny Munro, Bunny's son speculates on a reason for the 2003 fires. The band James filmed the video for "Just Like Fred Astaire" on and around the West Pier. Mark Haddon's title story in the 2016 collection The Pier Falls concerns the fictional collapse of the pier in 1970. In Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once, the pier is featured in a montage of travelling through universes. The decline of the pier to its present ruinous state is the subject of the song "The West Pier" which features on the 2009 album, Gypsyhead, by Brighton-born Dogan Mehmet. The West Pier is referenced in the Lovejoy song Portrait of a Blank Slate in the lines "I could sit here by the West Pier / Watch the flotsam float slowly disappear". ## See also - National Piers Society - List of piers in the United Kingdom
347,008	Samuel Brannan	1,162,365,896	American politician (1819–1889)	[ "1819 births", "1889 deaths", "19th-century American journalists", "19th-century American male writers", "19th-century American newspaper founders", "19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)", "19th-century American politicians", "19th-century American railroad executives", "19th-century Mormon missionaries", "American Mormon missionaries in the United States", "American businesspeople in retailing", "American city founders", "American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", "American male journalists", "American railway entrepreneurs", "American real estate businesspeople", "American vigilantes", "Burials at Mount Hope Cemetery (San Diego)", "Businesspeople from San Francisco", "California state senators", "Converts to Mormonism", "Editors of California newspapers", "Editors of Latter Day Saint publications", "Harold B. Lee Library-related 19th century articles", "History of Napa County, California", "History of San Francisco", "Journalists from California", "Latter Day Saints from California", "Latter Day Saints from New York (state)", "Latter Day Saints from Ohio", "Mission presidents (LDS Church)", "People from Escondido, California", "People from Napa County, California", "People from Saco, Maine", "People of the California Gold Rush" ]	Samuel Brannan (March 2, 1819 – May 5, 1889) was an American settler, businessman, journalist, and prominent Mormon who founded the California Star, the first newspaper in San Francisco, California. He is considered the first to publicize the California Gold Rush and was its first millionaire. He used the profits from his stores to buy large tracts of real estate. He helped form the first vigilance committee in San Francisco and was disfellowshiped from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) because of his actions within the vigilance committee. Brannan's wife divorced him and he was forced to liquidate much of his real estate to pay her one-half of their assets. He died poor and in relative obscurity. ## Early life Brannan was born in Saco, Massachusetts (now Maine), to Thomas and Sara Emery Brannan. In order to escape his abusive father, Brannan moved with his sister (Mary Ann) and her husband (Alexander) to Painesville, Ohio, when he was fourteen years old. It was there that Brannan learned the printer's trade. During their journey to Ohio, the trio found themselves listening to two men whom they would later know as Orson Hyde and Heber C. Kimball. Brannan's brother-in-law bought a copy of the Book of Mormon from these street corner missionaries. In the neighboring town of Kirtland, Ohio, Brannan, Alexander, and Mary Ann all joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1842. After his father's death, Brannan inherited a decent sum of money, bought himself out of his last year of his apprenticeship, and invested the rest in a patch of land near Cleveland. Soon after making his investment, the market crashed and his land became worthless. He made a quick visit to Maine in order to see his ailing mother and then made his way to New Orleans where his brother Thomas was living. The Brannan brothers bought a press and type with what little money they had, but Thomas was taken by yellow fever shortly thereafter. After this tragedy, Brannan made his way back to the North, stopping in Indianapolis to promote a paper which ultimately failed, before he returned to Painesville. ### Early Service in the Church Once Brannan had returned to his sister's home, he renewed his religious convictions in the church and was called by the apostle Wilford Woodruff to serve a local mission in Ohio. Before being called as a missionary he had married Harriet ("Hattie") Hatch and they were expecting their first child. His mission ended early when he caught malaria and had to return home for his health. Once he had sufficiently recovered he was again called to help the church, but this time as a printer in Connecticut working alongside the apostle William Smith. While waiting in Connecticut to meet up with Smith, Brannan fell in love with Ann Eliza Corwin, whose mother took care of the visitors in the local boarding house. Brannan planned to marry her and separate from his first wife. They were eventually married although it was said that Brannan had never officially divorced his first wife. From Connecticut they went to New York City, New York, in 1844, and started to print The Prophet (later The New-York Messenger), a Latter Day Saint newspaper. Shortly after the paper began, news spread that the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered and Brigham Young had taken over the position as prophet. Brannan worked closely with Smith's blood brother William and advocated for William to take his "rightful place" as prophet. After word of Brannan and Smith's opposition reached Nauvoo, both men were disfellowshipped from the church. A year later, Brannan went to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, leaders of the LDS Church, pleading for reinstatement as a member of the church; it was granted in May 1845. ## Travel to California After the death of Joseph Smith and rising opposition in the east, the Mormons decided to relocate their center from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the western region outside of the United States border. The plans for the large exodus began and Mormon leadership moved westward, leaving Brannan the highest ranking religious leader in New York. As such, he was faced with the large responsibility of evacuating the eastern Mormons to California. Brannan chartered the ship Brooklyn and persuaded the Mormons of New York to join the expedition to California. The Brooklyn set sail for upper California via Cape Horn in January 1846. Brannan was in charge of the expedition and the highest presiding religious leader on the ship. He brought along an antiquated printing press and a complete flour mill to make colonization easier. While the living conditions aboard the Brooklyn were strenuous for many, Brannan lived lavishly in the ship's officers' quarters. The ship stopped on June 20, 1846, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to resupply and be inspected by Commodore Stockton. Brannan expected the inspection to go badly but instead Commodore Stockton spoke to Brannan about the United States' planned assault of the Mexicans at Monterey. This information along with Commodore Stockton's quiet encouragement led Samuel Brannan to the idea of taking the Mexican port town of Yerba Buena. Brannan's dreams of colonization and success were underway and after leaving Hawaii, the Brooklyn changed routes, landing on July 31, 1846, at Yerba Buena. Upon arrival they were met by Commander John B. Montgomery and the Portsmouth, who had taken Yerba Buena only a few days before, much to Brannan's dismay. The Mormons began colonizing the area (present-day San Francisco) and tripled the population of the pueblo. ## California career After settling in Yerba Buena, Brannan consulted with natives who were familiar with the region and decided that the land down by the Sacramento River, which they named "New Hope", would be the next Nauvoo of the Mormons, but with real refuge and religious freedom. After disputes between members over land and other affairs, the city of "New Hope" quickly failed. Brannan is often credited to have been the first to perform certain actions in the region: a non-Catholic wedding ceremony, the first to preach in English, and the first to set up a California public school and a flour mill. Brannan used his press to establish the California Star as the first newspaper in San Francisco, which released its first formal issue on January 9, 1847. It was the second paper in California, following The Californian founded in Monterey and first published on August 15, 1846. The two joined to become The Daily Alta California in 1848 after Brannan sold the paper to a colleague. In June 1847, Brannan traveled overland to Green River, Wyoming, to meet with Brigham Young, the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was leading the first contingent of Mormon pioneers across the plains to the Great Basin region. Brannan urged Young to bring the Mormon pioneers to California as was previously planned, but Young rejected the proposal in favor of settling in what is present-day Utah. Brannan returned to northern California frustrated with how the meeting had gone. Being the only church leader of that region, Brannan continued to receive tithes of the church members, but no records have been found showing that those tithes were forwarded to the leaders of the church in Utah. Many members stopped paying him and began making their way eastward toward Salt Lake Valley. ### California Gold Rush In 1847, Brannan opened a store at Sutter's Fort, in present-day Sacramento, California. During that time he also built many large buildings in both Sacramento and San Francisco. Early in 1848, employees of John Sutter paid for goods in Brannan's store with gold they had found at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma, California, by employees of James W. Marshall, who was managing Sutter's sawmill. Some of his employees had been in the Mormon Battalion, and he later found the deceased of the Donner Party. Brannan's California Star paper could not publish the news of the gold strike, as the staff had left in a rush for the gold fields. Yet he owned the only store between San Francisco and the gold fields — a fact he capitalized on by buying up all the picks, shovels and pans he could find, and then running up and down the streets of San Francisco, shouting 'Gold! Gold on the American River!' He paid 20 cents each for the pans, then sold them for \$15 a piece. In nine weeks, he made \$36,000." ### San Francisco and Sacramento In 1848, Brannan decided that he was going to use all of his resources in order to help build up California and its connection with the east. He planned on building that connection through the California Star Express, which would deliver mail from San Francisco to Independence, Missouri, and had its first route on April 1, 1848. Brannan had opened more stores to sell goods to the miners (his Sutter Fort store sold US\$150,000 a month in 1849), and began buying land in San Francisco. He also acquired all of the remaining assets of the failed "New Hope" project and like many other Mormons at this time, found his focus had turned from LDS Church affairs to monetary gains. Using his profits and possibly the proceeds of tithing paid to him as an LDS Church representative, Brannan bought land from Sutter in the Sacramento area. Around this same time Brannan established ship trade with China, Hawaii, and the east coast. His land holdings extended to southern California and to Hawaii where, in 1851, he visited and purchased large amounts of land in Honolulu. He and other landowners and speculators raised the price of Californian land considerably, angering many. The disagreement escalated during 1850 into the Squatters' Riot, during which the squatters' spokesman, Doctor Charles L. Robinson, was shot, along with others. Nine people were killed. Brannan was considered the instigator of the incident. In a few accounts of Brannan's dealings with the LDS Church it is said that Brigham Young sent the apostle Amasa Lyman to collect the tithing money that Brannan had withheld from the church's institution. When Lyman arrived, Brannan was unable to account for the tithes that Brigham Young and other Mormons claimed were given to him or that he owed from his own personal income. He reportedly told them, "You go back and tell Brigham Young that I'll give up the Lord's money when he sends me a receipt signed by the Lord", although historians, such as Will Bagley, have found that this is likely just legend. In another account, Lyman was sent to gather \$10,000 of owed tithing from Brannan (or more if he was willing). After a couple of visits all of Brannan's debts to the LDS Church were considered to be paid in full. Even with many financial upsets, Brannan became California's first millionaire. Brannan was elected to the first town council of San Francisco in the new U.S. territory. In 1851, after a series of sensational crimes in the area, he helped organize and was the first president of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance, which functioned as a de facto police force with a propensity for hanging. In 1853, he was elected as a Senator to the California State Senate in the new state's capital of Sacramento. By this time California had become part of the United States and had gained statehood in 1850. In order to continue the settlement of the west, Brannan purchased California's first steam locomotive in an effort to hasten the building of the first western railroad. He also teamed up with other local capitalists to construct the first wharf in San Francisco. Around this same time, Brannan made known his feelings about slavery and spoke out against it. On July 11, 1851, Parley P. Pratt and his mission companions ventured to San Francisco to establish the Pacific Mission of the LDS Church. The action Brannan took as a leader of the Vigilantes in 1851 was heavily frowned upon by the Mormons. On August 25, 1851, he was disfellowshipped from the LDS Church for "a general course of unchristianlike conduct, neglect of duty, and for combining with lawless assemblies to commit murder and other crimes." Anecdotes claim that in 1858, Brannan paid \$1,500 for lumber salvaged from a ship that foundered in waters near San Francisco, and on the basalt the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula overlooking the mouth of the Golden Gate. The story further claims that he used the material to build the first Cliff House, which is a popular restaurant and recreational area. There is no historical evidence to support this claim. ### Calistoga After Brannan visited the hot springs in the upper Napa Valley in 1859, he planned a new resort for the area. He bought land containing the springs in the northern portion of the Rancho Carne Humana in 1861 and founded the town of Calistoga, said to be a combination of the words "California" and then-fashionable Saratoga Springs in New York. Brannan also founded the Napa Valley Railroad in 1864 in order to provide tourists with an easier way to reach Calistoga from the San Francisco Bay ferry boats that docked in the lower Napa Valley at Vallejo. The railroad was later sold at a foreclosure sale in Napa County in 1869. Many poorer Calistoga residents were angered by Brannan's take-over of the region. At one point the opposition was so intense that Brannan was shot eight times. Brannan survived, but used a cane for the rest of his life. In 1870, Anna Eliza Corwin divorced Brannan. They had grown apart as Eliza lived in Europe for quite some time while Brannan remained in California. In the aftermath of the divorce, the judge ruled that his wife was entitled to half of their holdings in cash. The majority of Brannan's holdings were in real estate and he had to liquidate the properties to pay the full divorce settlement. ## Later years, death, and legacy Following the divorce, he became a brewer and developed a problem with alcohol. Forsaking the city he had helped develop into San Francisco, he drifted south to Mexico. Brannan set up a small ranch near the Mexican border in the state of Sonora. This is where his newly acquired tract of land was located, which was given to him in 1880 by President Benito Juárez and the Mexican government after helping them expel unwanted Frenchmen from Mexican lands. In 1888, at the age of 69, he was paid the sum of \$49,000 in interest from the Mexican government. Brannan traveled to San Francisco to pay his debts. He quit drinking and paid all his debts, but he died without leaving enough money to pay for his own funeral. Brannan died at age 70 in Escondido, California, Sunday, May 5, 1889, from inflammation of the bowels. Brannan's body lay unclaimed in the San Diego County receiving vault for over a year until it was recognized by chance. He was given a Christian burial and for many years, only a stake marked his grave. He is interred at Mount Hope Cemetery. ### Legacy American historian Hubert Howe Bancroft described Samuel Brannan's achievements saying: > He probably did more for San Francisco and for other places than was effected by the combined efforts of scores of better men; and indeed, in many respects he was not a "bad man", being as a rule straightforward as well as shrewd in his dealings, as famous for his acts of charity and open-handed liberality as for in enterprise, giving also frequent proofs of personal bravery. His other legacies included: - Brannan Street in San Francisco was named after Samuel Brannan. - California cities that claim Brannan as their founder include Calistoga and Yuba City. - In partnership with John Augustus Sutter, Jr. and with William Tecumseh Sherman and Edward Ord as surveyors, Brannan laid out the unofficial subdivisions that became the city of Sacramento. - Author of the forever known shout, "Gold, Gold, Gold" which created one of the biggest migrations of people from around the world to a small state the world knows as California. ## See also - Etymologies of place names in San Francisco - History of San Francisco - Napa Valley Wine Train
36,771	Battle of the Chesapeake	1,169,727,886	1781 naval battle of the American Revolutionary War	[ "1781 in Virginia", "1781 in the United States", "18th-century battles", "American Revolutionary War orders of battle", "Battles of the Yorktown Campaign", "Conflicts in 1781", "History of Virginia Beach, Virginia", "Naval battles involving France", "Naval battles of the American Revolutionary War", "Naval battles of the American Revolutionary War involving France", "Naval battles of the Anglo-French War (1778–1783)" ]	The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American Revolutionary War that took place near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1781. The combatants were a British fleet led by Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Graves and a French fleet led by Rear Admiral François Joseph Paul, the Comte de Grasse. The battle was strategically decisive, in that it prevented the Royal Navy from reinforcing or evacuating the besieged forces of Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The French were able to achieve control of the sea lanes against the British and provided the Franco-American army with siege artillery and French reinforcements. These proved decisive in the Siege of Yorktown, effectively securing independence for the Thirteen Colonies. Admiral de Grasse had the option to attack British forces in either New York or Virginia; he opted for Virginia, arriving at the Chesapeake at the end of August. Admiral Graves learned that de Grasse had sailed from the West Indies for North America and that French Admiral de Barras had also sailed from Newport, Rhode Island. He concluded that they were going to join forces at the Chesapeake. He sailed south from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, outside New York Harbor, with 19 ships of the line and arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake early on 5 September to see de Grasse's fleet already at anchor in the bay. De Grasse hastily prepared most of his fleet for battle—24 ships of the line—and sailed out to meet him. The two-hour engagement took place after hours of maneuvering. The lines of the two fleets did not completely meet; only the forward and center sections fully engaged. The battle was consequently fairly evenly matched, although the British suffered more casualties and ship damage, and it broke off when the sun set. The British tactics have been a subject of debate ever since. The two fleets sailed within view of each other for several days, but de Grasse preferred to lure the British away from the bay where de Barras was expected to arrive carrying vital siege equipment. He broke away from the British on 13 September and returned to the Chesapeake, where de Barras had since arrived. Graves returned to New York to organize a larger relief effort; this did not sail until 19 October, two days after Cornwallis surrendered. > [The] Battle of the Chesapeake was a tactical victory for the French by no clearcut margin, but it was a strategic victory for the French and Americans that sealed the principal outcome of the war. ## Background During the early months of 1781, both pro-British and rebel separatist forces began concentrating in Virginia, a state that had previously not had action other than naval raids. The British forces were led at first by the turncoat Benedict Arnold, and then by William Phillips before General Charles, Earl Cornwallis, arrived in late May with his southern army to take command. In June, Cornwallis marched to Williamsburg, where he received a confusing series of orders from General Sir Henry Clinton that culminated in a directive to establish a fortified deep-water port (which would allow resupply by sea). In response to these orders, Cornwallis moved to Yorktown in late July, where his army began building fortifications. The presence of these British troops, coupled with General Clinton's desire for a port there, made control of the Chesapeake Bay an essential naval objective for both sides. On 21 May, Generals George Washington and Rochambeau, respectively the commanders of the Continental Army and the Expédition Particulière, met at the Vernon House in Newport, Rhode Island to discuss potential operations against the British and Loyalists. They considered either an assault or siege on the principal British base at New York City, or operations against the British forces in Virginia. Since either of these options would require the assistance of the French fleet, then in the West Indies, a ship was dispatched to meet with French Lieutenant général de Grasse who was expected at Cap-Français (now known as Cap-Haïtien, Haiti), outlining the possibilities and requesting his assistance. Rochambeau, in a private note to de Grasse, indicated that his preference was for an operation against Virginia. The two generals then moved their forces to White Plains, New York, to study New York's defenses and await news from de Grasse. ## Arrival of the fleets De Grasse arrived at Cap-Français on 15 August. He immediately dispatched his response to Rochambeau's note, which was that he would make for the Chesapeake. Taking on 3,200 troops, De Grasse sailed from Cap-Français with his entire fleet, 28 ships of the line. Sailing outside the normal shipping lanes to avoid notice, he arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on August 30, and disembarked the troops to assist in the land blockade of Cornwallis. Two British frigates that were supposed to be on patrol outside the bay were trapped inside the bay by De Grasse's arrival; this prevented the British in New York from learning the full strength of de Grasse's fleet until it was too late. British Admiral George Brydges Rodney, who had been tracking De Grasse around the West Indies, was alerted to the latter's departure, but was uncertain of the French admiral's destination. Believing that de Grasse would return a portion of his fleet to Europe, Rodney detached Rear Admiral Sir Samuel Hood with 14 ships of the line and orders to find de Grasse's destination in North America. Rodney, who was ill, sailed for Europe with the rest of his fleet in order to recover, refit his fleet, and to avoid the Atlantic hurricane season. Sailing more directly than de Grasse, Hood's fleet arrived off the entrance to the Chesapeake on 25 August. Finding no French ships there, he then sailed for New York. Meanwhile, his colleague and commander of the New York fleet, Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Graves, had spent several weeks trying to intercept a convoy organized by John Laurens to bring much-needed supplies and hard currency from France to Boston. When Hood arrived at New York, he found that Graves was in port (having failed to intercept the convoy), but had only five ships of the line that were ready for battle. De Grasse had notified his counterpart in Newport, Barras, of his intentions and his planned arrival date. Barras sailed from Newport on 27 August with 8 ships of the line, 4 frigates, and 18 transports carrying French armaments and siege equipment. He deliberately sailed via a circuitous route in order to minimize the possibility of a battle with the British, should they sail from New York in pursuit. Washington and Rochambeau, in the meantime, had crossed the Hudson on 24 August, leaving some troops behind as a ruse to delay any potential move on the part of General Clinton to mobilize assistance for Cornwallis. News of Barras' departure led the British to realize that the Chesapeake was the probable target of the French fleets. By 31 August, Graves had moved his five ships of the line out of New York Harbor to meet with Hood's force. Taking command of the combined fleet, now 19 ships, Graves sailed south, and arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake on 5 September. His progress was slow; the poor condition of some of the West Indies ships (contrary to claims by Admiral Hood that his fleet was fit for a month of service) necessitated repairs en route. Graves was also concerned about some ships in his own fleet; Europe in particular had difficulty manoeuvring. ## Battle lines form French and British patrol frigates each spotted the other's fleet around 9:30 am; both at first underestimated the size of the other fleet, leading each commander to believe the other fleet was the smaller fleet of Admiral de Barras. When the true size of the fleets became apparent, Graves assumed that de Grasse and Barras had already joined forces, and prepared for battle; he directed his line toward the bay's mouth, assisted by winds from the north-northeast. De Grasse had detached a few of his ships to blockade the York and James Rivers farther up the bay, and many of the ships at anchor were missing officers, men, and boats when the British fleet was sighted. He faced the difficult proposition of organizing a line of battle while sailing against an incoming tide, with winds and land features that would require him to do so on a tack opposite that of the British fleet. At 11:30 am, 24 ships of the French fleet cut their anchor lines and began sailing out of the bay with the noon tide, leaving behind the shore contingents and ships' boats. Some ships were so seriously undermanned, missing as many as 200 men, that not all of their guns could be manned. De Grasse had ordered the ships to form into a line as they exited the bay, in order of speed and without regard to its normal sailing order. Admiral Louis de Bougainville's Auguste was one of the first ships out. With a squadron of three other ships Bougainville ended up well ahead of the rest of the French line; by 3:45 pm the gap was large enough that the British could have cut his squadron off from the rest of the French fleet. By 1:00 pm, the two fleets were roughly facing each other, but sailing on opposite tacks. In order to engage, and to avoid some shoals (known as the Middle Ground) near the mouth of the bay, Graves around 2:00 pm ordered his whole fleet to wear, a manoeuvre that reversed his line of battle, but enabled it to line up with the French fleet as its ships exited the bay. This placed the squadron of Hood, his most aggressive commander, at the rear of the line, and that of Admiral Francis Samuel Drake in the vanguard. At this point, both fleets were sailing generally east, away from the bay, with winds from the north-northeast. The two lines were approaching at an angle so that the leading ships of the vans of both lines were within range of each other, while the ships at the rear were too far apart to engage. The French had a firing advantage, since the wind conditions meant they could open their lower gun ports, while the British had to leave theirs closed to avoid water washing onto the lower decks. The French fleet, which was in a better state of repair than the British fleet, outnumbered the British in the number of ships and total guns, and had heavier guns capable of throwing more weight. In the British fleet, Ajax and Terrible, two ships of the West Indies squadron that were among the most heavily engaged, were in quite poor condition. Graves at this point did not press the potential advantage of the separated French van; as the French centre and rear closed the distance with the British line, they also closed the distance with their own van. One British observer wrote, "To the astonishment of the whole fleet, the French center were permitted without molestation to bear down to support their van." The need for the two lines to actually reach parallel lines so they might fully engage led Graves to give conflicting signals that were interpreted critically differently by Admiral Hood, directing the rear squadron, than Graves intended. None of the options for closing the angle between the lines presented a favourable option to the British commander: any manoeuvre to bring ships closer would limit their firing ability to their bow guns, and potentially expose their decks to raking or enfilading fire from the enemy ships. Graves hoisted two signals: one for "line ahead", under which the ships would slowly close the gap and then straighten the line when parallel to the enemy, and one for "close action", which normally indicated that ships should turn to directly approach the enemy line, turning when the appropriate distance was reached. This combination of signals resulted in the piecemeal arrival of his ships into the range of battle. Admiral Hood interpreted the instruction to maintain line of battle to take precedence over the signal for close action, and as a consequence his squadron did not close rapidly and never became significantly engaged in the action. ## Battle It was about 4:00 pm, over 6 hours since the two fleets had first sighted each other, when the British—who had the weather gage, and therefore the initiative—opened their attack. The battle began with HMS Intrepid opening fire against the Marseillois, its counterpart near the head of the line. The action very quickly became general, with the van and center of each line fully engaged. The French, in a practice they were known for, tended to aim at British masts and rigging, with the intent of crippling their opponent's mobility. The effects of this tactic were apparent in the engagement: Shrewsbury and HMS Intrepid, at the head of the British line, became virtually impossible to manage, and eventually fell out of the line. The rest of Admiral Drake's squadron also suffered heavy damage, but the casualties were not as severe as those taken on the first two ships. The angle of approach of the British line also played a role in the damage they sustained; ships in their van were exposed to raking fire when only their bow guns could be brought to bear on the French. The French van also took a beating, although it was less severe. Captain de Boades of the Réfléchi was killed in the opening broadside of Admiral Drake's Princessa, and the four ships of the French van were, according to a French observer, "engaged with seven or eight vessels at close quarters." The Diadème, according to a French officer "was utterly unable to keep up the battle, having only four thirty-six-pounders and nine eighteen-pounders fit for use" and was badly shot up; she was rescued by the timely intervention of the Saint-Esprit. The Princessa and Bougainville's Auguste at one point were close enough that the French admiral considered a boarding action; Drake managed to pull away, but this gave Bougainville the chance to target the Terrible. Her foremast, already in bad shape before the battle, was struck by several French cannonballs, and her pumps, already overtaxed in an attempt to keep her afloat, were badly damaged by shots "between wind and water". Around 5:00 pm the wind began to shift, to British disadvantage. De Grasse gave signals for the van to move further ahead so that more of the French fleet might engage, but Bougainville, fully engaged with the British van at musket range, did not want to risk "severe handling had the French presented the stern." When he did finally begin pulling away, British leaders interpreted it as a retreat: "the French van suffered most, because it was obliged to bear away." Rather than follow, the British hung back, continuing to fire at long range; this prompted one French officer to write that the British "only engaged from far off and simply in order to be able to say that they had fought." Sunset brought an end to the firefight, with both fleets continuing on a roughly southeast tack, away from the bay. The center of both lines was engaged, but the level of damage and casualties suffered was noticeably less. Ships in the rear squadrons were almost entirely uninvolved; Admiral Hood reported that three of his ships fired a few shots. The ongoing conflicting signals left by Graves, and discrepancies between his and Hood's records of what signals had been given and when, led to immediate recriminations, written debate, and an eventual formal inquiry. ## Standoff That evening, Graves did a damage assessment. He noted that "the French had not the appearance of near so much damage as we had sustained", and that five of his fleet were either leaking or virtually crippled in their mobility. De Grasse wrote that "we perceived by the sailing of the English that they had suffered greatly." Nonetheless, Graves maintained a windward position through the night, so that he would have the choice of battle in the morning. Ongoing repairs made it clear to Graves that he would be unable to attack the next day. On the night of 6 September he held council with Hood and Drake. During this meeting Hood and Graves supposedly exchanged words concerning the conflicting signals, and Hood proposed turning the fleet around to make for the Chesapeake. Graves rejected the plan, and the fleets continued to drift eastward, away from Cornwallis. On 8 and 9 September the French fleet at times gained the advantage of the wind, and briefly threatened the British with renewed action. French scouts spied Barras' fleet on 9 September, and de Grasse turned his fleet back toward the Chesapeake Bay that night. Arriving on 12 September, he found that Barras had arrived two days earlier. Graves ordered the Terrible to be scuttled on 11 September due to her leaky condition, and was notified on 13 September that the French fleet was back in the Chesapeake; he still did not learn that de Grasse's line had not included the fleet of Barras, because the frigate captain making the report had not counted the ships. In a council held that day, the British admirals decided against attacking the French, due to "the truly lamentable state we have brought ourself." Graves then turned his battered fleet toward New York, arriving off Sandy Hook on 20 September. ## Aftermath The British fleet's arrival in New York set off a flurry of panic amongst the Loyalist population. The news of the defeat was also not received well in London. King George III wrote (well before learning of Cornwallis's surrender) that "after the knowledge of the defeat of our fleet [...] I nearly think the empire ruined." The French success left them firmly in control of the Chesapeake Bay, completing the encirclement of Cornwallis. In addition to capturing a number of smaller British vessels, de Grasse and Barras assigned their smaller vessels to assist in the transport of Washington's and Rochambeau's forces from Head of Elk to Yorktown. It was not until 23 September that Graves and Clinton learned that the French fleet in the Chesapeake numbered 36 ships. This news came from a dispatch sneaked out by Cornwallis on 17 September, accompanied by a plea for help: "If you cannot relieve me very soon, you must be prepared to hear the worst." After effecting repairs in New York, Admiral Graves sailed from New York on 19 October with 25 ships of the line and transports carrying 7,000 troops to relieve Cornwallis. It was two days after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. General Washington acknowledged to de Grasse the importance of his role in the victory: "You will have observed that, whatever efforts are made by the land armies, the navy must have the casting vote in the present contest." The eventual surrender of Cornwallis led to peace two years later and British recognition of a new, independent United States of America. Admiral de Grasse returned with his fleet to the West Indies. In a major engagement that ended Franco-Spanish plans for the capture of Jamaica in 1782, he was defeated and taken prisoner by Rodney in the Battle of the Saintes. His flagship Ville de Paris was lost at sea in a storm while being conducted back to England as part of a fleet commanded by Admiral Graves. Graves, despite the controversy over his conduct in this battle, continued to serve, rising to full admiral and receiving an Irish peerage. ## Analysis Many aspects of the battle have been the subject of both contemporary and historical debate, beginning right after the battle. On 6 September, Admiral Graves issued a memorandum justifying his use of the conflicting signals, indicating that "[when] the signal for the line of battle ahead is out at the same time with the signal for battle, it is not to be understood that the latter signal shall be rendered ineffectual by a too strict adherence to the former." Hood, in commentary written on the reverse of his copy, observed that this eliminated any possibility of engaging an enemy who was disordered, since it would require the British line to also be disordered. Instead, he maintained, "the British fleet should be as compact as possible, in order to take the critical moment of an advantage opening ..." Others criticise Hood because he "did not wholeheartedly aid his chief", and that a lesser officer "would have been court-martialled for not doing his utmost to engage the enemy." One contemporary writer critical of the scuttling of the Terrible wrote that "she made no more water than she did before [the battle]", and, more acidly, "If an able officer had been at the head of the fleet, the Terrible would not have been destroyed." Admiral Rodney was critical of Graves' tactics, writing, "by contracting his own line he might have brought his nineteen against the enemy's fourteen or fifteen, [...] disabled them before they could have received succor, [... and] gained a complete victory." Defending his own behaviour in not sending his full fleet to North America, he also wrote that "[i]f the admiral in America had met Sir Samuel Hood near the Chesapeake", that Cornwallis's surrender might have been prevented. United States Navy historian Frank Chadwick believed that de Grasse could have thwarted the British fleet simply by staying put; his fleet's size would have been sufficient to impede any attempt by Graves to force a passage through his position. Historian Harold Larrabee points out that this would have exposed Clinton in New York to blockade by the French if Graves had successfully entered the bay; if Graves did not do so, Barras (carrying the siege equipment) would have been outnumbered by Graves if de Grasse did not sail out in support. According to scientist/historian Eric Jay Dolin, the dreaded hurricane season of 1780 in the Caribbean (a year earlier) may have also played a crucial role in the outcome of the 1781 naval battle. The Great Hurricane of 1780 in October was perhaps the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record. An estimated 22,000 people died throughout the Lesser Antilles with the loss of countless ships from many nations. The Royal Navy's loss of 15 warships with 9 severely damaged crucially affected the balance of the American Revolutionary War, especially during Battle of Chesapeake Bay. An outnumbered British Navy losing to the French proved decisive in Washington's Siege of Yorktown, forcing Cornwallis to surrender and effectively securing independence for the United States of America. ## Memorial At the Cape Henry Memorial located at Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Virginia, there is a monument commemorating the contribution of de Grasse and his sailors to the cause of American independence. The memorial and monument are part of the Colonial National Historical Park and are maintained by the National Park Service. ## Order of battle ### British line ### French line Sources consulted (including de Grasse's memoir, and works either dedicated to the battle or containing otherwise detailed orders of battle, like Larrabee (1964) and Morrissey (1997)) do not list per-ship casualties for the French fleet. Larrabee reports the French to have suffered 209 casualties; Bougainville recorded 10 killed and 58 wounded aboard Auguste alone. The exact order in which the French lined up as they exited the bay is also uncertain. Larrabee notes that many observers wrote up different sequences when the line was finally formed, and that Bougainville recorded several different configurations. The 74-gun Glorieux and Vaillant, as well the other frigates, remained at the mouth of the various rivers that they were guarding. ## See also - American Revolutionary War § British defeat in America. Places ' Battle of the Chesapeake ' in overall sequence and strategic context.
66,158,544	Shellfish allergy	1,173,778,242	Type of food allergy caused by shellfish	[ "Food allergies" ]	Shellfish allergy is among the most common food allergies. "Shellfish" is a colloquial and fisheries term for aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs such as clams, mussels, oysters and scallops, crustaceans such as shrimp, lobsters and crabs, and cephalopods such as squid and octopus. Shellfish allergy is an immune hypersensitivity to proteins found in shellfish. Symptoms can be either rapid or gradual in onset. The latter can take hours to days to appear. The former may include anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening condition which requires treatment with epinephrine. Other presentations may include atopic dermatitis or inflammation of the esophagus. Shellfish is one of the eight common food allergens, responsible for 90% of allergic reactions to foods: cow's milk, eggs, wheat, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and soy beans. Unlike early childhood allergic reactions to milk and eggs, which often lessen as the children age, shellfish allergy tends to first appear in school-age children and older, and persist in adulthood. Strong predictors for adult-persistence are anaphylaxis, high shellfish-specific serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) and robust response to the skin prick test. Adult onset of fish allergy is common in workers in the shellfish catching and processing industry. ## Signs and symptoms Food allergy symptoms usually occur within minutes after exposure but can be delayed to hours depending on the nature of the immune system response. Symptoms may include rash, hives, itching of mouth, lips, tongue, throat, eyes, skin, or other areas, swelling of lips, tongue, eyelids, or the whole face, difficulty swallowing, runny or congested nose, hoarse voice, wheezing, shortness of breath, diarrhea, abdominal pain, lightheadedness, fainting, nausea, or vomiting. Symptoms of allergies vary from person to person and may vary from incident to incident. Serious danger regarding allergies can begin when the respiratory tract or blood circulation is affected. The former can be indicated by wheezing, a blocked airway and cyanosis, and the latter by weak pulse, pale skin, and fainting. When these symptoms occur the allergic reaction is called anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis occurs when IgE antibodies are involved, and areas of the body that are not in direct contact with the food become affected and show severe symptoms. Untreated, this can proceed to vasodilation, a low blood pressure situation called anaphylactic shock. ## Causes ### Eating shellfish The cause is typically the eating of shellfish or foods that contain shellfish. The shellfish types causing clinical allergy are, in decreasing incidence: - Shrimp - Crab - Lobster - Clam - Oyster - Mussel. Once an allergic reaction has occurred it usually remains a lifelong sensitivity. The immune system overreacts to proteins found in shellfish, most commonly to tropomyosin, but often to other proteins, such as arginine kinase, myosin light chain and sarcoplasmic calcium-binding protein. The allergic reaction to fish is to a different protein, parvalbumin; there is no cross-reactivity between fish and shellfish allergy. ### Cross-contact Cross-contact, also referred to as cross-contamination, occurs when foods are being processed in factories or at food markets, or are being prepared for cooking in restaurants and home kitchens. The allergenic proteins are transferred from one food to another. ### Shellfish parasite The food-borne parasite Anisakis is a genus of nematodes known to be present in squid. Anisakis are directly infective to humans whenever infected squid (or marine fish) are consumed raw or slightly processed, causing a condition called anisakiasis. Symptoms from consuming live nematodes include severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. In addition, there can be an allergic reaction to Anisakis proteins, even if the food in question was frozen or cooked before being consumed, killing the nematodes, as some of the nematode proteins are resistant to cold and heat. Allergic reactions can include hives, asthma and true anaphylactic reactions. ### Occupational exposure An industry review conducted in 1990 estimated that 28.5 million people worldwide were engaged in some aspect of the seafood industry: fishing, aquaculture, processing and industrial cooking. Men predominate in fishing, women in processing facilities. Exposure to shellfish allergenic proteins includes inhalation of wet aerosols from fresh shellfish handling, and dermal contact through skin breaks and cuts. Prevalence of seafood-induced adult asthma is reported as in the range of 7% to 36% (higher for crustaceans and lower for bony fish). Prevalence of skin allergy reactions, often characterized by itchy rash (hives), range from 3% to 11%. The shellfish-induced health outcomes are mainly due to the protein tropomyosin causing an IgE mediated immune system response. ### Cross-reactivity to non-shellfish Tropomyosin, the major allergen in shellfish allergy, is also found in dust mites and cockroaches. Exposure to inhaled tropomyosins from dust mites is thought to be the primary sensitizer for shellfish allergy, an example of inhalant-to-food cross-reactivity. Epidemiological surveys have confirmed correlation between shellfish and dust mite sensitizations. An additional confirmation was seen in Orthodox Jews with no history of shellfish consumption, in that skin tests confirming dust mite allergy were also positive for shellfish tropomyosin. In addition to tropomyosin, arginine kinase and hemocyanin seem to have a role in cross-reactivity to dust mites. ### Exercise as contributing factor Exercise can be a contributing factor to an allergic food response. There is a condition called food-dependent, exercise-induced anaphylaxis. For people with this condition, exercise alone is not sufficient, nor is consumption of a food to which they are mildly allergic, but when the food in question is consumed within a few hours before high-intensity exercise, the result can be anaphylaxis. Shellfish are specifically mentioned as a causative food. One theory is that exercise is stimulating the release of mediators such as histamine from IgE-activated mast cells. Two of the reviews postulate that exercise is not essential for the development of symptoms, but rather that it is one of several augmentation factors, citing evidence that the culprit food in combination with alcohol or aspirin will result in a respiratory anaphylactic reaction. ## Mechanisms ### Allergic response Conditions caused by food allergies are classified into three groups according to the mechanism of the allergic response: 1. IgE-mediated (classic) – the most common type, manifesting acute changes that occur shortly after eating, and may progress to anaphylaxis 2. Non-IgE mediated – characterized by an immune response not involving immunoglobulin E; may occur hours to days after eating, complicating diagnosis 3. IgE and non-IgE-mediated – a hybrid of the above two types Allergic reactions are hyperactive responses of the immune system to generally innocuous substances, such as food proteins. Why some proteins trigger allergic reactions while others do not is not entirely clear. One theory holds that proteins which resist digestion in the stomach, therefore reaching the small intestine relatively intact, are more likely to be allergenic, but studies have shown that digestion may abolish, decrease, have no effect, or even increase the allergenicity of food allergens. The heat of cooking structurally degrades protein molecules, potentially making them less allergenic. The pathophysiology of allergic responses can be divided into two time periods: The first is an acute response that occurs within minutes after exposure to an allergen. This phase can either subside or progress into a "late-phase reaction" which can substantially prolong the symptoms of a response, and result in more tissue damage hours later. In the early stages of acute allergic reaction, lymphocytes previously sensitized to a specific protein or protein fraction react by quickly producing a particular type of antibody known as secreted IgE (sIgE), which circulates in the blood and binds to IgE-specific receptors on the surface of other kinds of immune cells called mast cells and basophils. Both of these are involved in the acute inflammatory response. Activated mast cells and basophils undergo a process called degranulation, during which they release histamine and other inflammatory chemical mediators called (cytokines, interleukins, leukotrienes, and prostaglandins) into the surrounding tissue causing several systemic effects, such as vasodilation, mucous secretion, nerve stimulation, and smooth-muscle contraction. This results in runny nose, itchiness, shortness of breath, and potentially anaphylaxis. Depending on the individual, the allergen, and the mode of introduction, the symptoms can be system-wide (classical anaphylaxis), or localized to particular body systems; asthma is localized to the respiratory system while hives and eczema are localized to the skin. In addition to reacting to oral consumption, skin and asthma reactions can be triggered by inhallation or contact if there are skin abrasions or cuts. After the chemical mediators of the acute response subside, late-phase responses can often occur due to the migration of other white blood cells such as neutrophils, lymphocytes, eosinophils, and macrophages to the initial reaction sites. This is usually seen 2–24 hours after the original reaction. Cytokines from mast cells may also play a role in the persistence of long-term effects. Late-phase responses seen in asthma are slightly different from those seen in other allergic responses, although they are still caused by release of mediators from eosinophils. In addition to IgE-mediated responses, shellfish allergy can manifest as atopic dermatitis, especially in infants and young children. Some will display both, so that a child could react to an oral food challenge with allergic symptoms, followed a day or two later with a flare up of atopic dermatitis and/or gastrointestinal symptoms, including allergic eosinophilic esophagitis. ### Shellfish allergenic proteins Several proteins from shellfish are either clearly involved in allergenic reactions or suspected to be. Tropomyosin, arginine kinase, myosin light chain and sarcoplasmic calcium-binding protein are widely present across shellfish species. Troponin, actin, triosephosphate isomerase and hemocyanin are also identified as allergenic proteins. As of a 2016 review, only three (tropomyosin, arginine kinase and sarcoplasmic calcium-binding protein) were available for routine diagnostic skin testing. Shellfish do not manifest the proteins β-parvalbumin (found in bony fishes) or α-parvalbumin (found in cartilaginous fishes such as sharks and rays), so there is not cross-reactivity of shellfish allergy to fish allergy. ## Diagnosis Diagnosis of shellfish allergy is based on the person's history of allergic reactions, skin prick test and measurement of shellfish-specific serum immunoglobulin E (IgE or sIgE). Confirmation is by double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenges. Self-reported shellfish allergy often fails to be confirmed by food challenge. ## Prevention Reviews of food allergens in general stated that introducing solid foods at 4–6 months may result in the lowest subsequent allergy risks for eczema, allergic rhinitis and more severe reactions. The evidence is best for peanuts, eggs and milk. The literature is sparse for consequences of early introduction of shellfish. ## Treatment Treatment for accidental ingestion of shellfish products by allergic individuals varies depending on the sensitivity of the person. An antihistamine such as diphenhydramine may be prescribed. Sometimes prednisone will be prescribed to prevent a possible late phase Type I hypersensitivity reaction. Severe allergic reactions (anaphalaxis) may require treatment with an epinephrine pen, which is an injection device designed to be used by a non-healthcare professional when emergency treatment is warranted. Unlike for egg allergy, for which there is active research on trying oral immunotherapy (OIT) to desensitize people to egg allergens, reviews mention that there are no published clinical trials evaluating oral immunotherapy for shellfish allergy. ## Prognosis Unlike milk and egg allergies, shellfish allergy usually persists into adulthood. ## Epidemiology Incidence and prevalence are terms commonly used in describing disease epidemiology. Incidence is newly diagnosed cases, which can be expressed as new cases per year per million people. Prevalence is the number of cases alive, expressible as existing cases per million people during a period of time. Worldwide, the prevalence of shellfish allergy is increasing because shellfish consumption is increasing, and among adults shellfish is the most common anaphylaxis-eliciting food. Reviews cite self-reported shellfish allergy in range of 0.5 to 2.5 percent in the general population. Prevalence is higher in coastal southeast Asian countries, where shellfish consumption is more common. Self-reported allergy prevalence is always higher than food-challenge confirmed allergy, which one review put at 0% to 0.9% (the higher value in southeast Asia). ## Regulation Whether food allergy prevalence is increasing or not, food allergy awareness has increased, with impacts on the quality of life for children, their parents and their immediate caregivers. In the United States, the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA), made law in August 2004, effective January 1, 2006, causes people to be reminded of allergy problems every time they handle a food package. Although not regulated under FALCPA, restaurants have added allergen warnings to menus. The Culinary Institute of America, a premier school for chef training, has courses in allergen-free cooking and a separate teaching kitchen. School systems have protocols about what foods can be brought into the school. Despite all these precautions, people with serious allergies are aware that accidental exposure can easily occur at other peoples' houses, at school or in restaurants. ### Regulation of labeling In response to the risk that certain foods pose to those with food allergies, some countries have responded by instituting labeling laws that require food products to clearly inform consumers if their products contain major allergens or byproducts of major allergens among the ingredients intentionally added to foods. Laws and regulations passed in the US and by the European Union recommend labeling but do not require mandatory declaration of the presence of trace amounts in the final product as a consequence of unintentional cross-contamination. #### Ingredients intentionally added FALCPA requires companies to disclose on the label whether a packaged food product contains any of these eight major food allergens, added intentionally: cow's milk, peanuts, eggs, shellfish, fish, tree nuts, soy and wheat. This list originated in 1999 from the World Health Organisation Codex Alimentarius Commission. To meet FALCPA labeling requirements, if an ingredient is derived from one of the required-label allergens, then it must either have its "food sourced name" in parentheses, for example "Casein (milk)," or as an alternative, there must be a statement separate but adjacent to the ingredients list: "Contains milk" (and any other of the allergens with mandatory labeling). The European Union requires listing for those eight major allergens plus molluscs, celery, mustard, lupin, sesame and sulfites. In Japan, a food-labeling system for five specific allergenic ingredients (egg, milk, wheat, buckwheat, peanut) was mandated under law on April 1, 2002. Additional labeling of shrimp/prawn and crab became mandatory in 2008. This applies to packaged food, but not to restaurants. ## See also - List of allergens (food and non-food)
21,944,669	Chuck Versus the Intersect	1,094,164,499	null	[ "2007 American television episodes", "American television series premieres", "Chuck (season 1) episodes" ]	"Chuck Versus the Intersect" is the pilot episode of the American action-comedy television series Chuck. The episode was directed by McG and written by series co-creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. It originally aired on September 24, 2007. The series follows the adventures of Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), a computer geek and member of a Geek Squad-type electronics retail chain (the Nerd Herd), who downloads the Intersect, a top-secret government database, into his brain. Chuck soon finds himself on a date with Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), who is revealed to be a CIA agent assigned, along with veteran National Security Agency (NSA) agent Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin), to capture Chuck. The episode also introduces series regulars Joshua Gomez and Sarah Lancaster as Chuck's best friend and older sister, Morgan Grimes and Ellie Bartowski, respectively. Guest stars include Matthew Bomer as Bryce Larkin, Chuck's college roommate-turned-nemesis and the CIA agent who emails him the Intersect, Wendy Makkena as the National Intelligence Director, Tony Todd as CIA Director Langston Graham, C.S. Lee as Harry Tang, Dale Dye as General Stanfield, and Nickolas Pajon as Vuc Andric. "Chuck Versus the Intersect" received generally positive reviews from critics, with most writers praising the casting of the series. According to the Nielsen ratings system, the pilot drew 9.21 million viewers, a series high. ## Plot In Echo Park, California, Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) and his best friend Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez) make an unsuccessful attempt to escape Chuck's birthday party hosted by his sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster). Despite the efforts of Ellie and her boyfriend, "Captain Awesome" (Ryan McPartlin), for Chuck to socialize with the party's female guests, Chuck dispels the women by explaining how years earlier his Stanford University roommate, Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer), had him expelled and began a relationship with Chuck's girlfriend, Jill Roberts. Meanwhile, Bryce, a rogue CIA agent, is shown breaking into a top-secret government computer center and downloading a vast amount of data to his PDA before destroying the computer. As Bryce attempts to escape, he is shot dead by NSA agent Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin), but not before emailing the data to Chuck and self-destructing his PDA. After viewing the rapid series of images, Chuck experiences a series of "flashes" of data, triggered by things he hears and sees, including a strange man (Nickolas Pajon). In Washington, D.C., Casey is informed by the National Security Director (Wendy Makkena) and CIA Director Langston Graham (Tony Todd) that the computer Bryce destroyed was a government database called the Intersect, which the NSA and CIA used as a joint resource to identify threats to the government. Casey is ordered to track down the recipient of Bryce's email in California. At work at the Buy More, Chuck is approached at the Nerd Herd counter by Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski). After Chuck fixes Sarah's phone, she leaves him her phone number, but he decides not to call her. He arrives home to find an intruder stealing his computer. After the computer is dropped and destroyed, the intruder escapes and is revealed to be Sarah, a CIA agent. Sarah takes Chuck on a date to find out what he knows. Sarah spots and quickly dispatches an NSA team following but flees with Chuck when she spots Casey. Sarah leads Chuck up to the top floor of a skyscraper and attempts to call in an evacuation while Chuck explains what happened when he uploaded the Intersect. Sarah then aims her gun at Chuck when Casey arrives on the roof. Sarah warns Casey that Chuck uploaded the Intersect and tells Chuck that their mutual friend Bryce is dead. Chuck then flashes on the building where the visiting General Stanfield (Dale Dye) is giving an address and puts together all the pieces from the flashes he had been having: the stranger in the Large Mart is a demolitions expert and has set a bomb to destroy the conference. Chuck, Sarah, and Casey locate the bomb in the conference hall and Chuck defuses the bomb by deliberately infecting the machine with a computer virus. Sarah reassures Chuck that he will remain at the Buy More, while she and Casey watch over him. He is to work with them until they can discover a way for the Intersect to be removed from his brain. All she asks is that Chuck trust her. ## Production ### Conception Chuck was conceived by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. NBC initially gave the series a put pilot commitment before green lighting a pilot order in January 2007. Schwartz and Fedak both attended the University of Southern California and the latter pitched the idea to Schwartz who agreed to develop the project with him. The hour-long, high-concept action-comedy, described in press releases as being "in the vein of Grosse Pointe Blank", would revolve around a man who downloads the entire CIA and NSA databases into his head. Schwartz signed a three-year, seven-figure overall deal with Warner Bros. Television to write and executive produce the series with Fedak. Schwartz has stated that he set the series at an electronics store to complement Chuck: > I think the big-box culture is very much a way that we live our lives right now. And in trying to figure out what was sort of the best home for a character like Chuck, the Nerd Herd -- obviously inspired by such things as the Geek Squad [of the consumer electronics store Best Buy] -- felt like a really natural environment for him. I also liked that even in the uniforms that the Nerd Herd guys have to wear, they kind of resemble G-men from 1950s FBI movies. So there's a lot of components, both visually and in terms of his character, that were really appealing about setting it there. ### Casting Zachary Levi was the first actor to be cast in the series, before any other roles had been cast. Schwartz said that casting the role of Chuck was difficult, but Levi was perfect because you "could believe he was a social outcast, but still got the girl." Adam Baldwin was cast as John Casey shortly thereafter on February 8, 2007. Fedak always had Baldwin in mind for the role and the producers found that the actor was a "perfect fit" for the character during the first casting session. On February 12, 2007, Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski was announced for what was then the role of Sarah Kent, joining Levi and Adam Baldwin. Prior to beginning of filming the character's name was changed to Sarah Walker. Strahovski was unable to come to the United States for the audition, so the producers allowed her to audition via the internet. In March, Sarah Lancaster, Joshua Gomez and Natalie Martinez were cast as Ellie Bartowski (Chuck's older sister), Morgan Pace (Chuck's best friend), and Kayla Hart (Chuck's neighbor and love interest), respectively. Gomez decided he wanted to be part of the pilot after reading there was a ninja in the script. Tony Todd and Wendy Makkena were cast as CIA Director Graham and the National Intelligence Director, General Mary Beckman. The casting for Beckman was narrowed to Makkena and Bonita Friedericy, with Mekenna ultimately being chosen. However, Mekenna only appeared in the pilot, and was replaced in the following episode by Friedericy as General Diane Beckman. Morgan's surname was changed to "Grimes" before filming, and Sarah's to "Walker". Despite Natalie Martinez appearing in promotional cast photographs, the character Kayla Hart was dropped before filming. Hart, the owner of the club where Sarah and Chuck first encounter Casey, was intended to be a rival for Chuck's affections. However, Fedak and Schwartz found it too unlikely and too complicated to the storyline that two women would be pining over Chuck. Additionally, Captain Awesome was originally planned to be an enemy agent but his portrayal by Ryan McPartlin was so well received that this storyline was also abandoned. ### Filming McG, Schwartz's fellow executive producer on The O.C., directed the pilot and consequently became an executive producer (via his production company, Wonderland Sound and Vision), along with Fedak, Peter Johnson, Scott Rosenbaum, Matthew Miller and Allison Adler. NBC gave the series an early pick-up and a thirteen-episode order on May 10, 2007. McG said he felt the appeal of the series was its mix of an "Office style comedy" and an action series, and added that Chuck's work place "is designed to be as dangerous as the spy world." Although Chuck's apartment is set in Echo Park, the pilot was shot in El Cabrillo in Hollywood. After the series was picked up, the apartment and the building's courtyard were re-created on a Warner Bros. soundstage. The exterior shots of the Burbank Buy More where Chuck and Morgan work are of a former Mervyn's store in the Fallbrook Mall in Canoga Park. Chuck's fingers are bandaged at one point due to injuries Zachary Levi sustained while playing Call of Duty. ### Music and cultural references The music of Chuck has been described as "a blending of action soundtracks with Schwartz's penchant for good, pretty obscure bands" such as Foreign Born and The Shins. Journey's song "Any Way You Want It" is featured as Chuck's ringtone. Other songs include "Cobrastyle" by Teddybears, "Cellphone's Dead" by Beck, "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" by Jet, "See the World" by Gomez, "For A Fistful of Dollars" by Ennio Morricone, and "The Missionary" by Brothers Martin. The pilot also establishes the series' tendency to reference popular culture. Schwartz has revealed in interviews that the Buy More is based on consumer electronics stores such as Best Buy, while the Nerd Herd is inspired by the Best Buy subsidiary Geek Squad. When Sarah walks into the Buy More, Chuck and Morgan reference Prince's song "Batdance". Chuck and Morgan also continuously play Call of Duty. A North by Northwest poster is shown in Chuck's room. During Chuck's flash on Vuc Andric, his first name can be translated as wolf, while the last name Andric can be a reference to famed Yugoslavian novelist Ivo Andrić. The passport has Croatian emblems while Vuc is said to be from Serbia. ## Reception The series premiered on broadcast television at 8pm EST on September 24, 2007, after having been screened to overwhelmingly positive reception at the San Diego Comic-Con International. According to the Nielsen ratings system, the pilot episode drew an estimated 9.21 million viewers, a series high. "Chuck Versus the Intersect" received mostly positive reviews from critics, with several praising the casting of the series, especially that of Zachary Levi. Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode a rating of 9 out of 10, writing, "Schwartz and Fedak's script for the Chuck pilot is very strong, deftly mixing action and humor. Where Schwartz's other new series, Gossip Girl, could use more of the humor he brought to The O.C., Chuck does a great job capturing the wit and self-awareness Schwartz's previous series contained." Varun Lella of AOL TV criticized the episode's opening as being "a weak gag", though writing that "the ensuing moments were hilarious enough to almost erase the poorly executed opening moments." Stephen Lackey of Mania called the pilot better than he expected, as well as "energetic, cinematic, and quite funny." Television Without Pity gave the episode an A− on a scale of A+ to F. The Columbus Dispatch called the pilot "delightful", writing, "Chuck has good nerd jokes, a winning everyman who is easy to root for, a hot blonde, ninja fighting and a backward car chase." The newspaper praised the performance by the main cast, especially Zachary Levi, who it wrote "should soon be a pleasant surprise to audiences." The paper called the episode "deftly directed by" McG, who kept "things from becoming too silly or far-fetched." Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the episode an overwhelmingly positive review, writing, "Everyday superheroes are, of course, a recurring TV fantasy, but seldom has the genre shown as much pluck as Chuck, and seldom has it found a more agreeable hero than Zachary Levi... Levi needs only a few minutes here to convince you of his wider range and lay claim on breakout stardom." Steven Hyden of The A.V. Club gave the episode a negative review, rating it as a C−. Hyden criticized Levi as being "likeable but unconvincing playing a loser who hasn't had a girlfriend in five years" and Levi and Gomez as "blandly recreating Judd Apatow's loser heroes without any of the authentic details", though calling Baldwin's performance "one of the few bright spots". Katey Rich of Television Blend wrote that the episode, like Chuck, was "gangly and awkward" and "a lot to swallow in a pilot episode, not to mention totally implausible." However, Rich concluded that the series showed comedic promise and was loved by its audience, "while not necessarily being a slam dunk." For the pilot, editor Norman Buckley won the Award for Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial Television at the 2007 American Cinema Editors Awards. "Chuck Versus the Intersect" was also nominated for Outstanding Main Title Design at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards.
1,807,761	Milton Bradley (baseball)	1,151,768,775	American baseball player	[ "1978 births", "20th-century African-American sportspeople", "21st-century African-American sportspeople", "African-American baseball players", "Akron Aeros players", "American League All-Stars", "American expatriate baseball players in Canada", "American people convicted of assault", "American sportspeople convicted of crimes", "Baseball players at the 1999 Pan American Games", "Baseball players from Los Angeles", "Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players", "Cape Fear Crocs players", "Chicago Cubs players", "Cleveland Indians players", "Gulf Coast Expos players", "Harrisburg Senators players", "Jupiter Hammerheads players", "Las Vegas 51s players", "Living people", "Long Beach Polytechnic High School alumni", "Los Angeles Dodgers players", "Major League Baseball outfielders", "Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games", "Montreal Expos players", "Oakland Athletics players", "Ottawa Lynx players", "Pan American Games medalists in baseball", "Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States", "People convicted of battery", "People from Harbor City, Los Angeles", "Sacramento River Cats players", "San Diego Padres players", "Seattle Mariners players", "Stockton Ports players", "Texas Rangers players", "United States national baseball team players", "Vermont Expos players" ]	Milton Obelle Bradley, Jr. (born April 15, 1978) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. Standing 6 feet (1.8 m) and weighing 215 pounds (98 kg), Bradley was a switch hitter who threw right-handed. During an 11-year career in Major League Baseball, Bradley played with the Montreal Expos (2000–01), Cleveland Indians (2001–03), Los Angeles Dodgers (2004–05), Oakland Athletics (2006–07), San Diego Padres (2007), Texas Rangers (2008), Chicago Cubs (2009), and Seattle Mariners (2010–11). His career was also marred by legal troubles and several notable on-field incidents. Born in Harbor City, California, Bradley attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School before he was drafted by the Expos in the 1996 Major League Baseball draft. After playing four seasons of minor league baseball for the organization, he made his major league debut on July 19, 2000. In 2001, Bradley was traded to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for pitching prospect Zach Day; he was again traded in 2004 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. After playing in 216 games for the Dodgers, the most among all teams he has played for, Bradley was traded to the Oakland Athletics for Andre Ethier. Bradley was traded to the Padres in 2007, was granted free agency after one season with the team, and signed with the Texas Rangers in 2007. He was voted to the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game with the Rangers, and led the American League with a .436 on-base percentage and a .999 on-base plus slugging percentage. For the year, Bradley finished 17th in American League Most Valuable Player Award voting. After becoming a free agent, Bradley signed with the Chicago Cubs in January 2009, who traded him in December of that year to the Seattle Mariners. In Seattle, Bradley batted .205 in 2010 and .218 in 2011 before he was released by the club. He has a career batting average of .271 with 135 home runs and 481 runs batted in (RBIs) in 1,042 games played, and was described as having "power, speed, a strong arm and star qualities", although "his temper ... has never allowed him to fulfill his immense potential." In 2013, Bradley was convicted by a jury of nine counts of physically attacking and threatening his wife including four counts of spousal battery, two counts of criminal threats, one count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of vandalism and one count of brandishing a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to 32 months in prison. ## Early life Bradley was born on April 15, 1978, in Harbor City, California. His mother, Charlena Rector, worked as a clerk at a local Safeway supermarket, while his father, Milton Bradley Sr., was a veteran of the Vietnam War, and was awarded a Purple Heart for his service. Bradley was named Milton Bradley Jr. when Milton Bradley Sr. filled out his son's birth certificate without Rector's permission. According to Bradley Jr.'s mother, Bradley Sr. was addicted to cocaine, physically abused her, and was homeless for several years. Growing up, Bradley had four half-siblings from Rector's previous marriage. Bradley played baseball at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, and was a teammate of Chase Utley. After graduating high school with a 3.7 grade point average, he committed to California State University, Long Beach, but instead signed with the Expos on July 1, 1996 after being drafted by the team in the second round of the 1996 Major League Baseball June amateur draft. ## Major League Baseball career ### Montreal Expos (1996–2001) Bradley began his professional baseball career with the GCL Expos of the Gulf Coast League in 1996; in 32 games, he batted .241 with 27 hits. The following season, he played nine games for the GCL Expos and 50 for the Vermont Expos, a short season affiliate of the Montreal Expos. For Vermont, he was named to the postseason New York–Penn League All-Star team. In 1998, he played for the Cape Fear Crocs and the Jupiter Hammerheads, tying for the Croc team lead in doubles with 21 while hitting .302 for the Crocs and .287 for the Hammerheads. While playing for the Harrisburg Senators the next season, he was suspended seven games for starting a fight after he had been hit by a pitch. He also played for the silver-medal-winning United States in the 1999 Pan American Games. Finishing 76–66, the Senators played the Norwich Navigators for the Eastern League championship. The series was tied two games to two in a best-of-five series. In the final game, Bradley hit a walk-off grand slam with two outs and a full count, in the bottom of the ninth inning, to give the Senators a 12–11 win. During the next season, after playing in 88 games for the Ottawa Lynx, he was promoted to the major league club and made his MLB debut on July 19, 2000. In his debut, he hit three straight singles against the New York Mets; and for the season, he batted .221 with 15 RBI over 42 games played. For the 2001 Expos, Bradley played 67 games, including one on April 26 in which he walked to give the Expos the go-ahead run against Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals in the top of the 15th inning. On July 31 of that year, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians to serve as a possible replacement for Kenny Lofton; in exchange, the Expos received right-handed pitcher Zach Day. Speaking to the Associated Press about the trade, Indians General Manager John Hart stated: > In Milton Bradley we are getting a top-of-the-order, middle-of-the-diamond player we feel will have a major impact at the major-league level in the near future. ### Cleveland Indians (2001–2003) After the deal, Bradley was assigned to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons and reported to the team on August 2. In addition to the 30 games he played for the Bisons, he also played 10 games for the major league Indians. On April 15, 2002, he was placed on the disabled list (DL) following an appendectomy a day earlier at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. He went on the disabled list again on May 2 with a broken orbital bone and a scratched iris after a batted ball had bounced off the outfield wall and hit him below his left eye while he was trying to make a catch; up to that point, he was hitting .266 in 23 games. After a rehabilitation stint of six games with the Bisons, he was reactivated by the Indians on June 4 and finished the season with a .249 batting average, 38 RBIs and nine home runs. Bradley spent the 2003 campaign with the Indians. Despite being placed on the 15-day DL with a strained right hamstring and missing the final six weeks of the season with a lower back injury, he led the team in stolen bases, with 17. On August 30, while on the DL with a back injury, he was ticketed for speeding in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. After being stopped, he refused the ticket and sped away. He pleaded not guilty to speeding and fleeing charges on September 12, but was sentenced to a three-day jail term. The ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court of Ohio in December 2004. On November 19, 2003 he signed a one-year, \$1.73 million contract with the Indians for the Indians to avoid salary arbitration with him. During spring training, he was banned from the Indians' training camp after not running out a popup a game earlier. On April 3, 2004, he was traded to the Dodgers for Franklin Gutiérrez and a player to be named later (Andrew Brown); the Akron Beacon Journal later reported that manager Eric Wedge had insisted that Bradley be traded. ### Los Angeles Dodgers (2004–2005) In his first game with the Dodgers, playing center field, Bradley went 2-for-3, with two singles and two walks. On June 1, he was ejected from a game by home plate umpire Terry Craft for arguing over balls and strikes. After being restrained by manager Jim Tracy, he returned to the dugout and threw a ball bag onto the field. Bradley was suspended for four games and Tracy for one game. On September 19, he hit a 479-foot home run against the Colorado Rockies in Coors Field. On September 28, during a home game against the Rockies, Bradley mishandled a line drive and was charged with an error. A fan threw a bottle at Bradley, who left his position in right field, picked up the bottle and threw it into the stands, yelling at the fan. Bradley was immediately ejected from the game. The next day, MLB suspended him for the remainder of the season and fined him an undisclosed amount. In postseason play, he hit .273 with a home run while the Dodgers lost the National League Division Series to the St. Louis Cardinals three games to one. He finished the 2004 season batting .267 with 19 home runs and 67 RBIs, but was caught stealing 11 times, tying for eighth most in MLB. During the offseason, Bradley went through anger management counseling. In a game against the San Francisco Giants on April 12, 2005, he drove in two runs with a single to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, the winning run then scoring on Jason Ellison's error in the same play. On August 25, 2005, after hitting .290 with 38 RBIs in 75 games, he was put on the 15-day DL with a torn patellar tendon and anterior cruciate ligament which rendered him inactive for the remainder of the season. On December 13, 2005, the Dodgers traded him to the Oakland Athletics along with infielder Antonio Pérez for outfielder prospect Andre Ethier. ### Oakland Athletics (2006–2007) In his first season with the Oakland Athletics, Bradley posted a .276 batting average with 14 home runs and 52 runs batted in, in a part-time role. He went on the 15-day DL on May 11, 2006 for a strained oblique muscle and a sprained right knee. On July 30, he hit a three-run walk-off home run to beat the Toronto Blue Jays with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. During game four of the 2006 American League Championship Series versus the Detroit Tigers, Bradley became the third player in MLB history to hit home runs from each side of the plate in a postseason game, joining Bernie Williams and Chipper Jones. For the series, he went nine-for-eighteen with two home runs and five RBIs. On June 21, 2007, the Athletics designated him for assignment. A trade completed the next day, which would have sent Bradley to the Kansas City Royals for Leo Núñez, was voided by the Royals because Bradley had sustained an oblique injury in his last game as an Athletic. He was then traded to the San Diego Padres on June 29, with cash, in exchange for Andrew Brown; it was the second time those two players had been traded for each other. ### San Diego Padres (2007) Bradley started his tenure with the Padres on the 15-day DL, but came off it on July 7; in July, he batted .364 with four home runs and 12 RBI in 18 games. On September 23, 2007, however, he tore his right ACL while being restrained by Padres manager Bud Black during an altercation with first base umpire Mike Winters. Home plate umpire Brian Runge reportedly told Bradley that Winters said that he had tossed his bat in Runge's direction in a previous at-bat. After Bradley reached first base, he questioned Winters about the alleged bat throwing and subsequent communication with Runge. According to Bradley and Padres first base coach Bobby Meacham, Winters addressed Bradley with a barrage of profanity. Bradley then moved towards Winters. While restrained by Black, Bradley fell to the ground and injured himself. He missed the final week of the regular season in 2007, during which the Padres lost to the Colorado Rockies in a one game playoff for the National League wild card on October 1. Winters was suspended for the remainder of the season and also spent the postseason on the restricted list for the incident, after MLB determined that he had indeed directed obscene language toward Bradley. Bradley was not suspended, MLB finding no need for such discipline since he did not make physical contact with Winters. ### Texas Rangers (2008) After the 2007 season, Bradley agreed to a one-year contract with the Texas Rangers. He announced in early January 2008 that he expected to be healthy and ready to play in the season opener. As the Rangers' designated hitter, he led the AL in on-base percentage (.436) and on-base plus slugging (.999), and was third in batting average (.321). On making the All-Star game, he stated, "If I somehow miraculously made it to the All-Star Game, I would be floored. I'd really be totally humbled by that. I'm just happy right now to play, to produce and to be with a good group of guys." He was selected to play in his first All-Star Game in 2008 as a designated hitter (DH) after being officially selected as a DH reserve, but due to an injury to David Ortiz he became the starting DH in the 2008 MLB All-Star Game. According to The Dallas Morning News Bradley attempted to confront Kansas City Royals television announcer Ryan Lefebvre in the press box following a June 2008 game for what he believed were unfair comments made on the air. As the Rangers' designated hitter, Bradley watched the broadcast when he was not batting and took offense to a comparison Lefebvre made between him and Josh Hamilton. Manager Ron Washington and general manager Jon Daniels chased after him and stopped him before he got to Lefebvre, at which point he returned to the clubhouse in tears and said: > All I want to do is play baseball and make a better life for my kid than I had, that's it. I love all you guys. ... I'm strong, but I'm not that strong. He was quoted by Rangers radio broadcasters as saying that he never intended to physically harm Lefebvre but did want to speak to him; Daniels said he was upset that someone he didn't know was judging him. ### Chicago Cubs (2009) On January 8, 2009, Bradley signed a three-year, \$30 million deal with the Chicago Cubs. He was issued a two-game suspension for making contact with umpire Larry Vanover while arguing a strike call on April 16, which was reduced to one game on appeal. During an interleague game against the Minnesota Twins on June 12, he caught a routine fly ball in right field and threw it into the stands, believing it was the third out of the inning when there were only two outs, with runners on third and first base. The umpire allowed the runner on third to score as a sacrifice fly, and allowed the runner on first to advance to third (two bases are awarded to each runner at the time of throw when a wild throw goes out of bounds). Later that month, Cub manager Lou Piniella told Bradley to leave the dugout and go home after he "went after" a Gatorade cooler in frustration after flying out in another interleague game, against the Chicago White Sox. Piniella and Bradley later confronted each other in the locker room and exchanged words. Piniella later apologized to Bradley, and reinserted him back into the lineup during the team's next start. On September 20, 2009, Cubs general manager Jim Hendry suspended Bradley for the remainder of the season after Bradley, in an interview with the Daily Herald, stated the team lacked a "positive environment", that there were "too many people everywhere in your face with a microphone asking the same questions repeatedly" and that "[y]ou understand why [the Cubs] haven't won in 100 years here". In response, Hendry stated he would not "tolerate [Bradley] not being able to answer questions from the media respectably." Bradley later apologized to the Cubs organization for his remarks. For the Cubs, Bradley hit .257 with 12 home runs and 40 RBIs before being traded to the Seattle Mariners for Carlos Silva and cash on December 18, 2009. ### Seattle Mariners (2010–2011) Bradley was part of a flurry of offseason moves by the Mariners in hopes of returning to the playoffs, having not reached the postseason since 2001. On May 4, 2010, he removed himself from a game, without permission, and left the stadium after an "angry exchange" with Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu after Bradley struck out with the bases loaded. The Mariners placed Bradley on the restricted list on May 6, and activated Bradley from the restricted list on May 19. He ended the season on the DL after having been placed there on July 31, retroactive to July 27, prior to arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to repair a lateral meniscus tear on August 17. He finished the 2010 season batting .205, with eight home runs and 29 RBIs over 73 games played. On May 9, 2011, the Mariners designated Bradley for assignment after starting the 2011 season hitting .218 with two home runs and 13 RBI in 28 games. Reportedly, the Mariners lost patience with Bradley due to his performance in a series against the White Sox. In the first game, he was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the eighth inning, preventing the Mariners from putting in a pinch-runner due to not having enough available players. In the second game, he was booed for not hustling after several balls hit his way. In the final game, he made a poor throw that led to two White Sox runs. The Mariners released Bradley on May 16. ## Personal life In August 2003, Bradley was stopped in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio for speeding and drove away before signing for his ticket. In February 2004, he was sentenced to serve three days in jail, pay a \$250 fine and complete 40 hours of community service. In 2003, Bradley met his future wife, Monique Williams, a community relations intern for the Indians, while with the team. In 2005, Bradley was the Dodgers' nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award for working with the Dodgers Dream Foundation, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and the Long Beach Boys & Girls Clubs, among other charities. Bradley has also opened two baseball academies, one in Long Beach and another in Baldwin Hills. In August 2005, Redondo Beach police received three domestic-violence-related calls from Bradley's house. No charges were filed. In 2006, Bradley filed for divorce but the petition was never finalized. On January 18, 2011, Bradley was arrested at his home in Encino, California and charged with making criminal threats to his wife. When he agreed to participate in an out-of-court hearing process, no charges were filed against him. However, his wife subsequently filed for divorce. In January 2013, Bradley was charged with several crimes stemming from five different domestic incidents which occurred in 2011 and 2012. On June 3, 2013, Bradley was convicted by a jury of nine counts of physically attacking and threatening his wife including four counts of spousal battery, two counts of criminal threats, one count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of vandalism and one count of brandishing a deadly weapon. On July 2, 2013, Bradley received a sentence of 32 months in prison and 52 weeks of anger management and domestic violence classes. Pending appeal, Bradley was released on \$250,000 bail. On September 14, 2013, at the age of 33, Bradley's wife died at Encino Hospital Medical Center; an October 10 death certificate listed cryptogenic cirrhosis of the liver, hemorrhagic shock and cardiac arrest as her causes of death. In 2015, Milton maintained sole custody of his and Monique's two sons. A Los Angeles appellate court rejected Bradley's appeal on January 21, 2015. Sports Illustrated reported in May 2015 that following another unsuccessful appeal, Bradley was ordered to begin serving the 32-month sentence for his 2013 convictions, with the hearing judge stating that Bradley's request for leniency was "breathtaking, frankly, in how callous" it was. In early 2016, Bradley's request to have his jail sentence reduced was denied by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. By April 2018, Bradley, according to Sports Illustrated, had been married to his second wife, Rachel, for two and a half years. In April 2018, Bradley was charged with spousal battery and taken into custody on bail of \$175,000 for allegedly assaulting his wife during a January 2018 incident, at which time Bradley was on probation for his earlier domestic violence conviction. In June 2018 Bradley pleaded no contest to domestic battery, was sentenced to 36 months of probation, and was required to complete 52 weeks of domestic violence counseling.
92,922	St Kilda Football Club	1,173,760,625	Australian rules football club	[ "1873 establishments in Australia", "Australian Football League clubs", "Australian rules football clubs established in 1873", "Australian rules football clubs in Melbourne", "Former Victorian Football League clubs", "Sport in the City of Kingston (Victoria)", "Sport in the City of Port Phillip", "St Kilda Football Club", "St Kilda, Victoria" ]	The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates from its original home base in the bayside Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in which the club was established in 1873. The club also has strong links to the south-eastern suburb of Moorabbin due to it being the long-standing location of their training ground. St Kilda were one of five foundation teams of the Victorian Football Association (VFA), now known as the Victorian Football League (VFL), and later became one of eight foundation teams of the original Victorian Football League in 1897, now known as the AFL. Additionally, St Kilda are in an alignment with the Sandringham Football Club in the modern VFL. St Kilda have won a single premiership to date, a one-point win in the 1966 VFL Grand Final against Collingwood. They have also qualified for the grand final on six additional occasions. The club has won the minor premiership three times, in 1965, 1997 and 2009. St Kilda developed a reputation as perennial underachievers, much of this attributed to their record of finishing last more often than any other club in the league (27 times), having the longest current premiership drought and joint-fourth-longest in history (57 years), as well as having the second-lowest all-time win percentage of any team still playing in the league (after the Gold Coast Suns). ## History ### 1873–1915: early years On 14 March 1873, a meeting was held in Windsor to form the St Kilda Football Club. At this meeting, a provisional committee of men were elected. The formation was completed on 2 April 1873, and on 11 June 1873 another meeting was held to appoint the final committee. The club's original home ground was colloquially nicknamed the "Alpaca Paddock", which was a large fenced-off area at the St Kilda end of what is now known as Albert Park. During its formation years, the club underwent multiple mergers. In June 1873, it merged with the South Yarra Football Club and adopted the red from their colour scheme. In 1875, the club briefly merged with University to stay financially viable. In March 1888, a decision was made to amalgamate St Kilda with nearby Prahran Football Club. St Kilda retained their colours, name and ground as well as picking up a number of Prahran players. St Kilda competed as a senior club in the VFA from 1877 to 1879, 1881 to 1882 and 1886 to 1896 before accepting an invitation into the breakaway competition, the Victorian Football League, from 1897 onwards. St Kilda were one of the eight clubs that took part in the inaugural VFL season in 1897. They made their debut in an away game against Collingwood on 8 May 1897 at Victoria Park. The club's home ground in the new league was the Junction Oval in the suburb of St Kilda, Victoria and the club's first home game was against Fitzroy. St Kilda's early years in the VFL were not successful and, in 1899, they had the lowest score ever recorded in a VFL/AFL match, one point against Geelong. The club lost 48 consecutive games, recording their first win on 5 May 1900, against Melbourne. This match initially ended as a draw, but a protest launched by St Kilda saw the result overturned, resulting in a 1-point victory to St Kilda. In 1902, Charlie Baker became the first St Kilda player to be the league's leading goalkicker in a home and away season with 30 goals. Six successive wins at the start of the 1907 season helped St Kilda to its first finals appearance, qualifying third with nine wins and eight losses. The club was beaten by eventual premiers Carlton. The following year, the club once again qualified in third position and were again eliminated by Carlton in the semi-finals. The 1913 season saw major improvement with the team finishing fourth, eventually being defeated in the Grand Final by Fitzroy. Owing to the finals system at the time, Fitzroy, who had been defeated by St Kilda the previous week, were allowed to challenge St Kilda to a rematch the following week. St Kilda lost the rematch 7.14 (56) to 5.13 (43). ### 1916–1949: World wars and individual success Owing to World War I, St Kilda went into recess in 1916 and 1917. Just prior to their recession, the club temporarily changed their official colours to include yellow in place of white. This was done to avoid association with the German Empire, who had the same colours as St Kilda at the time. The club resumed normal operation in 1918 and fared well initially, qualifying for finals and being defeated in the semi-finals. However, the following years saw St Kilda consistently struggle with poor form. The club qualified for finals once between 1919 and 1938, although during this time period Colin Watson became the first St Kilda player to win the league's highest individual award, winning the 1925 Brownlow Medal. Additionally in 1936, forward Bill Mohr kicked 101 goals, winning the leading goalkicker award and becoming the first St Kilda player to kick 100 goals or more in a season. The club qualified for finals in 1939, finishing the season in fourth after a record run of eight consecutive victories. The team had its first finals win since 1913, against Richmond, but were eliminated in the preliminary final by Collingwood. St Kilda won three of the first four games early in the 1940 season and were on top of the ladder after Round 4, however, the club went on to finish second last. Despite prominent players emerging for the club such as Harold Bray, Keith Drinan, Peter Bennett and later Neil Roberts, St Kilda were rarely competitive for the duration of the 1940s. ### 1950–1973: failure and success The 1950s were initially as uncompetitive for St Kilda as the prior decade. The club failed to make the finals for the first half of the decade, and won three wooden spoons over the period. At the end of 1955, Alan Killigrew was appointed as the club's coach. As part of Killigrew's plan to reinvigorate the club, 17 players were removed from the club's list - one of the most substantial list turnovers in VFL history. Between 1957 and 1959, St Kilda won three consecutive Brownlow Medals. The 1959 winner, Verdun Howell, tied with Bob Skilton in the Brownlow Medal count. At the time, Skilton was awarded the medal on count-back. The league later decided to award a Brownlow Medal to any player who was eligible to win who tied on the same number of votes as a winner who won on count-back – with Howell receiving the Brownlow retrospectively. In 1958, St Kilda won the Consolation Night Series competition, a competition that was played between clubs that had failed to qualify for the premiership season finals series. St Kilda defeated Carlton 16.13 (109) to 15.11 (101). In 1961, after finishing sixth in 1960, Allan Jeans was appointed coach. In his first season as coach, St Kilda qualified for the final four for the first time since 1939. The club lost to Footscray in the first semi-final. The club qualified for finals again in 1963, but was eliminated in the semi-finals again. In 1965, St Kilda finished the home and away season as minor premiers for the first time in the club's history. St Kilda defeated Collingwood in the second semi-final to progress into the grand final. The club finished second in the 1965 premiership season, being defeated by Essendon in the 1965 VFL Grand Final. Following their successful 1965 season, St Kilda qualified for finals in consecutive years for the first time since 1907–08. The club was defeated in the second semi-final by Collingwood - however, the club defeated Essendon in the preliminary final in to qualify for the 1966 VFL Grand Final. St Kilda defeated Collingwood by a single point to win their first premiership in 68 seasons. The following year, St Kilda failed to qualify for the finals series, finishing fifth. Despite continued finals appearances in the early 1970s, St Kilda was unable to win a second premiership - being defeated by the eventual premiers in each finals series between 1970 and 1973. During this 4-year period, St Kilda qualified for the 1971 VFL Grand Final. Despite leading by 20 points at the beginning of the last quarter, they were defeated by Hawthorn by 7 points. ### 1974–1990: decline 1974 saw St Kilda decline to the lower half of the ladder for the first time since the 1950s, finishing tenth. Allan Jeans retired from coaching two years later after 16 seasons coaching St Kilda, citing burnout as his reason for retirement. Following the appointment of Lindsay Fox as club president in 1979, arrangements were made to address the club's withstanding debt of \$1.45 million. Many senior players and Allan Jeans accepted a deal to be paid 22.5 cents for each dollar they were owed. Additionally, non-football creditors received 7.5 cents for each dollar owed. The club was ultimately able to settle with its creditors for \$195,000. Despite these efforts, continuing financial pressures and defeats saw the club remain in the bottom three for every season between 1979 and 1986. In 1987, Tony Lockett won the Coleman Medal for leading goalkicker in the home-and-away season, the fourth St Kilda player to win the league's leading goalkicker award. Lockett also became the seventh St Kilda player to win the Brownlow Medal. He remains the only person in league history to win both the league's best and fairest Brownlow Medal and the league's leading goalkicker Coleman Medal award in the same season. ### 1990–1999: AFL era The league was officially renamed the Australian Football League prior to the start of the 1990 premiership season. A competitive 1991 AFL season saw St Kilda qualify for a finals series for the first time since 1973, qualifying fourth at the end of the home and away rounds. However, the club failed to win a final, being defeated by Geelong. St Kilda finally broke through the following year, winning its first finals series match since 1973 against Collingwood. St Kilda won the 1996 Ansett Australia Cup competition, also known as the pre-season cup. The team defeated Carlton in the final 20.10 (130) to 10.12 (72) in front of 66,888 people at Waverley Park. Nicky Winmar became the first St Kilda player to win the Michael Tuck Medal for best player on the ground in the 1996 Ansett Australia Cup Final. Despite this success, the club failed to make the finals. In the 1997 season, St Kilda qualified for the finals series in first position at the end of the home and away rounds with 15 wins and 7 losses, winning the second minor premiership in the club's history. St Kilda defeated Brisbane in the qualifying finals and North Melbourne in the preliminary finals to move through to the grand final. St Kilda finished second after being beaten in the 1997 AFL Grand Final by Adelaide. The 1998 season initially appeared to be equally strong for the club. After Round 14 of the season, St Kilda was on top of the ladder in Round 14 with eleven wins and three losses and were tipped as warm favourites for the premiership. However, the team's performance declined severely, losing six of their final eight matches to from first to sixth at the conclusion of the premiership season. After qualifying for the finals in consecutive seasons, St Kilda were defeated narrowly by Sydney in the qualifying finals and then eliminated comprehensively by Melbourne in the semi-finals. ### 2000–2011: wooden spoon to premiership contender During the early part of the decade, St Kilda struggled, winning only two matches and drawing one to finish with the wooden spoon in 2000. The following two years were similar, finishing second-last in both seasons. During this period, St Kilda recruited players such as Justin Koschitzke, Nick Riewoldt, Nick Dal Santo and Brendon Goddard who were mainstays of the team over the following decade. In 2004, St Kilda won a club record of 10 consecutive matches from round 1 to round 10. The club returned to finals, eventually being defeated by eventual premiers Port Adelaide in a preliminary final. The following year saw a similar result, with the club being defeated in a preliminary final by Sydney. St Kilda's 2006 AFL season saw the club finish in sixth position at the end of the home and away rounds and qualify for a third successive finals series. St Kilda were eliminated by Melbourne in the elimination finals. During this season, Robert Harvey broke the all-time games record for St Kilda when he played in his 324th premiership season match in Round 7. On 11 October 2006, Ross Lyon was appointed as the new head coach for St Kilda, replacing Grant Thomas. After missing finals in 2007, St Kilda again qualified for the finals in 2008. A 108-point win over Essendon in the final home-and-away round saw the club take fourth position for the finals series. St Kilda were defeated by Geelong in the qualifying finals, defeated Collingwood in the semi-finals and were eliminated by the eventual premiers, Hawthorn, in the preliminary final. St Kilda's 2009 season is considered one of the most dominant home-and-away seasons in AFL history. The club won 20 games—the best-ever home and away record for the club—as well as winning 19 games in a row before being defeated by Essendon. In Round 14, St Kilda defeated Geelong by six points, with both teams being undefeated prior to the match. The game broke multiple records, including highest-ever crowd for an AFL match at Docklands Stadium (54,444). The game was sold out two weeks in advance, causing a change in timeslot (moving from 2:10 pm to 3:10 pm) so that the Seven Network could broadcast the game live in Victoria. St Kilda eventually progressed to that year's grand final, when they were defeated by Geelong by 12 points. Following the grand final, Ross Lyon signed a three-year extension to his coaching contract until the end of the 2012 season. The following year, St Kilda experienced a similar level of success, qualifying for the finals in third position. The club recorded their first win against Geelong in a finals match in the 2nd qualifying final and eventually qualified for the Grand Final against Collingwood. The match ended in a draw – the third drawn grand final in VFL/AFL history. St Kilda midfielder Lenny Hayes won the Norm Smith Medal for the player judged best on ground in the match, making him the first St Kilda player to ever win the medal. Owing to the draw, a second grand final match was played the following week. In the grand final replay, Collingwood won by 56 points. In December 2010, the club was granted ownership of the Linen House Centre, a new training and administration property in the City of Frankston at Seaford valued at approximate \$11 million. Following the season, the club announced a record net profit of \$7.467 million for season 2010. St Kilda also achieved a new record membership for a single season and were the 2nd-most-watched team on television, rating 22,777,092 viewers across the season. Following a loss in their 2011 elimination final, Ross Lyon left the club, despite one year remaining on his contract, to coach . Former Sydney, Fremantle and West Coast player and Collingwood assistant coach Scott Watters was announced as Lyon's replacement in October 2011. ### 2012–present: post grand finals struggles and rebuild The years after the departure of Ross Lyon did not prove fruitful for St Kilda. They failed to make the finals in 2012 for the first time since 2007 and continued poor performances that ultimately culminated in the club finishing last in 2014. Despite this, the 2013 season marked a historic moment for St Kilda and the AFL when St Kilda hosted the first premiership match outside of Australia in New Zealand. Following the 2013 season, senior coach Scott Watters was sacked. On 14 November, former Port Adelaide director of coaching Alan Richardson was announced as new senior coach for the next three years. Following further poor performances in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Richardson was advised that his contract would not be renewed for 2020. As a result, he resigned from his position as senior coach. Assistant coach Brett Ratten took over as caretaker coach. After winning three of the season's last six games, Ratten was appointed permanent senior coach in September 2019. During the 2019 trade period, four high-profile players requested a trade to St Kilda and many discussions were held with other players looking to move. In the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, the club managed 10 of a possible 17 wins to qualify for their first finals series since 2011. During the finals campaign, St Kilda would defeat the Western Bulldogs in an elimination final by 3 points, bringing the first finals victory to the club since 2010 preliminary final against the same opponent. Richmond would later defeat St Kilda by 31 points in the semi-final, ending their campaign. In the following 2021 season, the club would decline in performance, leading to the club finishing 10th with only a 10-12 record. In the 2022 season, after starting at an impressive 8-3 record by round 11, the club would then win only three of their last 11, leading to an 11-11 record, finishing 10th once again. On October 14th, 2022, senior coach Brett Ratten would be sacked by the club. Former St Kilda coach Ross Lyon would be reinstated as senior coach for the 2023 season. ### AFLW involvement In 2017, following the inaugural AFL Women's (AFLW) season, St Kilda was among eight clubs that applied for licences to enter the competition from 2019 onwards. In September 2017, the club was announced as one of four clubs to receive a licence to join the competition in 2020. ## Club identity The club's on-field nickname is the "Saints", usage of which dates back to as early as the 1870s. Many clubs' early nicknames were derived from an abbreviation or demonym of the club's suburb, but St Kilda is unique among the AFL clubs in now utilising this as its official nickname. Dating back to as early as the 1890s, and to as late as the 1950s, the "Seagulls" was also in use as a nickname, but this has fallen out of use. In 1945, the club adopted the moniker "Panthers"; however, this was short-lived. ### Uniforms St Kilda's home guernsey has three vertical panels of red, white and black on the front, with the club crest located on the left breast of the guernsey. The guernsey has a plain black back, white ribbing and white numbers. The away guernsey is identical to the home guernsey. The clash guernsey is similar to the other two guernseys, but has two extra white panels on either side of the red and black panels. The guernsey has a white back, with the tri-colour panels continuing below the number, it retains the white ribbing of the other guernseys, and has black numbers. #### Evolution ### Logos St Kilda has used multiple different logos since it was formed in 1873. Prior to 1976, no clubs in the VFL used logos in an official capacity. Many early club logos were printed in the same shield design frame and had each club's individual colours, name and design in them. St Kilda used a consistent design in the 1970s and 1980s, featuring a stick figure bearing a halo, holding the competition's logo. In 1989, just prior to the league officially becoming the AFL, the club used a logo with a red white and black vertically striped design with the goal and behind posts on it, with a stick figure attempting a mark on it with a halo above its head, with the league logo and the club crest on top of either behind post. The VFL league logo was replaced with the AFL logo when the competition changed names in 1990. The St Kilda Football Club crest first appeared officially on the jumper in 1933, after existing at the club for quite some time beforehand in basic design form. The crest became an iconic feature of the club's jumper – a well-known and recognisable symbol of the club. The crest also includes the club's motto, Fortius Quo Fidelius, which is usually translated as "Strength through Loyalty". As with the nickname "Saints", the club crest has no religious associations. A logo change before the start of the 1995 season saw the club make the decision to use the official club crest as the club's official logo in the league. ### Club song The club song is an adaption of "When The Saints Go Marching In". The song was recorded in 1972 by the Fable Singers and released as a single. The song was recorded with all copyright and royalty agreements in place, and the AFL has permission to broadcast it publicly at each St Kilda match. Prior to 1965, when St Kilda played at the Junction Oval, the club's song was an adaptation of "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside". ### Home grounds #### Junction Oval: 1897–1964 St Kilda's first home ground in the Victorian Football League was Junction Oval. The club used this ground until 1964, when it moved to Moorabbin Oval. The oval was formerly known as the St Kilda Cricket Ground and was originally established as the home of the St Kilda Cricket Club in 1856. By the late 1950s, the St Kilda Football Club sought to move its playing base away from Junction Oval as it wanted to operate its own venue rather than continue being a tenant of another club. In 1959, the club made enquiries about a lease to play at and develop Elsternwick Park in the neighbouring suburb of Elsternwick, but no deal was signed. During 2014, St Kilda became involved in discussions with the Victorian government to return as a co-tenant at Junction Oval alongside Cricket Victoria. As part of the proposals, St Kilda would utilise the oval as a training and administrative base, with the site to receive a second oval to accommodate the club. This proposal was later rejected by the Victorian government, and Junction Oval was converted into a full-time cricket venue as of 2015. #### Moorabbin Oval: 1965–1992 Moorabbin Oval has been St Kilda's training and administrative base since 1965, excluding an 8-year period between 2010 and 2018. In March 1964, the club arranged a deal to move its playing, training and administrative base to Moorabbin Oval on Linton St, Moorabbin, with all home games at the new venue starting the 1965 season. The club signed a lease agreement in August 1964, giving the club access to all Moorabbin Oval facilities for 75 years, provided it completed required works at the ground to establish a social club, training facilities and spectator seating on the site in time for the 1965 Premiership season. The club had to invest a set amount, combined with funds from the local council, and complete the required works by a deadline date to ensure the agreement was ratified and the purchase was complete. Loans provided to St Kilda by the council were to be repaid over the subsequent lease period. Following the club's move away from using Moorabbin Oval as a home venue for playing games, it was retained as an administrative and training facility for the club. In 2007, the relationship between the club and the City of Kingston, who governs the suburb of Moorabbin, deteriorated. As a result, St Kilda announced that it would move its primary administrative and training base away from Moorabbin. After the 2010 season, the club temporarily moved to a new facility was built at Belvedere Park, in Seaford. During this time period, the club continued to manage Moorabbin Oval, using it as a retail, museum, entertainment and occasional training venue. In 2018, St Kilda returned to using Moorabbin Oval as their primary administrative and training facility, as part of a two-stage redevelopment deal, costing approximately 30 million dollars. Moorabbin Oval also serves as the primary home ground for the Sandringham Dragons and the Southern Football League as well as being the administrative centre for football development in the south-east. #### Waverley Park: 1993–1999 Waverley Park was opened by the Victorian Football League in 1970 under the name "VFL Park". The ground was constructed by the league for a variety of reasons, with the primary reason being the fact the ground would be owned by the VFL. As the majority of teams in the competition at the time did not have control over their home grounds, they were unable to exercise control over various aspects, such as ground drainage and ticket prices. Since the 1960s, the AFL had been embarked on a strategy of ground rationalisation. During the 1990s, as part of this strategy, St Kilda opted to take a deal to move home games to Waverley Park from 1993 and renovate the ageing Moorabbin Oval for training, administration and social club purposes. The club voted in favour of the move in a weighted vote of members in July 1992. The club received \$430,000 upfront and \$120,000 per year for three years from the AFL's grounds rationalisation funds, which helped to clear some of the club's debt. In 1999, the AFL announced that it would not schedule any further matches at Waverley Park, and that the stadium would be sold off to pay for the under-construction Docklands Stadium. #### Docklands Stadium: 2000–present In 2000, St Kilda moved to a new playing home at Docklands Stadium following the discontinuation of Waverley Park as a scheduled ground. Docklands Stadium was conceived as a multi-purpose venue to be used for Australian rules football, soccer, rugby and other general entertainment events. The AFL sought to replace Waverly Park, which would have been nearly 30 years old in 2000. The decision to build a new stadium was supported by the AFL due to issues regarding accessibility and Waverly Park, with the league stating there would be no improvement to the situation if upgrades were made to the stadium, and any upgrades would result in little financial return. The stadium was designated to be in the Docklands region of Melbourne, behind Southern Cross Station, and was designed to hold 52,000 people. The stadium cost approximately \$460 million to construct. Exclusive ownership of the ground was later purchased by the AFL in October 2016. Due to Waverly Park being disused following the construction of Docklands Stadium, St Kilda, alongside fellow tenants Hawthorn, were forced to find a new home ground. As part of the initial arrangement, both clubs were planned to play a significant number of games at the stadium, however, only St Kilda would move to the ground. St Kilda set the attendance record for the ground in 2009, when 54,444 people attended a match against Geelong. Other former club players also hold records at the venue, with Lenny Hayes holding the record for most games played at the venue, and Nick Riewoldt holding the record for most goals kicked. #### Additional facilities St Kilda's primary administrative and training base from late 2010 until 2018 was the 'Linen House Centre' at Belvedere Park in Seaford. The creation of the base came about due to disagreements between St Kilda and the City of Kingston's council regarding proposed upgrades to their Moorabbin facilities, which included the implementation of 80 poker machines. The club subsequently negotiated a deal with the neighbouring City of Frankston, to develop Frankston Park into its new training base. However, when proposed costs blew out by \$5 million, a new agreement was formed between the two entities. In this new deal, the club would develop Belvedere Park in conjunction with the Frankston City Council, the Victorian state government and the AFL. The cost of developing the facilities was valued at approximately \$11 million. The centre received its name as part of a naming rights sponsorship deal with Linen House. The club signed a lease on the facility until 2059. The club, however, chose to relocate back to Moorabbin Oval as its primary administrative and training base by 2018. As a result, in December 2020, St Kilda made a proposal to the Frankston City Council to repurpose the facility as a centre to be used by the wider Frankston community. ## Playing squad ### Current AFL squad ### Reserves teams St Kilda operated its own reserves team from 1919 to 2000. From 1919 to 1991 the VFL/AFL operated a reserves competition and, from 1992 to 1999, a de facto AFL reserves competition was run by the Victorian State Football League. St Kilda fielded a reserves team in both of these competitions, allowing players who were not selected for the senior team to play for St Kilda in the lower grade. During that time, the St Kilda reserves team won three premierships (1942, 1943 and 1961). Following the demise of the AFL reserves competition, the St Kilda reserves team competed in the new Victorian Football League in the 2000 season before the team was dissolved at the end of the year. In 2001, St Kilda entered a reserves affiliation with existing VFL club Springvale (which moved to Cranbourne and was renamed Casey in 2006). Under the affiliation, reserves players for St Kilda played VFL football with Springvale/Casey. The affiliation ended after the 2008 season and St Kilda then entered an equivalent affiliation with Sandringham which it still maintains as of 2022. St Kilda had announced its intention to end its affiliation with Sandringham and re-establish its own reserves team in the VFL from the 2017 season after a redevelopment of Moorabbin Oval was completed; but the club ultimately extended and expanded its affiliation with Sandringham. From 2017, St Kilda has had a greater involvement in the operation of the VFL club and, from 2018, Sandringham plays three games per year at Moorabbin Oval in St Kilda colours. ## Corporate ### Administrative board - President: Andrew Bassat - Vice president: Russell Caplan - Chief executive officer: Matt Finnis - Director: Dean Anderson - Director: Jennifer Douglas - Director: Paul Kirk - Director: Jack Rush - Director: Danni Roche - Director: Adam Hilton ### Sponsors Principal partners - CMC Markets - Pepper Money Major sponsors - Red Rooster - RSEA Safety Elite partners - AIA - AVJennings - Furphy Beer - Jayco - Mosh - New Balance - Opal - Webcentral Apparel sponsors - Puma (1997–2001) - Sekem (2002–2003) - Piping Hot (2003–2006) - Skins (2007) - ISC (2008–2016, 2020) - BLK (2017–2019) - New Balance (2021–present) ## Supporters St Kilda has historically had a large fanbase around the Bayside suburbs of Melbourne, such as St Kilda, with one in five AFL club members in the region being a St Kilda member. The club also has strong support in the south-east regions of Melbourne. Politically, a poll of the club's supporter base indicated a small first party voting preference (39.7%) for the Coalition over the Labor Party (36.9%). The suburb of St Kilda has a significant Jewish community and the club has a strong following from this community. ### Number-one ticket holders Notable St Kilda supporters who have also been the club's number-one ticket holders include: - Eric Bana – actor and comedian - Lindsay Fox – former club president and St Kilda thirds player - Elle MacPherson – model and actress - John Moran – former St Kilda reserves player - Mark Dreyfus – Attorney-General of Australia ### Membership and attendance ## Partnerships ### New Zealand partnership In September 2012, St Kilda announced that they had signed a three-year partnership with the Wellington City Council to play an annual match in New Zealand on Anzac Day (25 April) at Westpac Stadium as part of the day's commemorations. As a result of the partnership, St Kilda and the Sydney Swans became the first two AFL clubs to play for premiership points outside of Australia. Although the partnership was extended by three years in 2013, a review conducted in 2015 saw the conclusion of the partnership. In 2018, AFL New Zealand and St Kilda both expressed interest in signing a new partnership in the future with matches hosted in Auckland rather than Wellington. ### China partnership In October 2018, St Kilda signed a three-year deal to replace as 's opponents in their annual match played in China. The three-year deal was expected to earn St Kilda more than \$2 million in addition to any commercial earnings. In 2019, 4.01 million people watched the match between the two clubs. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the match was not played in the 2020 or 2021 seasons. ## Commemorative boards ### Honour board ### Team of the century At a special function in 2003, the St Kilda Football Club Team of the Century was announced. Darrel Baldock, who captained the 1966 grand final team, was named as captain; and Allan Jeans, the only premiership-winning coach of the club, was named as coach. Ian Stewart was also named a member of the AFL Team of the Century. ### Hall of fame St Kilda Football Club's Hall of Fame was established in 2003. Club identities, past or present, are selected and inducted into the hall of fame by a committee. The club has inducted 48 members into its hall of fame since its inception. ## Achievements ### Club achievements ### VFL/AFL grand finals ### Individual achievements Trevor Barker Award (Club best and fairest) Brownlow Medal (League best and fairest) - 1925 – Colin Watson - 1957 – Brian Gleeson - 1958 – Neil Roberts - 1959 – Verdun Howell - 1965 – Ian Stewart - 1966 – Ian Stewart - 1967 – Ross Smith - 1987 – Tony Lockett - 1997 – Robert Harvey - 1998 – Robert Harvey Norm Smith Medal (AFL Grand Final best on ground) - 2010 – Lenny Hayes Leigh Matthews Trophy (AFLPA Most Valuable Player) - 1987 – Tony Lockett - 1997 – Robert Harvey - 2004 – Nick Riewoldt Coleman Medal (Leading Goal Kicker) - 1902 – Charlie Baker - 1936 – Bill Mohr - 1956 – Bill Young - 1987 – Tony Lockett - 1991 – Tony Lockett - 2004 – Fraser Gehrig - 2005 – Fraser Gehrig AFL Rising Star (Best player under 21) - 2001 – Justin Koschitzke - 2002 – Nick Riewoldt ### All-Australian teams An All-Australian team is considered a "best-of" selection of players for each calendar year, with each player usually represented in their own team position. The All-Australian teams are selected by a panel. The concept of an All-Australian "team of the year" was first pioneered by Sporting Life Magazine in 1947, which created a team each year until 1955. No St Kilda players featured in these teams. This concept was later adopted by the interstate carnivals and the Australian Football League. All teams from the interstate carnivals and the AFL have been endorsed as official by governing bodies of the sport, such as the Australian National Football Council and the AFL, whilst teams selected by Sporting Life are not recognised. Interstate carnivals - Neil Roberts – 1956 - Ian Stewart – 1966 - Darrel Baldock – 1966 - Bob Murray – 1969 - Travis Payze – 1972 - Bruce Duperouzel – 1980 - Danny Frawley – 1988 Australian Football League - Geoff Cunningham – 1983 - Greg Burns – 1984 - Tony Lockett – 1987, 1991, 1992 - Danny Frawley – 1988 - Nicky Winmar – 1989, 1991, 1995 - Stewart Loewe – 1990, 1991, 1992 - David Grant – 1991 - Robert Harvey – 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003 - Nathan Burke – 1993, 1996, 1997, 1999 - Austinn Jones – 1997, 2004 - Peter Everitt – 1997, 1998 - Lenny Hayes – 2003, 2005, 2009 - Fraser Gehrig – 2004 - Nick Riewoldt – 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2014 - Luke Ball – 2005 - Nick Dal Santo – 2005, 2009, 2011 - Sam Fisher – 2008 - Brendon Goddard – 2009, 2010 - Leigh Montagna – 2009, 2010 - Stephen Milne – 2011, 2012 - Sean Dempster – 2012 - Dan Butler – 2020 - Jack Steele – 2020, 2021 ## Records and statistics ## Reserves team The St Kilda reserves were the reserves side of the club, competing in the VFL/AFL reserves, as well as the Victorian Football League for a single season. Since 2013, the club has been affiliated with the Sandringham Football Club. ### History St Kilda was an inaugural club in the Victorian Junior Football League, which later became known as the VFL seconds. Their first premiership in the competition came in 1942, with another to follow in 1943 and a third in 1961. The team were also runners-up a total of six times, including in the last AFL reserves grand final in 1999. Shane Warne, considered to be one of the greatest bowlers in the history of cricket, played a single game for the reserves side in 1988. He was incorrectly listed in the Record as "Trevor" Warne, and played in the Under-19s for the remainder of the season. Former St Kilda number one ticket holder John Moran also played for the reserves side. In 2000, St Kilda opted to continue their reserves side in the expanded Victorian Football League. From 2001 until 2008, St Kilda entered into an affiliation agreement affiliated with the Springvale Football Club, who relocated to Casey and became the Casey Scorpions in 2006. Starting in 2009, St Kilda became affiliated with the Sandringham Football Club. From 2018 until the end of the 2019 season, the Southern Saints in the VFL Women's were managed or co-managed by St Kilda. The club is now managed by Sandringham. ## See also - Sport in Australia - Sport in Victoria
38,479,371	Karamokho Alfa	1,101,926,284	Fula religious leader	[ "1751 deaths", "Fula history", "Fula people", "History of Guinea", "Year of birth unknown" ]	Karamokho Alfa (born Ibrahima Musa Sambeghu and sometimes called Alfa Ibrahim; died c. 1751) was a Fula religious leader who led a jihad that created the Imamate of Futa Jallon in what is now Guinea. This was one of the first of the Fulbe jihads that established Muslim states in West Africa. Alfa Ba, Karamoko Alfa's father, formed a coalition of Muslim Fulbe and called for the jihad in 1725, but died before the struggle began. The jihad was launched around 1726-1727. After a crucial, concluding victory at Talansan, the state was established at a meeting of nine Fulbe ulama who each represented one of the Futa Jallon provinces. Ibrahima Sambeghu, who became known as Karamokho Alfa, was the hereditary ruler of Timbo and one of the nine ulama. He was elected leader of the jihad. Under his leadership, Futa Jallon became the first Muslim state to be founded by the Fulbe. Despite this, Karamokho Alfa was constrained by the other eight ulama. Some of the other Ulama had more secular power than Karamokho Alfa, who directly ruled only the diwal of Timbo; for this reason the new state was always a tenuous confederation. Karamoko Alfa ruled the theocratic state until 1748, when his excessive devotions caused him to become mentally unstable and Sori was selected as de facto leader. Karamokho Alfa died around 1751 and was formally succeeded by Ibrahim Sori, his cousin. ## Background The Futa Jallon is the highland region where the Senegal and Gambia rivers rise. In the fifteenth century the valleys were occupied by Susu and Yalunka farmers. Around that time, Fulbe herders began moving into the region, grazing their livestock on the plateaux. At first they peacefully accepted a subordinate position to the Susu and Yalunka. The Fulbe and Mandé peoples intermixed to some extent, and the more sedentary of the Fulbe came to look down on their pastoral cousins. Europeans began to establish trading posts on the upper Guinea coast in the seventeenth century, stimulating a growing trade in hides and slaves. The pastoral Fulbe expanded their herds to meet the demand for hides. They began to compete for land with the agriculturalists, and became interested in the profitable slave trade. They were increasingly influenced by their Muslim trading partners. In the last quarter of the seventeenth century the Zawāyā reformer Nasir al-Din launched a jihad to restore purity of religious observance in the Futa Toro region to the north. He gained support from the Torodbe clerical clan against the warriors, but by 1677 the movement had been defeated. Some of the Torodbe migrated south to Bundu and some continued on to the Futa Jallon. The Torodbe, the kinsmen of the Fulbe of the Futa Jallon, influenced them in embracing a more militant form of Islam. ## Jihad The jihad was launched around 1726 or 1727. The movement was primarily religious, and its leaders included both Mandé and Fulbe marabouts. The jihad also attracted some formerly non-Muslim Fulbe, who associated it not just with Islam but with freedom of the Fulbe from subordination to the Mandé peoples. It was opposed by other non-Muslim Fulbe and by non-Muslim Yalunka leaders. According to tradition, Ibrahim Sori symbolically launched the war in 1727 by destroying the great ceremonial drum of the Yalunka people with his sword. The jihadists then won a major victory at Talansan. A force of 99 Muslims defeated a non-Muslim force ten times greater, killing many of their opponents. After this victory the state was established at a meeting of nine Fulbe ulama who each represented one of the Futa Jallon provinces. Ibrahima Sambeghu, who became known as Karamokho Alfa, was the hereditary ruler of Timbo and one of the nine ulama. He was elected leader of the jihad. He took the title almami, or "the Imam". Under his leadership Futa Jallon became the first Muslim state to be founded by the Fulbe. Karamoko Alfa managed to enlist disadvantaged groups such as gangs of young men, outlaws and slaves. Karamokho Alfa's maternal cousin was Maka Jiba, the ruler of Bundu, and both men studied in Fugumba under the famous scholar Tierno Samba. However, there are no records of Bundu participation in the Futa Jallon jihad, perhaps because of the internal troubles in Bundu at that time, or perhaps because Maka Jiba was not greatly interested in the cause. Although he was an inspired religious leader, Karamoko Alfa was not qualified as a military leader. Ibrahim Sori took this role. Some of the population resisted conversion for many years, particularly the nomadic Fulbe herders. They rightly feared that the marabouts would abuse their authority. ## Ruler Karamokho Alfa was constrained by the other eight ulama, each of whom ruled their own province, or diwal. The structure of the new Fulbe state had an almami at its head, Karamokho Alfa being the first, with his political capital at Timbo. However, some of the other Ulama had more secular power than Karamokho Alfa, who directly ruled only the diwal of Timbo. The religious capital was at Fugumba, where the council of the alama sat. The council operated as a strong curb on the power of the almami, and the ulama retained much autonomy, so the new state was always a loose federation. Karamokho Alfa was known for his Islamic scholarship and piety. He respected the rights of the old "masters of the soil", saying "it was Allah who had established them." Despite this ruling, the imams reserved the right to reassign land, since they held it in trust for the people. In effect the existing property owners were not displaced, but now had to pay Zakāt as a form of rent. Karamoko Alfa ruled the theocratic state until 1748, when his excessive devotions caused him to become mentally unstable and Sori was selected as de facto leader. ## Legacy Karamokho Alfa died around 1751 and was formally succeeded by Ibrahim Sori, his cousin. Ibrahim Sori Mawdo was chosen after failure of Alfa Saliu, son of Karamoko Alfa, who was too young. Ibrahim Sori was an aggressive military commander who initiated a series of wars. After many years of conflict, Ibrahim Sori achieved a decisive victory in 1776 that consolidated the power of the Fulbe state. The jihad had achieved its goals and Ibrahim Sori assumed the title of almami. Under Ibrahima Sori slaves were sold to obtain munitions needed for the wars. This was considered acceptable as long as the slaves were not Muslim. The jihad created a valuable supply of slaves from the defeated peoples that may have provided a motive for further conquests. The Fulbe ruling class became wealthy slave owners and slave traders. Slave villages were founded, whose inhabitants provided food for their Fulba masters to consume or sell. As of 2013 the Fulbe were the largest ethnic group in Guinea at 40% of the population, followed by the Malinke (30%) and the Susu (20%). The jihad in Futa Jallon was followed by a jihad in Futa Toro between 1769 and 1776 led by Sileymaani Baal. The largest of the Fulani jihads was led by the scholar Usman dan Fodio and established the Sokoto Caliphate in 1808, stretching across what is now the north of Nigeria. The Fulbe Muslim state of Masina was established to the south of Timbuktu in 1818. Karamokho Alfa came to be thought of as a saint. A story is told of a miracle that occurred more than a hundred years after his death. The chief of the Ouassoulounké, Kondé Buraima, opened Karamokho Alfa's tomb and cut off the left hand of the body. Blood poured from the severed wrist, causing Kondé Buraima to flee in terror. ## See also - Alfaya (party) - Ibrahim Sori
9,723,138	1997–98 Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team	1,130,023,062	Intercollegiate basketball season	[ "1997 in sports in Tennessee", "1998 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament participants", "1998 in sports in Tennessee", "NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament Final Four seasons", "NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament championship seasons", "Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball seasons" ]	The 1997–98 Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team, coached by Pat Summitt, is considered to be one of the greatest teams in the history of U.S. women's college basketball, going 39–0, and winning their third consecutive national championship, while playing one of the toughest schedules in the nation. The Lady Vols started off the season ranked number one in the nation, a ranking that would not change. ESPN called it one of the top ten moments in women's sports of the 20th century. After the season, Summitt authored a book about the season, entitled "Raise the Roof". ## Preseason The Lady Vols had just come off of a somewhat bittersweet season. While they had won the national championship, they had lost ten games, including two to rival Louisiana Tech. That team was the first Lady Vols team since 1991 that did not win either the SEC regular season or tournament championship. However, the team did return several players, including All-American Chamique Holdsclaw, and had a freshman class that was being called the greatest ever, which included Tamika Catchings, Semeka Randall, Teresa Geter, and Kristen Clement. Tamika Catchings won Miss Basketball titles in two states: Illinois, her sophomore year, and Texas, her senior year. Additionally, she led her high school to a state championship and a 40–0 season her senior year. She also performed a quintuple-double in one of her games. Semeka Randall was also accomplished, named Parade's Player of the Year her senior year, a two-time Miss Basketball, as well as a two-time state tournament MVP. Kristen "Ace" Clement came out of Pennsylvania, where she had broken Wilt Chamberlain's scoring record in Philadelphia of 2,205 with 2,256 points. The record had stood for 40 years. The fourth freshman, Teresa Geter, was not as well-known, but was considered to be the best player in South Carolina, and had been named Miss Basketball, just like the others. Chamique, Tamika, and Semeka would become known as "The Meeks" as the season progressed. ## Regular season ### Mississippi After an exhibition rout of US Armed Forces, the Lady Vols opened up the season unusually, with a conference game against Mississippi. Semeka Randall did not start the game. However, four minutes into the game, the Lady Vols were only up 4–2. At this point, Randall was put into the game, and Tennessee scored fifteen straight, on a run fueled by her. Randall scored 24, and star Chamique Holdsclaw added 23. This season opener has caused a lot of anticipation, as it was expected that this would be the game where all four of Tennessee's freshman played together. However, during a November practice, Clement had injured her foot, resulting in a stress fracture. After a discussion with the team doctor, Clement agreed to sit out the Mississippi game in order to be able to play the next game, against Louisiana Tech. ### Louisiana Tech The Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters were ranked second in the country and was expected to challenge Tennessee for the national title. Tech returned all five of its starters from a team that had beaten the Vols twice the previous year. Tech came out on a 9–2 run, but led at the half by only a point. The teams played evenly for the beginning of the second half, before Louisiana Tech raised the lead to five with just over twelve minutes remaining. Summitt put her four freshman into the line-up, which went on a 12–0 run, giving Tennessee a lead they would never relinquish. Holdsclaw finished with a double-double (24 points, 11 rebounds), and Catchings contributed 17 points. Teresa Geter was a big contributor, as well, with five blocked shots. Clement was able to play the game, but it set her rehab back, and she would not play again for over a month. ### Tennessee-Martin, Stanford, Portland, Texas, and the Big Apple Classic The next game was against Summitt's alma mater, Tennessee-Martin. Martin was naming their court after Summitt, and the game was just an excuse to attract a large number of people. Their meeting was not much of a game, as Tennessee won 73–32. Summitt's team followed this game with a 40-point rout of Vermont. The team next went on a road trip to the West Coast for their annual game against rival Stanford. Stanford lit up the court in the first half, sinking 57 percent of their shots, but it was not enough to keep the Lady Vols away. Down by one at the half, the Lady Vols played great defense in the second, allowing just five field goals and winning by 18. Holdsclaw had 25 points, and Catchings had 20. The Lady Vols next traveled to Portland, as part of Summitt's yearly effort to play at least one game near the hometown of each player. This game was meant more as a homecoming for Laurie Milligan, instead of an actual challenge, and they cruised to a 74–51 victory. December opened up with a game against rival Texas, who shot out to a 47–32 lead at halftime, and went on to win by 34, behind Catchings' 26 points. Next up was the Big Apple Classic, a home trip for Holdsclaw. The Ladies rolled over both opponents, beating George Mason and Manhattan by 30 and 50 respectively. ### SEC/Big-10 Challenge The Vols then returned home for the SEC/Big-10 challenge. Florida lost by 10 to Purdue, and the Vols' game was against Illinois. The game featured an interesting match-up as Catchings' sister, Tauja, was a sophomore at Illinois at the time. Tennessee had a horrific start as they fell behind 41–19. By halftime, the lead had been cut to 41–24, despite only shooting 23%. In the second half, Tennessee cut the lead slowly, through turnovers and defense, finally taking the lead with 9:25 remaining. The Vols ended the game with a ten-point win. ### Northern Lights Invitational The next trip was up to Anchorage, for the Northern Lights Invitational, a three-day, eight-team tournament. The first game was an easy win against Akron, in which Summitt played her bench frequently. The semi-final game, against Texas A&M, was not much more difficult. The Ladies won handily, 105–81, leading by as much as 25. Texas A&M's 81 points would end up being the most a team would score on Tennessee that season. The championship game was against Wisconsin, a team ranked in the top 10, but this ranking did not mean much, as the team ended 1997 with an 87–66 victory. The Meeks were named to the All-Tournament team. ### Arkansas and UConn A rare New Year's Day game was played against SEC foe Arkansas, who was ranked just inside the top 25. Tennessee forced 26 turnovers, including 14 steals, en route to an 88–58 victory. This game was followed up with a home match with main rival UConn, who was ranked third in the nation. UConn led the series 4–3, but the Lady Vols had won the last matchup, and the undefeated Huskies wanted revenge. Thompson-Boling Arena seated nearly 25,000 fans, an NCAA women's record, and, as an experiment, the game was played in four quarters instead of two halves. The Lady Vols started off on a 10–0 run, but the lead was cut to 23–17 by the end of the first quarter. The second quarter saw Tennessee expand the lead, ending the quarter with a fourteen-point lead. However, UConn did not want to go away, and went on a tear in the third quarter, as a 20–7 run cut the Lady Vols lead to one point, before the team responded, ending the quarter with seven unanswered points. The final quarter was all Tennessee, and the game ended in an 84–69 win. ### South Carolina and Florida The team started their SEC schedule back up with a trip to South Carolina. The Gamecocks were not much of an opponent, as the ladies more than doubled their points at the half (53–26), and finished the game 94–52. This game was followed up with another highly ranked opponent, the twelfth-ranked Gators. Once again, the Vols ran a talented team into the ground, as they only allowed 18 first half points, ultimately winning by a score of 99–60. ### Georgia, Kentucky, and DePaul Tennessee had a three-game road trip up next, starting with the Bulldogs in Athens. Tennessee started the game strong, grabbing the lead, and finished the half on a 13–0 run. However, Georgia came back, cutting the lead down to nine with seven minutes remaining in the game. It was at this point that Semeka Randall scored thirteen points, sealing a 96–71 victory. This is the largest margin of victory in the Lady Bulldogs-Lady Vols series. Tennessee had 19 steals in the game, while shooting over 50%, and Holdsclaw and Catchings both scored over 20. The next game, against Kentucky, also had Tennessee making a late first half run, giving them a 19-point lead at the break. This lead was never given up, as the Lady Vols won by twenty-eight. The final game of the road trip was against DePaul, a good team who was, however, missing their two best players. Without these players, it was not much of a game, as Summitt's team started the game with twenty-one straight points and ended the game with a 125–46 victory, giving the team a 20–0 record. The team's 125 points were the second most in the history of the program. ### Vanderbilt and Georgia The Lady Vols returned home and resumed their SEC schedule against in-state foe Vanderbilt, who was ranked in the top 10. Throughout the first half, the game was about even, until the Lady Vols got a slight lead with under seven minutes left, which they took to the locker room, 37–31. The second half, however, started out much differently, beginning with a 20–0 Lady Vols run. Tennessee led by as many as 35 points in the game, and ended the game with an 86–54 win. Catchings was named the SEC Player of the Week for her role in the DePaul and Vanderbilt games, scoring 35 and 22 points respectively. The final game of the month was the rematch with Georgia. It ended up being a blowout. Tennessee shot better than 60%, and Holdsclaw scored more points in the first half than the entire Georgia team. Tennessee broke the 20-steal mark, as well as the 100-point mark, winning 102–43. ### Alabama, Old Dominion, and Mississippi State February began with another SEC match-up, this time against unranked Alabama. Starter Kyra Elzy tore her ACL during the game ending her season, during this game, while going up for a rebound. Meanwhile, Alabama was keeping close to the Lady Vols, by slowing the game down. At half time, Tennessee only had a 13-point lead. The team never did shake off the Crimson Tide, but did manage to pull out the win, 73–66. A trip to Ole Miss was next, and the team started off much better, score the first ten points of the game and having a 54–17 lead at halftime. Summitt let the bench play the rest of the game, ultimately winning 91–45. This game was followed up by a non-conference match against longtime rival Old Dominion, whom Tennessee had beaten in the previous year's national championship. The game was even for fifteen minutes, but in the last five minutes of the half, Tennessee was able to build a twelve-point lead. Holdsclaw took over the second half for the Lady Vols, scoring 24 points for an 85–61 victory, ODU's biggest loss in four years. This match was followed up with another conference game, this time against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. UT started out sloppily, and ended the half with only a nine-point lead. However, once again the team came out strong to open the second half, raising their lead and eventually had double State's points, with ten minutes remaining. The Bulldogs cut the lead to eleven, but then Summitt put Holdsclaw back in, scoring eight in a row, giving Tennessee another victory, 74–52. ### Memphis, Auburn, Vanderbilt, and LSU After a two-day rest, the Lady Vols resumed their season with three games in five days, starting with their final non-conference opponent, Memphis, on the road. UT started strong, taking a 16–6 lead to open up the game, only to give it back up. Memphis delighted its home crowd by taking a 38–31 lead with two minutes to go in the half, but Tennessee rallied and took a two-point lead to the locker room. Once again, Tennessee pulled away in the second half, 91–65, behind three players who scored over twenty: Holdsclaw (31), Randall (21), and Catchings (20). The next game was against Auburn, a program that is traditionally competitive within the conference. Once again, Summitt's team started the game strong, leading 32–16 before Auburn woke up, cutting the lead to five by the half. However, the Tigers would not get any closer than this, as Holdsclaw's 39 points helped Tennessee to yet another win, 79–63. The final game of this stretch was the rematch with Vanderbilt, played on President's Day in front of a sellout crowd at the Commodores' quirky Memorial Gymnasium and a national television audience on ESPN. The Commodores started off strong, taking a 16–7 lead in front of their home crowd. However Tennessee responded with seventeen straight points to take the lead, and led by nine at the halftime. As in previous games, the Lady Vols made a big run to open up the second half to put the game out of reach. UT won 91–60, with UT shooting over fifty percent yet again. The final game of the regular season came against LSU, a respectable SEC team which beat the Lady Vols the previous season in Baton Rouge, but still a few seasons away from becoming a national power. Tennessee played well on Senior Night, starting with a 32–8 lead that would never be given up. Tennessee completed the season with a 90–58 win, giving them a perfect 30–0 regular season. ## SEC tournament After their first round bye, Tennessee faced Mississippi State again. Instead of Tennessee starting quickly, however, the Bulldogs did, taking a 9–2 lead. At this point though, the Vols went on one of their runs, this time a 15–2 one. State did not recover from this, and Tennessee advanced to the semi-finals, 88–60. Catchings had a double-double by halftime. In the semi-finals, UT met Vanderbilt for the third time, with an even better performance than the previous two. Catchings again had a double-double by halftime and the team shot 6 of 7 from beyond the three-point line, as they advanced to the championship 106–45. The SEC Championship was against Alabama, who had played within seven points of the Lady Vols in their previous match-up. Alabama used the same, slow style they had previously employed, and at the break were only down by three. Tennessee was able to slowly up the lead to ten during the first ten minutes of the second period, eventually reaching a fourteen-point lead, before Alabama started a comeback, cutting the lead to five with just over forty seconds remaining. Alabama was able to score the five points, but Tennessee made their foul shots, and won the title, 67–63. After the game, Holdsclaw was named the tournament's most outstanding player. UT was now 33–0, with the NCAA tournament coming up next. ## NCAA tournament ### Opening Games The Lady Vols were awarded the No. 1 seed in the Mideast Regional where their opponent was also undefeated. The 28–0 Lady Flames of Liberty were the champions of the Big South conference, giving them a berth in the tournament as a No. 16 seed. The usual \#1-#16 blowout occurred, with Tennessee winning 102–58, although in another region this blowout did not occur: No. 16 seed Harvard upset injury-depleted No. 1 seed Stanford 71–67 in the West regional. This was the first time that a 16-seed had beaten a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament — men's or women's. Holdsclaw led Tennessee with 22 points, although Liberty's Sharon Wilkerson led all scorers with 26. Four other Lady Vols reached double figures, and both Holdsclaw and Catchings had double-doubles. UT's second round opponent was 8-seeded Western Kentucky, who had lost only by to one to Louisiana Tech in the Sun Belt Tournament, and had defeated Stephen F. Austin in the first round, 88–76. Tennessee started slowly and Randall picked up two early fouls, resulting in Ace Clement taking her place in the lineup where she scored five quick points and helped the team to a twelve-point halftime lead. Western Kentucky pulled to within six early on in the second half, only to follow their run up by going 0 for 6 on their next shots. However, the Lady Toppers pulled back within six a second time. Once again, their run was short lived, as it was followed up with a spree of turnovers. The Lady Vols took advantage of this drought, and went on to win 82–62. Holdsclaw led all scorers with 34 and Catchings contributed 20, while Le Johnson was Western Kentucky's highest scorer, with 17. The Regional Finals were not all that far away from Knoxville – the Lady Vols only had to travel a couple of hours, to Nashville, where they faced 5th-seeded Rutgers, who came in with a record of 22–9. Rutgers had survived two close games to reach this point, defeating 12th-seeded Oregon, 79–76, in the first round, and then upsetting 4th-seeded Iowa State, 62–61 in the second. Their third-round game was not quite so close. Although Rutgers only trailed by two towards the end of the first period, UT was able to outscore Rutgers by six to close it out, and opened the second half up by building the lead to sixteen. The Scarlet Knights never recovered, losing 92–60. Holdsclaw and Catchings were again the leading scorers, with 25 and 23. The Lady Vols shot 52.2% from the field and forced Rutgers to 27 turnovers. This game gave Tennessee their 36th win, breaking Connecticut's record of 35, as the Lady Vols advanced to the Regional Finals. The Regional Championship matched Tennessee with the 2nd-seeded Tar Heels, who were coming off of a 6-point victory over 3rd-seeded Illinois. Summitt's team started off with a 17–11 lead, only to falter and allow Carolina to tie it up at 21. Tennessee responded with a 12–6 run to end the first, but Carolina answered by opening the second half with the first seven points, giving them a one-point lead, 34–33, and the first time an opponent had held a lead over Tennessee in over three months. Carolina slowly extended the lead as the game continued, until they were eventually leading 61–49, at which point Summitt sent several players, including Holdsclaw (who was on the bench due to a poor shooting performance) back onto the floor. A minute later, Tennessee had cut the deficit to five, and by the five-minute mark the game was tied again, at 62. The teams traded baskets, tying the game at 64 and 66, before Tennessee reached a 70–67 lead, with less than ninety seconds remaining. Carolina was soon forced to start fouling the Lady Vols, who made their free throws and advanced to the Final Four, 76–70. Holdsclaw once again led all scorers, this time with 29, and Semeka Randall had 20. North Carolina was led by Wright and Reid, who had 21 and 20. ### Final Four Tennessee's first Final Four game was against SEC foe, Arkansas, the 9th-seed out of the West Region. The Razorbacks had upset three different teams to reach the Final Four, Hawaiʻi, Kansas, and 2nd-seeded Duke. Despite a poor first half shooting performance, the Vols led 39–28 halfway through the game. The second half saw the Lady Vols make over half their shots, propelling the team to the national championship with an 86–58, the largest margin of victory in the Women's National Semifinals history. Louisiana Tech knocked off NC State in their semifinal match, 84–65, making the national championship a match-up between the two teams that started the season ranked first and second. The game was not close. Seven and a half minutes through the first half, the Lady Vols were up by fifteen, and by halftime the score was 55–32. The 55 points was a record for most points in a half in a national championship game. Tech was not able to make a run until late in the second half, when they were able to cut the lead down to eighteen, only to see Kellie Jolly hit back-to-back three-pointers. The final score was 93 to 75. Three different Lady Vols scored twenty or more points: Holdsclaw (25), Catchings (27), and Jolly (20). Holdsclaw, who was named the Final Four MVP, her second consecutive, also won her seventh straight title (3 NCAA, 4 State). After the game, Louisiana Tech head coach Leon Balmore proclaimed this Lady Vols squad to be the "best ever", something Old Dominion Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman has stated back in February. However, not everyone was positive, as ESPN analyst Mimi Griffin stated that Tennessee's dominance was becoming a detriment to the women's game. The Lady Vols did not win another national championship until 2007, defeating Rutgers in the championship game in Cleveland. Tennessee lost three times to Connecticut in championship games (2000, 2003, 2004), but also suffered a humiliating loss to Xavier in the 2001 Sweet 16, marking only the second time since the NCAA first sanctioned women's basketball championships in 1982 the Lady Vols did not reach at least the Elite Eight. Connecticut would later match the Lady Vols' 39–0 mark in 2002, 2009, and 2010 before Baylor eclipsed the record in 2012 and tied by UConn themselves in 2014, as the only teams to win 40 straight games in a season. ## Scores ## Awards and honors - 2 Kodak All-Americans (Chamique Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings) - 1 AP First Team All-American (Chamique Holdsclaw) - 1 AP Second Team All-American (Tamika Catchings) - 1 U.S. Basketball Writers' Association All-American (Chamique Holdsclaw) - AP Player of the Year (Chamique Holdsclaw) - U.S. Basketball Writers' Association Player of the Year (Chamique Holdsclaw) - Naismith Trophy Winner (Chamique Holdsclaw) - Honda-Broderick Cup Winner (Chamique Holdsclaw) - State Farm/WCBA Division I Player of the Year (Chamique Holdsclaw) - AP Coach of the Year - Naismith Coach of the Year - U.S. Basketball Writers' Association Coach of the Year - Russell Athletic/WCBA Division I Coach of the Year - NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (Chamique Holdsclaw) - 3 All-Final Four Team Members (Chamique Holdsclaw, Kellie Jolly, Tamika Catchings) - 3 All-SEC Tournament Team Members (Chamique Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings, Semeka Randall) - SEC Tournament MVP (Chamique Holdsclaw) - 2 All-NCAA Mideast Regional Team Members (Chamique Holdsclaw, Semeka Randall) - NCAA Mideast Regional Most Outstanding Player (Chamique Holdsclaw) - SEC Freshman of the Year (Tamika Catchings) - SEC Player of the Year (Chamique Holdsclaw) - SEC Coach of the Year - Swept SEC Coach, Player, and Freshman of the Year honors—a feat not repeated in the conference until Kentucky in 2010. - 2 All-SEC First Team Members (Chamique Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings) - 1 All-SEC Second Team Member (Semeka Randall) - 2 All-SEC Freshman Team Members (Tamika Catchings, Semeka Randall) - 3 SEC Players of the Week (Chamique Holdsclaw (12/1, 1/5), Tamika Catchings (1/26)) - 1998 ESPY – Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year (Chamique Holdsclaw) - 1998 ESPY – Outstanding Women's Hoops Performer of the Year (Chamique Holdsclaw) - 2000 ESPY – College team of the decade – TIE (Florida State football) ## Records ### NCAA records - Most games played in a season (individual) – 39 (tied: Chamique Holdsclaw, Teresa Geter, Tamika Catchings, Kellie Jolly, LaShonda Stephens (All 1997–98 Tennessee)) - Most points in a season (team) – 3,464 - Most free throw attempts in a season (team) – 1,110 - Most victories in a season – 39 (tied: UConn, 2001–02) - Most games played in a season (team) – 39 (tied: UConn, 2001–02) - Most field goals in an NCAA tournament (player) – 64 (Chamique Holdsclaw) - Most field goals attempted in an NCAA tournament (player) – 131 (Chamique Holdsclaw) ### SEC records - Most points in a season (team) – 3,464 - Most free throw attempts in a season (team) – 1,110 - Most free throws made in a season (team) – 782 - Most blocks in a season (team) – 238 ### School records - Most free throws made in a season (player) – 166 (Chamique Holdsclaw) - Most blocks in a season (player) – 93 (Teresa Geter) - Most points in a season (team) – 3,464 - Most free throw attempts in a season (team) – 1,110 - Most free throws made in a season (team) – 782 - Most blocks in a season (team) – 238 - Most wins in a season – 39 ## Roster ## Statistics ## Team players drafted into the WNBA
3,492,334	Hurricane Carrie	1,165,454,328	Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 1957	[ "1957 Atlantic hurricane season", "1957 meteorology", "Cape Verde hurricanes", "Category 4 Atlantic hurricanes", "Hurricanes in the Azores" ]	Hurricane Carrie was the strongest tropical cyclone of the 1957 Atlantic hurricane season. The third named storm and second hurricane of the year, Carrie formed from an easterly tropical wave off the western coast of Africa on September 2, a type of tropical cyclogenesis typical of Cape Verde-type hurricanes. Moving to the west, the storm gradually intensified, reaching hurricane strength on September 5. Carrie intensified further, before reaching peak intensity on September 8 as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 km/h) in the open Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane curved northwards and fluctuated in intensity as it neared Bermuda on September 14. However, Carrie passed well north of the island and turned to the northeast towards Europe. Weakening as it reached higher latitudes, the storm transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on September 23, prior to affecting areas of the British Isles, and subsequently dissipated on September 28. Due to its distance away from any major land masses, Carrie caused relatively minor damage along its path. On September 16, the hurricane passed well north of Bermuda, causing minimal damage despite its intensity at the time, though hurricane reconnaissance flights in the area were postponed due to damage sustained by one of the aircraft. As it was transitioning to an extratropical cyclone southwest of the Azores, the German ship Pamir encountered the storm and capsized on September 21, resulting in the deaths of 80 crew members on board. As an extratropical storm, Carrie brought strong storm surge and heavy rain to the British Isles, which claimed three lives. The hurricane's long duration and path in open water also helped it attain a number of Atlantic hurricane records. ## Meteorological history In early September, a trough was identified along the western coast of Africa. Moving towards the west as a result of a strong Azores High, the disturbance passed over Cape Verde on September 2. Observations from weather stations evidenced cyclonic rotation in the region. An airplane belonging to Panair do Brasil passed within the vicinity of the vorticity and as a result reported the formation of a tropical storm. In HURDAT—the official database listing all known Atlantic tropical cyclones since 1851—the system was listed to have reached tropical depression intensity at 0600 UTC that day. The depression continued to steadily intensify as it moved westwards, later reaching the equivalent of a modern-day Category 1 hurricane by 0600 UTC on September 5. On September 6, the ship African Star encountered the hurricane 700 mi (1,100 km) west of Cape Verde. Reported winds of 92 mph (148 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 1001 mbar (hPa; 29.56 inHg) confirmed the existence of the tropical cyclone. A Weather Bureau forecaster remarked that the hurricane was in a "blind spot" at the time due to its location outside of shipping lanes and Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance missions. Throughout the day, the hurricane intensified, reaching major hurricane intensity by 0000 UTC on September 7. Shortly after, a United States Air Force reconnaissance flight headed for Bermuda was diverted to observe the hurricane. The flight reported a well-defined eye measuring 20 mi (32 km) across and a minimum pressure of 945 mbar (hPa; 27.91 inHg), the lowest measured in relation to the hurricane. At the time, Carrie had maximum sustained winds of 135 mph (217 km/h), equivalent to a modern-day Category 4 hurricane. Further strengthening ensued, and the hurricane peaked in intensity on September 8 with winds of 140 mph (230 km/h). After reaching peak intensity on September 8, Carrie began to gradually weaken due to a decreasing pressure gradient caused by a trough that had cut through the Azores High. By September 11, the hurricane had degenerated into a Category 1 hurricane. A reconnaissance flight reported a minimum pressure of 984 mbar (hPa; 29.06 inHg). At the same time, Carrie began to slowly curve towards the north in response to the trough. The storm later began to slowly reintensify, reattaining major hurricane strength by 1200 UTC on September 13. The restrengthening of the subtropical ridge on September 14 caused the hurricane to quickly curve towards the northwest. National Hurricane Research Project (NHRP) observers described the hurricane as "one of the most perfectly formed hurricanes they had seen." Carrie began to steadily weaken again beginning on September 15. As it passed north of Bermuda the following day, weather radar imagery from the island indicated that the hurricane had an ill-defined structure, with its eye having expanded to 40–70 mi (64–113 km) in diameter. However, as it curved and accelerated eastward in response to a second trough of low pressure, Carrie maintained hurricane intensity up until September 23, when it transitioned into an extratropical cyclone. The remnant system continued eastwards until it dissipated over Ireland by 1800 UTC on September 28. ## Preparations, impact, and records ### Preparations and impact After reports confirmed the existence of a hurricane in the eastern Atlantic, the Weather Bureau warned shipping lanes in the storm's path. Small craft warnings were issued for offshore areas from Block Island, Rhode Island south to Savannah, Georgia on September 7 due to the threat of rough seas. After Carrie stalled on September 11, the Weather Bureau gave Florida a slight chance of being affected by the storm, but the possibilities of the storm affecting the peninsula decreased after the hurricane curved northwards. After the storm was forecast to potentially impact Bermuda, schools were closed in preparation for Carrie, while vessels were warned of the oncoming hurricane. Most planes in Kindley Air Force Base on the island were evacuated, with the remaining planes weighted down by sandbags. After passing Bermuda, the storm was forecast to strike Nova Scotia, but instead Carrie curved towards the northeast. As the U.S. Air Force was maintaining continuous reconnaissance of the hurricane using converted Boeing B-50 Superfortresses, one of the planes lost an engine and was forced to fly back to West Palm Beach, Florida for repairs. Four other undamaged aircraft were called back to West Palm Beach, including a crippled ship, while two other B-50s were held at Bermuda. Passing well north of the island on September 16, effects of Carrie on Bermuda were minimal, with peak gusts reaching only 35 mph (56 km/h). The German barque Pamir, en route from Buenos Aires to Hamburg, Germany, encountered the hurricane southwest of the Azores on September 21 while carrying barley cargo. The ship sank due to the effects of Carrie, and 80 people out of the 86 crew members on board the ship perished. The final message received from the Pamir was a distress call and indicated that the ship had lost all of its sails and had been listing at a 45° angle. A search and rescue operation ensued after the loss of the ship was reported, involving the U.S. Air Force and Navy, as well as the British Air Force and Navy. Other ships from Canada and Portugal were also involved in the search. All associated groups were inconclusive in their findings, with no sign of debris left from the ship. However, two lifeboats and a raft were found, but they were empty. As an extratropical storm, Carrie impacted the Azores, though damages, if any, remain unknown. The extratropical remnants of Carrie later struck the British Isles on September 24 and 25, causing strong winds, waves, and severe flooding. Winds from the system were estimated at 50 mph (80 km/h). The strong waves caused extensive property damage and killed three. ### Records Lasting as a hurricane for 20.75 days, Carrie was at the time tied for second in terms of longest-existing Atlantic tropical cyclones, alongside the ninth hurricane of the 1893 Atlantic hurricane season and behind the 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane. Due to the hurricane's long duration, the Weather Bureau office in San Juan, Puerto Rico issued 62 advisories on the storm, which was at the time the most ever issued in association with an Atlantic hurricane. Carrie's long duration and distance from any land masses also contributed to its record travel distance of 6,000 mi (9,700 km). Hurricane reconnaissance flights throughout Carrie's existence traveled further east than any previous flight due to the storm's location far from any land masses. The initial flight on September 7 covered 3,700 mi (6,000 km) and lasted for nearly 17 hours. ## See also - List of Atlantic hurricanes - List of Category 4 Atlantic hurricanes - Tropical Storm Carrie (1972) – another Atlantic system with the same name - Hurricane Lorenzo (2019) – another long-lived major hurricane over the open Atlantic
23,595,007	Emma Hollis	1,163,426,407	Fictional character in Millennium	[ "Fictional Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel", "Millennium (TV series) characters" ]	FBI Special Agent Emma Hollis is a fictional character from the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. Hollis, introduced in the series' third and final season, is a young special agent within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During the show's final year, she was partnered with offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen). The character of Hollis was portrayed by Canadian actor Klea Scott. Special agent Hollis made her first appearance in the third season's opening episode "The Innocents". She is the daughter of James Hollis, who suffered from alzheimer's disease. The character has been met with mixed reactions from critics; however, Scott's performance has been generally well received. ## Character arc Hollis is a young Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent who becomes a protégée to offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) when he begins working in Virginia. She struggles to understand the criminal mind, as her sister was murdered by a man with no motive. She has an estranged half-sister, Tamra, who has become a heroin addict. Hollis also has to deal with her father's bout with an Alzheimer's-like illness, which has possibly been induced by the Millennium Group—a secretive organisation to which Black had previously belonged, and which he now believes to be responsible for bioterrorism. Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) uses Hollis' father's illness as leverage to coerce her into cooperating with the Millennium Group. Hollis is very much aware of Black's reputation and eager to prove her worth as an investigator. Intrigued by Frank's abilities as an investigator, she strives to learn as much from him as she can, while Frank also learns to recognize her strengths as an FBI agent. The respected, independent, ambitious young Bureau Agent formed a close relationship with Frank Black—and then turned her back on him to join the Millennium Group, which had agreed to cure her father of Alzheimer's. ## Conceptual history When ending the second season, the producers and crew thought it would be the last. However, to their surprise Millennium was renewed for a third season. Many of the cliffhanger plot threads from the season finale were written off as the hallucinations of Frank Black. When creating the third season, they wanted to go back to the stand-alone storytelling format used in the first season; to do so they had Frank join the FBI and receive a new "skeptical" partner with whom he could work. Regarding Hollis, producer Michael Duggan said "she's not a rookie ... but she's young enough to be in awe of Frank Black's rep as a legendary crime solver". Originally, the producers were looking for a white actress to play the part. Klea Scott's agent thought she was "really right" for the part. He then went down to the producers for the show and campaigned for her and guaranteed them if she did not fit for the role, he would never send another actor to the casting director of the show. Scott auditioned with four other actresses to get the part. Scott won the role, but producer Chip Johannessen recalled that "she wasn't what the network were looking, they wanted Heather Locklear or something to come. That was kind of how that went down". Fox backed down, and Scott got the role. Scott had been living in Los Angeles, but relocated to the series' filming location in Vancouver when she joined the cast. Scott had little input in her character's development, and admitted feeling "a little hurt" to find that Hollis had joined the Millennium Group by the end of the series; however, Scott felt this development was "believable and real". Scott's first day on set was during the filming of the final scene of "The Innocents", the third season's opening episode. The actress found it difficult to adjust to the series' heavy workload, but found it enjoyable to work with co-star Lance Henriksen. ## Reception Although the character of Emma Hollis has been met with mixed reception, Scott's acting has generally been seen in a positive light. Entertainment Weekly writer Ken Tucker said Scott's presence as Hollis was "bracing", finding that she "captures perfectly the way young adepts try to soak up everything about their heroes"; while Raymond Edel of The Record described the character as a "quick-witted extrovert". Allan Johnson of the Chicago Tribune felt that the character made the third season of Millennium "a much more watchable series than in its previous two seasons", offering a "different perspective" on the series' dark subject matter. Rob Owen, of the Chicago Sun-Times, has noted that Hollis' involvement in the "a tug of war between Frank and [the] Millennium Group" gave Millennium's third season "a more personal take" on its central conflicts. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, have been critical of the character of Emma Hollis, finding that she has been written in a manner that "pass[es] emotional baggage off as character development". However, Shearman and Pearson were less critical of Scott's performance, noting that the character was "played well" and that Scott "works hard to mine some sort of truth" out of Hollis' character. Randy Miller, writing for DVD Talk, noted that Hollis' introduction left Millennium feeling "more of a curious sister to The X-Files rather than its own entity", likening Hollis and Black to the latter series' Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
44,506,144	The Boat Race 1950	1,099,276,924	null	[ "1950 in English sport", "1950 in rowing", "1950 sports events in London", "April 1950 sports events in the United Kingdom", "The Boat Race" ]	The 96th Boat Race took place on 1 April 1950. Held annually, the Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames. The Cambridge crew contained three Olympic silver medallists from the 1948 Summer Olympics; six of their crew rowed for Lady Margaret Boat Club. In a race umpired by the Olympic medallist and former Cantabrigian rower Kenneth Payne, Cambridge won by 3+1⁄2 lengths in a time of 20 minutes 15 seconds, taking the overall record in the event to 52–43 in their favour. ## 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 takes place on the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London. The rivalry is a major point of honour between the two universities; it is followed throughout the United Kingdom and, as of 2014, broadcast worldwide. Cambridge went into the race as reigning champions, having won the 1949 race by a quarter of a length, with Cambridge leading overall with 51 victories to Oxford's 43 (excluding the "dead heat" of 1877). Cambridge were coached by R. Beesly (who had rowed for the Light Blues in the 1927, 1928 and 1929 races), Roy Meldrum (a coach for Lady Margaret Boat Club), Mike Nicholson (non-rowing boat club president for the 1947 race), Harold Rickett (who rowed three times between 1930 and 1932) and R. H. H. Symonds (who had rowed in the 1931 race). Oxford's coaches were T. A. Brocklebank (who had rowed for Cambridge three times between 1929 and 1931 and who had also coached the Light Blues in the 1934 race), R. E. Eason (a Dark Blue in the 1924 race), Hugh "Jumbo" Edwards (who rowed for Oxford in 1926 and 1930) and J. A. MacNabb (who rowed for Cambridge in the 1924 race). The race was umpired for the second time by the former British Olympian Kenneth Payne, who had rowed for Cambridge in the 1932 and 1934 races. The Light Blues were initially considered "hot favourites" and were described by the rowing correspondent of The Manchester Guardian as "full of brilliant promise" while Oxford were "a collection of competent oarsmen who had to be moulded into a crew". The Observer's G. I. F. Thomson suggested that "it is anyone's race". ## Crews The Cambridge crew weighed an average of 12 st 8.25 lb (79.8 kg), 4.75 pounds (2.2 kg) per rower more than their opponents. Oxford saw three rowers return to the boat with experience of the event, including number five G. C. Fisk who was rowing in his third consecutive Boat Race. Cambridge's crew contained five rowers who had taken part in the Boat Race previously, including Paul Bircher who was also making his third appearance in the race. Four of the participants in the race were registered as non-British, two in each crew. Oxford's Fisk and Calvert came from Australia, as did Cambridge's Brian Lloyd, while Light Blue W. T. Arthur was South African. The Cambridge crew contained three rowers who had won silver medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics: Paul Massey, Bircher and Lloyd were in the crew that came second in the men's eight in London. Christopher Davidge, the Oxford University Boat Club president, was forced to drop out of the race through illness. Five of the Oxford rowers were educated at Eton College; six of the Cambridge rowers were studying at St John's College and so rowed for Lady Margaret Boat Club. ## Race Oxford won the toss and elected to start from the Surrey station, handing the Middlesex side of the river to Cambridge. Umpire Payne started the race at 12:30 p.m., with the Dark Blues making a slightly faster start; after a minute they were about a canvas-length ahead of their opponents. Although having the outside of the first bend, they had extended their lead to a quarter of a length by Craven Cottage. By the time the crews passed the Mile Post, Cambridge were leading by a quarter-length which they extended to half a length by Harrods Furniture Depository. Cambridge's stroke John Louis Mingaye Crick increased his crew's rate; his opposite number Cavenagh responded to prevent the Light Blues going clear. While the conditions were not too rough, both crews slowed their stroke rate, with Cambridge passing below Hammersmith Bridge still half a length ahead. As they passed The Doves pub, Oxford slowly began to gain, rating marginally higher. Cavenagh pushed on again before Chiswick Eyot but could not prevent the Light Blues extending their lead to nearly a length by the time the crews passed Chiswick Steps. Despite further spurts from Oxford, Cambridge's "better stride" saw them pass below Barnes Bridge two and a half lengths ahead. Cambridge passed the finishing post leading by three and a half lengths in a time of 20 minutes 15 seconds, their fourth consecutive win in the slowest time since the 1947 race. The victory took the overall record in the event to 52–43 in their favour. The rowing correspondent for The Times noted that "Cambridge rowed far better than they have recently" while "Oxford surpassed what anyone could reasonably have expected from them." The Manchester Guardian's rowing correspondent declared that Cambridge's crew was "generally acknowledged to be one of the best seen on the tideway", and that "Oxford could not, short of shipwreck or piracy, win the race". Writing in The Observer, G. I. F. Thomson noted of Cambridge that "all through practice they had shown more promising form and power, as well as unity" while Oxford had "made great strides ... and were never out of the running."
26,743,529	Suillus quiescens	1,133,820,719	Species of fungus	[ "Fungi described in 2010", "Fungi of the United States", "Fungi without expected TNC conservation status", "Suillus" ]	Suillus quiescens is a pored mushroom of the genus Suillus in the family Suillaceae. First collected in 2002 on Santa Cruz Island off the coast of California, in association with Bishop Pine (Pinus muricata), the species was scientifically described and named in 2010. In addition to its distribution in coastal California, it was also found forming ectomycorrhizae with the roots of pine seedlings in the eastern Sierra Nevada, coastal Oregon, and the southern Cascade Mountains. It resembles Suillus brevipes, but can be distinguished from that species by its paler-colored immature cap and by the tiny colored glands on the stipe that darken with age. ## Discovery Fruit bodies of the fungus were first collected in 2002 on Santa Cruz Island, in Santa Barbara County. They were named provisionally as a new species, Suillus quiescens, in conference proceedings published in 2005. The species was officially described and named in a 2010 Mycologia publication. The specific epithet quiescens refers to the organism's ability to wait dormant (quiescent) in the soil until it encounters pine roots. ## Phylogeny Based on phylogenetic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region in the non-functional RNA of a number of Suillus species, S. quiescens is distinct from other morphologically similar species such as S. brevipes, S. volcanalis, and S. occidentalis. The S. quiescens sequences, which were obtained from fruit bodies and from mycorrhizal root tips, formed a clade. The analysis showed that the S. quiescens sequences were matches to some unidentified Suillus sequences found from mycorrhizae of pine seedlings collected from Oregon and California. ## Description The cap ranges in shape from hemispheric to broadly convex, and has a diameter of 6 to 12 cm (2.4 to 4.7 in). The cap color is deep brown in mature specimens and lighter shades of brown in younger mushrooms. Young specimens have a sticky layer of gluten on the cap that dries out in maturity. The edge of the cap is rolled inwards in young specimens. The flesh of the cap is whitish and does not change color when bruised or cut. The tubes on the underside of the cap are light yellow to bright orange-yellow; the tube mouths are usually less than 1 mm wide. The stipe is usually between 2 and 4 cm (0.8 and 1.6 in) long, less frequently reaching up to 8 cm (3.1 in). It is either the same width throughout or slightly larger (bulbous) at the base. The color of the upper portion of the stipe is pale to light yellow, while the lower portion may be light brown or covered with streaks of glutinous material like that on the cap. The stipe surface is covered with fine glands that are initially slightly darker than the color of the stipe surface, but deepen to brown or nearly black after drying. The color of the spore print was not determined from the initial collections, but is thought to be yellow-brown to brown based on the accumulated spore deposit seen on the surface of the caps of neighboring fruit bodies. The elongate spores are oblong in face view, with dimensions of 6.1–14.7 by 2.4–3.7 μm. Most spores have a single large drop of oil in them. The spore-bearing cells, the basidia, are club-shaped, two- or four-spored, and measure 20.2–26.2 by 5.2–6.7 μm. ### Similar species With its short stipe and sticky cap, S. quiescens is similar to S. brevipes. It may be distinguished from the latter species by the color of the young (light-brown) cap, the glandular dots at the top of stipes in mature specimens, and the yellowish color at the top of the stipe. ## Habitat and distribution Fruit bodies grow together in small groups on the ground in association with Bishop Pine (Pinus muricata). It is the most common Suillus species on Santa Cruz Island, its type locality and it has also been collected at Santa Rosa Island, and Point Reyes National Seashore in California. Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa, two of the four islands that make up the northern Channel Islands, have a Mediterranean climate with cool and wet winters, and warm and dry summers. Most species of Suillus do not have spores that survive in the soil for extended periods of time, but the spores of S. quiescens can tolerate the dry conditions and heat typical of California. Another study showed that viable S. quiescens spores were present in steam-pasteurized soil planted in Oregon fields. The authors suggest that S. quiescens is an early successional species that fruits in young forests, and whose spores remain dormant in the soil for extended periods of time until the roots of a suitable pine host are encountered.
48,551,844	Climatic regions of Argentina	1,171,430,589	Overview of climatic regions of Argentina	[ "Climate of Argentina" ]	Due to its vast size and range of altitudes, Argentina possesses a wide variety of climatic regions, ranging from the hot subtropical region in the north to the cold subantarctic in the far south. The Pampas region lies between those and featured a mild and humid climate. Many regions have different, often contrasting, microclimates. In general, Argentina has four main climate types: warm, moderate, arid, and cold in which the relief features, and the latitudinal extent of the country, determine the different varieties within the main climate types. Northern parts of the country are characterized by hot, humid summers with mild, drier winters, and highly seasonal precipitation. Mesopotamia, located in northeast Argentina, has a subtropical climate with no dry season and is characterized by high temperatures and abundant rainfall because of exposure to moist easterly winds from the Atlantic Ocean throughout the year. The Chaco region in the center-north, despite being relatively homogeneous in terms of precipitation and temperature, is the warmest region in Argentina, and one of the few natural areas in the world located between tropical and temperate latitudes that is not a desert. Precipitation decreases from east to west in the Chaco region because eastern areas are more influenced by moist air from the Atlantic Ocean than the west, resulting in the vegetation transitioning from forests and marshes to shrubs. Northwest Argentina is predominantly dry, hot, and subtropical although its rugged topography results in a diverse climate. Central Argentina, which includes the Pampas to the east, and the Cuyo region to the west, has a temperate climate with hot summers and cool, drier winters. In the Cuyo region, the Andes obstruct the path of rain-bearing clouds from the Pacific Ocean; moreover, its latitude coincides with the subtropical high. Both factors render the region dry. With a wide range of altitudes, the Cuyo region is climatically diverse, with icy conditions persisting at altitudes higher than 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The Pampas is mostly flat and receives more precipitation, averaging 500 mm (20 in) in the western parts to 1,200 mm (47 in) in the eastern parts. The weather in the Pampas is variable due to the contrasting air masses and frontal storms that impact the region. These can generate thunderstorms with intense hailstorms and precipitation, and are known to have the most frequent lightning, and highest convective cloud tops, in the world. Patagonia, in the south, is mostly arid or semi–arid except in the extreme west where abundant precipitation supports dense forest coverage, glaciers, and permanent snowfields. Its climate is classified as temperate to cool temperate with the surrounding oceans moderating temperatures on the coast. Away from the coast, areas on the plateaus have large daily and annual temperature ranges. The influence of the Andes, in conjunction with general circulation patterns, generates one of the strongest precipitation gradients (rate of change in mean annual precipitation in relation to a particular location) in the world, decreasing rapidly to the east. In much of Patagonia precipitation is concentrated in winter with snowfall occurring occasionally, particularly in the mountainous west and south; precipitation is more evenly distributed in the east and south. One defining characteristic is the strong winds from the west which blow year-round, lowering the perception of temperature (wind chill), while being a factor in keeping the region arid by favouring evaporation. ## Definition of the regions In general, Argentina has four main climate types: warm, moderate, arid, and cold, all determined by the expanse across latitude, range in altitude, and relief features. The vast size, and wide range of altitudes, contribute to Argentina's diverse climate. Argentina possesses a wide variety of climatic regions ranging from subtropical in the north to subantarctic in the far south. Lying between those is the Pampas region, which features a mild and humid climate. Under the Köppen climate classification, Argentina has 11 different climate types: Humid Subtropical (Cfa, Cwa), moderate oceanic (Cfb), warm semi-arid (BSh), subtropical highland oceanic (Cwb), warm desert (BWh), cold semi–arid (BSk), cold desert (BWk), moderate Mediterranean (Csb), cold oceanic (Cfc), and tundra (ET). Consequently, there is a wide variety of biomes in the country, including subtropical rain forests, semi-arid and arid regions, temperate plains in the Pampas, and cold subantarctic in the south. However, despite the diversity of biomes, about two-thirds of Argentina is arid or semi-arid. Argentina is best divided into six distinct regions reflecting the climatic conditions of the country as a whole. From north to south, these regions are Northwest, Chaco, Northeast, Cuyo/Monte, Pampas, and Patagonia. Each climatic region has distinctive types of vegetation. Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, which includes the Antarctic Peninsula and a triangular section extending to the South Pole, delimited by the 25° West and 74° West meridians and the 60° South parallel. However, all claims are suspended by the Antarctic Treaty System, of which Argentina is a founding signatory and permanent consulting member. Argentina also claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas), and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Spanish: Georgias del Sur y Sandwich del Sur). However, the United Kingdom exercises de facto control over both the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, both as British Overseas Territories. ## Mesopotamia The region of Mesopotamia includes the provinces of Misiones, Entre Ríos and Corrientes. It lies between the Uruguay and Paraná rivers, which serve as natural borders for the region. It has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa according to the Köppen climate classification). whose main features are high temperatures and abundant rainfall throughout the year. This year-round rainfall occurs because most of the region lies north of the subtropical high pressure belt even in winter, exposing it to moist easterly winds from the Atlantic Ocean throughout the year. Water deficiencies and extended periods of drought are uncommon, and much of the region has a positive water balance (i.e. the precipitation exceeds the potential evapotranspiration). ### Precipitation Mesopotamia is the wettest region in Argentina with average annual precipitation ranges from less than 1,000 mm (39 in) in the southern parts, to approximately 1,800 mm (71 in) in the eastern parts.Precipitation is slightly higher in summer than in winter, and generally decreases from east to west and from north to south. Summer (December–February) is the most humid season, with precipitation ranging from 300 to 450 mm (12 to 18 in). Fall (March–May) is the rainiest season, with many places receiving over 350 mm (14 in). Most of the rainfall during summer and fall is caused by convective thunderstorms. Winter (June–August) is the driest season, with a mean precipitation of 110 mm (4.3 in) throughout the region. Most of the winter precipitation is the result of synoptic scale, low pressure weather systems (large scale storms such as extratropical cyclones), particularly the sudestada, which often bring long periods of precipitation, cloudiness, cooler temperatures, and strong winds. Snowfall is extremely rare and mainly confined to the uplands of Misiones Province where the last significant snowfall occurred in 1975 in Bernardo de Irigoyen. Spring (September–November) is similar to fall with a mean precipitation of 340 mm (13 in). ### Temperatures Mean annual temperatures range from 17 °C (63 °F) in the south to 21 °C (70 °F) in the north. Summers are hot and humid while winters are mild. The mean January temperature throughout most of the region is 25 °C (77 °F) except in the uplands of Misiones Province where they are lower owing to its higher elevation. During heat waves, temperatures can exceed 40 °C (104 °F) in the summer months, while in the winter months, cold air masses from the south can push temperatures below freezing, causing frost. However, such cold fronts are brief, and are less intense than in areas further south or at higher altitudes. ### Statistics for selected locations ## Chaco The Chaco region in the center-north completely includes the provinces of Chaco, and Formosa. Eastern parts of Jujuy Province, Salta Province, and Tucumán Province, and northern parts of Córdoba Province and Santa Fe Province are part of the region. As well, most of Santiago del Estero Province lies within the region. The region has a subtropical climate. Under the Köppen climate classification, western parts have a semi-arid climate (Bs) while the east has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa). Chaco is one of the few natural regions in the world located between tropical and temperate latitudes that is not a desert. Precipitation and temperature are relatively homogeneous throughout the region. The general atmospheric circulation influences the climate of the region, primarily by two permanent high pressure systems – the South Pacific High and the South Atlantic High – and a low pressure system that develops over northeast Argentina called the Chaco Low. The interaction between the South Atlantic High and the Chaco Low generates a pressure gradient that brings moist air from the east and northeast to eastern coastal and central regions of Argentina. In summer, this interaction strengthens, favouring the development of convective thunderstorms that can result in heavy rainfall. In contrast, winters are dry due to these systems weakening, and the lower insolation that weakens the Chaco Low, and the northward displacement of westerly winds. During the entire year, the South Pacific High influences the climate by bringing cold, moist air masses originating in Patagonia leading to cold temperatures and frost, particularly during winter. Summers feature more stable weather than winter since the South Atlantic and South Pacific highs are at their southernmost positions, making the entrance of cold fronts more difficult. ### Precipitation Mean annual precipitation ranges from 1,200 mm (47 in) in the eastern parts of Formosa Province to a low of 450 to 500 mm (18 to 20 in) in the west and southwest. Most of the precipitation is concentrated in the summer and decreases from east to west. Summer rains are intense, and torrential rain is common, occasionally causing floods and soil erosion. During the winter months, precipitation is sparse. Eastern areas receive more precipitation than western areas since they are more influenced by moist air from the Atlantic Ocean. This penetrates the eastern areas more than the west, bringing it more precipitation. As a result, the vegetation differs with eastern areas being covered by forests, savannas, marshes, and subtropical wet forest, while western areas are dominated by medium and low forests of mesophytic and xerophytic trees, and a dense understory of shrubs and grasses. The western part has a pronounced dry winter season while the eastern parts have a slightly drier season. In all parts of the region, precipitation is highly variable from year to year. The eastern part of the region receives just enough precipitation to have a positive water balance. By contrast, the western parts of the region have a negative water balance (the potential evapotranspiration exceeds the precipitation) owing to lower precipitation. ### Temperatures The Chaco region is the hottest in Argentina, with a mean annual temperature of 23 °C (73 °F). With mean summer temperatures reaching 28 °C (82 °F), the region has the hottest summers in the country. Winters are mild and brief, with mean temperatures in July ranging from 16 °C (61 °F) in the northern parts to 14 °C (57 °F) in the southernmost parts. Absolute maximum temperatures can reach up to 49 °C (120 °F) while during cold waves, temperatures can fall to −6 °C (21 °F). Eastern areas are more strongly influenced by maritime climate than western areas, leading to a smaller thermal amplitude (difference between average high and average low temperatures). This results in absolute maximum and minimum temperatures being 43 °C (109 °F) and −2.5 °C (27.5 °F) in the east compared to more than 47 °C (117 °F) and −7.2 °C (19.0 °F) in the west. ### Statistics for selected locations ## Northwest Northwest Argentina consists of the provinces of Catamarca, Jujuy, La Rioja, and western parts of Salta Province, and Tucumán Province. Although Santiago del Estero Province is part of northwest Argentina, much of the province lies in the Chaco region. Northwest Argentina is predominantly dry, hot, and subtropical. Owing to its rugged topography, the region is climatically diverse, depending on the altitude, temperature, and distribution of precipitation. Consequently, vegetation differs within these different climate types. In general, the climate can be divided into two main types: a cold arid or semi-arid climate at the higher altitudes, and warmer subtropical climate in the eastern parts of the region. Under the Köppen climate classification, the region has 5 different climate types: semi–arid (BS), arid (BW), temperate climate without a dry season and with a dry season (Cf and Cw respectively), and an alpine climate at the highest altitudes. The atmospheric circulation is controlled by the two semi–permanent South Atlantic and South Pacific highs, and the Chaco Low. During summer, the interaction between the South Atlantic High and the Chaco Low brings northeasterly and easterly winds that carry moisture to the region, particularly in the northern parts. The movement of moist air into the region during summer results in very high precipitation. Most of the precipitation comes from the east since the Andes block most moisture from the Pacific Ocean. Southern parts of the region are influenced by cold fronts travelling northward. These cold fronts are responsible for producing precipitation during summer. For example, in Tucumán Province, cold fronts are responsible for 70% of the rainfall in that province. Furthermore, the intertropical convergence zone (or doldrums) reaches the region during the summer months, leading to enhanced precipitation. During the winter months, the intertropical convergence zone, the South Pacific, and the South Atlantic highs move northward while the Chaco Low weakens, all of which results in the suppression of rain during the winter. With the Andes blocking most rain bearing clouds from the Pacific Ocean, along with atmospheric circulation patterns unfavourable for rain, this results in a dry season during winter. The Chaco Low attracts air masses from the South Pacific High, creating a dry and cold wind, particularly during winter. At the highest altitudes, westerly winds from the Pacific Ocean can penetrate during the winter months, leading to snowstorms. ### Precipitation The Andes are the principal factor that determines the precipitation/rainfall regime (seasonal distribution of rainfall). Without the Andes, the climate of northwest Argentina would have been arid and resembled that of northern Chile. Precipitation is highly seasonal and mostly concentrated in the summer months. About 90% of the annual precipitation falls from November to April, which constitutes the wet season while the dry season is from May until October when precipitation is sparse. It is distributed irregularly owing to the country's topography although it generally decreases from east to west. There is great variation in precipitation both seasonally and annually. As moist air reaches the eastern slopes of the mountains, it rises and cools adiabatically, leading to the formation of clouds that generate copious amounts of rain. The eastern slopes of the mountains receive between 1,000 and 1,500 mm (39 and 59 in) of precipitation a year although some places receive up to 2,500 mm (98 in) of precipitation annually owing to orographic precipitation. In the south, the orographic effect is enhanced by advancing cold fronts from the south, resulting in increased precipitation. The high rainfall on these first slopes creates the thick Yungas jungle that extends in a narrow strip along these ranges. During fall, the jungles are covered by fog and complete cloud cover. Beyond the first slopes of the Andes into the valleys, the air descends, warming adiabatically, and becoming drier than on the eastern slopes. The north–south orientation of the mountains, which increase in altitude to the west, and a discontinuous topography, creates valleys with regions of relatively high orographic precipitation in the west and drier regions in east. The temperate valleys, which include major cities such as Salta and Jujuy, have an average precipitation ranging between 500 and 1,000 mm (20 and 39 in). These valleys lie in a transitional area between the sub–humid climate in the west where the first slopes of Andes occur and the semi–arid climates to the east in the Chaco region. to the west For example, in the Lerma Valley, which is surrounded by tall mountains, (only the northeastern part of the valley is surrounded by shorter mountains), precipitation ranges from 695 mm (27 in) in Salta to 1,395 mm (55 in) in San Lorenzo, just 11 km (6.8 mi) away. Rainfall in the temperate valleys is mainly concentrated in the summer months, often falling in short but heavy bursts. Valleys in the southern parts of the region are drier than valleys in the north due to the greater height of the Andes and the Sierras Pampeanas on the eastern slopes compared to the mountains in the north (ranging from 3,000 to 6,900 m (9,800 to 22,600 ft)), presenting a significant orographic barrier that blocks moist winds from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These valleys receive less than 200 mm (8 in) of precipitation per year, and are characterized by sparse vegetation adapted to the arid climate. The area further west is the Puna region, a plateau with an average altitude of 3,900 m (12,800 ft) that is mostly a desert due to the easterly winds being blocked by the Andes and the northwest extension of the Sierras Pampeanas. Precipitation in the Puna region averages less than 200 mm (8 in) a year while potential evapotranspiration ranges from 500 to 600 mm (20 to 24 in) a year, owing to the high insolation, strong winds, and low humidity that exacerbates the dry conditions. This results in the Puna region having a water deficit in all months. The southeast parts of the Puna region are very arid receiving an average of 50 mm (2 in), while in the northeastern area, average annual precipitation ranges from 300 to 400 mm (12 to 16 in). Although easterly winds are rare in the Puna region, they bring 88%–96% of the area's precipitation. Snowfall is rare, averaging less than five days of snow per year. Due to the aridity of these mountains at high altitudes, the snowline can extend as far up as 6,000 m (20,000 ft) above sea level. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation influences precipitation levels in northwest Argentina. During an El Niño year, westerly flow is strengthened, while moisture content from the east is reduced resulting in a drier rainy season. In contrast, during a La Niña year, there is enhanced easterly moisture transport, resulting in a more intense rainy season. Nonetheless, this trend is highly variable both spatially and temporally. ### Temperatures Temperatures in northwest Argentina vary by altitude. The temperate valleys have a temperate climate, with mild summers, and dry and cool winters with regular frosts. The diurnal range in cities is fairly wide, particularly in the winter. In the Yungas jungle to the east, the climate is hot and humid with temperatures that vary significantly based on latitude and altitude. Mean annual temperatures in the Yungas range between 14 and 26 °C (57 and 79 °F). The mean annual temperatures in the Quebrada de Humahuaca valley range from 12.0 to 14.1 °C (53.6 to 57.4 °F), depending on altitude. In the Calchaquí Valleys in Salta Province, the climate is temperate and arid with large thermal amplitudes, long summers, and a long frost free period which varies by altitude. In both the Quebrada de Humahuaca and Calchaquí valleys, winters are cold with frosts that can occur between March and September. In the valleys in the south in La Rioja and Catamarca Provinces, along with the southwest parts of Santiago del Estero Province, temperatures during the summer are very high averaging 26 °C (79 °F) in January, while winters are mild averaging 12 °C (54 °F). The mean annual temperatures in this region ranges between 16 and 20 °C (61 and 68 °F). Temperatures can exceed 40 °C (104 °F) during the summer, particularly in the central valley of Catamarca (Valle Central de Catamarca) and the valley of La Rioja Capital which lie at lower altitudes. During winter, cold fronts from the south bringing cold Antarctic air can cause temperatures to fall between −8 and −14 °C (18 and 7 °F) with severe frosts. In contrast, the Zonda wind, which occurs more often during the winter months, can raise temperatures up to 35 °C (95 °F) with strong gusts, sometimes causing crop damage. Temperatures are much colder in the Puna region, with a mean annual temperature of less than 10 °C (50 °F) owing to its high altitude. The Puna region is characterized by being cold but sunny throughout the year, with frosts that can occur in any month. The diurnal range is large, with a thermal amplitude that can exceed 40 °C (72 °F) due to the low humidity and the intense sunlight throughout the year. Absolute maximum temperatures in the Puna region can reach up to 30 °C (86 °F) while absolute minimum temperatures can fall below −20 °C (−4 °F). ### Statistics for selected locations ## Cuyo The Cuyo region includes the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan, and San Luis. Western parts of La Pampa Province (as shown in map) also belong in this region, having similar climatic and soil characteristics to it. It has an arid or semi-arid climate. The wide range in latitudes, combined with altitudes ranging from 500 m (1,600 ft) to nearly 7,000 m (23,000 ft), means that it has a variety of different climate types. In general, most of the region has a temperate climate, with higher altitude valleys having a more milder climate. At the highest altitudes (over 4,000 m (13,000 ft)), icy conditions persist year round. With very low humidity, abundant sunshine throughout the year, and a temperate climate, the region is suitable for wine production. The Andes prevent rain-bearing clouds from the Pacific Ocean from moving in, while its latitude puts it in a band of the sub-tropical high pressure belt keeping the region dry. Droughts are often frequent and prolonged. The Cuyo region is influenced by the subtropical, semi–permanent South Atlantic High to the east in the Atlantic, the semi-permanent South Pacific High to the west of the Andes, and the development of the Chaco Low and westerlies in the southern parts of the region. Most of the precipitation falls during the summer due to the stronger interaction between the Chaco Low and the South Atlantic High. ### Precipitation Average annual precipitation ranges between 100 and 500 mm (4 and 20 in) though this varies from year to year. More than 85% of the annual rainfall occurs from October to March, which constitutes the warm season. Eastern and southeastern areas of the region receive more precipitation than western areas since they receive more summer rainfall. As such, most of Mendoza and San Juan Provinces receive the lowest annual precipitation, with mean summer precipitation averaging less than 100 mm (4 in) and in rare cases, no summer rainfall. Further eastward, in San Luis Province, mean summer rainfall averages around 500 mm (20 in) and can exceed 700 mm (28 in) in some areas. Higher altitude locations receive precipitation in the form of snow during the winter months. In the Cuyo region, annual precipitation is highly variable from year to year and appears to follow a cycle between dry and wet years in periods of about 2, 4–5, 6–8, and 16–22 years. In wet years, easterly winds caused by the subtropical South Atlantic High are stronger, which causes more moisture to flow towards this region; during the dry years, these winds are weaker. ### Temperatures Mean annual temperatures range from 13 to 15.5 °C (55.4 to 59.9 °F). Summers in the region are hot and generally very sunny, averaging as much as 10 hours of sunshine per day. The average temperature in January is 24 °C (75 °F) in most of the region. In contrast, winters are dry and cold and average around 7–8 hours of sunshine per day. July temperatures range from 7 to 8 °C (45 to 47 °F). Since this region has a wide range of altitudes ranging from 500 m (1,600 ft) to nearly 7,000 m (23,000 ft), temperatures can vary widely with altitude. The Sierras Pampeanas, which cross into both San Juan and San Luis Provinces, have a milder climate with mean annual temperatures ranging from 12 to 18 °C (54 to 64 °F). In all locations, at altitudes over 3,800 m (12,500 ft), permafrost is present, while icy conditions persist year round at altitudes over 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The region is characterized by a large diurnal range with very hot temperatures during the day followed by cold nights. The Zonda wind, a foehn wind characterized by warm, dry air can cause temperatures to exceed 30 °C (86 °F). In some cases, such as in 2003, they can exceed 45 °C (113 °F). This wind often occurs before the passage of a cold front across Argentina, and tends to occur when a low pressure system brings heavy rain to the Chilean side, and when an upper-level trough allows the winds to pass over the Andes to descend downwards. As such, the temperature may rise as much as 20 °C (36 °F) in a few hours, with humidity approaching 0% during a Zonda wind event. In contrast, cold waves are also common, owing to the Andes channeling cold air from the south, allowing cold fronts to come frequently during the winter months, causing cool to cold temperatures with temperatures that can fall below freezing. Temperatures can dip below −10 to −30 °C (14 to −22 °F) at the higher altitudes. ### Statistics for selected locations ## Pampas The Pampas includes all of Buenos Aires Province, eastern and southern Córdoba Province, eastern La Pampa Province, and southern Santa Fe Province. It is subdivided into two parts: the humid Pampas to the east, and the dry/semi–arid Pampas to the west. This region's land is appropriate for agricultural and livestock activities. It is mostly a flat area, interrupted only by the Tandilia and Ventana hills in its southern portion. The climate of the Pampas is temperate and humid with no dry season, featuring hot summers and mild winters (Cfa/Cfb according to the Köppen climate classification). The weather in the Pampas is variable due to the contrasting air masses and frontal storms that impact the region. Maritime polar air from the south produces the cool pampero winds, while warm humid tropical air from the north produces sultry nortes – a gentle wind usually from the northeast formed by trade winds, and the South Atlantic High that brings cloudy, hot, and humid weather and is responsible for bringing heat waves. The Pampas are influenced by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation which is responsible for variations in annual precipitation. An El Niño year often leads to higher precipitation, while a La Niña year leads to lower precipitation. The Pampas are moderately sunny, ranging from an average of 4–5 hours of sunshine per day during the winter months to 8–9 hours in summer. ### Precipitation Precipitation decreases from east to west, and ranges from 1,200 mm (47 in) in the northeast, to under 500 mm (20 in) in the south and west. Most regions receive 700 to 800 mm (28 to 31 in) of precipitation per year. Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year in the easternmost parts, while in the western parts most of the precipitation is concentrated during the summer months and winters are drier. In many places precipitation, which mostly occurs in the form of convective thunderstorms, is high during summer. These thunderstorms form when cold air from the south, caused by the pampero wind, meets humid tropical air masses from the north, and are some of the most intense storms in the world, with the most frequent lightning and the highest convective cloud tops. These severe thunderstorms produce intense amounts of precipitation and hailstorms, and can cause both floods and flash floods. As well, the Pampas is the most consistently active tornado region outside the central and southeastern United States. Autumn and spring bring periods of very rainy weather followed by dry, mild stretches. Places in the east receive rainfall throughout autumn, whereas in the west it quickly becomes very dry. Winters are drier in most places due to weaker easterly winds, and stronger southerly winds, which prevent moist air from coming in. In winter, most of the precipitation occurs from frontal systems associated with cyclogenesis and strong southeasterly winds (sudestada), which bring long periods of precipitation, and cloudiness, particularly in the southern and eastern parts. As such, precipitation is more evenly distributed in the eastern parts than the western parts, which are further away from these frontal systems. Dull, grey, and damp weather characterize winters in the Pampas. Snowfall is extremely rare; when it does snow, it usually lasts for only a day or two. ### Temperatures Annual temperatures range from 17 °C (63 °F) in the northern parts to 14 °C (57 °F) in the south. Córdoba Province has higher temperatures than the rest of the region while the few higher altitude areas have colder weather. Summers in the Pampas are hot and humid; coastal areas are moderated by the cold Malvinas Current. Heat waves that can bring temperatures in the 36 to 40 °C (97 to 104 °F) range for a few days. These are usually followed by a day or two of strong pampero winds from the south, which bring cool, dry air. Autumn arrives in March and brings periods of mild daytime temperatures and cool nights. Generally, frost arrives in early April in the southernmost areas, and in late May in the north and ends by mid-September – although the dates of the first and last frosts can vary from year to year. Frost is rarely intense, nor prolonged, and does not occur in some years. Winters are mild with frequent frosts and cold spells. Temperatures are usually mild during the day and cold during the night. Occasionally, tropical air masses from the north may move southward, providing relief from the cool, damp temperatures. On the other hand, the sudestada and the pampero winds bring periods of cool to cold temperatures. ### Statistics for selected locations ## Patagonia Chubut, Neuquén, Río Negro, Santa Cruz, and Tierra del Fuego are the provinces that make up Patagonia. The Patagonian climate is classified as arid to semi-arid and temperate to cool temperate. The exception is the Bosque Andino Patagónico, a forested area located in the extreme west and southern parts of Tierra del Fuego Province, which has a humid, wet, and cool to cold climate. One defining characteristic is the strong winds from the west which blow year-round (stronger in summer than in winter). These favor evaporation, and are a factor in making the region mostly arid. Mean annual wind speeds range between 15 and 22 km/h (9 and 14 mph), although gusts of over 100 km/h (62 mph) are common. There are three major factors that influence the climate of this region: the Andes, the South Pacific and the South Atlantic Highs, and higher insolation in eastern than in western areas. The Andes play a crucial role in determining the climate of Patagonia because their north–south orientation creates a barrier for humid air masses coming from the Pacific Ocean. Since the predominant wind is from the west and most air masses come from the Pacific Ocean, the Andes cause these air masses to ascend, cooling adiabatically. Most of the moisture is dropped on the Chilean side, resulting in abundant precipitation, while in much of the Argentine side, the air warms adiabatically and becomes drier as it descends. As a result, the Andes create an extensive rain-shadow in much of Argentine Patagonia, causing most of the region to be arid. South of 52<sup>o</sup>S, the Andes are lower in elevation, reducing the rain shadow effect in Tierra del Fuego Province, allowing forests to thrive on the Atlantic coast. Patagonia is located between the subtropical high pressure belt, and the subpolar low pressure zone, meaning it is exposed to westerly winds that are strong, since south of 40<sup>o</sup> S, there is little land to block these winds. Being located between the semipermanent South Pacific and the South Atlantic Highs at around 30<sup>o</sup>S, and the Subpolar Low at around 60<sup>o</sup> S, the movement of the high and low pressure systems, along with ocean currents, determine the precipitation pattern. During winter, both the South Pacific and South Atlantic highs move to the north, while the Subpolar Low strengthens, which, when combined with higher ocean temperatures than the surrounding land, results in higher precipitation during this time of the year. Due to the northward migration of the South Pacific High, more frontal systems can pass through, allowing for more precipitation to occur. During summer, the South Pacific High migrates southward, preventing the passage of fronts, and cyclones that can cause precipitation to occur, resulting in lower precipitation during this time of the year. Northeastern areas, along with southern parts of the region, are influenced by air masses from the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in precipitation being more evenly distributed throughout the year. Most precipitation comes from frontal systems, particularly stationary fronts that bring humid air from the Atlantic Ocean. Cold fronts usually move from west to east, or from southwest to northeast, but rarely from the south. Because of this, these cold fronts do not result in the cold being intense since they are moderated as they pass over the surrounding oceans. In the rare cases when cold fronts move northwards from the south (Antarctica), the cold air masses are not moderated by the surrounding oceans, resulting in very cold temperatures throughout the region. In general, the passage of cold fronts is more common in the south than in the north, and occurs more in winter than in summer. The movement of warm, subtropical air into the region occurs frequently in summer up to 46<sup>o</sup>S. When warm subtropical air arrives in the region, the air is dry, resulting in little precipitation, and causes temperatures to be higher than those observed in northeast Argentina. ### Precipitation The influence of the Pacific Ocean, general circulation patterns, and the topographic barrier caused by the Andes, results in one of the strongest precipitation gradients in the world. Precipitation decreases steeply from west to east, ranging from 4,000 mm (160 in) in the west on the Andean foothills at 41<sup>o</sup>S, to 150 mm (6 in) in the central plateaus. For example, while mean annual precipitation is more 1,000 mm (39 in) at the Andean foothills, in less than 100 km (62 mi) to the east, precipitation decreases to 200 mm (8 in). The high precipitation in the Andes in this region supports glaciers and permanent snowfields. The Andean portions of the provinces of Chubut, Río Negro and southernmost Neuquén contain the rainiest areas of the whole of Argentina. Most of the region receives less than 200 mm (8 in) of precipitation per year, although some areas can receive less than 100 mm (4 in). In northern Río Negro Province and eastern Neuquén Province, mean annual precipitation is around 300 mm (12 in) while south of 50<sup>o</sup>S, precipitation increases southwards, reaching up to 600 to 800 mm (24 to 31 in). There is a narrow transition zone running down from 39<sup>o</sup>S to 47<sup>o</sup>S that receives about 400 mm (16 in) of precipitation a year. Much of northwestern Patagonia in the Andes, corresponding to the northern parts of the Bosque Andino Patagónico region, receives abundant precipitation in winter with occasional droughts in summer, allowing it to support forests with dense coverage. With the exception of certain areas such as Puerto Blest, no major towns receive more than 1,000 mm (39 in) of precipitation a year. The southern parts of the Bosque Andino Patagónico region receive only 200 to 500 mm (8 to 20 in) resulting in less dense forest coverage. The lower precipitation, compared to the northern parts, is due to the winds being more intense and drier, favouring evapotranspiration. The snow line ranges from an altitude of 2,500 m (8,202 ft) in the north to 1,800 m (5,906 ft) above sea level in the south. The aridity of the region is due to the combination of low precipitation, strong winds, and high temperatures in the summer months, each of which cause high evaporation rates. Mean evapotranspiration ranges from 550 to 750 mm (22 to 30 in), which decreases from northeast to southwest. In most of Patagonia, precipitation is concentrated in the winter months with the exception of northeastern and southern areas of the region which have a more even distribution of precipitation throughout the year. As a result, except for these areas, the winter maxima in precipitation results in a strong water deficit in the summer. Most precipitation events are light; each event usually results in less than 5 mm (0.2 in). Thunderstorms are infrequent in the region, occurring an average of 5 days per year, only during summer. In Tierra del Fuego, thunderstorms are non-existent. Snowfall occurs on 5 to 20 days per year, mainly in the west and south. These snowfall events can result in strong snow storms. Despite the low precipitation, Patagonia is cloudy, with the mean cloud cover ranging from 50% in eastern parts of Neuquén Province and northeast Río Negro Province to 70% in Tierra del Fuego Province; the region has one of the highest percentages of cloud cover in Argentina. In general, mountainous areas are the cloudiest, and coastal areas are cloudier than inland areas. Northern areas are sunnier (50% possible sunshine) than the southern parts of the region such as western Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego Provinces (less than 40% possible sunshine). The southernmost islands receive some of the lowest average annual sunshine hours in the world. ### Temperatures Temperatures are relatively cold for its latitude due to the cold Malvinas Current and the high altitude. For example, in Tierra del Fuego temperatures are colder than at equal latitudes in the northern hemisphere in Europe since they are influenced by the cold Malvinas Current rather than the warm North Atlantic Current. A characteristic of the temperature pattern is the NW–SE distribution of isotherms due to the presence of the Andes. The warmest areas are in northern parts of Río Negro and Neuquén Provinces where mean annual temperatures range from 13 to 15 °C (55 to 59 °F), while the coldest are in western Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego Provinces where mean annual temperatures range from 5 to 8 °C (41 to 46 °F). On the Patagonian plateaus, mean annual temperatures range from 8 to 10 °C (46 to 50 °F) which decreases towards the west. The daily and annual range of temperatures on these plateaus is very high. The Atlantic Ocean moderates the climate of coastal areas resulting in a lower annual and daily range of temperatures. Towards the south, where land masses are narrow, the Pacific Ocean influences coastal areas in addition to the Atlantic Ocean, ensuring that the cold is neither prolonged nor intense. At higher altitudes in the Andes, stretching from Neuquén Province to Tierra del Fuego Province, mean annual temperatures are below 5 °C (41 °F). Generally, mean annual temperatures vary more with altitude than with latitude since the temperature gradient for latitude is relatively moderate owing to ocean currents. Summers have a less uniform distribution of temperature, and in the months December to January mean temperatures range from 24 °C (75 °F) in northern Río Negro Province and eastern parts of Neuquén Province to 9 °C (48 °F) in Tierra del Fuego. Winters have a more uniform temperature distribution. In July, mean temperatures are above 0 °C (32 °F) in all of extra–Andean Patagonia, ranging from 7 °C (45 °F) in the north to around 0 °C (32 °F) in Ushuaia. Being exposed to strong westerly winds can decrease the perception of temperature (wind chill), particularly in summer. The wind lowers the perception of the mean annual temperature by 4.2 °C (7.6 °F) throughout the region. The annual range of temperatures in Patagonia is lower than in areas in the Northern Hemisphere at the same latitude owing to the maritime influences of the sea. In Patagonia, the annual range of temperatures ranges from 16 °C (29 °F) in the north and decreases progressively southwards to 4 °C (7 °F) on the southernmost islands. This contrasts with an annual range of more than 20 °C (36 °F) in North America at latitudes above 50<sup>o</sup>N. Absolute maximum temperatures can exceed 40 °C (104 °F) in the northern Río Negro Province and Neuquén Province, while in much of the region, they can exceed 30 °C (86 °F). The reading of 30.8 °C (87.4 °F) in Río Grande located in Tierra del Fuego Province on 4 February 2019 is believed to be the southernmost recorded instance where temperatures exceed 30 °C (86 °F). In the southernmost islands, they do not exceed 20 °C (68 °F). Absolute minimum temperatures are more than −15 °C (5 °F) in coastal areas, while in the central Patagonian plateaus, they can reach below −20 °C (−4 °F). ### Statistics for selected locations ## See also - Climate of Argentina - Climate of Buenos Aires - Regions of Argentina ## Books
36,795,534	Your Body (Christina Aguilera song)	1,173,255,428	2012 single by Christina Aguilera	[ "2012 singles", "2012 songs", "Christina Aguilera songs", "Electropop songs", "Music videos directed by Melina Matsoukas", "RCA Records singles", "Song recordings produced by Max Martin", "Song recordings produced by Shellback (record producer)", "Songs about casual sex", "Songs written by Max Martin", "Songs written by Savan Kotecha", "Songs written by Shellback (record producer)", "Songs written by Sophia Somajo" ]	"Your Body" is a song by American singer Christina Aguilera from her seventh studio album, Lotus (2012). It was written by Savan Kotecha, Max Martin, Shellback and Tiffany Amber, while its production was done by Martin and Shellback. RCA Records premiered the song on September 14, 2012, on On Air with Ryan Seacrest, and later sent it to US contemporary hit and rhythmic radio stations two days later as the lead single from Lotus. "Your Body" is an R&B, electro, EDM and pop number with elements from dubstep and Eurodance. Its lyrics express Aguilera's desire to have sex with an anonymous partner. "Your Body" received generally positive reviews from music critics, some of them praised Aguilera's vocals while others criticized its lyrical theme and the synthesizers used in the track. The single achieved moderate success on the charts. Internationally, "Your Body" reached Top-10 peaks in Canada and Lebanon while reaching Top-20 in the UK, Scotland, Sweden and Japan, and Top-40 in most other countries, including Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, Hungary, Romania and the United States, where it peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 with first-week sales of 103,000 copies, as well as debuting at number 10 on the Billboard Digital Songs chart and topping the Dance Club Songs chart. An accompanying music video for "Your Body" was released on September 28, 2012. Directed by Melina Matsoukas and shot in Los Angeles, California, the video portrays Aguilera as a woman who kills men after seducing them. It was met with generally positive reviews from critics, who deemed it one of Aguilera's best music videos. On November 2, 2012, Aguilera performed "Your Body" on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots. The song was later included in the setlist for Aguilera's Vegas residency Christina Aguilera: The Xperience. ## Background In December 2011, it was announced that Aguilera was teaming up with Swedish hit producer Max Martin on her comeback single for her then upcoming album. On July 3, 2012, Billboard reported that the "club banger" would be officially produced by Martin. Writing for the same publication, Andrew Hampp thought that their collaboration was very "surprising" because Martin had been working with a lot of artists, including Backstreet Boys, \*NSYNC, and Britney Spears; however, "Your Body" was the first song Martin wrote for Aguilera, as Aguilera had previously wanted to differentiate herself from the aforementioned acts. During an interview with the magazine, she commented on the Swedish producer, saying "Max is legendary in the business. He's known about me but we haven't crossed paths... It's taken us a decade in the same business and watching each other from a distance, so for us to now come together and respect each other's work ethic and how we like to be heard and making a marriage out of it, I think "Your Body" is the best culmination of that". ## Release and artwork Before its official release, an uncensored demo version of "Your Body" was leaked to the web on August 23, 2012, entitled "Fuck Your Body", where she sings "All I wanna do is fuck your body" in the chorus. On September 12, 2012, Aguilera revealed details about Lotus and "Your Body" via Twitter, including the cover artwork. RCA Records premiered the song on On Air with Ryan Seacrest on September 14, 2012. Two days later, the single was serviced to contemporary hit rhythmic radio stations in the United States. "Your Body" was available via iTunes Stores worldwide for digital download on September 17, 2012. It was also digitally release in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2012; three remixes of the track was purchased for online sales the same day. The CD single version for "Your Body" was released in Germany and the United States on November 9 and November 27, respectively. The single's cover artwork sees Aguilera "nearly" naked, wrapping in a "sheer blush-colored" piece of fabric and barely covering her breasts with her long flowing hair, while her arms are outstretched over her head. It also features Aguilera's "all curves"; TJ from Neon Limelight called the cover "sizzling" and wrote that it features her "bodacious curves on full display". Rebecca Macatee of E! Online labelled the artwork "an R-rated recreation" of "Genie in a Bottle". MTV Buzzworthy's Byron Flitsch praised the cover, calling it "a stunning cover art that has rendered us totally speechless". Fuse's Nicole James and Andrew Stout from SF Weekly compared Aguilera's image on the artwork to that of Marilyn Monroe in the photo shoot The Last Sitting. ## Composition and lyrical interpretation "Your Body" is a midtempo R&B, electro, EDM and pop number with dance-pop production, a Eurodance beat and dubstep influences in its middle eight. The song features heavy synthesizers, "stuttering" drums, and "hard-hitting" beats. According to Gregory Hicks from The Michigan Daily, "Your Body" is musically similar to Jessie J's 2011 song "Abracadabra". Chris Martins from Spin commented that the song "has a mellow thrust that hits muted transcendence for the chorus before dipping back down into that bummer bump". The chorus and the bridge features Aguilera's "powerful" vocals, provided by heavy synthesizers over a "booming" Eurodance beat. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Melissa Maerz noted that Aguilera's vocals are provided by too much synthesizers. Gregory Hicks of The Michigan Daily compared her "synthesized" voice on the song to those in Maroon 5's "One More Night", which was also produced by Martin. In "Your Body", Aguilera sings of having a one-night stand with a random man. In the first verse, she "angrily" purrs, "So open the box, don't need no key, I'm unlocked". Synthesizers and "stuttering" drums are featured at the pre-chorus, "Don't even tell me your name/ All I need to know is whose place/ And let's get walking". Chris Martins of Spin commented that the lyrics actually means, "The economy is in the tank, congress can't agree on anything, war and natural disasters consume us ... so, what else can we do but make love?" At the second verse, she tells her lover, "I am a freak, I'm disturbed/ So come on and give me your worst/ We're moving faster than slow/ If you don't know where to go/ I'll finish off on my own". The four-on-the-floor refrain has Aguilera "flaunting her famous pipes" on the chorus, "All I wanna do is love your body/ Tonight's your lucky night, I know you want it". In a track-by-track review for Lotus, Billboard critic Andrew Hampp thought that the song "doesn't peak" until Aguilera "growls", "I think you already know my name" at the bridge. According to Jason Lipshutz from Billboard and Robert Cospey of Digital Spy, the lyrics of "Your Body" are similar to Aguilera's previous single "Dirrty" (2002). ## Reception ### Critical reception "Your Body" garnered generally positive reviews from music critics. In a positive feedback, a reviewer from Billboard wrote that "it's clear the diva is going for broke". Writing for Digital Spy, Robert Cospey scored the single a four stars out of five rating and labelled it one of Aguilera's best tracks. Jon Caramanica from The New York Times picked the song as one of the stand-out songs from Lotus that highlighted Aguilera's "volcanic" vocals, naming it "sweaty and bold". Mikeal Wood from the Los Angeles Times praised "Your Body"'s musical diversity from her previous 2010 record Bionic and complimented Aguilera's "powerhouse" vocals on the track. Sarah Deen for Metro praised the single as "a funky, thumping dance number that is one for the girls to dance around their handbags to". Writing for The Guardian, Issy Sampson praised the song for being "everything you want from [Aguilera]: loud yelling, lyrics about crap one-night stands and a slutty video." The PopCrush critic Amy Sciarretto opined that "the song is as slick as it is sultry". She also labelled "Your Body" as a "club banger", cheered Aguilera's vocal ability and considered the lyrics "sexy". In a review for Album Confessions Aguilera's "powerhouse vocals" were praised, and the song itself has been called "a full-fledge, dance floor ready, sweat-pouring pop song that should get everybody in the clubs on the feet". Alexis L. Loinaz from E! Online also provided a positive review, stating that the song "promises to be a major dance-floor stomper, laying on the synths atop a thumping bass line as the power belter's potent vocals pile on the decibels". In a mixed review, Melissa Maerz from Entertainment Weekly praised Aguilera's vocals, which "reaches high enough to dust the angels with bronzer". However, Maerz criticized the overused synthesizers in the track, commenting that "she could be anyone". Rolling Stone critic Jody Rosen wrote "You can measure a singer's place in the pop-star pecking order by the quality of the Max Martin/Shellback song she releases. For Xtina, the news ain't good." Gregory Hicks for The Michigan Daily criticized that the song's lyrics "aren't even worth a discussion"; he also criticized the synthesizers used in the song and commented that "even Aguilera's flop Bionic had more musical complexity". ### Retrospective reception In a retrospective review, Mike Nied of Idolator called the song a "glorious pop anthem". He noted that, "After a rough album rollout and cancelled tour in 2010 [...] Xtina went for the safe bet by teaming up with prolific hitmaker Max Martin". He went on to say that "although the track received positive reviews from fans, it fizzled on the charts" due to lack of promotion. Joshua Haigh of Attitude praised the song for its bridge and a "strong central message about the joys of meaningless sex". He hailed "Your Body" as one of ten most underrated singles from the '10s. That Grape Juice opined that "Your Body" was "rightfully serviced as the album’s lead single", and noted: "This blaring ball of brilliance is Christina at her melismatic best". Both Orlaith Condon from Ticketmaster and Idolators Mike Wass ranked "Your Body" among the ten best songs recorded by Aguilera. ## Commercial performance "Your Body" debuted and peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart issue dated October 6, 2012, with 103,000 digital copies sold. The song debuted at number 10 on the Hot Digital Songs, becoming Aguilera's first top 10 song on the chart as the lead artist since "Keeps Gettin' Better" peaked at number 5 in 2008. On the US Pop Songs chart, the track debuted at number 33 on September 29, 2012, and later reached its peak at number 20. "Your Body" was commercially success on the Dance Club Songs, reaching atop the chart on December 8, 2012. The single also peaked at number 10 on the Canadian Hot 100 on November 24, 2012. For the issue chart dated November 17, 2012, the single debuted and peaked at number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, and only remained in the top 75 of the chart for two weeks, dropping to number 31 in its second week and then to number 91 in its third week. "Your Body" reached the top 40 charts of most European countries where it charted. It peaked at number 16 in Scotland, number 17 in Sweden, number 21 in Finland, number 22 in Switzerland and Spain, number 23 in Hungary, number 29 in Germany, and number 35 in Denmark. On The Official Lebanese Top 20 chart, the single was more successful, peaking at number six. It achieved similar success in South Korea, where it charted at number six on the Gaon International Download Chart. ## Music video ### Background and concept The music video for the song directed by Melina Matsoukas was filmed between August 20 and 21, 2012, in Los Angeles. A cut from the video premiered on NBC's The Voice on September 17. A video teaser was released on Aguilera's YouTube channel on September 17, 2012. The official music video premiered on Vevo on September 28, 2012. Aguilera commented about the collaboration with Matsoukas, "Once we started talking with each other and she heard 'Your Body,' she spun it in a way that you wouldn't expect at all. And I get to play this character that, yeah, she may be a little bit of a badass, she's very confident, self-assured, but she's super playful and super tongue-in-cheek. She laughs the whole way through the video. She's watching cartoons, and you know she doesn't take herself too seriously." The video begins with a warning saying "no men were harmed in the making of this video". In the opening, it shows Aguilera playing 1980s computer games on her computer when she gets an incoming message from an occult fortune teller. Opening the message, she asks "Hey Oranum, what's my week look like?" to which the occult fortune teller responds "You're gonna have a killer week!". Aguilera smirks to the camera and images are shown of Aguilera writhing around seductively on a bed and eating cereal whilst on the couch watching cartoons. In the clip, Aguilera plays a killer who kills men after seducing them. She goes on a ride with the first man and seduces him leading to a make-out session between the two, then after he falls asleep, she blows up his car in electric-pink flames. Next, she goes to a bar and seduces the second man in a bathroom stall, where she bludgeons him to death, leaving spatters of blue paint dripping from the walls. Finally, she seduces a third unlucky suitor (who was foretold by the same occult fortune teller that it was his unlucky day) by inviting him to a motel and then uses a baseball bat to kill him, "showering the room in a mist of red confetti". The video ends with Aguilera washing off the red confetti splashed all over herself while looking in the mirror at her reflection and as the confetti goes down the drain, shows Aguilera in her trailer eating cereal while changing channels on her television set, settling on "The Lucy Show" before smiling and turning off her television. The video features several cultural influences, including the NES Advantage video game controller, the psychic site Oranum.com, and clips of The Lucy Show featuring actress Lucille Ball. ### Reception The video received positive reviews from media outlets. James Montgomery from MTV News commented that the video is "grisly and garish, but also incredibly clever and visually arresting". T. Kyle writing for MTV Buzzworthy gave the video a positive feedback, writing "Christina manages to be fun and provocative, the styling is beautiful and even aspirational, and Legendtina's body looks amazing". Sam Lansky from Idolator website complimented Aguilera's "charming sense of humor" and deemed "Your Body" as one of Aguilera's best music videos. Writing for Billboard, Jason Lipshut noted the video seemed to be inspired by the unending stream of violence on TV, but felt that Aguilera's clothing style in the video was the standout part. In a review of the video for Yahoo! Music, Lyndsey Park complimented the cultural references in the video, writing that "it's enough to make even Seth MacFarlane or Dennis Miller's heads spin. And yet, somehow, it's all so very, very Xtina". Marc Hogan of Spin wrote that "It might take us a few more viewings to get the joke, but at least there's enough amazing absurdity going on to make that prospect sound entertaining". On December 4, 2012, Fuse announced that "Your Body" was the number one video of 2012, based on online voting. ## Live performances On November 2, 2012, Aguilera performed "Your Body" on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots, using office supplies as instruments including an iPhone and a stapler. The song was later included in the setlist for Aguilera's Vegas residency Christina Aguilera: The Xperience (2019–2020), as well as her European/Mexican leg The X Tour (2020). In June 2023, Aguilera closed the NYC Pride concert and performed a number of her songs, including "Your Body" and another Lotus track, "Let There Be Love". ## Accolades ## Credits and personnel - Vocals: Christina Aguilera - Songwriting: Savan Kotecha, Max Martin, Shellback, Tiffany Amber - Production: Max Martin, Shellback Credits adapted from the liner notes of Lotus, RCA Records. ## Track listings - CD single and digital download 1. "Your Body" – 4:00 - Digital download – Remixes EP 1. "Your Body" – 4:00 2. "Your Body" (Ken Loi Remix) – 5:26 3. "Your Body" (Audien Remix) – 6:16 4. "Your Body" (Oxford Hustlers Radio Mix) – 3:42 - Other Versions (Unreleased)' 1. "Fuck Your Body [Explicit]" – 4:00 ## Charts and certifications ### Weekly charts ### Certifications ## Release history ## See also - List of number-one dance singles of 2012 (U.S.)
932,139	Ducie Island	1,170,299,116	Atoll in the Pitcairn Islands, British Overseas Territories	[ "Atolls of the Pitcairn Islands", "Important Bird Areas of the Pitcairn Islands", "Pacific islands claimed under the Guano Islands Act", "Uninhabited islands of the Pitcairn Islands" ]	Ducie Island (/ˈduːsi/; Pitkern: Ducie Ailen) is an uninhabited atoll in the Pitcairn Islands. It lies east of Pitcairn Island, and east of Henderson Island, and has a total area of 1.5 square miles (3.9 km<sup>2</sup>), which includes the lagoon. It is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, measured northeast to southwest, and about 1 mile (1.6 km) wide. The island is composed of four islets: Acadia, Pandora, Westward and Edwards. Despite its sparse vegetation, the atoll is known as the breeding ground of a number of bird species. More than 90% of the world population of Murphy's petrel nests on Ducie, while pairs of red-tailed tropicbirds and fairy terns make around 1% of the world population for each species. Ducie was first discovered in 1606 by Pedro Fernandes de Queiros, who named it Luna Puesta, and rediscovered by Edward Edwards, captain of HMS Pandora, who was sent in 1790 to capture the mutineers of HMS Bounty. He named the island Ducie in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie. In 1867, a claim on the island was made under the United States's Guano Islands Act, but the claim was never bonded. The United Kingdom annexed the island on 19 December 1902 as part of the Pitcairn Islands. Due to its inaccessibility and the distance from Pitcairn, Ducie is rarely visited, receiving one to two visits a year from cruise ships. ## History The island was discovered by a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandes de Queirós on 26 January 1606, during an expedition that began in Callao, Peru. Supported by Pope Clement VIII and Philip III of Spain, Queirós was given the command of the San Pedro, San Pablo and Zabra. The fleet was nicknamed Los Tres Reyes Magos ("The Three Wise Men"). The objective of the expedition was to take soldiers, friars and provisions to establish a colony in the Santa Cruz Islands. Ducie Island was the first of eighteen discoveries on the trip. Queirós named the island Luna Puesta (roughly, "moon that has set"). On the same day, he also sighted two more islands, one that he named San Juan Bautista ("St John the Baptist"), and the other La Encarnación ("the Incarnation"). It is unclear which one was Henderson island and which one was Pitcairn. The confusion was later compounded when a chart produced by Admiral José de Espinosa marked Ducie as La Encarnación, rather than as Luna Puesta. The island was rediscovered and named Ducie Island on 16 March 1791 by Captain Edward Edwards, of HMS Pandora, who had been despatched from Britain in 1790 to arrest the Bounty mutineers. Edwards named it in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie, under whom he had served earlier in his career. HMS Pandora turned northwards from Ducie and, because of this change of course, Edwards did not sight the other islands of the group. If HMS Pandora had maintained its course, it would eventually have reached Pitcairn Island and found the Bounty mutineers. The crew of the whaleship Essex, which a whale had attacked and sunk in November 1820, mistakenly believed that they had reached Ducie after a month at sea in two whaleboats. In fact they had reached Henderson Island. Captain Thomas Raine of Surrey, who was searching for the survivors of Essex, in 1820 made the first recorded landing on Ducie. Frederick William Beechey, who arrived in HMS Blossom during November 1825, wrote the first comprehensive description of the island. Beechey's expedition did not land in the atoll, but members of the crew sailed around it in small boats. Based on Beechey's survey, the first Admiralty chart of the island was published in 1826. For nearly a hundred years it was the only available map of the island. In March 1867, John Daggett filed a claim on Ducie Island (referring to it as 'Ducer Island') with the U.S. State Department under the Guano Islands Act. Daggett was instructed to provide further information, including to affidavits of the quality and quantity of guano present on the island; however, according to a 1933 State Department report, Daggett never provided the additional information and the claim was never accepted by the United States. On 5 June 1881, the mail ship Acadia ran aground on the island while returning from San Francisco, Peru after unloading its cargo. On the way to Queenstown or Falmouth for new orders, Master Stephen George calculated a route passing 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) to the east of Ducie. George left the first mate in command at 6 am. Half an hour later, the first mate saw a white line, which he disregarded on the assumption that it was phosphorescence in the water. Later, realising that it was land, he manoeuvred to avoid running aground, but failed. The look-out excused himself by saying that he thought that the white land was a cloud. The crew made several unsuccessful attempts to re-float the ship, after which the master sailed one of the ship's boats to Pitcairn Island. He was assisted there by the local inhabitants and returned aboard the Edward O'Brien, an American boat, to rescue the rest of the crew. The incident was later investigated in a court in Liverpool, where the ultimate cause of the wreck was left undetermined, though possible causes included a calculation error by the master or an unknown current that carried the ship to the island. The court declared the master not guilty of any wrongdoing. A stone marker with a memorial inscription is located at the landing point on Acadia Islet. It was unveiled to commemorate the recovery of the anchor in 1990. The wreck lies offshore from the memorial stone in about 10 metres of water. In 1969, the atoll was proposed as an "Island for Science", and was later recommended as a Ramsar Site. Major expeditions that came to the island to record its biota include the Whitney South Seas Expedition in 1922, the National Geographic Society-Oceanic Institute Expedition to Southeast Oceania of 1970–71 and the Smithsonian expedition of 1975. More recent expeditions include the MV Rambler Expedition by the Smithsonian in 1987, one by Raleigh International in the same year, the Sir Peter Scott Commemorative Expedition to the Pitcairn Islands of 1991–1992 (aka The Pitcairn Islands Scientific Expedition), In 2012, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala produced Sharks of Lost Island including Ducie and all the Pitcairn Islands. Because of its inaccessibility, Ducie is rarely approached, but cruise ships make one or two landings per year. In addition, unrecorded visits are known to be made by freighters and tankers that dump residues on the island or in the nearby waters. ### Sovereignty Although Captain Edward Edwards discovered the atoll in 1791, Ducie was not considered a British possession. In 1867 Ducie was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act, which established that an uninhabited territory with guano deposits could be claimed as a US possession, so long as it was unclaimed by any other country. Despite claims on several other territories, based on various documents such as the Guano Islands Act, neither the United States nor the United Kingdom recognised the sovereignty claimed by each other. Neither of the two considered that the mere discovery of an island was sufficient to claim sovereignty over it, and often a formal act of possession was considered the proper procedure to claim rights over a territory. Ultimately, the United States did not assert its sovereignty over most of its claimed territories. Under the 1893 Pacific Order in Council, Pitcairn Island was governed by the High Commissioner of the British Western Pacific Territories in Fiji. On 19 December 1902, commissioned by R. T. Simmons, the British Consul in Tahiti, Captain G. F. Jones and a group of Pitcairners visited the nearby islands and annexed them to the United Kingdom. In 1903 Ducie was annexed by the same procedure and placed under the authority of the Western Pacific High Commissioner. R. T. Simmons stated in a dispatch to the Foreign Office that James Russell McCoy had assured him that the islands had always been considered as dependencies of Pitcairn, and that he and other Pitcairners had frequently visited them in the past. This claim is contested by Donald McLoughlin on grounds of the distance between Pitcairn Island and Ducie Island and the lack of a suitable boat to navigate the distance between the two, casting doubt on whether they had ever visited Ducie. On 4 August 1937, Captain J. W. Rivers-Carnac, commander of HMS Leander, reaffirmed British sovereignty over Ducie by hoisting the Union Flag and placing boards proclaiming the island to be the property of King George VI. Ducie was one of several islands thought valuable for potential seaplane bases, though they did not materialise. In 1953, the Pacific Order in Council ceased to have effect and the British Governor of Fiji was appointed Governor of the Pitcairn Islands, which became a separate British colony. A new constitution for the Pitcairn Islands was enacted on 10 February 2010, establishing that Ducie and the rest of the islands are ruled by a governor designated by the British monarch. The governor has a duty to enforce the provisions of the constitution. ## Geography Ducie lies 290 miles (470 km) east of Pitcairn Island and is claimed by some to be the southernmost atoll in the world at 24°41' S latitude. However, Elizabeth Reef in the Tasman Sea is at 29°57 S latitude, so the assertion on behalf of Ducie Island is doubtful. Ducie Island's land area is 170 acres (69 ha) and its maximum elevation, occurring on the Westward islet, is 15 feet (4.6 m). Ducie is located 620 miles (1,000 km) west of the edge of the Easter Plate. It was formed approximately 8 million years ago, after Oeno Island was formed by a hotspot that later caused a magma leak generated in the Oeno lineation. The leak spread over fracture zone FZ2, which was formed by the third movement of the Pacific Plate. The atoll is part of the Oeno-Henderson-Ducie-Crough seamount, speculated to be part of the southern Tuamotus. The atoll consists of four islets: Acadia—which is by far the largest—Pandora, Westward and Edwards. All three of the smaller islets can be accessed on foot from Acadia at low tide. The islets were named by Harald Rehder and John Randall, who visited the atoll during an expedition by the Smithsonian Institution in 1975. - Acadia Islet, along the atoll's north and east rim, is several times larger than the other three islets combined, measuring 140 acres (57 ha). Very long and thin, the islet is largely forested and is composed of ridges of coral rubble. It is named after the Acadia, a ship that was wrecked on Ducie in 1881. - Pandora Islet, in the south, is the second largest. It is composed of sand and coral rubble that borders the lagoon. It is named after HMS Pandora. - Edwards Islet lies immediately to the east of Pandora Islet and has the same characteristics. It is named after Edward Edwards, captain of HMS Pandora. - Westward Islet, west of Pandora Islet, is the smallest. It appears sandy from a distance, but the soil is composed of coral rubble and dead shells. Its highest point rises 15 feet (4.6 m) above average sea level. It is named after the Westward, the ship that carried the members of the National Geographic Society and the Oceanic Institute during their 1970–71 expedition. The atoll has a central lagoon, accessible by boat only by way of a channel 100 yards (91 m) wide located in the southwest, between Pandora and Westward Islets. It has a maximum depth of 52 feet (16 m) and its bottom consists of sand and coral. Whirlpools in the lagoon are common, caused by caves that drain the water from the lagoon into the ocean. Pandora is known as being one of the three coastline vertices for Point Nemo, the set of coordinates in the South Pacific Ocean that represents the furthest point from any land in three directions. ## Flora The vegetation in the atoll is sparse, because of the lack of fresh water. Only two species of vascular plant are currently known to grow there – one of the smallest such floras on any island. Acadia, Pandora and Edwards Islets are forested with Heliotropium foertherianum, but Westward Islet is not. Pemphis acidula has also been recorded on Ducie; specimens were found during an expedition in 1991. During the expedition of Hugh Cuming in 1827 and the 1922 Whitney South Sea Expedition, Lepturus grass was found on Acadia Islet. However, it disappeared when storm waves deforested the island some time before the Smithsonian expedition of 1975. Thus H. foertherianum now dominates the vegetation of the islets. Additionally, there are a number of species of coralline algae, including Porolithon onkodes, Porolithon gardineri, and Caulerpa racemosa. ## Fauna The atoll is populated by several species of birds, fish, and reptiles. In the lagoon, sparse, living coral can be found; the dominant species is Montipora bilaminata (family Acroporidae). Most of the coral in the lagoon is dead, presumed to have been killed by influxes of cold water. ### Birds Though no terrestrial birds are found on the atoll, Ducie Island is known for the seabirds that breed there. Birds that have been recorded nesting on the atoll include the red-billed tropicbird, red-tailed tropicbird, white tern, great frigatebird, masked booby, and red-footed booby. Wintering bristle-thighed curlews have been recorded as well. A number of tern species, including the sooty tern, blue noddy, brown noddy, lesser noddy, and white tern have been recorded, as have several members of the family Procellariidae: Kermadec petrel, Trindade petrel, Murphy's petrel, and Christmas shearwater. The island is particularly important for Murphy's petrel, as more than 90% of its world population breeds on Ducie. Around 3,000 pairs of Christmas shearwaters, about 5% of the world's total population, can be found on the island too. Meanwhile, the red-tailed tropicbirds and white terns that breed on Ducie are around 1% of the world population of each species. Phoenix petrels, which previously inhabited the atoll, apparently disappeared between the Whitney expedition in 1922 and the 1991–92 Pitcairn Scientific Expedition. The island has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA), principally for its colonies of Murphy's, herald, and Kermadec petrels, and Christmas shearwaters. ### Fish In the lagoon there are around 138 fish species, which also inhabit southeastern Oceania, the Western Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. The lagoon is noted for its poisonous fish and dangerous sharks. The yellow-edged lyretail, the blacktip grouper, and the greasy grouper are known to cause ciguatera poisoning. The lagoon is also inhabited by Galápagos sharks and the whitetip reef shark. The Galápagos shark is dangerous to humans, while the whitetips are seldom aggressive unless provoked. Five species are found exclusively around the Pitcairn Islands: Sargocentron megalops (a species of squirrelfish), the spiny butterflyfish, the Henderson triplefin (a species of threefin blenny), an unnamed species of Alticus (a genus of combtooth blenny), and an unnamed species of Ammodytes (a genus of sand lance). ### Terrestrial vertebrates Lizards that inhabit the island include the white-bellied skink (Emoia cyanura), photographed by E. H. Quayle during an expedition in 1922, and a lizard reported in the journal of an expedition in 1935 by James Chapin. The species of the latter was uncertain, but it was thought to be a gecko, possibly either an oceanic gecko (Gehyra oceanica), or a mourning gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris). The 1991–92 Pitcairn Islands Scientific Expedition found specimens of both the mourning gecko and the white-bellied skink. The only mammal known to inhabit Ducie is the Polynesian rat; In 1997, there was a successful project to eradicate these by Brian Bell (WMIL) and Graham Wragg (S/V Te Manu), to aid the conservation of bird species threatened by the rat population. Green sea turtles feed on Ducie, but have not been seen to breed there. ## See also - List of Guano Island claims - List of islands - Desert island
17,194,406	Tallinn offensive	1,170,909,643	Strategic offensive during WWII	[ "1944 in Estonia", "Battles involving Estonia", "Battles involving the Soviet Union", "Conflicts in 1944", "Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic", "Generalbezirk Estland", "History of Tallinn", "Military history of Estonia during World War II", "Military operations of World War II involving Germany", "September 1944 events", "Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II" ]	The Tallinn offensive (Russian: Таллинская наступательная операция) was a strategic offensive by the Red Army's 2nd Shock and 8th armies and the Baltic Fleet against the German Army Detachment Narwa and Estonian units in mainland Estonia on the Eastern Front of World War II on 17–26 September 1944. Its German counterpart was the abandonment of the Estonian territory in a retreat codenamed Operation Aster (German: Unternehmen Aster). The Soviet offensive commenced with the Soviet 2nd Shock Army breaching the defence of the II Army Corps along the Emajõgi River in the vicinity of Tartu. The defenders managed to slow the Soviet advance sufficiently for Army Detachment Narwa to be evacuated from mainland Estonia in an orderly fashion. On 18 September, the constitutional Government of Estonia captured the government buildings in Tallinn from the Germans and the city was abandoned by the German forces by 22 September. The Leningrad Front seized the capital and took the rest of mainland Estonia by 26 September 1944. ## Background ### Prelude Attacks by the Leningrad Front had pushed Army Group North west of Lake Peipus, resulting in a series of operations around Narva. In the south, Soviet forces had advanced towards the Baltic coast at the end of Operation Bagration the Belorussian strategic offensive (June–August 1944) against Army Group Centre. The Soviet Tallinn offensive was designed as a part of the Baltic offensive to eliminate the positions of Army Group North along the Baltic. Stavka began an intricate supply and transport operation, to move the 2nd Shock Army from the Narva front to the Emajõgi river on September 5, 1944. The 25th River Boat Brigade and engineer troops were ordered by Stavka to ferry the units over Lake Peipus. Five crossings were built from the Russian settlement of Pnevo across the 2 km (1.2 mi)-wide sound of Lämmijärv to the Estonian village of Mehikoorma. Forty-six vessels worked 24 hours a day to carry 135,000 troops, 13,200 horses, 9,100 lorries, 2,183 artillery and 8,300 tons of ammunition across the lake. Luftwaffe units observed the move without intervening. The 2nd Shock Army acquired command over the Emajõgi front from the 3rd Baltic Front on 11 September 1944. The three Soviet Baltic Fronts launched their Riga offensive operation on 14 September, along the German 18th Army front segment from the town of Madona in Latvia to the mouth of the Väike Emajõgi river. In the Estonian section, from the Valga railway junction to Lake Võrtsjärv, the Soviet 3rd Baltic Front attacked the German XXVIII Army Corps. The German and Estonian Omakaitse units held their positions and prevented the Army Detachment Narwa from being encircled in Estonia. ### Soviet objectives The Soviet forces attempted to capture Estonia and its capital Tallinn. Stavka hoped a quick breakthrough at the Emajõgi front would open a path for the armoured units to the north, thus cutting the Army Detachment Narwa off from the rest of Army Group North. The Red Army command presumed that the main direction of retreat for the German forces would be Tallinn, and concentrated their forces there in an attempt to block the roads. ### German objectives Army Group North had already considered abandoning Estonia in February 1944, during the Soviet Kingisepp-Gdov offensive. A large number of units would have been freed up with changes to the front, but the Narva front continued to be defended on Hitler's orders. The German Command considered it important to maintain control over the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland to ease the situation in Finland and keep the Soviet Baltic Fleet trapped in the eastern bay of the gulf. Retaining the oil shale reserves and oil shale industry in Ida-Viru was important for economic reasons. The exit of Finland from the war on 3 September provided the political impetus for abandoning Estonia. The next day, Generaloberst Heinz Guderian suggested that it would not be possible to hold Ostland and ordered plans for the evacuation operation, codenamed Königsberg, to be drawn up. Hitler, however, declared that Ostland must not be given up at any cost, since doing so would provide support to those Finns that did not favour the new course of the government, and would influence Sweden to maintain its current foreign policy. After lunch, Guderian ordered that the Königsberg plan nevertheless be secretly initiated. On the next day, Oberst Natzmer visited the headquarters of Army Detachment Narwa to discuss details of the evacuation. On 11 September, the evacuation of Estonia was discussed in the Army Headquarters at length. On 15 September, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army Group, Generaloberst Ferdinand Schörner, requested that Guderian convince Hitler to order the evacuation of German troops from the continental part of Estonia, codenamed Operation Aster. Schörner emphasised that although the front was still holding, delaying the order would mean the units in Estonia would be trapped. Hitler agreed on 16 September. According to the plan, the main forces of Army Group Narwa had to withdraw mainly through Viljandi and Pärnu to Riga. In order to do that, II Army Corps at the Emajõgi front and XXVIII Army Corps at the Väike Emajõgi had to keep the front line stable until the Army Detachment had passed behind them. Officially, the beginning of the operation was supposed to be September 19. The retreat was to be gradual, over several lines of resistance. The withdrawal was to be backed mainly by the units consisting of Estonians, who, by the estimates of the German army command, would not have wanted to leave Estonia anyway. A naval force under Vice-Admiral Theodor Burchardi began evacuating elements of the German formations along with some civilians on 17 September. The headquarters prepared a detailed plan to leave their positions at the Narva front on the night of 18–19 September. ### Estonian objectives Various Estonian troops, which used men who had deserted from the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian), Omakaitse militia, border defence and auxiliary police battalions, had no general planning. However, their aim was to defend the independence of Estonia. ## Comparison of forces By the beginning of the Tallinn offensive on 17 September at the Emajõgi front, the II German Army Corps was reduced to a modest division of 4,600 men, while defending against the 140,000 men of the 2nd Shock Army. While the II Army Corps had practically no armoured forces, the 3rd Baltic Front deployed 300 armoured vehicles. The Red Army placed 2,569 artillery pieces along the 90-kilometre front line, pitting 137 pieces of artillery per kilometre against a practically nonexistent German artillery. The 15,000 strong III SS (Germanic) Panzer Corps stood against the Soviet 8th Army numbering 55,000 troops at the Narva front. The pro-independence Estonian troops numbered 2,000. ## Operations The 3rd Baltic Front commenced their offensive in the early morning of 17 September. After the German II Army Corps were subjected to an artillery barrage of 132,500 shells, the three leading rifle corps crossed the Emajõgi River in the 25 km long section of the front east of Tartu and breached the defences. The 2nd Shock Army forced its way through to the German divisional headquarters and artillery positions. Only Kampfgruppe Rebane, stationed near Tartu, held their frontage, albeit with heavy losses. Army Detachment Narwa and XXVIII Corps, the northernmost elements of Army Group North, were at risk of getting encircled and destroyed. General Ferdinand Schörner ordered II Army Corps to abandon the defence of the Emajõgi and to move quickly around the northern tip of Lake Võrtsjärv to Latvia. Six Estonian border defence regiments, the 113th Security Regiment, and remnants of the 20th Waffen SS Division retreating from the most distant part of the Narva front in the Krivasoo swamp were blocked by the advance units of the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps and destroyed in the battles of Porkuni and Avinurme on 20 and 21 September. Estonians of the Soviet rifle corps murdered their compatriots that had been taken prisoner at Porkuni and the wounded sheltering in the Avinurme Parish church. The defence allowed Army Detachment Narwa to escape from Estonia as the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps and the 11th Infantry Division abandoned their positions, unbeknownst to the Soviet 8th Army. The Soviet forces began advancing in the early morning, took Jõhvi, and by evening reached the Toila–Jõhvi–Kurtna line, also taking 63 POWs. The Panzer Corps itself declared 30 dead or MIA, and 30 wounded. On the night of 20 September, the headquarters of the Corps were near Pärnu on the southwestern coast, alongside the "Nederland", "Nordland" and the 11th Infantry Division headquarters. The "Nordland" and the 11th Infantry divisions were sent to Latvia, under the command of the 16th Army. The "Nederland" was left to organise the defence of Pärnu. On 23 September, "Nederland" dynamited the harbour and retreated to Latvia. On 24 September near Ikla on the Latvian border the rearguard of the "Nederland" carried out its final battle on Estonian ground, destroying 12–15 Soviet tanks. Military personnel, the wounded, institutions and industries, prisoners and civilians were mostly evacuated by sea. The chief of evacuation for the navy was the Admiral of the Eastern Baltic Sea, Theodor Burchardi. He was mainly responsible for securing the evacuation from Tallinn and Paldiski. For this purpose, he commanded the 24th Landing Flotilla, 14th Security Flotilla, 31st Mine Trawler Flotilla, 5th Security Flotilla and 1st Evacuation Flotilla, with a total of approximately 50 small warships, launches, escort ships and other vessels. Within six days, around 50,000 troops, 20,000 civilians, 1,000 POWs and 30,000 tons of goods were removed from Estonia, 38,000 of the military personnel by sea. In the course of the evacuation from Tallinn, the following ships suffered serious damage from Soviet air army attacks: on board the Nettelbeck and Vp 1611, 8 people killed and 29 wounded; the RO-22 hit and 100 personnel killed; the hospital ship Moero, with 1,155 refugees, wounded and crew on board, sunk in the middle of the Baltic sea with 637 dead. The evacuation by sea, despite the fact that the time for evacuation was much shorter than planned, was considered a complete success, with only 0.9% of the evacuees killed. On 18 September 1944, the provisional government formed by the National Committee of the Republic of Estonia in Tallinn re-declared the independence of Estonia. Estonian military units clashed with German troops in Tallinn, seizing the state offices at Toompea. The government appealed to the Soviet Union to recognize the independence of the republic. The Government of Estonia had failed to concentrate the Estonian soldiers retreating from the Narva and Emajõgi fronts, as the units were scattered and mixed with the German detachments withdrawing towards Latvia. Therefore, the government lacked significant military forces to repulse the Soviet forces concentrated around Tallinn. The units securing the national capital and the government included a command led by Rear Admiral Johan Pitka, one of the former battalions of the Finnish Infantry Regiment 200 and various units of the Omakaitse, all of those under nominal command of general Jaan Maide. The government managed to establish contact with a group of Estonian SS troops retreating from Narva front, but those were dispersed in the Battle of Porkuni. By the time the advance units of the Leningrad Front arrived at Tallinn early on 22 September, German troops had practically abandoned the city and the streets were empty. The last German unit to leave Tallinn that morning was the 531st Navy Artillery Battalion. Before embarkation, all stationary artillery and armaments, special equipment, guns that could not be evacuated, ammunition, the telephone exchange, the radio broadcast house, locomotives and railroad cars, and the railway were destroyed. The Tallinn power plant was fired upon from the sea and the Old City Harbour was destroyed. The retreating German units had no combat contact with the Red Army in Tallinn, only the Estonian units resisted. Troops of the Leningrad Front seized Tallinn on 22 September. Jüri Uluots, acting President of Estonia, fled to Sweden. In the following days, several pro-independence Estonian battle groups attacked the Soviet troops in Harju and Lääne counties without success. ## Aftermath The German evacuation had been carried out in an orderly fashion. Army Group North's plans had paid off and both the Soviets and the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German High Command) was surprised and impressed by the speed of the evacuation. The 8th Army went on to take the remaining West Estonian islands (Moonsund archipelago) in the Moonsund Landing Operation, an amphibious attack. Overall, the Baltic offensive resulted in the expulsion of German forces from Estonia, Lithuania and a large part of Latvia. ### Soviet reoccupation Soviet rule of Estonia was re-established by force, and sovietisation followed, which was mostly carried out in 1944–1950. The forced collectivisation of agriculture began in 1947, and was completed after the mass deportation of Estonians in March 1949. All private farms were confiscated, and farmers were made to join the collective farms. An armed resistance movement of 'forest brothers' was active until the mass deportations. A total of 30,000 participated or supported the movement; 2,000 were killed. The Soviet authorities fighting the forest brothers suffered also hundreds of deaths. Among those killed on both sides were innocent civilians. Besides the armed resistance of the forest brothers, a number of underground nationalist schoolchildren groups were active. Most of their members were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. The punitive actions decreased rapidly after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953; from 1956 to 1958, a large part of the deportees and political prisoners were allowed to return to Estonia. Political arrests and numerous other kind of crimes against humanity were committed all through the occupation period until the late 1980s. After all, the attempt to integrate Estonian society into the Soviet system failed. Although the armed resistance was defeated, the population remained anti-Soviet. This helped the Estonians to organise a new resistance movement in the late 1980s, regain their independence in 1991, and then rapidly develop a modern society.
1,002,781	HMS Black Prince (1861)	1,121,199,120	1861 Warrior-class ironclad ship	[ "1861 ships", "Edward the Black Prince", "Maritime incidents in March 1861", "Ships built on the River Clyde", "Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom", "Warrior-class ironclads" ]	HMS Black Prince was the third ship of that name to serve with the Royal Navy. She was the world's second ocean-going, iron-hulled, armoured warship, following her sister ship, HMS Warrior. For a brief period the two Warrior-class ironclads were the most powerful warships in the world, being virtually impregnable to the naval guns of the time. Rapid advances in naval technology left Black Prince and her sister obsolete within a short time, however, and she spent more time in reserve and training roles than in first-line service. Black Prince spent her active career with the Channel Fleet and was hulked in 1896, becoming a harbour training ship in Queenstown, Ireland. She was renamed Emerald in 1903 and then Impregnable III in 1910 when she was assigned to the training establishment in Plymouth. The ship was sold for scrap in 1923. ## Design and description HMS Black Prince was 380 feet 2 inches (115.9 m) long between perpendiculars and 420 feet (128.0 m) long overall. She had a beam of 58 feet 4 inches (17.8 m) and a draught of 26 feet 10 inches (8.2 m). The ship displaced 9,137 long tons (9,284 t). The hull was subdivided by watertight transverse bulkheads into 92 compartments and had a double bottom underneath the engine and boiler rooms. ### Propulsion The Warrior-class ships had one 2-cylinder trunk steam engine made by John Penn and Sons driving a single 24-foot-6-inch (7.5 m) propeller. Ten rectangular boilers provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of 20 psi (138 kPa; 1 kgf/cm<sup>2</sup>). The engine produced a total of 5,772 indicated horsepower (4,304 kW) during Black Prince's sea trials in September 1862 and the ship had a maximum speed of 13.6 knots (25.2 km/h; 15.7 mph) under steam alone. The ship carried 800 long tons (810 t) of coal, enough to steam 2,100 nautical miles (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph). The ironclads were ship rigged and had a sail area of 48,400 square feet (4,497 m<sup>2</sup>). Black Prince could only do 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) under sail, 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) slower than her sister Warrior. ### Armament The armament of the Warrior-class ships was intended to be 40 smoothbore, muzzle-loading 68-pounder guns, 19 on each side on the main deck and one each fore and aft as chase guns on the upper deck. This was modified during construction to ten rifled 110-pounder breech-loading guns, twenty-six 68-pounders, and four rifled breech-loading 40-pounder guns. The 7.9-inch (201 mm) solid shot of the 68-pounder gun weighed approximately 68 pounds (30.8 kg) while the gun itself weighed 10,640 pounds (4,826 kg). The gun had a muzzle velocity of 1,579 ft/s (481 m/s) and had a range of 3,200 yards (2,900 m) at an elevation of 12°. The 7-inch (178 mm) shell of the 110-pounder Armstrong breech-loader weighed 107–110 pounds (48.5–49.9 kg). It had a muzzle velocity of 1,150 ft/s (350 m/s) and, at an elevation of 11.25°, a maximum range of 4,000 yards (3,700 m). The shell of the 40-pounder breech-loading gun was 4.75 inches (121 mm) in diameter and weighed 40 pounds (18.1 kg). The gun had a maximum range of 3,800 yards (3,500 m) at a muzzle velocity of 1,150 ft/s (350 m/s). In 1863–1864 the 40-pounder guns were replaced by a heavier version with the same ballistics. All of the guns could fire both solid shot and explosive shells. Black Prince was rearmed during her 1867–1868 refit with twenty-four 7-inch and four 8-inch (203 mm) rifled muzzle-loading guns. The ship also received four 20-pounder breech-loading guns for use as saluting guns. The shell of the 15-calibre 8-inch gun weighed 175 pounds (79.4 kg) while the gun itself weighed 9 long tons (9.1 t). It had a muzzle velocity of 1,410 ft/s (430 m/s) and was credited with the ability to penetrate a nominal 9.6 inches (244 mm) of wrought iron armour at the muzzle. The 16-calibre 7-inch gun weighed 6.5 long tons (6.6 t) and fired a 112-pound (50.8 kg) shell. It was credited with the nominal ability to penetrate 7.7-inch (196 mm) armour. ### Armour The sides of Black Prince were protected by an armour belt of wrought iron, 4.5 inches (114 mm) thick, that covered the middle 213 feet (64.9 m) of the ship. The ends of the ship were left entirely unprotected, which meant that the steering gear was very vulnerable. The armour extended 16 feet (4.9 m) above the waterline and 6 feet (1.8 m) below it. 4.5-inch transverse bulkheads protected the guns on the main deck. The armour was backed by 16 inches (406 mm) of teak. ## Construction and service Black Prince was ordered on 6 October 1859 from Robert Napier and Sons in Govan, Glasgow, for the price of £377,954. The ship was laid down on 12 October 1859 and launched 27 February 1861. On 10 March, she ran aground in the River Clyde near Greenock whilst being towed from Govan to Greenock. Her completion was delayed by a drydock accident at Greenock while fitting out, which damaged her masts. She steamed to Spithead in November 1861 with only jury-rigged fore and mizzenmasts. The ship was commissioned in June 1862, but was not completed until 12 September 1862. Black Prince was assigned to the Channel Fleet until 1866, then spent a year as flagship on the Irish coast. Overhauled and rearmed in 1867–1868, she became guardship on the Clyde. The routine of that duty was interrupted in 1869 when she and Warrior towed a large floating drydock from Madeira to Bermuda. Black Prince was again refitted in 1874–1875, gaining a poop deck, and rejoined the Channel Fleet as flagship of Rear Admiral Sir John Dalrymple-Hay, second-in-command of the fleet. In 1878 Captain H.R.H. Duke of Edinburgh took command and the ship crossed the Atlantic to participate in the installation of a new Governor General of Canada. Upon her return Black Prince was placed in reserve at Devonport, and, reclassified as an armoured cruiser, she was reactivated periodically to take part in annual fleet exercises. Black Prince was hulked in 1896 as a harbour training ship, stationed at Queenstown, and was renamed Emerald in 1903. In 1910 the ship was moved to Plymouth and renamed Impregnable III when she was assigned to the training school HMS Impregnable before she was sold for scrap on 21 February 1923.
11,198,667	Ontario Highway 132	1,094,505,516	Ontario provincial highway	[ "Ontario provincial highways" ]	King's Highway 132, commonly referred to as Highway 132, is a provincially maintained highway the Canadian province of Ontario. Its western terminus is at Highway 41 near Dacre while its eastern terminus is at Highway 60 in Renfrew. The length of Highway 132 is 30.3 km (18.8 mi), situated entirely in Renfrew County. It travels through the communities of Shamrock, Dacre and Renfrew. The highway was built in the 1850s as part of the Opeongo and Ottawa Colonization Road, providing access to Renfrew County for settlement in the Opeongo Hills. However, it did not become a provincial highway until 1956. Aside from the change in number of the highways at either end of the route, the route has remained the same since then. ## Route description Highway 132 is a short connector highway that travels between Dacre and Renfrew, connecting Highway 41 with Highway 17 via Highway 60. The majority of the route travels through the Canadian Shield, with the exception of the final few kilometres approaching Renfrew, where it descends into the Ottawa Valley. Because of its rugged surroundings, there is relatively little human habitation along the route outside of the communities of Dacre and Shamrock. Beginning at a junction with Highway 41 just west of Dacre, Highway 132 progresses east as the mainline; drivers must turn to remain on Highway 41. After passing through forests for 2 kilometres (1.2 mi), the route enters the small community of Dacre, where it intersects former Highway 513 (Scotch Bush Road) north to Hyndford. Leaving Dacre, the highway passes by several farms as it dips south to cross Constant Creek, a tributary of the Madawaska River, before turning east-northeast. It meanders around several large swamps and small lakes that dot the Madawaska Highlands, otherwise passing through thick forests for the next 8.2 kilometres (5.1 mi) until it enters a clearing and the hamlet of Shamrock. The next 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of Highway 132 is predominantly surrounded by impervious forests, although it encounters Renfrew County Road 34 (Whelan Road) midway through this section, turning northeast at that junction. The route descends gradually into the Ottawa Valley immediately before intersecting Renfrew County Road 5 (Stone Road). Here the forests give way to agricultural fields for the next 4 kilometres (2.5 mi), before the highway enters Renfrew at Riverview Drive and become urban. Within Renfew, it follows Lisgar Avenue, Lochiel Street North and Munroe Avenue West before ending downtown at an intersection with Highway 60 (Raglan Avenue). Like other provincial routes in Ontario, Highway 132 is maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. In 2010, traffic surveys conducted by the ministry showed that on average, 2,500 vehicles used the highway daily along the section between Renfrew County Road 5 (Stone Road) and Highway 60, while 1,600 vehicles did so each day along the remainder of the route, the highest and lowest counts along the highway, respectively. ## History Highway 132 was assumed by the Department of Highways on January 11, 1956. Prior to the designation of Highway 132, no other highways connected with Highway 17 between Pembroke, where it met Highway 62, and Arnprior, where it met Highway 29. When Highway 132 was assumed, Highway 60 did not extend beyond Highway 41 at Golden Lake, northwest of Eganville. Highway 60 was extended to Highway 17 near Rosebank, north of Renfrew, circa 1961. With the construction of the Renfrew Bypass, which began in June 1974, and was completed in 1977, the section of Highway 17 between O'Brien Road east of Renfrew and Haley Road north of Haley Station was renumbered as an extension of Highway 60; this became the new eastern terminus of Highway 132. Although some minor realignments have occurred over the years, the route has more or less remained unchanged since its designation. ## Major intersections
6,113,875	Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005	1,157,872,219	null	[ "2005 in Greek television", "Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005", "Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest", "Helena Paparizou" ]	Greece won the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, its first Eurovision Song Contest victory. Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected Helena Paparizou who sang "My Number One" in Kyiv, winning the competition with 230 points. The song is written by Manos Psaltakis, Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou. "My Number One" was selected through a national final on 2 March 2005, where the public and a professional jury chose it over three other candidate songs. ## Background The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 marked Greece's twenty-sixth entry in the Eurovision Song Contest since its debut in 1974. Prior to the contest, its best result was third place which was achieved twice: in 2001 with the song "Die for You" performed by the duo Antique and in 2004 with "Shake It" performed by Sakis Rouvas. Greece's least successful result was in 1998 when it placed twentieth with the song "Mia krifi evaisthisia" by Thalassa, receiving only twelve points in total, all from Cyprus. The Greek national broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) broadcasts the event in Greece each year and organizes the selection process for its entry. Its selection techniques have varied from national finals where the public selects the entry, to internal selections like used in 2004, where the broadcaster has complete control over the selection. For the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, ERT decided to hold a televised national final after internally selecting an artist. ## Before Eurovision ### Artist selection ERT announced that they would be selecting their artist for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 internally. The first artist approached by ERT with an official proposal was 2004 representative Sakis Rouvas, with the broadcaster stating on 15 June 2004 during a press conference that they would like to have him represent them again if he would accept the offer. However on 22 July 2004, he declined as he felt that another artist should receive the opportunity despite having considered the proposal. Another rumored artist was Anna Vissi, who stated in June 2004 that she "would go to Eurovision if she was asked to", however she later declined as she was in the United States promoting her song "Call Me" during the time of the contest. On 27 November 2004, Despina Vandi was reported to be representing Greece in the 2005 contest and was "ready to sign the necessary contracts", however it broke down due to conflicts with Vandi's record label Heaven Music over a term that required all of Vandi's songs to be written by popular Greek songwriter Phoebus. On 28 November 2004, ERT's Eurovision spokeswoman Dafni Bokota stated that Vandi and ERT were close to a deal, but had concluded that she was too expensive to send to the contest. She also stated that Vandi was worried about participating in Eurovision while her international career was going well, saying "Here at ERT, we don't understand [why] Greek artists are so insecure to participate". A decision was to be announced within the next five to ten days, and that a possible backup would be Helena Paparizou. Around the same time, Greek-American singer and Fame Story participant Annet Artani was also rumored, however negotiations failed to materialize. On 8 December 2004, Bokota once again stated that there would be a delay in the artist announcement because of an "obstacle" within the broadcaster. On 15 January 2005, Star Channel reported that front runners Franz Ferdinand met with ERT but were soon excluded as they were requesting more money, and had "no idea how Eurovision works and thus they proposed to compose a remake of a past song of theirs". On 22 January 2005, ERT confirmed Helena Paparizou as the Greek representative for the 2005 contest. Paparizou had previously represented Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 as part of Antique. ERT also stated that Paparizou's singing career in Sweden was "a factor which surely contributed to the final choice of Paparizou, since the 'northern' votes are considered to be important". ### Eurovision Party Following the announcement of Helena Paparizou as the Eurovision 2005 representative, ERT revealed that Paparizou would perform four songs during a national final, titled Eurovision Party. Fifteen songs were shortlisted out of 100 submitted by Greek and foreign composers, and four were selected by a jury panel consisting of Paparizou and representatives from ERT and Sony BMG. On 18 February 2005, the four songs were presented during the special ERT program EuroMania. It was also announced during the program that Fokas Evangelinos would be the choreographer for all four competing songs. On 19 February 2005, "The Light in Our Soul", composed by Kostas Bigalis, was disqualified as the song had been released and made available on Amazon.de by the band Big Alice before the 1 October cutoff date. An additional program was broadcast on 25 February 2005 in order to familiarize the Greek public with the selected artist. #### Final The final took place on 2 March 2005 at the Fever Music Center in Athens, hosted by Greek-Swedish journalist Alexandra Pascalidou. Helena Paparizou performed all three songs and the winning song, "My Number One", was selected by a combination of public voting (60%) and jury voting (40%). The jury, consisting of Mimis Plessas, Antonis Andrikakis, Kostas Tournas, Željko Joksimović, Betty Golema, Ion Stamboulis, Fotini Giannoulatou, Sietse Bakker and Christos Liritzis, each assigned scores to each song ranging from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). 7 jurors gave the highest score to "My Number One", and both "OK" and "Let's Get Wild" were the first choices of one juror. Public voting was conducted through telephone or SMS, with 229,368 votes being cast during the show. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured guest performances by 2005 Andorran Eurovision entrant Marian van de Wal, 2005 Dutch Eurovision entrant Glennis Grace, Željko Joksimović, Swedish band Alcazar and Greek musical group C:Real. ### Promotion Before her appearance at the contest, Paparizou went on a promotional tour sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Tourism and the Greek National Tourism Organization, singing her song in several Eurovision countries. The tour started off on 12 March 2005 in Berlin, Germany, where she visited the International Tourism Exchange Show, performing "My Number One". The next stop was Moscow, Russia, where Paparizou taped a show for MTV Russia and then presented the Greek song at the International Tourism Exhibit, the largest tourism exhibit in the world. She also gave several interviews to the press and before leaving, attended a Greek Independence Day reception at the Greek embassy. Upon her return to Greece, she was greeted at the airport by fans along with the music video of "My Number One" playing on the video monitors. While in Greece, she attended the opening ceremony of the European final four for the Volleyball Champions League in Pylaia, where her song was played as she appeared on stage with cheerleaders. On 29 March 2005, Paparizou arrived in Valletta, Malta where she signed autographs, appeared on television stations, and gave interviews to the local media. She then traveled to Serbia and Montenegro where she gave additional interviews before moving on to Andorra on 10 April 2005. She was soon in Lisbon, Portugal where she promoted not only her song, but also Greek export products, as she was sponsored by the Greek tourism industry. She also attended an international exhibition of food and drink where the song was played, while its music video was seen on a large monitor. On 20 April 2005, Paparizou arrived in Sweden where she had started her singing career as part of Antique. She was interviewed by many of the local media outlets and could be heard on radio stations around Stockholm. Following her stay in Sweden, Paparizou flew to Istanbul, Turkey where the Greek delegation met with Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who told her that it was good luck that the contest fell on her name-day of 21 May 2005. While in Turkey, she also posed for magazines and was interviewed by the media. She soon returned to Greece before leaving for a short trip to Kyiv, the location of the contest. ## At Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 took place at the Palace of Sports in Kyiv, Ukraine and consisted of one semi-final on 19 May, and the final on 21 May 2005. As Greece had finished the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in third place, its entry was pre-qualified for the final the following year. Greece was drawn to perform 19th on the night, following Croatia's Boris Novković and Lado with "Vukovi umiru sami" and preceding Russia's Natalia Podolskaya with "Nobody Hurt No One". Paparizou appeared confident on stage and her dancers prepared a show with carefully choreographed stage moves. She wore a short orange-yellow dress while the dancers wore tan colored clothing. The performance included Paparizou playing the lyra, a Greek musical instrument and the backing dancers forming the number 1 on stage. The final was hosted and commentated on Greek television by Alexandra Pascalidou, who also hosted the national final, while the spokesperson who revealed Greece's votes for other countries was Alexis Kostalas, an ERT Board member who had been the spokesperson since 1998. "My Number One" won with a total of 230 points. It received 12 points, the maximum number of points a country can give to another country, from Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Serbia & Montenegro, Sweden, United Kingdom and Turkey. The highest viewing ratings in the history of Greek television were recorded during the presentation of the pure gold trophy to Helena Paparizou by the Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, with 94.2% of the Greek population tuned in. ### Voting Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding points from 1-8, 10 and 12 to the other competing countries; counties were not allowed to register votes for themselves. All countries participating in the contest were required to use televoting and/or SMS voting during both evenings of the contest. Greece awarded its top 12 points from televoting to Romania in the semi-final and to Cyprus in the final. The tables below visualise a complete breakdown of points awarded to Greece in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, as well as by the country in the semi-final and final. #### Points awarded to Greece #### Points awarded by Greece ## After Eurovision ### Reception Paparizou's first words after winning the 50th Eurovision Song Contest were "We showed the modern face of Greece. I reckon that’s the face everybody loves. Europe is our home!" Upon arrival back in Greece, she was greeted by crowds of fans at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport and the National Fire Brigade created a water-jet archway for her airplane, suggestively bearing the number "001", to pass through after it had landed. On the way to ERT Studios for a welcome party for Paparizou and the Greek delegation, people were standing on either side of the road throwing rose petals along the route of Paparizou's bus. When she reached ERT Studios, she was "met with deafening applause" and after moving from sight for a few minutes, she emerged on stage dressed in the Greek flag and holding the Eurovision trophy. "My Number One" did very well in the music charts, being certified platinum in Greece and gold in Sweden while climbing to number one on both charts and charting for an extended number of weeks. It also charted in other European countries such as Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. It was later released in the United States as a CD Single with remixes and reached number eight on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play charting for eight weeks. ### Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest Among the distinctions awarded to "My Number One" was that it was chosen among thirteen other Eurovision songs to compete in Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, a 50th anniversary special in 2005, just a few months after Paparizou's victory. It was the only Greek entry and one of three winners from the '00s to compete (alongside the Olsen Brothers' "Fly on the Wings of Love" and Sertab Erener's "Everyway That I Can"). The song closed the first round of the contest in slot 14, following 1976 winners Brotherhood of Man with "Save Your Kisses for Me". Paparizou appeared on stage during the performance, lip-syncing along with a section of the song. At the end of the first round, "My Number One" was announced as one of the five songs proceeding to the second and final round. It was later revealed that it placed fourth in the first round, with 167 points (in both rounds, Greece were allowed to award themselves the maximum twelve points, a privilege usually not given at Eurovision). "My Number One" finished fourth in the final round, scoring 245 points. This was 15 points more than her winning score at Eurovision; however, all countries could give each song in the final no fewer than six points, meaning that unlike in Eurovision, "My Number One" earned points from all the voting countries. #### Voting
5,526,592	Blue wildebeest	1,170,713,475	Species of antelope	[ "Alcelaphinae", "Bovids of Africa", "Extant Pleistocene first appearances", "Fauna of East Africa", "Mammals described in 1823", "Mammals of Southern Africa", "Taxa named by William John Burchell" ]	The blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), also called the common wildebeest, white-bearded gnu or brindled gnu, is a large antelope and one of the two species of wildebeest. It is placed in the genus Connochaetes and family Bovidae, and has a close taxonomic relationship with the black wildebeest. The blue wildebeest is known to have five subspecies. This broad-shouldered antelope has a muscular, front-heavy appearance, with a distinctive, robust muzzle. Young blue wildebeest are born tawny brown, and begin to take on their adult coloration at the age of 2 months. The adults' hues range from a deep slate or bluish-gray to light gray or even grayish-brown. Both sexes possess a pair of large curved horns. The blue wildebeest is a herbivore, feeding primarily on short grasses. It forms herds which move about in loose aggregations, the animals being fast runners and extremely wary. The mating season begins at the end of the rainy season and a single calf is usually born after a gestational period of about 8.5 months. The calf remains with its mother for 8 months, after which it joins a juvenile herd. Blue wildebeest are found in short-grass plains bordering bush-covered acacia savannas in southern and eastern Africa, thriving in areas that are neither too wet nor too arid. Three African populations of blue wildebeest take part in a long-distance migration, timed to coincide with the annual pattern of rainfall and grass growth on the short-grass plains where they can find the nutrient-rich forage necessary for lactation and calf growth. The blue wildebeest is native to Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Today, it is extinct in Malawi, but has been successfully reintroduced in Namibia. The southern limit of the blue wildebeest range is the Orange River, while the western limit is bounded by Lake Victoria and Mount Kenya. The blue wildebeest is widespread and is being introduced into private game farms, reserves, and conservancies. So, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources rates the blue wildebeest as being of least concern. The population has been estimated to be around 1.5 million, and the population trend is stable. ## Taxonomy and naming The blue wildebeest was first described by English naturalist William John Burchell in 1823 and he gave it the scientific name Connochaetes taurinus. It shares the genus Connochaetes with the black wildebeest (C. gnou), and is placed in the family Bovidae, ruminant animals with cloven hooves. The generic name Connochaetes derives from the Greek words κόννος, kónnos, "beard", and χαίτη, khaítē, "flowing hair", "mane". The specific name taurinus originates from the Greek word tauros, which means a bull or bullock. The common name "blue wildebeest" refers to the conspicuous, silvery-blue sheen of the coat, while the alternative name "gnu" originates from the name for these animals used by the Khoikhoi people, a native pastoralist people of southwestern Africa. Though the blue and black wildebeest are currently classified in the same genus, the former was previously placed in a separate genus, Gorgon. In a study of the mitotic chromosomes and mtDNA, which was undertaken to understand more of the evolutionary relationships between the two species, the two were found to have a close phylogenetic relationship and had diverged about a million years ago. ### Subspecies C. taurinus has five subspecies: - C. t. taurinus (Burchell, 1823), the blue wildebeest, common wildebeest, or brindled gnu is found in southern Africa. Its range extends from Namibia and South Africa to Mozambique (north of the Orange River) and from southwestern Zambia (south of the Zambezi River) to southern Angola. - C. t. johnstoni (Sclater, 1896), the Nyassaland wildebeest, occurs from Mozambique (north of the Zambezi River) to east-central Tanzania. It is now extinct in Malawi. - C. t. albojubatus (Thomas, 1912), the eastern white-bearded wildebeest, is found in the Gregory Rift Valley (south of the equator). Its range extends from northern Tanzania to central Kenya. - C. t. mearnsi (Heller, 1913), the western white-bearded wildebeest, is found in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya. Its range extends from the west of the Gregory Rift Valley to Speke Bay on Lake Victoria. - C. t. cooksoni (Blaine, 1914), Cookson's wildebeest, is restricted to the Luangwa Valley in Zambia. Sometimes, it may wander into the plateau region of central Malawi. In addition, the distinctive appearance of a western form, ranging from the Kalahari to central Zambia, suggests that subspecies mattosi (Blaine, 1825) may also prove distinct from subspecies taurinus. The western form can be recognised even at a distance by its upright mane, long beard, and minimal brindling. ### Hybrids The blue wildebeest is known to hybridise with the black wildebeest. The differences in social behaviour and habitats have historically prevented interspecific hybridisation, but it may occur when both species are confined within the same area, and the offspring are usually fertile. A study of these hybrid animals at Spioenkop Dam Nature Reserve in South Africa revealed that many had congenital abnormalities relating to their teeth, horns, and the Wormian bones of the skull. Another study reported an increase in the size of the hybrid as compared to either of its parents. In some hybrid animals, the auditory bullae are highly deformed, and in others, the radius and ulna are fused. ## Genetics and evolution The diploid number of chromosomes in the blue wildebeest is 58. Chromosomes were studied in a male and a female wildebeest. In the female, all except a pair of very large submetacentric chromosomes were found to be acrocentric. Metaphases were studied in the male's chromosomes, and very large submetacentric chromosomes were found there as well, similar to those in the female both in size and morphology. The rest were acrocentric. The X chromosome is a large acrocentric, while the Y chromosome is a minute one. This species of wildebeest seems to have evolved around 2.5 million years ago. The black wildebeest is believed to have diverged from the blue wildebeest to become a distinct species around 1 million years ago, in the Middle to Late Pleistocene. Fossil evidence suggests that blue wildebeest were quite common in the Cradle of Humankind in the past. Apart from eastern Africa, fossils are commonly found in Elandsfontein, Cornelia, and Florisbad. ## Description The blue wildebeest exhibits sexual dimorphism, with males being larger and darker than females. The blue wildebeest is typically 170–240 cm (67–94 in) in head-and-body length. The average height of the species is 115–145 cm (45–57 in). Males typically weigh 165 to 290 kg (364 to 639 lb) and females weigh 140 to 260 kg (310 to 570 lb). A characteristic feature is the long, black tail, which is around 60–100 cm (24–39 in) in length. All features and markings of this species are bilaterally symmetrical for both sexes. The average life span is 20 years in captivity. The oldest known captive individual lived for 24.3 years. The age that blue wildebeest live to in the wild is debatable. ### Colouration This broad-shouldered antelope has a muscular, front-heavy appearance, with a distinctive robust muzzle. Young are born tawny brown, and begin to take on their adult coloration at the age of 2 months. The adults' hues range from a deep slate or bluish-gray to light gray or even grayish-brown. The back and flanks are slightly lighter than the ventral surface and underparts. Dark brown, vertical stripes mark the area between the neck and the back of the ribcage, thus giving it the name "brindled gnu". The manes of both sexes appear long, stiff, thick, and jet black, the same colour as the tail and face. While the manes of the western and eastern white-bearded wildebeest are lank, those of the Nyassaland wildebeest and common wildebeest stick up. Scent glands, which secrete a clear oil, are present in the forefeet and are larger in males than females. In terms of skull length, the smallest subspecies of the blue wildebeest is the western white-bearded wildebeest. It is also the darkest subspecies; the eastern white-bearded wildebeest is the lightest race. Both subspecies possess a creamy white beard, whereas the beard is black in both the Nyassaland wildebeest and the common wildebeest. The longest muzzles are found in the Nyassaland wildebeest, and the shortest in female western white-bearded wildebeest. ### Horns Both sexes possess a pair of large horns, which are shaped like parentheses. These extend outward to the side, and then curve upward and inward. In the males, the horns can be 83 cm (33 in) long, while the horns of the females are 30–40 cm (12–16 in) long. Despite being an antelope, the blue wildebeest possesses various bovine characteristics. For instance, the horns resemble those of the female African buffalo. Further, the heavy build and disproportionately large forequarters give it a bovine appearance. ## Ecology and behavior The blue wildebeest is mostly active during the morning and the late afternoon, with the hottest hours of the day being spent in rest. These extremely agile and wary animals can run at speeds up to 80 km/h (50 mph), waving their tails and tossing their heads. An analysis of the activity of blue wildebeest at the Serengeti National Park showed that the animals devoted over half of their total time to rest, 33% to grazing, 12% to moving about (mostly walking), and a little to social interactions. However, variations existed among different age and sex groups. The wildebeest usually rest close to others of their kind and move about in loose aggregations. Males form bachelor herds, and these can be distinguished from juvenile groups by the lower amount of activity and the spacing between the animals. Around 90% of the male calves join the bachelor herds before the next mating season. Bulls become territorial at the age of four or five years, and become very noisy (most notably in the western white-bearded wildebeest) and active. The bulls tolerate being close to each other and one square kilometre (0.39 sq mi) of plain can accommodate 270 bulls. Most territories are of a temporary nature and fewer than half of the male population hold permanent territories. In general, blue wildebeest rest in groups of a few to thousands at night, with a minimum distance of 1–2 m (3–7 ft) between individuals (though mothers and calves may remain in contact). They are a major prey item for lions, cheetahs, leopards, African wild dogs, hyenas, and crocodiles. Female calves will stay with their mothers and other related females of the herd throughout their lives. Female individuals in a herd are from a wide range of ages, from yearlings to the oldest cow. During the wet season, the females generally lead the herd towards nutritious areas of grasses and areas where predators can be avoided. This is to ensure that newborn calves have the highest chance of survival as well as gaining the most nutritious milk. Bulls mark the boundaries of their territories with heaps of dung, secretions from their scent glands, and certain behaviors. Body language used by a territorial male includes standing with an erect posture, profuse ground pawing, and horning, frequent defecation, rolling and bellowing, and the sound "ga-noo" being produced. When competing over territory, males grunt loudly, paw the ground, make thrusting motion with their horns, and perform other displays of aggression. ### Diet The blue wildebeest is a herbivore, feeding primarily on the short grasses which commonly grow on light, and alkaline soils that are found in savanna grasslands and on plains. The animal's broad mouth is adapted for eating large quantities of short grass and it feeds both during the day and night. When grass is scarce, it will also eat the foliage of shrubs and trees. Wildebeest commonly associate with plains zebras as the latter eat the upper, less nutritious grass canopy, exposing the lower, greener material which the wildebeest prefer. Whenever possible, the wildebeest likes to drink twice daily and due to its regular requirement for water, it usually inhabits moist grasslands and areas with available water sources. The blue wildebeest drinks 9 to 12 litres of water every one to two days. Despite this, it can also survive in the arid Kalahari desert, where it obtains sufficient water from melons and water-storing roots and tubers. In a study of the dietary habits of the wildebeest, the animals were found to be feeding on the three dominant kinds of grass of the area, namely: Themeda triandra, Digitaria macroblephara, and Pennisetum mezianum. The time spent grazing increased by about 100% during the dry season. Though the choice of the diet remained the same in both the dry and the wet season, the animals were more selective during the latter. ### Reproduction Male blue wildebeest become sexually mature at about 2 years of age, while females can conceive at 16 months if adequately nourished. Nevertheless, most females do not start to breed until a year later. The mating season, which lasts for about 3 weeks, coincides with the end of the rainy season. This means that the animals are in good condition, having been feeding on highly nutritious new grass growth, and the conception rate is often as high as 95%. The mating season, or rut, typically begins on the night of a full moon, suggesting that the lunar cycle influences breeding. At this time, testosterone production peaks in males, resulting in increased calling and territorial behavior. The activities of these sexually excited males may also stimulate the female to come into estrus. As they stake out their territories and compete for females, males exhibit rivalry. When they clash, they face up to each other with bent knees and exchange horn thrusts. Elaborate individual displays are made during their rivalry, and they may bellow, snort, and dig their horns into the ground. Once dominance has been established, each male attempts to lure the female into his domain. During courtship, urination and low-stretch are common activities, and the male soon attempts to mount the female. A receptive female holds her tail to one side and stands still while copulation takes place. Matings may be repeated several times and may take place twice or more times within a minute. The male neither eats nor rests when a female is present in his territory, and during this time, the female keeps close to the male, often rubbing her head on his torso and sniffing his penis. While in season, a female may visit several territories and mate with several different males. The gestation period is about 8.5 months, and between 80 and 90% of the calves are born within a 3-week time period. Female wildebeest give birth in the middle of a herd rather than alone, and typically in the middle of the day. This allows time for the newborn to become steady on its feet before night falls and the predators become more active. Calves weigh about 19 kg (42 lb) at birth, and can usually stand on their own within a few minutes of birth. To escape predation, calves remain close to their mothers for a significant time, and may continue suckling until the next year's calf is nearly due. Male calves leave their mother at about 8 months and form herds with other male juveniles. In large female herds, 80% of the wildebeest offspring survive the first month, compared to a 50% survival rate in smaller herds. ### Diseases and parasites The blue wildebeest is susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease, anthrax, sarcoptic mange, and hoof gangrene. The herpesvirus was first isolated from the blue wildebeest in 1960 by veterinary scientist Walter Plowright. Although the causes of death vary from year to year, in one drought in Botswana, young calves and aged females were the most likely to die. On another occasion, an estimated 47% of deaths were caused by disease, 37% were due to predation, and the remainder were the result of accidents. The animal can be host to a number of different parasites. In one study, blue wildebeest were found to be hosts to 13 species of nematodes, one trematode, larvae of five oestrid flies, three species of lice, seven ixodid tick species, one mite, and the larvae of a tongue worm. Of these, most were more prevalent at some times of the year than others. Generally, the larvae of Gedoelstica and Oestrus occur in the nasal passages and respiratory cavities of the blue wildebeest, and sometimes migrate to the brain. Compared to some other bovids, blue wildebeest are resistant to infestations by several species of ticks. ## Distribution and habitat The blue wildebeest is native to Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Eswatini, and Angola. Today, it is extinct in Malawi, but has been successfully reintroduced into Namibia. Blue wildebeest are mainly found in short-grass plains bordering bush-covered acacia savannas in southern and eastern Africa, thriving in areas that are neither too wet nor too arid. They can be found in habitats that vary from overgrazed areas with dense bush to open woodland floodplains. Trees such as Brachystegia and Combretum spp. are common in these areas. Blue wildebeest can tolerate arid regions as long as a potable water supply is available, normally within about 15–25 km (9.3–15.5 mi) distance. The southern limit of the blue wildebeest stops at the Orange River, while the western limit is bounded by Lake Victoria and Mount Kenya. The range does not include montane or temperate grasslands. These wildebeest are rarely found at altitudes over 1,800–2,100 m (5,900–6,900 ft). With the exception of a small population of Cookson's wildebeest that occurs in the Luangwa Valley (Zambia), the wildebeest is absent in the wetter parts of the southern savanna country, and particularly is not present in miombo woodlands. Three African populations of blue wildebeest take part in long-distance migrations, timed to coincide with the annual pattern of rainfall and grass growth on the short-grass plains, where they can find the nutrient-rich forage necessary for lactation and calf growth. The timing of the migration in both directions can vary considerably from year to year. At the end of the rainy season, they migrate to dry-season areas in response to a lack of drinking water. When the rainy season begins again a few months later, the animals trek back to their wet-season range. These movements and access to nutrient-rich forage for reproduction allow migratory wildebeest populations to grow to much larger numbers than resident populations. Many long-distance migratory populations of wildebeest existed 100 years ago, but currently, all but three migrations (Serengeti, Tarangire, and Kafue) have been disrupted, cut off, and lost. ## Threats and conservation Major human-related factors affecting populations include large-scale deforestation, the drying up of water sources, the expansion of settlements and poaching. Diseases of domestic cattle such as sleeping sickness can be transmitted to the animals and take their toll. The erection of fences that interrupt traditional migratory routes between wet and dry-season ranges have resulted in mass death events when the animals become cut off from water sources and the areas of better grazing they are seeking during droughts. A study of the factors influencing wildebeest populations in the Maasai Mara ecosystem revealed that the populations had undergone a drastic decline of around 80% from about 119,000 individuals in 1977 to around 22,000 twenty years later. The major cause of this was thought to be the expansion of agriculture, which led to the loss of wet-season grazing and the traditional calving and breeding ranges. Similarly, drastic declines have recently occurred in the Tarangire wildebeest migration. The total number of blue wildebeest is estimated to be around 1,550,000. The population trend overall is stable and the numbers in the Serengeti National Park (Tanzania) have increased to about 1,300,000. The population density ranges from 0.15/km<sup>2</sup> in Hwange and Etosha National Parks to 35/km<sup>2</sup> in Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park, where they are most plentiful. Blue wildebeest have also been introduced into a number of private game farms, reserves, and conservancy areas. For these reasons, the International Union for Conservation of Nature rates the blue wildebeest as being of least concern. However, the numbers of the eastern white-bearded wildebeest (C. t. albojubatus) have seen a steep decline to a current level of probably 6,000 to 8,000 animals, and this is causing some concern. ## Relationship with humans As one of the major herbivores of southern and eastern Africa, the blue wildebeest is one of the animals that draw tourists to the area to observe big game, and as such, it is of major economic importance to the region. Traditionally, blue wildebeest have been hunted for their hides and meat, the skin making good-quality leather, though the flesh is coarse, dry, and rather tough. However, blue wildebeest can also affect human beings negatively. They can compete with domestic livestock for grazing and water and can transmit fatal diseases like rinderpest to cattle and cause epidemics among animals. They can also spread ticks, lungworms, tapeworms, flies, and paramphistome flukes. An ancient carved slab of slate depicting an animal very similar to the blue wildebeest has been discovered. Dating back to around 3000 BC, it was found in Hierakonopolis (Nekhen), which used to be the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at that time. This may be evidence that the animal used to occur in North Africa and was associated with the ancient Egyptians.
46,198,349	Zach Hyman	1,170,463,298	Canadian ice hockey player	[ "1992 births", "21st-century Canadian Jews", "AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans", "Canadian children's writers", "Canadian ice hockey forwards", "Competitors at the 2013 Maccabiah Games", "Edmonton Oilers players", "Florida Panthers draft picks", "Ice hockey people from Toronto", "Jewish Canadian sportspeople", "Jewish Canadian writers", "Jewish ice hockey players", "Living people", "Maccabiah Games competitors by sport", "Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Canada", "Michigan Wolverines men's ice hockey players", "Toronto Maple Leafs players", "Toronto Marlies players", "Writers from Toronto" ]	Zachary Martin Hyman (born June 9, 1992) is a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously played for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hockey Canada named him the 2011 Canadian Junior Hockey League Player of the Year. In 2013, Hyman represented Canada at the 2013 Maccabiah Games in Israel, where he won a gold medal. During the 2014–15 season, Hyman won a number of awards, including being named the University of Michigan's Athlete of the Year and a First Team All-American, and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. Hyman was selected by the Florida Panthers in the 5th round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. However, the parties were unable to agree on a contract, and Hyman's rights were traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs on June 19, 2015. During his rookie 2016–17 season, he set a new Maple Leafs record for most short-handed goals scored by a rookie in a season with four, and tied the team record for the most consecutive games with an assist by a rookie at six games. Hyman is also an award-winning, best-selling author of children's literature, under contract with Penguin Random House. ## Early and personal life Hyman was born on June 9, 1992, in Toronto, Ontario, to Stuart and Vicky Hyman. He grew up in the Forest Hill neighbourhood with four brothers: Spencer, Oliver, Cooper and Shane. Hyman's father Stuart is the chairman and Governor of the Markham Royals and the Chairman of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL). Zach's younger brother Spencer is the assistant general manager and coach of the Markham Royals. His younger brother Oliver played for the Hamilton Red Wings from 2011 to 2013. Hyman is Jewish and attended United Synagogue Day School and graduated with honours from a Jewish high school, the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto. Hyman volunteers much of his free time in the community and is an athlete ambassador for children's charities such as Right To Play and First Book Canada. Every summer, Hyman hosts a celebrity charity golf tournament to raise money for charities in Edmonton and Toronto, including the SickKids Hospital in Toronto. Hyman married his wife Alannah Mozes on June 30, 2019. Their son, Theo, was born in December 2020. In August 2022, they welcomed a second son, Bennett. ## Playing career ### Junior Hyman played for the Hamilton Red Wings from 2008 to 2011. During his rookie season, he recorded 13 goals and 24 assists in 49 regular season games, and two goals in five playoff games. He was named the Red Wings' Rookie of the Year. During his sophomore season, Hyman was voted team captain. He recorded 35 goals and 40 assists in 49 regular season games, and seven goals and nine assists in 11 playoff games. During his final season of Junior A hockey, Hyman was the leading scorer for the Red Wings, recording 42 goals and 60 assists in 43 regular season games, and three goals and five assists in seven playoff games. Hyman ranked second in the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) in scoring, recording 102 points in 43 games, and led all players with 2.37 points per game. Following an outstanding season with the Red Wings, Hyman was named to the OJHL's North-West Conference First All-Star Team, and Hockey Canada awarded him the CJHL Player of the Year Award. He became just the second player from the OJHL to win the award, following Trent Walford in 1995–96. In 2010, Hyman was chosen as the OJHL's Most Gentlemanly Player. A two-time Red Wings' MVP, the OHA also selected him as the BJ Monroe Trophy recipient. The award recognized Zach Hyman as the Association's Top Pro Prospect. At the conclusion of the 2010–11 season, Hyman's jersey was displayed in the Hockey Hall of Fame. ### College Hyman originally committed to play ice hockey for Princeton University during the 2010–11 season. However, he decommitted after Princeton Tigers head coach Guy Gadowsky left the school to start the Division I hockey program at Pennsylvania State University. Following Gadowsky to Penn State was not an option, as the program did not have a varsity team at the time. In May 2011, Hyman was offered an athletic scholarship and committed to play for the University of Michigan for the 2011–12 season. During his freshman season for the Michigan Wolverines, Hyman recorded 2 goals and 7 assists in 41 games. He scored his first career goal on October 21, 2011, in a game against Northern Michigan University. In his sophomore season, he recorded 4 goals and 5 assists in 38 games. During his junior season, he recorded 7 goals and 10 assists in 35 games. Hyman was selected as the 2014 Bates/Deskins Award Winner, an honour bestowed upon the University of Michigan's Top Junior Student Athlete. In his senior season, Hyman was named alternate captain. He was Michigan's leading scorer, and the Big Ten Scoring Champion, setting a new record with 54 points, scoring 22 goals and 32 assists in only 37 games. Hyman became the first Michigan player to record 20 goals in a season since Louie Caporusso, and the first player to record 50 points or more since Carl Hagelin during the 2009–10 season. Hyman led the team with 17 multiple-point games, including six games with three or more points. On October 24, 2014, Hyman recorded a career-high five points, and his first career hat-trick against the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In December 2014, Hyman was named to the 50th Great Lakes Invitational Tournament team, where he scored both game-winning goals against Michigan Technological University and Michigan State University to help lead Michigan to its 16th Tournament Title. Following an outstanding senior season with the Wolverines, Hyman was named to the 2014–15 All-Big Ten First Team, and named an AHCA First Team All-American. Hyman was also named a top-ten finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. He was also selected as the SB Nation College Hockey Big Ten Media Most Valuable Player. On March 27, 2015, Hyman received the 2015 All-American Athlete Award by The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NCSA) and EAS Sports Nutrition. The award recognized Hyman's athletic accomplishments and his dedication to strength and conditioning. In a national awards ceremony at the Atlanta History Center on April 27, 2015, Hyman was honoured as one of five finalists for the 11th Annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup Award, and was recognized as one of the most outstanding role models among athletes. Hyman graduated from Michigan with a history major in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He was a three-time Big Ten All-Academic selection and a two-time recipient of the Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award, having earned a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year. On May 4, 2015, Hyman was selected as a Senior Athlete of the Year Award winner for the 2014–15 season at Michigan's Bob Ufer Quarterback Club's Annual Banquet, an award previously won by former standout Michigan quarterbacks Jim Harbaugh in 1987 and Tom Brady in 2000. Past recipients include Heisman Winner Desmond Howard in 1992, Brian Wiseman in 1994, Marty Turco in 1998, T. J. Hensick in 2007, Kevin Porter in 2008 and Carl Hagelin in 2011. On May 14, 2015, Hyman was part of a quartet of University of Michigan student-athletes who were named Capital One First Team Academic All-District selections, the announcement coming from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), and his name was put forward for Academic All-American consideration. On June 11, 2015, Hyman was named to the 2015 Capital One Academic All-America Division I Men's At-Large team, as selected by CoSIDA. Hyman was the second ice hockey player at Michigan to be named an Academic All-America honoree, following Jeff Jillson in 2001, and the first to be named First Team Academic All American. On June 22, 2015, the University of Michigan Athletic Department named Hyman the 2014–15 Michigan Athlete of the Year. Hyman was the third ice hockey player to receive the honour, following Brendan Morrison in 1997 and Kevin Porter in 2008. ### Professional Hyman was drafted 123rd overall by the Florida Panthers in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. At the conclusion of his college career, the Panthers offered Hyman an NHL contract, but Hyman announced his intent not to sign with the Panthers, and opted for free agency. #### Toronto Maple Leafs (2015–2021) On June 19, 2015, Hyman's playing rights were acquired by the Toronto Maple Leafs from the Florida Panthers in exchange for centre Greg McKegg and a conditional draft pick (conditions not met), ahead of his planned July 1, 2015, free agency. On June 23, Hyman signed a two-year, entry-level contract with Toronto. Hyman made his professional debut for the Maple Leafs' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, on October 9, 2015, where he recorded his first professional point, an assist on a Byron Froese goal in the second period. On November 7, Hyman recorded his first professional goal, a short-handed goal against Matt O'Connor of the Binghamton Senators. On February 29, 2016, Hyman was recalled by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Prior to being recalled, he recorded 13 goals and 20 assists in 54 games for the Marlies that season and led the AHL in short-handed goals. He made his NHL debut in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning later that night, recording 15:58 of ice time, 22 shifts, two shots and one hit. He scored his first career NHL goal one week later on March 7 against Chad Johnson of the Buffalo Sabres. On March 31, 2016, Hyman was loaned to the Marlies in preparation for the AHL Calder Cup playoffs. Considered favourites to win the Calder Cup championship, the team was eliminated in the third round. Hyman contributed 6 points in the team's 15-game run. Hyman played every game despite suffering an injury (broken nose) in a game against the Hershey Bears. On October 11, 2016, Hyman earned a permanent spot on the big club, and he was included on the 2016–17 regular season 100th Anniversary Centennial team opening day roster for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He dressed for the season opener on October 12, against the Ottawa Senators, on a line with fellow rookies Auston Matthews and William Nylander. In the first period of play, Hyman assisted on Auston Matthews' first-ever NHL goal. During the 2016–17 NHL season a number of Toronto Maple Leafs team records were either tied or broken by Hyman. On February 6, 2017, Hyman scored his third short-handed goal of the season, surpassing the previous Maple Leafs record for number of short-handed goals scored by a rookie which had been held by Gus Mortson since 1946–47. At six games with an assist, Hyman also tied for the most consecutive games with an assist by a rookie with Dan Daoust, Bob Nevin, and Frank Nigro. On March 28, 2017, when playing the Florida Panthers, Hyman set the Toronto Maple Leafs record for most short-handed goals in a single season by a rookie with four. On March 15, 2016, Hyman scored his first multi-point game. On October 7, 2017, he recorded another multi-point game with two points in an eventual 8–5 victory over the New York Rangers. On July 5, 2017, Hyman signed a four-year, \$9 million contract extension with the Maple Leafs. Hyman skated on the Maple Leafs' top line during the 2017–18 season. He recorded career-highs in goals, and assist and points. On December 29, 2017, Hyman scored his fifth career shorthanded goal. The goal is the third-most by a Maple Leafs' player during their first three NHL season, behind only Rick Vaive (seven) and Lanny McDonald (six). The Maple Leafs qualified for the postseason for a second straight year, falling in the first round in seven games to the Boston Bruins. Hyman missed the beginning of the 2019–20 season after recovering from Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery. He made his season debut on November 13 in a 5–4 loss to the New York Islanders. Hyman finished the season scoring 21 goals and 37 points in just 51 games. Hyman was named an Alternate Captain for the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the start of the 2020–21 season. #### Edmonton Oilers (2021–present) Following the end of his RFA contract, Hyman initially hoped to remain in Toronto with the Maple Leafs. However, after preliminary negotiations it became clear that the team's salary cap considerations put a deal out of reach. Following that, he entered into negotiations with the Edmonton Oilers. On July 28, 2021, Hyman signed a seven-year, \$38.5 million contract with the Oilers. Hyman cited the opportunity to play with stars like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl as one of the biggest draws of the team on signing. Making his debut with the Oilers in the October 15 season opener against the Vancouver Canucks, Hyman scored a power play goal. Hyman scored 11 goals and 8 assists in his first 26 games, before missing three games after a minor shoulder injury resulting from an altercation with Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Brady Skjei. One of the games he missed was against the Leafs, to his disappointment, before the league itself took a pause as a result of the Omicron variant. After an excellent start to the season for the Oilers, they began suffering a marked decline in results, culminating in a 2–11–2 stretch of games in December and January. By early February they had dropped out of a playoff spot. Amidst extensive media discussion of the Oilers' lack of depth scoring and questionable goaltending, general manager Ken Holland fired coach Dave Tippett and replaced him with Jay Woodcroft, previously the coach of the Oilers AHL affiliate Bakersfield Condors. Woodcroft's early experimentation with the lineup included playing Hyman more on the top lines with McDavid and Draisaitl. The Oilers recovered their form under Woodcroft, finishing the season in second place in the Pacific Division to qualify for the playoffs after posting the third-best points percentage in the league after the coaching change with a 26–9–3 record. Hyman had a career best regular season with 27 goals and 27 assists. The Oilers faced the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, winning the series in seven games and allowing Hyman to advance to the second round for the first time in his career. The Oilers drew the Calgary Flames in the second round, the first playoff "Battle of Alberta" in 31 years. Hyman had an outstanding series, scoring 6 goals and 8 points in 5 games, setting a franchise record being the only Oiler to score a goal in every game of a playoff series. The Oilers advanced to the Western Conference Final, meeting the top-seeded Colorado Avalanche, where the Oilers lost the series in four straight. Hyman had the best playoff run of his career, scoring 11 goals and 16 points in 16 games. ## International play In 2010, as a 17-year-old underage player, Hyman served as assistant captain and represented Canada in the U20 Three Nations tournament in Norrtälje, Sweden. He was named game MVP against Finland, after scoring two goals in the game. He finished the tournament with three goals and one assist in four games. Hyman represented Canada East at the 2010 World Junior A Challenge. He was named MVP of the game against Russia. He was one of the tournament's leading scorers recording two goals and three assists in five games, and won a silver medal. In July 2013, Hyman served as an alternate captain representing Canada at the 2013 Maccabiah Games held in Israel, where he recorded three goals and three assists in two games and won a gold medal. ## Career statistics ### Regular season and playoffs ### International ## Awards and achievements ## NHL records ### Toronto Maple Leafs - Most short-handed goals by a rookie (4) - Most consecutive games with an assist by a rookie (6) (tied with three other players) - Most empty net goals in a season (6) - Most empty net goals All-time leader (13) ### Edmonton Oilers - First and only Oilers player to score a goal in every playoff game of a series. "Battle of Alberta" May 2022. Scored 6 goals in 5 games. - Zach Hyman joins Esa Tikkanen in 1990 as the only players in Oilers history to score a goal in 6 straight playoff games. ## Writing career Hyman is also a best-selling author under contract with Penguin Random House. His award-winning children's book The Bambino and Me which earned a starred Kirkus Review, conjures 1920s New York, and tells the story of a young Yankees fan named George, who especially admires Babe Ruth and carries his baseball card everywhere. His second book, Hockey Hero was released in October 2015 and is about a shy hockey player who overcomes playing in his brother's shadow and eventually makes his dream come true. His latest book, The Magician's Secret, was released on April 3, 2018, is a best seller. This book features the adventures of Charlie as he listens to tales from his grandfather which have been saved in his Magic Story Chest. Charlie comes to learn that believing in dreams can make them become reality. The Magician's Secret was also nominated for the 2019 Blue Spruce Award by the Ontario Library Association. He is currently working on a fourth children's book for Penguin Random House, possibly about basketball. ## See also - List of select Jewish ice hockey players
3,893,745	Keith Stewart	1,173,685,281	Scottish naval officer and politician	[ "1739 births", "1795 deaths", "British MPs 1761–1768", "British MPs 1768–1774", "British MPs 1774–1780", "British MPs 1780–1784", "Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies", "Royal Navy vice admirals", "Scottish admirals", "Younger sons of earls" ]	Vice-Admiral Keith Stewart (1739 – 3 March 1795) was a Scottish Royal Navy officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons on two occasions. Having begun his naval career in around 1753, Stewart was promoted to commander in 1761 and then advanced to post-captain in 1762 because of political negotiations undergone by his father Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway. Stewart commanded HMS Berwick at the Battle of Ushant in 1778 and in 1781 was appointed Commander-in-Chief, North Sea only to be superseded by Hyde Parker soon afterwards. As such he served at the Battle of Dogger Bank as a volunteer on Berwick. Resuming his command in the North Sea after the battle, Stewart resigned his position towards the start of 1782 when he failed to stop a Dutch convoy escaping him in the Downs. Instead given command of HMS Cambridge, he served at the Relief of Gibraltar and the subsequent Battle of Cape Spartel. Apart from a very brief command of HMS Formidable Stewart saw no further service after 1783, but was promoted to rear-admiral in 1790 and vice-admiral in 1794. An active politician when not at sea, Stewart served as member of parliament for Wigtownshire from 1768 to 1784, generally as a supporter of the government. He resigned to take up post as receiver general of land tax in Scotland, a position he held for the remainder of his life. ## Early life Keith Stewart was born in 1739, the fourth son of Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway and Lady Catherine Cochrane, who was the youngest daughter of John Cochrane, 4th Earl of Dundonald. The second surviving son, his elder brother John would go on to inherit the family earldom. ## Naval career ### First commands Stewart joined the Royal Navy in around 1753. He was promoted to lieutenant on 2 January 1759 and appointed as the fourth lieutenant of the 64-gun ship of the line HMS Nassau. He subsequently served at the invasion of Guadeloupe later in the year. He departed Nassau on 25 August, and did not see active service again until 11 February 1761 when he was promoted to commander. At the same time he was given command of the out of commission 8-gun sloop HMS Speedwell, in which he stayed until 4 March when he transferred to the brand new 10-gun sloop HMS Lynx. In Lynx he served in the Downs, and in August the ship formed part of the naval escort that brought Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz to England for her marriage to George III, arriving at Harwich on 6 September. Stewart was promoted to post-captain on 7 April the following year because of a demand from his father as part of political negotiations, but the historians Brian Vale and Griffith Edwards note that Stewart was also a highly competent seaman and not himself overtly ambitious. He was appointed to the 20-gun post ship HMS Lively. He commanded the ship on the West Indies Station until the end of the Seven Years' War. Stewart then sailed to the North America Station before returning to Britain. After a period of service in British waters, in June 1763 he went out in Lively to the Mediterranean Sea. Around this time Stewart also became the first patron of William Bligh, who would occasionally serve under him throughout his career. Stewart commanded in the Mediterranean until Lively was paid off on 21 February 1765 for extensive repairs. On 16 March he was instead given command of the 32-gun frigate HMS Montreal, also in the Mediterranean, in which he continued until 6 March the following year. ### American Revolutionary War Stewart was not given another command for a considerable period of time after this, choosing instead to focus on his political career. This situation changed with the start of the American Revolutionary War, and he was appointed to command the brand new 74-gun ship of the line HMS Berwick on 27 December 1777. Serving in the English Channel, he fought at the Battle of Ushant on 27 July the following year. Stationed in the vanguard division of the British fleet, Berwick was heavily engaged during the battle and had ten men killed. Afterwards Berwick continued to serve in the English Channel, and was part of the fleet that relieved Guernsey in September 1779. While Berwick was still at sea disagreements between the two commanders of the British at Ushant, Admiral Augustus Keppel and Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, had led to political controversy. The First Lord of the Admiralty at the time, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, specifically noted that: > Captain Stewart behaved exceedingly well in the action, is a very good officer and has kept himself clear of disputes of every kind, and shown no particular attachments. With his ship having received a refit in December, Stewart was sent with Berwick to the West Indies on 8 April 1780, in a force commanded by Commodore Robert Boyle-Walsingham. Serving at Jamaica from 12 July, Berwick was one of many ships to be heavily damaged in the October Great Hurricane of 1780 and Stewart ran from the storm with his ship jury rigged, reaching Britain in December. Berwick was repaired in a refit that was completed in February 1781, and Stewart was subsequently appointed a commodore and Commander-in-Chief, North Sea, on 27 March. Based out of Leith, Berwick and the 32-gun frigate HMS Belle Poule captured the French 32-gun privateer Calonne off the Firth of Forth on 16 April. Stewart's force was however not large enough to defend against the squadron the Dutch were forming to oppose it, and Vice-Admiral Hyde Parker was sent out with reinforcements in July. In Parker's force was the 64-gun ship of the line HMS Bienfaisant whose commander, Captain Richard Brathwaite, was senior in rank to Stewart. This forced Stewart to relinquish his position as commodore, but direct command of Berwick continued with Stewart's ex flag captain, Captain John Fergusson, and Stewart was only able to stay on in Parker's fleet as a volunteer. Stewart was present as such at the Battle of Dogger Bank, fought on 5 August, where Berwick led the British line of battle against the Dutch and was heavily damaged. Afterwards Parker resigned his command in the North Sea and Brathwaite also left the station, leaving Stewart able to re-hoist his broad pennant as commodore in September. Employed in the blockade of Dutch ports, towards the start of 1782 he failed to stop a Dutch convoy from escaping him while in the Downs, and after criticism of his actions he resigned his command in around March. Stewart was then given command of the 80-gun ship of the line HMS Cambridge, in the Channel Fleet, on 17 June. His crew from Berwick were also transferred for this. The fleet was subsequently sent to relieve the Great Siege of Gibraltar, which it did as escort to a convoy. After this it fought the Battle of Cape Spartel on 20 October, with Cambridge serving as one of the seconds to Vice-Admiral Mark Milbanke's flagship the 90-gun ship of the line HMS Ocean. Stewart's ship had four men killed during the engagement, after which the fleet returned to England. ### Later service and flag rank Cambridge was sent in for a refit prior to a planned sailing to join the West Indies Station, but this was still in progress when the American Revolutionary War came to an end in 1783, at which time the posting was cancelled and the ship paid off. Stewart himself is recorded as leaving the command on 30 December the previous year. He did not receive a new ship until 10 May 1790 when an expectation of a new war with Spain led to an armament, with Stewart appointed to command the 98-gun ship of the line HMS Formidable. It was planned that the ship would serve in the English Channel, but soon after this the prospect of war diminished and Stewart relinquished command. Stewart was raised to flag rank as a rear-admiral on 21 September the same year, and was further promoted to vice-admiral on 12 April 1794. He was not employed again within the Royal Navy after this, and died at his home near Dumfries on 3 March 1795, aged 56. ## Political career Stewart's father had intended for him to enter parliament from a young age, but at the 1761 British general election Stewart was still serving in the West Indies and so Galloway sponsored the election of Stewart's cousins James Murray and Archibald Montgomerie instead. On 19 February 1762 Stewart replaced Montgomerie as member of parliament (MP) for Wigtown Burghs, but in March he gave up the seat as part of compromises being made by his father over the family's political control. In return for acceding to this Stewart received his promotion to post-captain. Later returning to his political career and having settled in Glasserton, in 1768 Stewart became MP for Wigtownshire. Following the political lead of his brother-in-law Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Gower, he was known as a firm supporter of the incumbent administrations, with the biographer John Charnock describing him as an "inflexible supporter of every measure proposed". This assisted him in gaining appointments in his naval career. He supported Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton and then Frederick North, Lord North, opposing the government only once when on 9 February 1773 he supported a petition from naval captains. Stewart was also given the salary of the receiver general of land tax in Scotland in 1773; this position could not be held by an MP and so another man officially held it while Stewart collected the salary. In 1783 the salary was instead given to Murray. Stewart continued to support government when William Pitt the Younger came to power, but in 1784 he learned that he would again be appointed to the salary of the receiver general. Wanting to truly take up the position, at the 1784 British general election he gave up his seat to his opponent, Andrew McDouall, with the understanding that Stewart could return to Wigtownshire if he ever lost the receivership. With this completed in July, Stewart appointed a deputy to work as receiver general and instead focused on his estates and various coal and iron mines, being both an agricultural improver and mineral developer. He continued as receiver general until his death, using the income to make loans to expanding industrialists. ## Personal life Stewart married Georgina Isabella d'Aguilar, daughter of Ephraim Lópes Pereira d'Aguilar, 2nd Baron d'Aguilar, on 13 May 1782, taking a brief period of leave from naval service to do so. Together the couple had four sons: - Archibald Keith Stewart (d. 24 June 1795), a Royal Navy midshipman on board HMS Queen Charlotte who drowned while looking at shot holes after the Battle of Groix. - James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie (1784–1843), who married Mary, Lady Hood. After their marriage he assumed the additional surname of Mackenzie. - Leveson Douglas Stewart (1786–1819), a Royal Navy lieutenant who married Elizabeth Dalrymple-Hay, daughter of Sir John Dalrymple-Hay, 1st Baronet. - A son (died 1807), a Royal Navy officer who drowned in service.
21,404,661	Fences and Windows	1,129,701,701	Non-fiction book by Naomi Klein	[ "2002 non-fiction books", "Anti-globalization books", "Books by Naomi Klein", "Canadian non-fiction books" ]	Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate is a 2002 book by Canadian journalist Naomi Klein and editor Debra Ann Levy. The book is a collection of newspaper articles, mostly from The Globe and Mail, with a few magazine articles from The Nation and speech transcripts. The articles and speeches were all written by Klein in the 30 months after the publication of her first book, No Logo (1999), from December 1999 to March 2002. The articles focus upon the anti-globalization movement, including protest events and responses by law enforcement. The book was published in North America and the United Kingdom in October 2002. The imagery of fences and windows appear throughout the work. The fences represent exclusion and barriers, while the windows are opportunities for expressing alternative ideas. The book garnered both positive and negative reviews. Two of the articles were singled out as exceptional by several reviewers: "America is not a Hamburger" discusses the US State Department's attempt to re-brand America's image overseas; "The Brutal Calculus of Suffering" discusses media portrayals of war. ## Background The unexpected success of her first book, No Logo (1999), extended author and journalist Naomi Klein's book tour beyond its original two-week schedule. She spent the next 30 months traveling the world promoting the book as well as writing newspaper articles covering the anti-globalization movement. Most of her articles were originally published in the Canadian national newspaper The Globe and Mail, while some were published by The Nation, The New York Times, and The Guardian. During this time she resisted her publisher's urgings to write a new book, and the pressure to match No Logo'''s success was bearing down upon her. She relented to the pressure for another publication by collecting the best of the articles and speeches she had written since No Logo. She did not intend this new book to be a sequel or follow-up, but rather a stand alone collection of writing. ## Content The first section, entitled "Windows of Dissent", begins with an article written for The New York Times, wherein she covers the 1999 Seattle protests, which she calls the coming-out party of the anti-globalization movement. The remaining five articles in the section come from The Globe and Mail, with one from The Nation; they cover the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Washington, D.C., Prague, and Toronto from April to September 2000. She describes the protesters as hundreds of decentralized groups with various independent interests, leaderless but organized, and searching for a strategy. The next section, "Fencing in Democracy", consists of articles from The Globe and Mail and the transcript of a speech. The section is divided into two sub-sections. The first explores some of the impacts that economic globalization has had on communities, focusing on Mexico and Argentina, and misconceptions that supporters of the WTO-associated organizations have of the anti-globalization movement. The second focuses on the co-opting of the commons, such as genetics, culture, and public sector infrastructure, for private economic gains. The third section, "Fencing in the Movement", chronicles the escalation of security tactics to counter protesters. Klein finds that police have been removing the distinction between civil disobedience and violence and purposefully normalizing violence so it is the expected outcome, not a rare event. She matches the decline of civil liberties and freedom of speech with the rise of free speech zones, indiscriminate use of tear gas and pepper spray, plain clothes officers, surveillance, and pre-emptive arrests. The fourth section, "Capitalizing on Terror", discusses opportunism that used the September 11 attacks to further political and economic objectives. In an editorial piece for the Los Angeles Times, Klein argues that the US has sold its image too well as the land of opportunity and plenty and that rising anti-Americanism was the result of the US inability to share this. The final section, "Windows to Democracy", contains two articles written for The Nation, two for The Globe and Mail and one for The Guardian. These articles examine potential directions for the movement to take, focusing upon the World Social Forum, Mexican Zapatistas, and political parties. The final article calls upon the movement to shift from attacking symbols of globalization at protests and use the decentralized local groups to provide alternatives: define themselves as fighting for, rather than against, something. Most of the book's content is freely and legally available in the form of individual articles on Klein's website. The printed text has often been edited or reworked, in some cases very heavily. ## Style and themes The book takes the form of an anthology of news and magazine articles, along with the transcripts of several speeches, all written by Klein between December 1999 and March 2002. With the help of Debra Ann Levy, the articles were edited to fit them better together in the book. A preface, with original writing, is used by Klein to introduce her background on how she came to write the articles, provide context for the content, and set up the themes. The two most predominant themes are the two title images, "fences" and "windows". The fences represent exclusion and are portrayed, both literally and metaphorically, as the barriers that keep protesters away from the economic meetings, the walls between factories and neighbouring impoverished communities, and the restrictions on intellectual property or the commons. The windows are opportunities where dissenting or alternative voices and ideas can be expressed. ## Publication and reception Fences and Windows was published as a trade paperback by Picador in the US, Vintage Canada in Canada, and Flamingo in the UK. It was released in October 2002 with little promotion. The resulting sales were lower than expected. A portion of the book's proceeds was given to a legal defense fund for activists and for education concerning global democracy. Just after the book's release, a debate on the topic of globalization was held between Klein and The Economist journalist Sameena Ahmad in New York. Reception to the book was mixed. Reviewers found that the collection of re-printed journalistic articles made the book sometimes repetitive, lacking details, historical context and analysis of its subjects. Some reviewers criticized the book's silence on alternatives to globalization or the democracy that lead to globalization. The writing was variously described as choppy, colourful, engaging, and straightforward. Singled out as being exceptionally well done was Klein's Los Angeles Times article "America is not a Hamburger", which described the American attempt to re-brand itself by believing that the escalating anti-Americanism was a misunderstanding rather than a reaction to American policy directions. Klein's October 2001 speech at a journalism conference in Stockholm was also singled out as being very well done. Entitled "The Brutal Calculus of Suffering", it contrasted the media depictions of American versus non-American deaths. The reviewer for the feminist magazine Herizons wrote, "Fences and Windows was written to be read and shared and talked about and carried around in your bag. It is a book that begs you to write in the margins, and highlight relevant quotes because it's filled with stories, insights, shocking statistics, inspiring anecdotes and refreshing critiques. It's small, it's smart and it's jammed with information and ideas that inspire hope and motivate action." Similarly, reviewing for The Guardian, Stuart Christie wrote, "This is a book to be savoured and referred to every so often, even if just to recharge one's moral batteries." In The Globe and Mail, Stan Persky wrote, "What I like about Klein's reflections on the nascent movement that she both participates in and analyzes is that she indulges in minimal rhetorical rah-rah. Nor does she fudge the shortcomings and screwups of the fledgling activists." The reviews in The Economist and Books in Canada, the latter written by Shane Neilson, were very negative. Neilson called the work "idiocy", "intellectual sloppiness that approaches dishonesty", maintaining that "the ideological failure of this book is total." He argued that Klein assumed, rather than proved, that the international organizations which were being protested against were guilty of the protesters' charges. The Economist'''s review criticized Klein for ignoring the benefits of globalization, like "lifting people out of poverty", and for failing to present a coherent alternative. The reviewer called Klein "an angry adolescent" and opined that her reporting was assisting "a cause that can only harm the people she claims to care most about".
11,822,036	Ice Hockey Hair	1,122,300,177	null	[ "1998 EPs", "Creation Records singles", "Super Furry Animals albums" ]	Ice Hockey Hair is an EP by the Welsh alternative rock band Super Furry Animals, released in 1998. The record contains four songs which the band felt did not fit in with either their previous album, 1997's Radiator, or its follow-up Guerrilla. The title track refers to an alternative name for the mullet hairstyle. The EP's opening song, "Smokin'", was commissioned by British television station Channel 4 for a programme about sloth presented by Howard Marks. "Ice Hockey Hair" was later included on 'greatest hits' compilation Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1, issued in 2004, while "Smokin'" appeared on 1998's B-side and rarities compilation Out Spaced. The EP received mostly positive reviews, being awarded 'single of the week' by the NME, and appearing at number two in the magazine's Single of the Year list for 1998. The record also appeared in the 1998 single of the year lists issued by both the Melody Maker and Select. Promotional music videos were issued for both "Ice Hockey Hair" and "Smokin'" and are included on the DVD version of Songbook.... The former was directed by Daf Palfrey while the latter was directed by Peter Gray. ## Recording and themes The first track on the EP, "Smokin'", was commissioned by British television station Channel 4 for a programme about sloth presented by Howard Marks as part of a series on the seven deadly sins. The band went into Grassroots, a community recording studio in Cardiff, in June 1997 and looped a sample of the Black Uhuru track "I Love King Selassie", playing along and writing "Smokin'" "completely spontaneously". According to singer Gruff Rhys the song is "really light and up" as a result of being recorded in the summer. The track's lyrics refer to smoking cannabis, with Rhys stating that it "seems ridiculous that you can't do what you want with a plant that grows naturally" in reference to the drug's illegal status in many countries. Rhys has claimed that he does not consider the track to be subversive, however — it is about the band's own drug use and he doesn't "expect everyone who buys the record to do the same. They'd be quite sad if they did". Chief lyric writer Rhys has stated that, whereas he might "empty parts of [his] emotional state" into some songs, Ice Hockey Hair's title track was written in the "instant pop music" tradition. The track was originally called "Naff Gan" (a.k.a. "The Naff Song") as the band felt it "had so many naff, cheesy things about it" before being renamed "Ice Hockey Hair" following a conversation with a Swedish football player who said that having 'ice hockey hair', an alternative name for the mullet hairstyle, was a really naff thing to do in his home country. Rhys has described the song as a "Badfinger-style power ballad" and claimed that it is about "someone who's sunk so low they're asking advice off a woman with ice hockey hair". The track was recorded at Orinonco Studios, London. The band felt that "Ice Hockey Hair" and "Smokin'" were "light relief" and needed to be released so that they could concentrate on their next album, Guerrilla, with Rhys stating that the "EP was a good chance to do something in isolation, because the tracks on it won't fit in with the new album, and they didn't fit in with the old one". The EP is completed by "Let's Quit Smoking", a remix of "Smokin'", and "Mu-Tron", a largely instrumental track named after the Mu-Tron guitar effects pedal and written by keyboardist Cian Ciaran. ## Release and reception Ice Hockey Hair was released on CD, 7" and cassette on 25 May 1998 and reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart. The CD version of the EP has four tracks while the 7" and cassette feature only "Ice Hockey Hair" and "Smokin'". A 12" vinyl release of Ice Hockey Hair was issued in June 1998 and includes all four songs from the CD version albeit in a different track order. The proverb "Decadence may not be seen as a wholly negative process neither should it be viewed as a terminal state. It's a stage in the process of regeneration and renewal" was to have been featured on Ice Hockey Hair's sleeve but the band eventually decided against the idea as they felt the phrase was too long. "Ice Hockey Hair" was included on the band's 'greatest hits' compilation Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1, issued in 2004, while "Smokin'" was included on 1998's B-side and rarities compilation Out Spaced. The Wildhearts recorded a cover of "Ice Hockey Hair" for their 2008 album Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before, Vol 1. The Melody Maker called the Ice Hockey Hair EP "brilliant, predictably freakish weirdness" and described it as a cross between The Beach Boys and techno while guest reviewers Therapy? claimed to like "Smokin'" better than "Ice Hockey Hair" which they thought was "full-on smoker music". Vox stated that Ice Hockey Hair proved the band's "placid casual grasp of the concept of genius", describing the title track as a "gooey, melted mix of Queen, ELO, Pavement and [...] Techno Animal" and "Smokin'", which they felt was the EP's stand-out song, as "deranged disco delirium". The NME felt that the EP showed the Super Furry Animals had fulfilled their early promise and was the result of the band having "ideas like most people have cups of tea", awarding Ice Hockey Hair 'single of the week' in their 23 May 1998 issue. The magazine called "Smokin'" "compact disco" and stated that "Mu-Tron" was an "ugly name for a beautiful song". "Ice Hockey Hair" was described as a combination of Queen, ELO, Wings, and "mad techno squalling" which sounds like "Elton John's glitter-coated grand piano" falling from the sky. AllMusic described the Ice Hockey Hair EP as "another fun, cool group of songs from a band that can seemingly do no wrong" which bridges the gap between the "spaced-out rock" of 1997's Radiator and the "pop/rock electronic experimentation" of 1999's Guerrilla. The website did take issue with the short length of the record however, suggesting that the Super Furry Animals' music works best "in large doses of pop/rock gem upon pop/rock gem". In their review of Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1, Drowned in Sound claimed that "Ice Hockey Hair" "could be the most perfect thing you'll ever set ears upon" while the BBC viewed the "sublime" track as one of the record's highlights. Also reviewing Songbook..., Pitchfork Media called the song a "non-album gem", The Washington Post called it "gorgeous" and AllMusic referred to it as a masterpiece. Reviewing Outspaced, the Melody Maker described the "filthily funky" "Smokin'" as brilliant and Select called it one of the "joyous pinnacles" of the album, suggesting that the track was inspired by P-Funk. The NME however, called "Smokin'" "sludgy" and suggested that it was Outspaced's "fairly naff nadir". Stylus Magazine named Ice Hockey Hair in a list of "Ten essential singles/EPs" released by Creation Records in a 2003 article about the label. "Ice Hockey Hair" was included in The Pitchfork 500, a list of the greatest songs released from 1977 to 2006, published by Pitchfork Media in 2008. ### Accolades \* denotes an unordered list ## Music videos ### "Ice Hockey Hair" The promotional music video for "Ice Hockey Hair" was directed by Daf Palfrey and appears on the DVD version of the band's 'greatest hits' album Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1. The video begins with silent footage of five characters, who appear in a small white rectangle in the centre of the screen against a black background. The text "I am like a film strip ... and like a child ... in a thousand lunar parks ... someone is always ... cranking the handle" appears as the video cuts between shots of each person. "Ice Hockey Hair" begins playing approximately 17 seconds into the video. Each character is again seen in a white rectangle in the centre of the screen followed by a shot of a pair of hands holding a strip of photos of that particular person during which red text is displayed showing the character's name. A woman with short blonde hair and a red top, seen holding her head in her hands is introduced as "The wife"; a bald man with blood on his head is "The husband"; a woman in a white jacket with a blonde mullet hairstyle is "The mistress"; a man with thick-rimmed glasses, a white jacket, and red polo neck sweater is "The voyeur"; and a man in a red and black tracksuit top with a large scar running from his left eye to right cheek is "The stalker". The five characters are all seen singing along to the track individually, again framed in a white rectangle in the centre of the screen. "The wife" is twice shown ripping a photograph of her and "The husband", while "The mistress" is seen sitting on the lap of "The husband" in two shots. After 1 minute and 6 seconds the Super Furry Animals are shown playing along to the track on a rotating dancefloor surrounded by photo booths and several dancers in dark clothes. During an instrumental break in the song, at 1 minute 38 seconds, two masked men are shown playing table tennis on another rotating dancefloor with two large fluorescent purple circles in the background. The five characters are then seen walking around the band and stepping into the photo booths that surround them. The text "Act 1: The kiss" is shown, after which footage of the Super Furry Animals playing along to the track is intercut with shots of the characters. "The husband" and "The mistress" kiss while a strip of photos is seen being passed through a pair of hands and "The voyeur" is shown using a video camera. The characters move to different photo booths and the title "Act 2: The stalking" is displayed. Shots of "The stalker" and "The wife" are then intercut with shots of the band. The characters again change booths and the title "Act 3: The murder" is shown. After quick jump cuts between shots of the band, the masked men playing table tennis and the five characters, "The voyeur" is shown pointing his video camera at the motionless body of "The mistress" which is laid in a bathtub covered in film stock. More footage of the band follows before "The husband" is shown motionless of the floor, surrounded by a white tape outline. The video ends with more jump cuts between the band, the masked table tennis players and the five named characters. ### "Smokin'" The music video for "Smokin'" was directed by Peter Gray and also appears on the DVD version of Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1. The video begins with a shot of the Super Furry Animals' 'SFA' logo which appears on the cover of the Ice Hockey Hair EP. The logo fades out and the camera pans through a crowd of dark figures wearing berets towards a woman standing behind a long, black table. The woman is wearing a short sleeved black dress and has a blonde bob haircut. Her arms and face are illuminated in the otherwise dark room and she is shown walking backwards down the table, giving coloured cards to each of the figures wearing berets. The woman walks up and down the table observing the crowd as they each use the piece of card they were given to make an origami animal. As each person completes a model animal the woman gives them a new piece of coloured card. Approximately two minutes into the video the woman returns to a central position behind the table and looks down at one of the beret wearers. The camera cuts to show him screwing up a piece of green card into a ball which turns into an origami crane and flies away as he opens his hands. The rest of the figures in berets are shown from behind, bowing their heads before the camera cuts to a close up view of several origami animals on the table. These animals also begin to move, and interact with each other until a large red animal arrives. The camera cuts to a close-up of the red animal's head with smoke shown coming from its nose. The next shot shows the origami animals stationary on the table as the camera pans up to the beret wearers who are looking straight ahead while smoke moves across from the right. The woman walks up and down the table giving the beret wearers new pieces of card as they complete more and more origami animals. As the video draws to an end she rapidly piles up the origami animals into a heap in the middle of the table. When all the animals have been collected into the pile the beret wearers bow their heads and the woman puts her arms around the pile and smiles at the camera. In the final shot the woman places her hands on the table and stares at the camera as the video fades out to show the same Super Furry Animals' 'SFA' logo which appeared at the very beginning. ## Track listing All songs by Super Furry Animals unless otherwise stated. - CD (CRESCD 288) 1. "Smokin'" (Michael Rose/Derrick Simpson) – 5:05 2. "Ice Hockey Hair" – 6:57 3. "Mu-Tron" – 3:15 4. "Let's Quit Smoking" – 1:48 - 12" (CRE 288 T) 1. "Smokin'" (Rose/Simpson) – 5:05 2. "Mu-Tron" – 3:15 3. "Let's Quit Smoking" - 1:48 4. "Ice Hockey Hair" – 6:57 - 7" (CRE 288), MC (CRECS 288) 1. "Ice Hockey Hair" – 6:57 2. "Smokin'" (Rose/Simpson) – 5:05 ## Personnel Band - Gruff Rhys – vocals - Huw Bunford – guitar, backing vocals - Guto Pryce – bass guitar - Cian Ciaran – keyboards, backing vocals - Dafydd Ieuan – drums, backing vocals Artwork - Pete Fowler – illustration - Simon Corkin – design ## Singles chart position
3,501,817	Steph Cunningham	1,155,394,234	UK soap opera character, created 2000	[ "Cunningham family", "Dean family", "Female characters in television", "Female villains", "Fictional bartenders", "Fictional bullies", "Fictional characters with cancer", "Fictional characters with epilepsy and seizures", "Fictional ghosts", "Fictional waiting staff", "Hollyoaks characters", "Television characters introduced in 2000" ]	Steph Roach (also Dean and Cunningham) is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Carley Stenson. She debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 8 March 2000. Steph was introduced into the serial by executive producer Jo Hallows. In 2009 Stenson decided to quit, but the then producer Lucy Allan convinced her to stay to play out a dramatic storyline. The announcement of her departure was made public in June 2010. Stenson's fellow cast members have described her as a "Hollyoaks legend" because of her lengthy duration. Steph has been described as having a highly confident persona, a trait Stenson enjoyed portraying throughout. Steph is also played as "fame hungry". She is noted for a number of high-profile storylines such as the portrayal of bullying in a school environment, the portrayal of epilepsy, which Stenson felt had been a 'taboo subject' for too long. Other stories include becoming a widow and her involvement in Niall Rafferty's revenge plot and her constant desire for fame. One of Steph's final storylines was the portrayal of cervical cancer, which Stenson conducted extensive research into. Steph was subsequently killed off in a special block of episodes branded by the media as "fire week". Some critics described her final storylines as "upsetting" and "surprising". Steph's relationship with Gilly Roach (Anthony Quinlan) was viewed unfavourable by most. Stenson has been nominated for several different awards for her portrayal of Steph. ## Storylines ### Backstory Steph is the daughter of Frankie (Helen Pearson) and Johnno Dean (Colin Wells). She has two brothers, Craig (Guy Burnett) and Jake (Kevin Sacre), and a sister, Debbie (Jodi Albert). She is not close to her siblings, and has a strained relationship with her mother, who prefers to involve herself in Craig and Jake's lives and boast about Debbie's professional singing prowess. In contrast, Steph has a very close relationship with her father, Johnno. ### 2000–2011 Steph is introduced as a new student at Hollyoaks High, with early storylines focusing on her school life and best friend Zara Morgan (Kelly Greenwood). She frequently bullies fellow pupil Lisa Hunter (Gemma Atkinson), driving her to attempt suicide. When Steph's friends react disapprovingly, she apologises and promises to change. She cultivates a promiscuous reputation, having brief relationships with Brian and footballer Scott Anderson (Daniel Hyde). Steph eventually becomes friends with Lisa, but accidentally ruins her hair while attempting to dye it. Believing that she did so on purpose, her other friends shun her. Distracted by the quarrel, Steph does not notice that she is being stalked by serial killer Toby Mills (Henry Luxemburg). He attacks her, hitting her in the head with a spanner and leaving her to die. Steph is comatose for a week, and is diagnosed with epilepsy when she regains consciousness. Upon learning that Toby is Lisa's brother-in-law, Steph resumes her bullying. Johnno eventually catches her physically attacking Lisa, and orders her to leave her alone. The two go on to attend university together, where Steph apologises for her cruelty and they are able to reconcile. In the aftermath of her epilepsy diagnosis, Steph is initially unable to deal with her condition. Her father supports her, but ends up abandoning his family following the revelation that he has a secret son. Steph's mother Frankie remarries, and she comes to see her new stepfather, Jack Osborne (Jimmy McKenna), as a father figure, despite remaining close to her father and becomes the only family member to visit him. Steph largely reforms following her epilepsy diagnosis, becoming more sensitive to the needs of others. She comes to terms with how dangerous her condition could be if uncontrolled, and in time her epileptic episodes become less frequent. Steph fails her college exams and is forced to retake them. Fuelled by jealousy of her sister's West End success, she attempts to embark on a celebrity career. She appears in the fictional television show Bid Crazy TV, and auditions for a girl band, X-Pose, which transpires to be a money-making scam. She then sells a kiss and tell story on celebrity Joe Jones, who she meets after a failed audition to become one of his backing singers. When Steph's notoriety peters out, her stepbrother and agent Darren arranges for her to have sex with a footballer. After their liaison, Steph discovers that he is actually just the team's mascot. Humiliated, she abandons her pursuit of fame. In a comedy storyline, Steph's great-aunt Reenie leaves her an inheritance, said to be a "small fortune", on the condition that Steph performs a charitable act. She fulfils the requirement by saving Leo Valentine (Brian Bovell) from choking, however discovers that Small Fortune is, in fact, a donkey. Steph sends it to live at a donkey sanctuary. Steph becomes a babysitter to Tom Cunningham (Ellis Hollins), and later begins a relationship with his older brother, Max Cunningham (Matt Littler). They get engaged, but have an on-off relationship fraught with frequent arguments. Steph's friend, Niall Rafferty (Barry Sloane) falls madly in love with her and attempts to come between them. She and Max eventually marry, but on their wedding day, Niall accidentally runs Max over, killing him. After a period of intense grief, Steph has sex with Niall. He is revealed to be a villain, holding his family hostage and killing his sister, Tina Reilly (Leah Hackett). A frightened Steph goes to stay with Craig in Scotland. Niall follows her, and takes Steph, Tom and Craig hostage. After a stand-off in which Craig makes Niall acknowledge the hurt he has caused, Niall throws himself off a cliff to his death. After a long holiday with Tom, Steph returns and begins to put her life back together. She falls for dance teacher Fernando Fernandez (Jeronimo Best), inspiring jealousy in Gilly Roach (Anthony Quinlan), who has feelings for Steph. She and Fernando become engaged, as do Gilly and Cheryl Brady (Bronagh Waugh), Steph's employee. Realising that she loves Gilly, Steph breaks up with Fernando, but due to loyalty to Cheryl, refuses to date Gilly when he breaks up with her. Gilly briefly becomes engaged to Jem Costello (Helen Russell-Clark), but ultimately leaves her to be with Steph. Steph discovers she has cervical cancer, and has a hysterectomy. In the aftermath, she decides to pursue a singing career and applies for The X Factor. Despite using her cancer as a sob story, she is rejected at her audition. Her cancer spreads, and though Steph has chemotherapy, she is later told that her condition is terminal. Gilly struggles to cope with her diagnosis, almost causing Steph to cancel their wedding. It goes ahead, however, and after their honeymoon, Steph begins to make plans for her impending death. When Il Gnosh, a local Italian restaurant catches fire, Steph saves Amy Barnes and her children, but chooses to remain inside and die. After Steph's funeral, her family and friends watch video messages she recorded for them prior to her death. On 11 March 2011, Cindy returns and Darren tells her about Steph and plays her the goodbye message. On 26 December, Steph made a one-off appearance as a ghost to Doug Carter (PJ Brennan). ## Development ### Casting and characterisation Stenson originally auditioned to play a friend of the established character Zara Morgan (Kelly Greenwood). Although unsuccessful, the Hollyoaks casting team later asked her to apply for the new role of Steph Cunningham, and placed her straight into the final stage of auditions. She was delighted to subsequently be given the part, which was her first major television role. Stenson joined the cast straight after leaving high school, aged seventeen. She made her first appearance in March 2000, and by 2010 had become the longest-serving female cast member remaining. Steph was introduced as a friend of Zara's, who was initially "quite naive" and easily led. Within two years, her personality had altered greatly. Steph became a bully, and "a bit of a bitch". Stenson enjoyed this transformation into a villain, as she believed it made Steph a more memorable character. She also felt she could "really go somewhere" with Steph's bitchiness in her acting, but in contrast struggled to portray her more genuine moments. She commented that Steph is the type of character only to cry over things she "really cares about". Stenson found this difficult to relate to, and struggled to "find a balance between pushing it too far and far enough". She ultimately preferred to play her as a bitch, though one "more comical rather than just out-and-out nasty." Stenson assessed that Steph "really isn't all bad, more of a lovable rogue who just likes making mischief for attention." She deemed her character "very unpredictable", with a great deal of confidence. The LINC Online called her a "beautiful blonde wild child with a penchant for arrogance and displays of egotism". Sarah Moolla of The People branded her "superficial", the Daily Record's Merle Brown referred to her as "a true red-blooded female, and Emma Johnson of the Liverpool Echo assessed that she had a "couldn't-care-less" attitude. BBC America described Steph as a two-sided character. They observed that as well as a bitch, she could be "dishonest, vain, jealous and small-minded", and wrote "She causes trouble when she wants to and will happily lie and gossip to get her own way." Conversely, they noted that for those on her good side, "She can be your best friend, a confidante and sweet natured girl". As Steph developed, she was revealed to have a "softer side". Beneath her tough façade was a "deeply insecure little girl who crave[d] love and affection." An "artistic and creative" streak lead her to attend performing arts college. This inspired a rivalry with fellow actor Summer Shaw (Summer Strallen), which saw Steph "determined to keep the limelight on her." Stenson downplayed her vocal ability, and opined that Steph is "hardly the world's best singer". ### Family and relationships In late 2002, more than two years after Steph's arrival, her family were introduced to the series. The dynamics of the Dean family evolved with time. They were initially a dysfunctional unit, but in a different way to other Hollyoaks families, as they tended to disrupt the lives of others whilst being happy amongst themselves. Upon their arrival, actress Helen Pearson, who plays mother Frankie Dean, assessed that they were "really supportive of each other", and "quite solid, like an old-fashioned family unit", despite their lack of finances which required them to undertake "various scams to keep body and soul together." As time went on, the Deans were affected by affairs and parental separation, more typical of the soap's other families. Steph had several romances throughout her time in the series. In her early years, Stenson played her as a flirt, who acted out for the attention of boys. Her first lovers included Christian virgin Brian Drake (Jonathan Le Billon) and football playing "lothario" Scott Anderson (Daniel Hyde). Her later relationship with Cameron Clark (Ben Gerrard) had "ups and downs" due to his obsessive-compulsive disorder. To boost his confidence she forced him to join a rock band. Her actions were successful, and Stenson said Steph was "proud" of this. She sacrificed their relationship so Cameron could leave and tour Europe. Sarah Ellis of Inside Soap praised Steph for being so supportive, despite Cameron's "erratic behaviour". Steph appeared to "finally [find] happiness" when she fell in love with Max Cunningham (Matt Littler). Although attracted to her, Max initially resisted Steph as he believed her to be a "ditzy, air-headed blonde", only interested in "bad boys." When his younger brother Tom (Ellis Hollins) developed a crush on her, the "kind, sensitive way" Steph handled it altered his impression. Littler explained, "Max begins to realise there's more to her than her looks. He begins to think she's actually really nice and they become friends."." Littler quit the series in 2008, and producers planned his exit around Max's wedding to Steph. He was killed off on their wedding day, as he pulled Tom out of the path of a car. Before she filmed the aftermath of Max's death, Stenson listened to depressing music to reach her character's bereaved mindset. Stenson believed it was a mistake to kill Max off, and "such an awful thing to happen to Steph", until she received "amazing feedback" about the storyline. In the aftermath, Tom asked Steph to be his mother, in a scene that then-executive producer Bryan Kirkwood deemed his favourite of the year. The interaction between the two was intended to represent "what Hollyoaks is all about - lots of heart, relationships, friendships, love and loss." Kirkwood praised Stenson's performance throughout the storyline, particularly during that scene. Steph has a brief fling with Niall Rafferty (Barry Sloane). The actors were required to film "steamy scenes". Stenson felt it a "hard challenge" to portray, she had to convince the audience that Steph would genuinely get together with her husband's killer. Some viewers, including all the staff of Inside Soap believed their chemistry to be greater. Stenson ultimately decided Steph was "better suited" to Max. She hoped that Steph would have even "more drama around the corner" along with "a bit of comic relief". ### Illnesses #### Epilepsy In a storyline which Stenson found challenging to portray, Steph was diagnosed with epilepsy. Feeling a responsibility to members of the viewing public who have the disorder, the actress researched it extensively, assisted by Mersey Television. As well as reading about it, she visited several organisations, and spent a day on set with a teenage girl—close in age to Steph—who has the condition, and who shared insights on the experiences she had been through. The actress felt trepidation about acting out seizures, but for her first one was assisted by the episode's director, who had witnessed seizures first-hand, having once worked in a hospital. Stenson felt privileged to be chosen for the storyline, particularly as epilepsy is typically a taboo subject which had not featured prominently in a soap opera before. Barbara Pinder of Epilepsy Action praised the serial for taking on the subject matter. Hollyoaks researchers contacted the charity when developing the storyline, and Pinder felt that the show succeeded in communicating the impact of Steph's diagnosis. She stated, "It is great to see a soap opera, specially one that is watched mainly by young people, look at the issue of epilepsy as it often gets ignored." Stenson was pleased the storyline was "reaching out to people", and stated that she had received many letters from fans thanking her for highlighting an under-exposed subject, as well as positive feedback on the Hollyoaks website. Steph initially reacted angrily towards her diagnosis, which Pinder confirmed was not uncommon, explaining: "The character is going through stages that someone with epilepsy is likely to go through. Teenagers can have terrible trouble coming to terms with epilepsy at a time when they have a lot of other difficult things to deal with. It can also be quite a blow to their independence." Writing for the Sunday Mail, Steve Hendry assessed that the plot would serve to "bring the arrogant and often spiteful Steph down a peg or two", humbling her. Stenson agreed that Steph's epilepsy would make her "more understanding", inspiring thoughtfulness towards others, as opposed to her former rejection of those different to her. However, she observed that the condition may also serve to worsen her behaviour towards "a chosen few." The character's epilepsy was further explored in the Hollyoaks spin-off In Too Deep, in which Steph has a seizure and believes she is possessed by a spirit, almost causing her to drown. #### Cervical cancer In 2010, Steph was diagnosed with cervical cancer and underwent a hysterectomy. It was devised prior to the appointment of Paul Marquess as executive producer. He chose to continue with it, deciding that it would be interesting to give Steph another serious storyline, and have a character that viewers "know and love going through a really hard time." In preparation for the storyline, Stenson studied the illness to give her a time-line of the experiences Steph would undergo. She chose not to speak with any cancer patients about coping with cancer, believing that everyone handles it in their own personal way. Additionally, she aimed to make Steph's realisation of her cancer as believable as possible, explaining that: "Steph wouldn't have any prior knowledge about what to expect, and I wanted to see it fresh through her eyes". She was flattered to be trusted with the storyline, and found it particularly important to get her portrayal right as, during the previous year, she had fronted the Arm Against Cervical Cancer campaign. The producers aimed to send a message of early detection to the series' young audience, and had Steph initially ignore her symptoms. Stenson hoped to raise awareness of cervical cancer, and educate women about the importance of regular smear tests. She stated that Steph was confident about beating her illness, as "the alternative [wa]sn't worth thinking about." The character was originally reluctant to tell her family about the cancer for fear of hurting them, and was embarrassed to tell her love interest Gilly Roach (Anthony Quinlan), not wanting him to have to look after her. As the storyline developed, Steph cancelled her wedding to Gilly due to his refusal to accept that her condition was terminal. Quinlan explained that his character impeded her ability to deal with the situation, with his disbelief contrasting Steph's attempt to "take this in her stride and [...] spend quality time with the people she loves before she goes." Marquess deemed the storyline as a whole one which could only be depicted the way it was in Hollyoaks, aiming to tell a "tragic story" with a "sweet and humorous tone"." A comedy element of the storyline had Steph use her cancer as a sob story to enter a talent show, recruiting orphan Tom to take to the stage with her, giving her story further emotional impact. Stenson commented, "Deep down she knows she's not a fantastic singer, but she thought the judges would feel sorry for her and put her through." According to Quinlan, viewer feedback on the storyline was "brilliant". He stated that viewers were upset by Steph's illness, and that it had even brought his own mother to tears. ### Departure and death In 2010, it was announced that Stenson had decided to quit the serial to pursue a career in musical theatre. She deemed it "one of the most difficult decisions [she had] ever made", stating that Hollyoaks had been her "dream job" and that she would miss her friends in the cast and crew. She made the decision to resign around June 2009, but was convinced by then-producer Lucy Allan to play out a long exit storyline, which concluded filming in September 2010. Before filming her final scenes, Stenson secured her first West End role. Though she had previously felt ready to leave the series, when the time came, she was upset because she felt the reality of it. She called her final scenes "really sad and emotional". Hollyoaks devised an arson plot to begin on Guy Fawkes Night 2010, as a result of which some characters would die. The production team intended to keep details of who would die secret until transmission. Prior to broadcast, Stenson revealed that Steph would risk her own life to save Amy Barnes (Ashley Slanina-Davies), Leah Barnes (Jessica Croft-Lane) and Lucas Hay. The actress explained that "She stares death in the face every day because of her cancer, so thinks she really has nothing to lose now." Stenson performed one of her own stunts during filming, with the rest undertaken by a stunt double. A promotional trailer for the episodes aired across the Channel 4 network, featuring Steph on fire. In the event, Steph rescued Amy and her children from a burning building but refused to leave herself, saying she was ready to die. Her exit received a positive reaction from fans on the social networking website Twitter, with Stenson stating that she was "honoured" by the response. Steph's legacy continued following her death, with her husband, family and friends left to come to terms with their grief. On 29 November 2011 it was confirmed Stenson was to reprise the role for a one off guest appearance as Steph in which she appears as an angel to Doug Carter who had attempted suicide and she convinces him that his life matters. Steph tells Doug something and he shows Frankie a special song that Steph had recorded for her. Frankie, overjoyed that her daughter had not forgotten her, wept whilst Angel Steph looked on happily and placed a hand on her shoulder before winking to Tom and returning to heaven, stating she was "ready for her solo." ## Reception Stenson received several award nominations for her portrayal of Steph. She was nominated in the "Best Comedy Performance" category at the 2005 and 2006 British Soap Awards, and for "Best Dramatic Performance" in 2009. She received a long-list nomination for the "Best Actress" accolade at the 2005 National Television Awards. In 2008, Stenson was nominated for the "Sexiest Female" Inside Soap Award, which she found flattering. A further nomination in the same category followed in 2010, accompanied by nominations for "Best Actress", and "Best Dramatic Performance" for Steph learning she had cancer. The character was selected as one of the "top 100 British soap characters" by industry experts for a poll to be run by What's on TV, with readers able to vote for their favourite character to discover "Who is Soap's greatest Legend?" Following her departure, her co-stars commented favourably on the actress and character, with Jorgie Porter deeming her an "ultimate original", Gemma Merna stating that she "was Hollyoaks", and Ricky Whittle admitting that he cried during the airing of her final scenes. Television and entertainment website Holy Soap did not see Steph's fire death coming, calling her actions brave and her ten-year duration "mammoth". They described her most memorable moment as telling Niall she did not love him and then watching him commit suicide. Inside Soap said if there was an award for "the unluckiest character in soap", Steph would certainly win. In his column for The Guardian, television critic Jim Shelley stated that it was time for Steph to go, having "suffered enough" during her tenure. Humorously recapping her ten years in Hollyoaks, Shelley wrote: > Steph lived a rich, not to say happy, life. She was a bully and wannabe Wag, before miraculously transforming herself into the show's tragic heroine, suffering cervical cancer, epilepsy and a hysterectomy. Her husband was run over on their wedding day. Steph later slept with his killer (long story). She also watched him in horror as he threw himself off a cliff. So, unlucky in love... She reported her brother for rape, was stalked by a serial killer and inherited a donkey. It's all on Wikipedia, and I don't think it's been tampered with. I mean, who the hell could make that up? Sarah Welsh of the South Wales Echo gave the stalking storyline a negative review. She called both plot and acting "ridiculous" and commented that while she often felt sorry for the serial being snubbed at the National Soap Awards, "This is not the way to raise the game." Steph's relationships were a focal point of many reviews. The Daily Mirror's Nicola Methven and Polly Hudson found a 2004 love triangle between Steph, her sister Debbie and love interest Dan Hunter (Andrew McNair) "surprising compelling". Grace Dent of The Guardian observed of her failed engagement to Fernando: "With the best will in the world, I don't feel that marriage was ever going to last". Dent had previously named Steph singing the Sugababes' "About You Now" at Max's funeral one of her four favourite soap moments of 2008. Roz Laws of the Sunday Mercury felt there was "plenty of chemistry" between Steph and Gilly. Reviewing the Steph-centric spin-off In Too Deep for The Times, Tim Teeman commented that while late-night Hollyoaks episodes had previously been amusing, "sexed-up" versions of the main show, with In Too Deep it became "less shagathon, more What Lies Beneath". The episode was selected as recommended viewing by Laws of the Sunday Mercury. The launch of Hollyoaks Later series one, in which Niall returns to target Steph, was named a "Satellite Pick of the Day" by the Daily Record. Christopher Howse, writing "Tatworld" for The Daily Telegraph—a column chronicling tabloid culture—named Steph and her family joint tenth in a list of Top Ten Deans, which included entrants such as Dean Koontz, Dean Gaffney and Richard Dean Anderson.
50,598,876	Sept haï-kaïs	1,126,814,536	Musical work	[ "1924 compositions", "Classical song cycles in French", "Compositions by Maurice Delage", "Music based on poems" ]	Sept haï-kaïs (, "Seven haikais") is a song cycle of mélodies by the French composer Maurice Delage for soprano and chamber ensemble of flute, oboe, B♭ clarinet, piano, and string quartet. Delage composed the work in 1924 based on classical Japanese tanka and haiku poems he translated into French. The work was first performed on 16 February 1925 by the mezzo-soprano Jane Bathori at a concert conducted by Darius Milhaud at the Société musicale indépendante (SMI). The SMI was a concert society founded in 1909 by Maurice Ravel and others friends of Delage's to free themselves of the restrictions of the program music of the Société Nationale de Musique (SNM). Sept haï-kaïs is shorter and more complex than Delage's Quatre poèmes hindous ("Four Hindu Poems", 1914), and less known than Stravinsky's ("Three Japanese Lyrics", 1913), whose lyrics were also translated by Delage. Sept haï-kaïs bridges the music of Japan and modern French music, and is considered the masterwork of Delage's mature period. ## Background Like many Western artists at the beginning of the 20th century, Maurice Delage (1879–1961) displayed a pronounced taste for the arts of Japan (Japonism). The young composer, benefiting from his father's financial aid, undertook a voyage to India and Japan at the end of 1911, where he stayed for 1912. He related hardly any of his memories of the time except to his closest friends. In his biography of Delage, Philippe Rodriguez laments the composer had "never said nor written anything about his trip to Japan; at least, nothing that remains". Amongst Delage's most favoured friends, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky soon took to the same enthusiasm for Japanese culture, putting the composition of The Rite of Spring (1913) tentatively aside to set the ("Three Japanese Lyrics") to music, which Delage had translated for him. Stravinsky dedicated the first poem, "Akahito", to Delage, and Delage dedicated the last of his Quatre poèmes hindous, "Jeypur", to Stravinsky. The interest in Japanese classical music (gagaku) led Delage to organize a concert when in 1925 the shamisen virtuoso visited Paris. , a wealthy patron of the arts, recalled: "Ravel and Delage thought to organize a welcoming party in honour of Sakichi and his wife, at the home of the pianist [Henri] Gil-Marchex. Sakichi played, dressed in a red coat, before a gold screen. Ravel and Delage were captivated by this concert." ## Outline The seven mélodies form a sequence. At a concert in Geneva in April 1929, Delage took care to specify: "the author requests these seven short pieces not be interrupted; the tonal sequence is intentional". ### Poems Haï-kaï is a French rendering of the Japanese word haikai (俳諧, "comic, unorthodox") referring to a genre of Japanese poetry generally tinged with humour. It evolved in the 16th century from the tanka, a poetic form of 31 syllables in five lines in a scheme of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. The tanka appeared in the Imperial Court at the end of the Nara period in the late 8th century and enjoyed a golden age during the Heian period (794–1185). The haiku form that had appeared by the 17th century also derives from the tanka, reduced to 17 syllables: 5-7-5. Gaston Renondeau noted that the haikai form "enjoyed an unparallelled vogue from the end of the 15th century". The production of haikai has continued into modern times. The "light" character of the work does not preclude depth—according to Rodriguez, "the limited number of words condenses the energy of the poem, a veritable animistic vision of nature", and thus "the first lines are loaded with a symbolism suitable to draw Delage's attention, and constitute the first of the Sept haï-kaïs". I. Préface du Kokinshū (tanka by Ki no Tsurayuki; dedicated to Mrs Louis Laloy) II\. "Les herbes de l'oubli ..." (by Sosei; dedicated to Andrée Vaurabourg, the future wife of Arthur Honegger) III\. "Le coq ..." (by Georges Sabiron; dedicated to Jane Bathori, the performer of the work) IV\. "La petite tortue ..." (by Hiroko Katayama; dedicated to Mrs Fernand Dreyfus, mother of Alexis Roland-Manuel) V. "La lune d'automne ..." (by Akiko Yosano; dedicated to Suzanne Roland-Manuel, the wife of Roland-Manuel) VI\. "Alors ..." (by Uejima Onitsura, translated by Paul-Louis Couchoud; dedicated to Denise Jobert (daughter of the publisher)) VII\. "L'été ..." (author unknown; dedicated to Georgette Garban) ### Translations Delage had learned Japanese in preparation for his journey to Japan in 1912. He gained a sufficient mastery of the subtletites of the poetic language to translate himself the poems that he put to music, as he had done for Stravinsky's Trois poésies de la lyrique japonaise in 1913. He took poems for Sept haï-kaïs from the Kokin Wakashū and other anthologies of poetry, but neglected to specify their authors. Delage's translations, inspired by those of the Japanologist Paul-Louis Couchoud, were also very personal, according to the musicologist Michaël Andrieu. The composer sometimes organizes the verses to better fit the music. For example, the Anthologie de la poésie japonaise classique published by Gaston Renondeau gives the following translation of the second haikai, by Sosei (c. 844–910): The expression herbe d'oubli ("forgetting grass") is a word-for-word translation of the Japanese wasure-gusa (忘れ草), the daylily Hemerocallis fulva. The Chinese believed it caused people to forget their unhappiness. Classical Japanese poets readily used such double meanings. ### Music The mélodies are very short; in the piano edition, each takes up two pages, except the first, for which the instrumental prélude takes up a full page. The fourth mélodie, "La petite tortue ...", is only seventeen measures long—the number of syllables in a Japanese haiku. Alexis Roland-Manuel remarked on this mélodie: "Do not let your modesty make you forget a certain fable by La Fontaine. You hurry slowly, perhaps, but none of your steps are wasted. How many hares envy you!" The harmony is pricked with fine, expressive dissonances. For the third mélodie, "Le coq ...", the instruments "peck" the melody with appoggiaturas in a spirit similar to that in Ravel's Histoires naturelles (1906). According to Andrieu, "Maurice Delage's composition is simple and refined; the composer stays ever attentive to timbral balance to create atmosphere". The pieces display contrasts in sonority and tempo: the Préface—"vif" and "quasi una cadenza"—comes together on an andantino assuming a rich adornment evoking the sustained "voice of the nightingales in the flowers". "Les herbes de l'oubli ..." follows the course of a larghetto phrase. The tempo of "Le coq" is moderato, with a little more animation towards the end. "La petite tortue ..." proceeds naturally on a lento rhythm. "La lune d'automne ..." rises on an agitato wave. "Alors ..." returns to the larghetto of the second mélodie, and "L'été ..." unfolds calm. The end is freely slow, dim. e morendo, with the freedom to let the instruments resonate as deeply as possible. Rodriguez compared the succession of poems to stages in a "veritable interior voyage". Comparing the two versions of the work—for voice and piano or instrumental ensemble—musicologist Marius Flothuis considered that "the orchestral version doubtlessly respects the composer's idea more". The version with piano is more difficult to execute—for example in the Préface in particular: A characteristic modulation, quoted in Delage's of 1950, caught Flothuis's attention. At the beginning of "L'été ..." the first two chords have a double false relation (of C♭ to B♭, and G♭ to G♮) followed by an insistent fourth in the bass, which Flothuis interprets as "a double pedal point (B♭ + E♭)". This evokes the distant beating of the temple bell and is heard twelve times in just nine measures, always off-beat of the melody: ### Instrumentation Two versions of Sept haï-kaïs were published, and are equally often performed in concert: the first in 1924 for voice and ensemble, and the second in 1926 for voice and piano. The composer had Tsuguharu Foujita produce an illustration for the cover to this version of the score. The musical accompaniment is very refined. Jean-Paul Bartoli considered the instrumentation "rarefied and unusual". Except for serial techniques, all the qualities of the essentially melodic work are found in those of Anton Webern, a composer whom Delage did not know of. The writing is more demanding than Quatre poèmes hindous (1912), to the same extent that Ravel's Chansons madécasses (1926) went further than his Trois poèmes de Mallarmé (1913). The four works are rigorously modern and, according to Bartoli, "these short, fine miniatures, perhaps inspired by the Stravinsky's cycle, no doubt stimulated Ravel to compose his Chansons madécasses". The following table reflects this common trend towards a lighter instrumentation: ## Performances The première took place 16 February 1925 at a concert of the Société musicale indépendante (SMI) at the Salle Érard in Paris. The mélodies were performed by Jane Bathori and conducted by Darius Milhaud. Delage had gotten Bathori to agree to perform it late in the year before. In a letter to her dated 27 September 1924, he wrote: "My publisher had to send you my seven little things in the hope they would interest you. ... They are a bit basic for your great virtuosity, but that could tempt you to do something good with them". Despite the lukewarm reception at its première, the Sept haï-kaïs were performed in concert several times with growing success. In April 1929, the organizers of the 7th festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music presented the work in Geneva, performed by Madeleine Grey and conducted by Ernest Ansermet. Following the concert, Aloys Mooser praised the Sept haï-kaïs as "chiselled with a subtle, refined artistry. In a few lines, these little pieces create a singularly expressive atmosphere". More than two decades after their composer's death in 1961, Sept haï-kaïs had its first performance in Japan on 20 July 1985 at during the Tokyo Summer Festival, along with works by Ravel, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich. ## Reception The Sept haï-kaïs received limited success—music critics were for the most part taken aback by the brevity of the mélodies. Gustave Samazeuilh mentioned only "the very brief but very musical Japanese songs". In an article for le Ménestrel, Paul Bertrand summed up the general public sentiment, seeing in the vocal cycle "a succession of sketches, often charming but very brief, so brief that no impression of any of them had the time to affirm itself". Amongst the first critics asked to evaluate the work, Alexis Roland-Manuel showed greater understanding. He acknowledged the attentive effort required of the listener was a small thing in light of the merits of the score: "It is known that the Japanese craftsman is the stingiest of his talent in the world. He does not break the silence except at long intervals and speaks but few words to us each time. But each of these words is full of meaning; but from each of their syllables the doors of the dream swing away for us." For his friends, it was evidence that the composer of Quatre poèmes hindous had devoted himself to the most concise poetry possible. Music critics had also to some extent reported on this trend toward increased refinement. From 1923, Paul Bertrand severely criticized Delage's mélodies: "M. Delage shows a slightly excessive discretion ... If, haunted by the spirit of Wagner, too many composers have tended to impose pretentious works of indigestible extent on their listeners, many others today narrow down their music too willingly by reducing it to the conception of a little picture, and even of a tiny mantlepiece trinket." An anonymous review in the Revue musicale in 1926 presented the work thus: "The string quartet, the flute, the clarinet, the oboe, aided by the piano, come together here for the most fantastic alchemy, a prodigy of sounds in which the magician Delage goes further in the fine poetry of timbres than any other enchanter. It is a very tiny, precious drop that he shows us: the music is reduced to the secret of its essence. But in a sunny drop of water is also where the rainbow is found. Following the Sept haï-kaïs, each of Delage's new works performed in concert were subject to similar critical attacks—according to Rodriguez, by "music critics, historiographers, people in Parisian salons who, all his life, ridiculed his "preciousness", his "trinkets", his breathlessness, all told, his timid artistic insufficiencies". These criticisms, reducing Delage's music to only the Haï-kaïs, led to supportive responses from musicians and composers sensitive to their musical qualities. At the première in 1951 of Delage's , a work made up of six original haikais, René Dumesnil hailed the work: "Maurice Delage is a master; one asks only for a little justice for him." At a performance in 1957 conducted by Tony Aubin, the musicographer René Dumesnil commented: "the economy of means does not embarrass Delage more than the scale, and whatever the number of performers, it has the same sureness. Nothing unnecessary, but all that can best translate thought, feeling, or subtle impression to create in the mind of the listener the echo of an idea that music alone is capable of awakening—when written by a magician like him." In 1959, On the occasion of Delage's 80th birthday, Paul Le Flem declaimed "the artistic perfection that always gives way before the Apollonian pleasure of music: music and poetry, that which is not for surprising us. What puzzles some, which seems grossly unfair to me, is the conspiracy of silence that slowly weaves around this musician who knows the value of silence, shade, solitude." Roland-Manuel, in the first article devoted to Delage, defined "the singular situation" of the composer of the Sept haï-kaïs—according to Rodriguez, "with a rare clairvoyance"—"When one penetrates the intimacy of the work, one is struck by the abundance of riches contained in tight box. One discovers the clever subtlety of a craftsman who softens the rebellious material and disciplines the forms in the manner of a sculptor of Japanese ivory." Rodriguez places the Sept haï-kaïs amongst the most advanced works of their era: "At the time when Falla wrote his ascetic El retablo de maese Pedro, when Schönberg signed his Five Piano Pieces opus 23, when Roussel also turned towards the Orient with Padmâvatî, the Haï-kaïs fit into this universe like seven brilliant stars in an amethyst sky", and "well up from the depths of being, like an inner necessity". To the musicologist Jean Gallois, the Sept haï-kaïs are "indisputedly, inarguably a masterwork: these few pages remain amongst the musician's most celebrated", and Delage has become "the musician of the haikais". Andrieu tempered this judgement, saying the composer "does not often receive recognition except by an elite". ## Editions - Maurice Delage, Sept haï-kaïs, éditions Jobert, Paris (1924, for the ensemble version) - Maurice Delage, Sept haï-kaïs, éditions Jobert, Paris (1926, for the piano and vocal version) ## Discography - Sept haï-kaïs (1995) Darynn Zimmer (soprano), Solisti New York, conducted by Ramson Wilson, CD New Albion Records NA 078 - Sept haï-kaïs (1995) Felicity Lott (soprano), conducted by Armin Jordan, Aria Music 592300 - Maurice Delage: Les Mélodies (1998) Sandrine Piau (soprano), Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (tenor), Jean-François Gardeil (baritone), Billy Eidi (piano), CD Timpani 1C1045 - Maurice Delage: Musique de chambre (1998) Lucienne van Deyck (mezzo-soprano), instrumental ensemble conducted by , CD Cyprès CYP2621
20,850,963	Michael Plumb	1,148,065,705	American equestrian	[ "1940 births", "American event riders", "American male equestrians", "Congressional Gold Medal recipients", "Equestrians at the 1959 Pan American Games", "Equestrians at the 1960 Summer Olympics", "Equestrians at the 1963 Pan American Games", "Equestrians at the 1964 Summer Olympics", "Equestrians at the 1967 Pan American Games", "Equestrians at the 1968 Summer Olympics", "Equestrians at the 1972 Summer Olympics", "Equestrians at the 1976 Summer Olympics", "Equestrians at the 1984 Summer Olympics", "Equestrians at the 1992 Summer Olympics", "Living people", "Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games", "Medalists at the 1963 Pan American Games", "Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics", "Medalists at the 1967 Pan American Games", "Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics", "Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics", "Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics", "Olympic gold medalists for the United States in equestrian", "Olympic silver medalists for the United States in equestrian", "Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States", "Pan American Games medalists in equestrian", "Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States", "People from Syosset, New York" ]	John Michael Plumb (born March 28, 1940) is an American equestrian and Olympic champion who competes in the sport of three-day eventing. He holds the title of the US Olympic competitor who has competed in the greatest number of Olympics, winning two team gold medals, three team silvers and one individual silver. He has also competed at the World Equestrian Games and Pan-American Games, winning medals at both, as well as competing in the Rolex Kentucky Three Day and steeplechase events. He has been named to the Hall of Fame of the United States Eventing Association (USEA), as well as winning annual USEA awards, and is the only equestrian rider to have been inducted to the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. He was previously married to fellow Olympian Donnan Plumb, and the couple has three sons. ## Personal life Plumb was born in Islip, New York, and grew up in Syosset, New York. His father, Charles, was a steeplechase rider and huntsman, and his mother, Meem, was also an equestrian. Plumb began riding at the Meadow Brooks Hounds Pony Club, where he participated in Pony Club. In 1972, he graduated from the University of Delaware. He married Donnan Sharp Plumb, a dressage rider who competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics; they later divorced. The couple had three sons – Hugh, Matt and Charlie; Charlie became a successful event rider. Matt and Hugh have had a successful auto racing career in sports car racing. ## Career ### Competition Plumb began his international competitive three-day event career at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, Illinois. Throughout his career he competed for the United States in several other Pan-American Games, and won three gold medals, including an individual gold in 1963 and team golds in 1963 and 1967. Plumb also competed at several Eventing World Championships, accruing four medals. In 1974 he assisted the US team to a silver, while also taking silver in the individual competition, and helped the US team to bronze medals in both 1978 and 1982. As of 2008, Plumb was the US Olympic athlete with the greatest number of appearances in any sport at the Games. He was named to the US team in every Olympic games between 1960 (his first) and 1984, as well as appearing for the last time at the 1992 Summer Olympics, and competed at all of the Games except for 1980, when the US did not compete. During his seven Olympic appearances, he gathered multiple medals. At the 1960 Summer Olympics, Plumb took an individual 15th, while the US team did not finish the competition. At the 1964 Games, he repeated his individual performance, while the US team improved to take the silver medal. At these Games, he became the first rider ever to win a medal on a horse that he had never previously ridden in competition. Plumb had planned to ride his main event horse, Markham, but on the flight to the Games in Tokyo, the horse panicked, possibly due to a bad experience previously suffered in a horse trailer. In order to keep him from destroying his stall and potentially the aircraft, the horse was euthanized. Plumb instead rode Bold Minstrel, a horse loaned to him by another top-level eventer. In 1968, at Ciudad de Mexico, Plumb took an individual 14th, while the US team again finished with a silver. In 1970, when Jack le Goff became coach of the United States eventing team, Plumb was one of only three active US riders with international experience in the sport. Between then and 1984, when le Goff retired, the US eventing team, with Plumb as part, amassed three team and three individual medals, as well as additional triumphs at the World Equestrian Games and Pan-American Games. At the 1972 Summer Olympics, the US team took the silver medal for the third Games in a row, while Plumb finished 20th individually. At the 1976 Games, Plumb achieved his only individual medal, taking silver, while the US team took gold. Plumb qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but did not compete due to the U.S. Olympic Committee's boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russia. He was one of 461 athletes to receive a Congressional Gold Medal instead. Despite the US boycott, Plumb competed at the alternate games in Fontainebleau, France. The team repeated this performance at the 1984 Olympics, while Plumb took an individual 10th place. In 1988, he was slated to make the US Equestrian Team, but was not able to compete due to a fall that resulted in a broken collarbone. In 1992, Plumb competed in his last Olympics, placing 48th individually while the team took 10th. Plumb has ridden in steeplechase competitions, and in 1976 placed second at the Maryland Hunt Cup, an event which his father had won in 1929. He has also competed multiple times at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day. ### Influence In 2002, Plumb was named as one of the 50 most influential horsemen of the 20th century by the equine magazine Chronicle of the Horse. In 2003, Plumb was inducted to the United States Eventing Association Hall of Fame, along with one of his horses, Plain Sailing. Good Mixture, another of Plumb's horses, was inducted in 2009. In 2008, Plumb became the first (and to date, only) equestrian to be inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. The United States Eventing Association awarded Plumb their Leading Rider of the Year Award on ten occasions. Plumb is known for his training abilities with both horses and other riders, and as of 2018 he continued to ride and train at his stables in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Plumb is reticent about discussing his accomplishments, but colleagues have referred to him as the "ultimate team member" who could be counted on to be at the top of his game and a consistent performer. As team captain at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, he was noted for helping his teammates understand everything that was going on around them. His athleticism and personal courage have been praised by those who know him, such as Michael Page, chef d’equipe for the 1986 US World Championship team, who recounted how Plumb medaled at the competition despite three broken ribs. Plumb admits to being completely focused on riding and "not a social person", with former coach Jack le Goff saying that "horses are his only reason for being on earth".
36,989,188	Hibiscus (restaurant)	1,147,273,352	Restaurant in London	[ "2000 establishments in England", "2007 in London", "2016 disestablishments in England", "Defunct restaurants in London", "Michelin Guide starred restaurants in London", "Restaurants established in 2000" ]	Hibiscus was a London restaurant which was owned and run by French chef Claude Bosi. It was opened in 2000 in Ludlow, Shropshire, and won its first Michelin star within a year, and a second in the 2004 Guide. In July 2006, Bosi and his wife Claire announced that they were to sell the location in Ludlow and move closer to London. The property was sold to Alan Murchison, and Bosi purchased a new site on Maddox Street in London. The restaurant closed in 2016. Bosi used molecular gastronomy to create some items on the menu in an effort to enhance their flavours, such as freeze-drying cabbage to create a purée. The restaurant has received mixed reviews from critics, but has been listed in The World's 50 Best Restaurants since 2010, and was named by Egon Ronay as the best restaurant in the UK in 2005. The Good Food Guide ranked Hibiscus as the eighth-best restaurant in the UK in the 2013 edition. It has also been awarded five AA Rosettes. ## History Claude Bosi and his wife Claire opened Hibiscus in Ludlow, Shropshire, in 2000. The location had a 36-seat capacity, and was previously occupied by a three AA Rosette restaurant called the Oaks. Bosi had previously been head chef and won a Michelin star at the Overton Grange restaurant, just outside the town. He had intended to open a restaurant in Warwickshire, but found the premises too expensive and purchased a 25-year lease on the former Oaks property in Ludlow for £40,000. Within a year Hibiscus won its first Michelin star, and at the same time Overton Grange was downgraded before going into receivership. Working under Bosi at Hibiscus was sous chef Glynn Purnell, who left Hibiscus in 2003 to become head chef at Jessica's restaurant in Edgbaston. Hibiscus gained a second star in the 2004 Michelin Guide. In July 2006, Bosi and his wife Claire announced that they were intending to sell Hibiscus and open a new restaurant closer to London, or in the capital itself. Hibiscus closed in Ludlow in April 2007, with Bosi selling the site to fellow chef Alan Murchison for £247,500, but retaining the Hibiscus name for himself. The restaurant was renamed "Le Becasse" (sic), and underwent a £100,000 makeover before being re-opened under head chef Will Holland. In 2014, Murchison's company went into voluntary liquidation after running up debts of almost half a million pounds. Bosi completed the deal in June 2007 for a new site at 29 Maddox Street in London. He intended for the new Hibiscus to be open by September, and to transfer over the style of cooking he had used in Ludlow, saying, "I'm transferring Hibiscus, not starting a new restaurant. The idea is to continue and build on what I have been doing." Purchasing and fitting out the London premises cost around £1 million. Many of the staff from the Ludlow incarnation of Hibiscus agreed to move to London to continue working at the restaurant, including head chef Marcus McGuinness and sommelier Simon Freeman. Hibiscus re-opened in October 2007 in its new location after following building works and planning delays. The interior of the London-based restaurant was decorated in orange and shades of brown. The walls were covered in pale-coloured wooden panels, and a chandelier designed as a series of globes hungs from the middle of the main dining room's ceiling. The handover on the first day was so tight that builders moved out at midday, and the first service was run at 7 pm that evening. The late opening resulted in the reviewers for the Michelin Guide having only a two-week window in which to re-assess the restaurant for the 2008 guide. Bosi admitted later that the restaurant was not yet up to scratch in those two weeks and agreed with the decision of Michelin to downgrade Hibiscus to a single star in the 2008 Guide. The restaurant was also given a "rising star" as one with potential to go up to two stars in the future. During the run up to Christmas, the stress of serving 550 covers a week in a new location with a modified menu resulted in three sous chefs resigning. The two-star award was restored a year later in the 2009 Michelin Guide, as had been predicted by a number of Bosi's fellow chefs including Tom Aikens, Antonin Bonnet and Richard Corrigan. Sat Bains went a step further and said "I would love to see Claude Bosi regain his second star at Hibiscus and win his third in time. He's probably the best chef I know." The restaurant closed permanently in 2016, two days prior to the announcement of the 2017 Michelin Guide for UK and Ireland. ## Menu The menu is created by Bosi. He has been described as an innovator and his work has been compared to that of Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck. One of the new dishes Bosi introduced following his move to London was a two-part pork dish. The first part was roasted suckling pig served with sea urchin, kohlrabi and a fondant of sweet potato. The second, inspired by his daughter, featured a sausage roll with a salad and a truffle dressing. Other dishes have included roast chicken with an onion fondue and licorice, and desserts include a chocolate tart served with basil ice cream. Bosi uses molecular gastronomy techniques, such as in the process for making a Savoy cabbage purée, in which the cabbage is freeze dried into a powder and then reconstituted, but he prefers only to enhance the flavours of individual ingredients rather than changing those flavours by using unusual techniques. ## Reviews Jay Rayner reviewed the restaurant for The Observer after Hibiscus moved from Ludlow to London, his first time at the restaurant. While stating that elements of the meal were "very clever indeed", such as foie gras ice cream and a sausage roll he described as a "colossus", he described the desserts as a "disappointment", calling an olive oil parfait a "gloopy mess". Overall, he planned on returning to give Bosi another chance. Zoe Williams also reviewed the restaurant shortly after it arrived in London, for The Daily Telegraph. She enjoyed her visit, and was impressed with the unusual combinations of foods that worked together saying "the sheer expertise of taking a food with a range of flavours, and knowing it's in peak condition to meet four others ... it really is something". John Walsh also visited it, for The Independent, after the restaurant arrived in London, and gave the food four stars, and the ambience and service three stars; Terry Durack reviewed it for the same paper, giving the restaurant 17 out of 20. Food critics from Time Out visited the restaurant in 2009, and were "disappointed" compared to their previous visit. They thought that Bosi's food combinations just did not work, but still said that some of his desserts were "faultless". Andy Hayler gave the restaurant a score of six out of ten on his scale during his November 2011 visit. The redeeming feature of his trip was a dish of venison, he thought, served with a confit of pear in mulled wine and Savoy cabbage with a red wine and smoked chocolate sauce, but he otherwise felt that the food was "over-worked" and the service "peculiarly amateurish". ### Ratings and awards In 2005 Hibiscus was one of three restaurants to be awarded three-stars by the Egon Ronay Restaurant Guide, along with The Waterside Inn and Restaurant Tom Aikens, and was named Ronay's Restaurant of the Year. The restaurant made its first entry in the World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2010, ranked in 49th place and one of three British restaurants in the list; the following year it moved up to 43rd. The Good Food Guide ranked Hibiscus as the eighth-best restaurant in the UK in its 2013 guide. The restaurant has been given five AA Rosettes by The Automobile Association.
25,047,515	Vangjel Meksi	1,145,183,736	Albanian physician, writer and translator	[ "1770 births", "1821 deaths", "18th-century Albanian writers", "18th-century translators", "19th-century Albanian writers", "19th-century translators", "Albanian male writers", "Albanian people of the Greek War of Independence", "Albanian physicians", "Albanian translators", "Albanian-language writers", "People from Gjirokastër", "Translators of the Bible into Albanian" ]	Vangjel Meksi (1770–1823) was an Albanian physician, writer, and translator. One-time personal physician to Ali Pasha, the 19th-century Albanian ruler of the Pashalik of Yanina, Meksi produced the first translation of the New Testament into Albanian with the help and sponsorship of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS). Meksi did not live to see his work's publication however, which was supervised by Gregory IV of Athens. As a member of Filiki Etaireia, a secret society whose purpose was to establish an independent Greek state, Meksi joined the Greeks in the Siege of Tripolitsa during their war of independence against the Ottoman Empire and died shortly afterwards. As well as its value to Albanian Christians, who could for the first time read the Gospels in their own language, Meksi's work advanced the study of written Albanian, and in particular informed the work of 19th-century linguists and philologists such as Joseph Ritter von Xylander, August Schleicher, and Johann Georg von Hahn. Their studies of the Albanian language were significantly influenced by Meksi's Bible translation. ## Early life Meksi was born in 1770 in Labovë, a village near Gjirokastër, and pursued secondary studies in Ioannina, then an important Ottoman provincial center (now in Greece). His first employment was as a folk physician to the court of Ali Pasha, the Albanian ruler of the Pashalik of Yanina, a position he held until 1803. Armed with a letter of recommendation from Ali Pasha, Meksi was admitted to the University of Naples in Italy, where he studied medicine under Dr. Nicola Acuto and practiced in a hospital administered by the parish of San Giovanni a Carbonara. After completing his studies in 1808, Meksi returned to Yanina and once again served in Ali Pasha's court, this time as one of his four physicians. His colleagues were Dr. Metaxa, (degree in medicine from the University of Paris), Dr. Saqeralliu (degree in medicine from the University of Vienna), and Dr. Loukas Vagias, (brother of Thanasis Vagias, with a degree in medicine from Leipzig University). ## Philological activity After falling out of favor with Ali Pasha, for reasons unknown, Meksi left the court in 1810 to travel around Europe. During a brief stay in Venice he began to develop an interest in the Albanian alphabet and grammar. He published two translations into Albanian during 1814, both now lost, one of which was a religious work by Abbé Claude Fleury (1640–1723). Meksi also wrote a grammar of the Albanian language in Albanian. It too has been lost, but it is mentioned in many letters reporting Meksi's work as an Albanian philologist written by Robert Pinkerton to his superiors at the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), which subsequently sponsored the translation of the New Testament into Albanian. The work must have been written before 1819 and may be either the first Albanian grammar or the second, after that of Jani Evstrat Vithkuqari; it is not known which was published first. In this period Meksi also created a new Albanian alphabet, rationalizing and consolidating the many different pre-existing alphabets, employing a mix of Greek and Latin characters. Using his new alphabet, he wrote a book called Orthography of the Albanian language, (Albanian: Drejtshkrimi i gjuhës shqipe). ## Translation of the New Testament Pinkerton, who in 1816 was the BFBS's representative in Moscow, had met that year with a community of Albanians in Vienna, then capital of the Austrian Empire. They assured him that a translation of the New Testament into Albanian was indeed possible. In a letter to his superiors at the BFBS, dated August 28, 1816, Pinkerton wrote that the Albanian nation occupied a large part of the ancient Illyria, that they spoke a language completely different from Slavic, Turkish, Greek, or Latin, and that for the Albanian Orthodox the mass was recited in Greek, a language that believers and even some of the priests did not understand. According to Pinkerton, the translation could be done by one or more Albanians from the Ionian islands under the supervision of an Albanian bishop. In 1819, apparently with the blessing of his superiors at the BFBS, Pinkerton met with Meksi (referring him as Evangelos Mexicos) in Istanbul. Meksi, who was then a teacher in Serres, had been recommended to Pinkerton because of his Albanian grammar book. Pinkerton also relates in one of his letters to the BFBS that Meksi was well regarded by the Albanian community, the Greek Orthodox Church, and by Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople. Gregory, according to Pinkerton, also offered to find two suitable clergymen to assist Meksi in his endeavor. Lastly, Pinkerton recommended that the Greek alphabet be used as the most suitable for the Albanian language. On October 19, 1819, Pinkerton and Meksi concluded a contract to translate the New Testament into Albanian on behalf of the society. It was agreed that the Bible would have to be translated into the Albanian dialect of Yanina. Meksi completed the work in two years, ten months earlier than the contract's deadline. Early in 1821 Mr. Leeves of the BFBS visited Thessaloniki to supervise the translation. On February 8, 1821 he wrote that the work had been completed, and that the only outstanding task was a final review by a competent person, who had already been assigned to the task. In 1822 the revised manuscript was sent to Malta to be printed, and in 1823 Leeves sent from Malta to the representative of the society in Corfu the first copy of a printed New Testament in Albanian. Meanwhile, the New Testament had had a final revision performed by the Archimandrite of Euboea, Grigor Gjirokastriti, an Albanian who subsequently became Archbishop Gregory IV of Athens. Archimandrite Grigor had recommended that the Bible be printed in a large typeface in two columns, one in Albanian and the other in modern Greek, because Albanians would rather read modern Greek than Koine. On March 16, 1824 Mr. Lowndes, the BFBS's secretary in Corfu, sent a letter to the society in which he mentioned that the sum paid to Meksi for his work was 6,000 piastras and that Archimandrite Grigor was paid 60 crowns. On September 5, 1824 the Saint Matthew's Gospel was published in Albanian. According to Lowndes' letters, the Albanian community of Missolonghi was extremely excited when mass was said with a piece from Saint Matthew, as since its translation they had been impatient to hear it in Albanian. In July 1827 the form in which the first 500 copies of the New Testament were to be bound was decided in London. The entire edition amounted to 2,000 copies. Although Gjirokastriti's edition of the New Testament was written in Albanian, it used the Greek alphabet. It is not known which alphabet Meksi used in his own manuscript. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was not against the work of Meksi or the Bible Society at that time. On the contrary, for the translation the British missionaries successfully appealed to Gregory V and enlisted the help of an Orthodox bishop, Gjirokastriti, for the final edition of the New Testament in Albanian. ## Greek War of Independence Meksi was a member of the Filiki Etaireia, a secret society whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule over the Balkans and to establish an independent Greek state. When the Greek War of Independence broke out in 1821, after his translation had been completed, Meksi joined the Greeks in the Siege of Tripolitsa. Despite suffering from a serious bout of pneumonia, he continued to work as a physician during the war. He is also said to have taken part in the negotiations leading to an agreement proposed by Theodoros Kolokotronis that permitted the Albanians who were defending Tripolitsa to leave unharmed, an arrangement that helped the Greeks to capture the town from the Turks. ## Legacy Meksi did not live to see the 1827 publication of his translation of the New Testament; he had died a bachelor six years earlier, at the age of about 51. The first publication of a Bible translation from Greek to a modern Balkanic language, it ran to 2,000 copies, a huge number for the time. It preceded the modern Bulgarian version by two years and the Romanian translation by twenty. A second edition was published in 1858 in Athens, but as it had not been revised by any native speakers of Albanian it was full of errors. Meksi's work was important for the development of written Albanian, and his endeavors strengthened the conviction that a stable Albanian alphabet had to be created. His translation served as the basis for Joseph Ritter von Xylander's studies of the Albanian language, which definitively refuted the thesis that the language had a Tatar origin. Von Xylander concluded that Albanian had an Indo-European root. Two other international scholars also studied the Albanian language mainly based on Meksi's translation of the New Testament: August Schleicher, who stated that his knowledge of the conjugation of Albanian verbs was based on Meksi's work, and Johann Georg von Hahn an Austrian diplomat, philologist, and specialist in Albanian history, language, and culture, who translated the Bible into Gheg Albanian with the help of Kostandin Kristoforidhi.
36,045,303	2008 Indian Premier League final	1,171,510,720	Cricket match	[ "2008 Indian Premier League", "2008 in Indian cricket", "Indian Premier League finals" ]	The 2008 Indian Premier League final was a day/night Twenty20 cricket match played between the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings on 1 June 2008 at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai to determine the winner of the 2008 Indian Premier League, a professional Twenty20 cricket league in India. It ended as the Royals defeated the Super Kings by three wickets. The Royals, captained by Shane Warne, topped the group stage table, whereas the Super Kings, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, stood at the third position. They had defeated the Delhi Daredevils and the Kings XI Punjab respectively in the semi-finals. Winning the toss, Royals' captain Shane Warne opted to field first. The Super Kings scored 163 runs in 20 overs with a loss of 5 wickets. Batting at number three, Suresh Raina top scored for the Super Kings with 43 runs. Royals' bowler Yusuf Pathan took three wickets for 22 runs. The Royals failed to build a good opening partnership. However, due to contributions from the middle order, it reached the winning total in the last ball and earned the 2008 Indian Premier League title. Pathan, who was the best performer for the Royals with both bat and ball, was named the man of the match. ## Route to the final ### Group stage The Super Kings started its campaign with four consecutive wins, but lost its next three matches to the Daredevils, the Royals and the Deccan Chargers. It qualified for the semifinals after winning four of its last seven league matches. The Royals lost its first match in the group stage to the Daredevils. However, it won all of its next five matches. Then, it suffered a defeat against the Mumbai Indians, but went on to win its next six matches. It lost the last group stage match against the Kings XI. The two teams faced each other in two matches of the group stage, both of which were won by the Royals. The Royals had played a match in the tournament before at the DY Patil Stadium; it lost the match by seven wickets. The Super Kings played at the stadium for the first time in the finals. Note: The points at the end of each group match are listed. Note: Click on the points to see the summary for the match. ### Semifinals The Royals played the Daredevils in the first semi-final. The Daredevils won the toss and decided to field first. The Royals got an opening partnership of 65 runs. Its middle-order batsmen Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan scored 52 and 45 runs respectively to help it amass 192 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Batting second, the Daredevils lost its first five batsmen for just 55 runs. Tillakaratne Dilshan top-scored for the Daredevils with 33 runs. The Daredevils was bowled out in the 17th over for just 87 runs, and gave its counterpart a 105-run victory. Watson, who took 3/10, had the best bowling figures for the Royals, and was awarded the man of the match for his all-round performance. In the second semi-final, Super Kings played the Kings XI. The Kings XI won the toss and elected to bat first, but its top six batsman failed and only one of them reached double figures. However, due to significant contributions from the lower-order, Punjab managed to reach a total of 112/8. Super Kings fast bowler Manpreet Gony took 3 wickets by conceding just 14 runs. In reply, Super Kings lost its first wicket when Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan were dismissed for 6 runs. However, both Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina scored a half century each and took the Super Kings to the target with 31 balls to spare. The Super Kings won the match by nine wickets, and Yusuf Pathan was given the man of the match award. ## Buildup The match was hosted by Mumbai because the franchise owner of the Mumbai Indians placed the highest bid for acquisition, which was 111.9 million. Before the match, ESPNCricinfo assistant editor Nagraj Gollapudi identified the Royals as the most likely winner. Despite being seen as the underdogs, the Royals finished at the top of the league table, and won 11 matches out of 14 with 22 points. The Super Kings stood third, behind Kings XI, getting 16 points from eight wins. There were two changes in the Royals' playing eleven for the final; Graeme Smith and Mahesh Rawat were replaced by Kamran Akmal and Niraj Patel. Smith was ruled out of the match as he was suffering from a hamstring injury. The Super Kings fielded the same side as in its semi-final win over the Kings XI. ## Match ### Summary Despite the fact that the home team Mumbai Indians was not playing, the match attracted a huge number of spectators. They were exposed to performances by Amrita Arora, Shamita Shetty, Dia Mirza, Salman Khan and Cirque du Soleil. Then a laser show was organised. The match was a day/night match, and started at 20:18 Indian Standard Time (IST) (UTC+05:30). The toss took place at 20:00 IST in the presence of Lalit Modi and match referee Javagal Srinath. Modi flipped the coin, and Royals' captain Warne called heads; the coin turned out to be heads, and Warne won the toss. Sunil Gavaskar had said in his match report that the batsmen will be required to play more on the front foot because of the inconstant bounce. The pitch was patchy, and Warne chose to field first. The Super Kings lost its first batsman as Sivaramakrishnan went out for 16 runs. He was caught by Ravindra Jadeja when Pathan was up. Sivaramakrishnan pulled a fast ball to deep mid-wicket, and Jadeja took a "well-judged catch". Sivaramakrishnan made 16 runs in 14 balls at a strike rate of 114.28, and played an opening partnership of 39 runs with P. Patel. After that, Raina joined P. Patel, and both of them made 25 runs for the second wicket partnership with a run rate of 6.81. P. Patel was caught in the last ball of the ninth over. Similar to the previous wicket, Pathan bowled a flat and fast ball, P. Patel tried to play it towards the third man. However, the ball edged towards the wicket-keeper Akmal, who initially dropped the ball, but caught it afterwards. P. Patel made 38 runs in 33 balls and hit five boundaries. The next wicket was of Albie Morkel, who made 16 runs out of 13 balls. Pathan again bowled a flat fast ball, which was top edged by Morkel. The ball went into the air, and was eventually caught by Akmal. However this resulted in the collision of Akmal and Mohammad Kaif as both were trying to take the catch, and both of them got injured. Four overs later, Jadeja caught Raina on Watson, breaking a 33 runs fourth wicket partnership between him and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Watson bowled a full-length ball outside off stump. Raina played it towards long off, but failed to get enough distance and Jadeja caught the ball at the boundary. Chamara Kapugedera joined Dhoni after the dismissal of Raina, a decision which "punctured" the momentum in the slog overs. Kapugedera made eight runs by acing 12 balls, before being caught by Swapnil Asnodkar on Sohail Tanvir. Tanvir bowled an angling slower ball, which was lofted on the front foot by Kapugedera. The ball was caught by long-on fielder Asnodkar. With the last five balls remaining in the innings, Dhoni and Subramaniam Badrinath together made 15 runs, and Badrinath made six runs off two balls. Dhoni made 29 runs not out, facing 17 balls, in which he hit two fours and one six. Pathan had the best figures with the ball for the Royals, as he took three wickets for 22 runs in four overs. Tanvir and Watson got one wicket each and gave 40 and 29 runs respectively. Warne gave 34 runs in his four overs, but failed to get any wicket. Munaf Patel and Siddharth Trivedi gave 14 and 21 runs respectively in their two overs each. In reply, the Royals lost its first batsman as N. Patel went out after scoring two runs in 11 balls. Manpreet Gony bowled a full-length ball outside the off stump, which hit the leg stump after getting an inside edge as N. Patel opted to pull it. He went out in the first ball of the fourth over, leaving his team at 19 runs with loss of one wicket. The Royals lost its second opener when Raina caught Asnodkar as he hit a full and wide ball by Morkel to point. He made 28 runs facing 20 balls. In the same over, Makhaya Ntini ran out Akmal with a direct hit. Akmal played the ball to mid-on, but Ntini glided downwards and threw the ball at the stumps. After the fall of Akmal's wicket, Watson and Pathan started playing more aggressively, and scored 65 runs for a fourth wicket partnership at a run rate of 8.66; this was also the highest partnership of the match. In the eleventh over, Raina dropped Pathan on Murlitharan at deep midwicket. At the end of the thirteenth over, the Royals reached a score of 100 runs. In the fifteenth over, Muralitharan broke the partnership as he bowled Watson; the ball hit the leg stump. The next wicket was of Kaif, who was caught by Dhoni on Muralitharan. Kaif pushed a flat doosra, and Dhoni took a simple catch at cover. In the next ball, Jadeja went out for a golden duck. Morkel bowled a short ball, and Jadeja tried to pull it. However the ball went to mid-on, and Kapugedera caught the ball after running towards his left. In the same over, Raina ran out Pathan with a direct hit at the stumps. Morkel bowled a full ball which was pushed by Warne to point. He ran for a single, but Raina hit the stumps, running out off-striker Pathan. Pathan went out scoring a half-century; he made 56 runs out off 39 balls with a strike rate of 143.58 and hit three fours and four sixes. The Royals needed 18 runs at the end of the eighteenth over. The second last over was bowled by Ntini, in which he gave up ten runs. In the last ball of the over, Ntini bowled a good length ball, and Warne hit a four by Warne at cover. In the last over, the Royals required eight runs, and Dhoni gave the ball to Lakshmipathy Balaji. Six runs were required from the last three balls, but Balaji bowled a wide outside off stump, which was missed by the wicket-keeper P. Patel. This resulted in two extra runs. In the next ball, Warne hit a full ball for a run. The Royals needed three runs from the last two balls. Tanvir played the fifth legal delivery of the over, which was an angling full toss. Tanvir hit the ball at the long leg, and ran two runs. The Royals needed one more run off the last ball, with Tanvir on strike; Balaji bowled him a short ball. Warne had already covered the half distance of the pitch when Tanvir hit the ball. The two batsmen ran for a single and the Royals won the match. Both of them remained not out with nine runs each. Morkel and Muralitharan got two wickets each, giving 25 and 39 runs respectively. Gony got one wicket, whereas Ntini and Balaji had none. Pathan received the award for maximum sixes in a match; he hit four sixes in the match. He was also named the man of the Match. ### Scorecard - On-field umpires: Billy Bowden (), Rudi Koertzen () - Third umpire: Daryl Harper () - Match referee: Javagal Srinath () - Reserve umpire: MR Singh () - Toss: Royals elected to field first - Result: Royals won by three wickets - League impact: Royals won the 2008 Indian Premier League Key - \* – Captain - – Wicket-keeper - c Fielder – the batsman was dismissed by a catch by the named fielder - b Bowler – the bowler who gains credit for the dismissal - lbw – the batsman was dismissed leg before wicket - Total runs are in the format: score/wickets ## Aftermath The Royals received ₹48 million (US\$600,000) and a trophy for being the champions. Royals' players received their medals from Sharad Pawar in the post-match ceremony. Warne said: > It's been a fantastic journey. We're gelled together really quickly. It makes me proud to see so many young guys learning and executing their skills in the middle. I think the crowds all over India have made the atmosphere amazing. Congratulations to Chennai. It's been a wonderful ride for us. Royals' Tanvir was given the purple cap for getting the highest number of wickets in the league. Watson was declared as the man of the series; he scored 474 runs and took 17 wickets in the season. The Super Kings received ₹24 million (US\$300,000) for being the runners-up. Dhoni said: > I think the standard of our cricket was really good. We were up to the mark in the finals. We lost as a team. There were a few errors in batting and bowling. We're not really unhappy or bogged down by it. We'll go back to our hotel and enjoy it. That's what sport is all about. The response from our team was great. Even the guys who didn't get a chance were completely behind the team. So the spirit was great." Both teams qualified for the 2008 Champions League Twenty20. However, the tournament was cancelled due to the 2008 Mumbai attacks and both teams were given ₹220 million (US\$2.8 million) each as compensation. Yusuf Pathan's all-round performance, three wickets for 22 runs off 4 overs and his 56 runs from 39 balls, was later declared by ESPNcricinfo as the "greatest IPL performance of all time".
2,867,017	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (video game)	1,167,127,105	2003 Video game	[ "2003 video games", "Aspyr games", "Beenox games", "Cooperative video games", "D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design winners", "D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character winners", "Game Boy Advance games", "GameCube games", "Games with GameCube-GBA connectivity", "Griptonite Games", "Hack and slash games", "Hypnos Entertainment games", "JAMDAT Mobile games", "MacOS games", "Mobile games", "Multiplayer and single-player video games", "PlayStation 2 games", "Role-playing games based on Middle-earth", "The Lord of the Rings (film series) video games", "Video game sequels", "Video games based on adaptations", "Video games based on films", "Video games developed in the United States", "Video games featuring female protagonists", "Video games with isometric graphics", "Visceral Games", "Windows games", "Xbox games" ]	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 hack and slash action game developed by EA Redwood Shores for the PlayStation 2 and Windows. It was ported to the GameCube and Xbox by Hypnos Entertainment, to the Game Boy Advance by Griptonite Games, to mobile by ImaginEngine, and to Mac OS X by Beenox. The game was published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the 2002 game The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The game is an adaptation of Peter Jackson's 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and his 2003 film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which was released shortly after the game. As it is not an adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1954 novel, The Return of the King, the third volume in Lord of the Rings, anything from the novel not specifically mentioned or depicted in the films could not be represented in the game. This is because, at the time, Vivendi Universal Games, in partnership with Tolkien Enterprises, held the rights to the video game adaptations of Tolkien's literary works, whilst Electronic Arts held the rights to the video game adaptations of the New Line Cinema films. The game is similar to its predecessor in basic gameplay, but differs by adding multiple storylines, more playable characters and increased interaction with environments. A two-player co-op mode is also available for some missions. As with The Two Towers, The Return of the King was developed in close collaboration with the filmmakers, using many of the actual reference photos, drawings, models, props and other assets from the film. The game was met with positive critical reception for its graphics, audio, and gameplay, although its camera positioning and short length were criticized. ## Gameplay Described by the developers as a modern version of Gauntlet, The Return of the King is a hack and slash action game played from a third-person perspective. The game is very similar to its predecessor in basic gameplay. Each character has a quick attack which does minimal damage and can be easily blocked, and a fierce attack, which does more damage, but is slower and leaves the player vulnerable to attack. Only fierce attacks can break enemy shields. Each character also has a ranged attack, a "killing move" (which can be used to instantly kill downed enemies), a parry (which can deflect enemy attacks), a knock back (which pushes nearby enemies away), a jump back (in which the player character jumps back away from the enemy), a devastating attack (a charged fierce attack) and a special ability. Playable characters in the console and PC versions are Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo and Sam, with Faramir, Pippin and Merry available as unlockable characters. Playable characters in the GBA version are Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Gandalf, and Éowyn. Each playable character has their own set of combos and attributes. After the end of each level the player can upgrade their characters' abilities and combos using experience points. The number of points available to the player depends on the efficiency of their kills. During each level, the player will be continually graded on the skill with which they dispatch enemies; "Fair", "Good", "Excellent" and "Perfect." The more skill with which the player kills, the more experience they acquire. The player's skill is measured by an on-screen meter which increases as the player dispatches enemies. To avoid the meter dropping back down, the player must avoid being hit, and kill enemies using a variety of different methods. When a player reaches a Perfect level, all of their attacks increase in strength, and the experience from each kill is doubled. However, Perfect status only lasts for a brief period of time. A new aspect of Return of the King is that at the end of each level, rather than purchasing upgrades for the individual character, the player can also purchase "Fellowship" upgrades which apply to every playable character. However, characters will only be able to avail of a particular skill when they have reached the corresponding experience level. A major change from The Two Towers is the interactive nature of the game environments. The player can operate machinery, for example bridges and catapults, to complete objectives, and use environmental objects as weapons, such as spears and cauldrons, to kill enemies. The levels are also twice the size of the largest level from The Two Towers and many are less linear. Unlike The Two Towers, The Return of the King features a co-op mode, allowing two players to play through the game together. The North American PlayStation 2 version also has an online multiplayer mode, with USB headset support, although this was removed from the European version of the game. The Game Boy Advance version is played from an isometric three-quarter top-down view. A major gameplay difference in this version is the addition of "runes" which players can etch into their weapons, granting them special abilities. The game also features co-op multiplayer through the Game Boy link function, and unlockable content when connected to the GameCube version via the GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable. ## Plot Todd Arnold, senior producer of The Return of the King, stated that the game was not intended to re-tell the story of the film, but to allow the player to come as close as possible to experiencing the critical parts of the film for themselves. Levels were designed with this goal in mind, with just enough plot to give context to the player's actions. Liberties were thus taken with the plot, and critics noted there was little footage which could spoil the film for those who had not seen it. GameSpot's Greg Kasavin said "if you didn't know anything about the story of The Return of the King, then the story of the game may be hard to follow, though you'll still get the gist of it." However, he also advised, "in case you don't want any aspect of the movie spoiled for you, it'd be wise to hold off on playing The Return of the King until after you've seen the movie." ### Synopsis The game begins during the Battle of the Hornburg at Helm's Deep, with the Uruk-hai having just penetrated the outer walls. With the defenders falling back to the inner court, Gandalf (voiced by Ian McKellen) appears on a hill-top flanked by thousands of Rohirrim. The player takes control of Gandalf as he enters the battle and helps defeat the Uruk-hai and orc army. After this level, the game splits into three separate mission arcs, each with its own individual set of characters. The "Path of the Wizard" follows Gandalf, the "Path of the King" follows Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and the "Path of the Hobbits" follows Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin), although initially only Sam is playable. The Path of the Wizard continues immediately after the events of the first level. The remains of the Uruk-hai and orc army flee into Fangorn Forest. However, within the forest, the Ents, led by Treebeard, have awoken and joined the fight against Sauron. Gandalf helps the ents as they destroy the rest of the army, and then assists them in bringing down a dam holding back the River Isen. This floods Isengard, trapping Saruman (Christopher Lee), who had joined forces with Sauron, in his tower, Orthanc. Gandalf and Pippin (Billy Boyd) then head to Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor, leaving Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the Rohirrim to follow them. Gandalf has gone ahead of the others because Sauron mistakenly believes that Pippin has the Ring, and Gandalf plans to use this confusion to distract Sauron as Frodo and Sam are led by Gollum (Andy Serkis) towards Mount Doom to destroy the Ring. In Minas Tirith, Gandalf helps repulse the enemies from the walls for a time, but eventually, they break through the city's defenses. Gandalf and the soldiers of Minas Tirith then retreat to a courtyard, where they must defend the fleeing civilians from the enemy. Once the people are safely inside, Gandalf can do little but await the arrival of Aragorn. The Path of the King picks up with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the Rohirrim on the way to Minas Tirith. Before arriving, however, the three companions must walk the Paths of the Dead in an effort to convince the Army of the Dead to join their cause in the War of the Ring. To do so, they must defeat the King of the Dead (Jarion Monroe) in combat. After this, the Paths of the Dead start to collapse, and they must escape before the falling rubble crushes them. With the Army of the Dead pledged to aid them, they travel to Minas Tirith and enter the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Joining the Rohirrim and the soldiers of Minas Tirith, they face orcs, Easterlings, Haradrim and oliphaunts. They must also defend Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Éowyn (Lorri Holt), allowing Éowyn the opportunity to defeat the Witch-king of Angmar. As it seems they are about to be overwhelmed, the Army of Dead arrive, destroying the forces of Mordor and saving Minas Tirith. The Path of the Wizard and Path of the King share the same final level, set at the Black Gate of Mordor. In a further effort to distract Sauron from the approach of Frodo and Sam, Gandalf advises that Aragorn and the remaining army marches to the Gates of Mordor as a direct challenge to Sauron, who will send out a vast army to meet them, thus keeping his attention away from Mount Doom. Upon arriving at the Gate, the party are confronted by the Mouth of Sauron (Roger L. Jackson), who tells them that Frodo is dead. They kill him and must then face a massive army of orcs, before fighting the remaining Nazgûl. Not believing Frodo to be dead, they plan to fight as long as they can, so as to give Frodo enough time to destroy the Ring. In The Path of the Hobbits, Frodo, Sam and Gollum must first escape from Osgiliath, fighting past orcs to get to the sewers and ensuring that Frodo is not kidnapped by the Nazgûl. However, upon escaping, Gollum decides to betray them and take the Ring back for himself. He tricks Frodo into going on without Sam, but Sam follows them into Shelob's lair. In the lair, Gollum abandons Frodo, and Sam must fight past giant spiders and orcs, eventually facing Shelob herself, who has attacked Frodo. Sam defeats Shelob, but upon reaching Frodo, he mistakenly believes him to be dead. About to go to Mount Doom on his own, he hides as a group of orcs arrive and hears them say that Frodo is alive but unconscious. They take him with them as Sam follows them to the Tower of Cirith Ungol. As Sam is about to enter the Tower, the orcs begin fighting among themselves, and Sam uses the distraction to rescue Frodo. Together, they head to Mount Doom. However, before Frodo can throw the Ring into the lava below, he is attacked by Gollum, who takes the Ring. In the final level, the player controls Frodo as he fights Gollum on the edge of the precipice. Frodo successfully defeats Gollum, knocking him into the lava and destroying the Ring forever. ## Development Following the success of the video game tie-in of The Two Towers film, an adaptation of The Return of the King was announced on 25 April 2003. While The Two Towers was released on the three major consoles (PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox) and the Game Boy Advance, The Return of the King was also set for release on PC. Executive producer Neil Young revealed playable characters would include Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Sam and two to four unlockable characters. He also stated the characters' fighting styles would be much more differentiated from one another than they had been in Two Towers, and he explained the game would offer three separate story branches rather than one, but the player would be unable to complete the game or get to the final level by playing through only one branch. Young stated "there are certain gates that prevent the player from progressing that might break the fiction, but that motivates them to essentially bring a party of characters through the game to its conclusion." The development team originally had been working on a new game engine from scratch for The Return of the King. With progress stalling about a year into development, the team turned to the engine used for EA Sports' Tiger Woods PGA Tour series, which was similarly built to craft expansive areas with large structures located throughout the world, and used it as a foundation for the engine built for The Return of the King. EA debuted the game at the 2003 E3 event in May, announcing that compared to Two Towers, Return of the King had more playable characters, larger and less linear levels, multiple narrative paths, bigger and more intelligent bosses, interactive environments, and a co-op mode. Footage from the films and parts of Howard Shore's score would feature, and members of the film's cast would lend their voices and likenesses to the game. On 15 May, a playable demo was made available for the PS2, featuring the first Minas Tirith level along with a non-playable demo of the co-op gameplay in a customized level specifically designed for E3. EA also revealed they were working on having Gollum as a playable character, although this ultimately did not happen, except in the GBA version. The developers called The Return of the King "bigger and better" than The Two Towers. "In The Two Towers the player would occasionally run into 10 or 15 enemies," said lead game designer Chris Tremmel, "in The Return of the King there are areas where the player faces up to 40 orcs [...] Fans familiar with The Two Towers will find that the combat experience in The Return of the King feels familiar but much deeper." Before creating levels, the developers would initially look at the script and determine what parts from the film to highlight in that particular level, and how to structure that event as a mission. They would then write in-depth level designs out on paper, going into details such as combat setup, special props and enemy types, all the while using the film as their main reference point. They would then create an animatic of the level, working out problems and fine-tuning design concepts. The levels would then be created in the game environment. The game is also graphically improved over The Two Towers. According to Neil Young, "we've developed some new lighting techniques to allow the characters to look richer. We are pushing 2x the number of polys & 2x the texture density [...] we also stream our geometry and textures from the disc so the game has a much higher density of imagery." Enemy AI was improved, and developers also spent a lot of time working on the sound of the game, which was THX certified. Producer Glen Schofield stated the biggest challenge the developers were facing was "just trying to match the breathtaking look and feel of the movies". Similarly, Neil Young said "We wanted to make something that's authentic and true to the movie. The people on our team really care about making a game that aspires to more than just a sequel, they want to make this equivalent to the movie experience itself." EA Redwood Shores worked closely with New Line Cinema to make the games as authentic as possible, using the actual reference photos, drawings, models, props, lighting studies and motion capture data. EA's partner relations director, Nina Dobner said: > Both New Line and the film production company in New Zealand are integrally tied into the entire development process of the game. Right from the conceptual stage down to the final production builds, their input is sought and listened to. We don't consider New Line a licensor, but more a true partner. As soon as we have the earliest storyboards and bare bones outline for a game, New Line are right at the table with me, giving their feedback. This is also the stage at which we introduce Peter Jackson, Barrie Osborne and the rest of the film production team to the key concepts and get their feedback. From here on, I meet with the actors, the film-makers and New Line on a regular basis to elicit feedback and new ideas as we move forward with the development. We are so deeply tied into the film production that we actually opened our own offices within the 3 foot 6 Weta offices in New Zealand during the pick-up shooting so we could be closer to the action and the assets. Dobner said that during the development of the game, she traveled to New Zealand once a month with builds of the game for the filmmakers to play, and on which to give their feedback, and that in total, EA had acquired a quarter of a million different assets from the production. Schofield further pointed out "we even hired the same stunt doubles from the movie to help us render the most realistic movements in the game." Dobner also said "we want the game to not just look like the films but to be exactly like the films." She commented that no details in the game were made up; "when we were reproducing Minas Tirith [...] we felt the team would benefit from being able to see and feel a piece of the actual movie set. Unfortunately, the set had already been dismantled. So, while in New Zealand, I searched the various warehouses to find remnants of the dismantled set. After much work, I returned to San Francisco proudly bearing four bricks from the Minas Tirith set." ## Reception The Return of the King received "generally favorably reviews" across all systems; the Game Boy Advance version holds an aggregate score of 77 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 13 reviews; the GameCube version 84 out of 100, based on 23 reviews; the PC version 78 out of 100, based on 18 reviews; the PlayStation 2 version 85 out of 100, based on 31 reviews; and the Xbox version 84 out of 100, based on 31 reviews. As an adaptation, the game was praised by GameZone's Michael Knutson as "the best movie to game conversion that has come out in a long time" and by GameSpy's Raymond Padilla as setting "a new standard for video game adaptations of movies." The graphics and THX-certified audio were lauded by critics. The game's animations, scenery, player models, cutscenes, music and voice acting were particularly well received. "Sound effects used in the game will also blow you away," Knutson said, "Everything from the explosions, swords clashing, hundreds of incoming enemies storming your way, all sounds like it came directly from the movie!" GameSpot's Greg Kasavin noted that "Frame rate issues do affect each version of the game, to varying degrees, and none of the character models for the main characters look all that remarkable," but conceded that "all other aspects of The Return of the King's graphics are outstanding [...] The game's audio is even more effective than the graphics at conveying the intensity of the action." Ian McKellen's narration of the game as Gandalf was also praised by GameSpot and Game Informer. The game's combat was praised by most critics. Electronic Gaming Monthly's Crispin Boyer described the game as "a thrill ride. And not just 'cause Return of the King unleashes larger hordes of foes than last year's equally slick Two Towers prequel. Many of Return of the King's levels actually force you to multitask while you hack and slash." PC Gamer UK's Tony Ellis wrote "combat in RotK is superbly satisfying. Your blows connect with a solid, visceral thud you can almost feel." He also noted the variation between levels. Eurogamer's Kristan Reed praised the "subtleties of the combat." In contrast, Game Informer's Matthew Kato found the gameplay to be "repetitious", writing "sometimes I got the feeling that I was working harder only to have less fun than in Two Towers." The co-op mode was also praised. The Return of the King was criticized for its poor camera placement. "What's the use of a new graphics engine and character models when the view is from so far away?" asked Kato. Reed complained about "camera switches which reverse the controls, or worse, completely obscure your viewpoint. On just about every mission the camera switching confuses the hell out of you." The game's save function was also criticized. Ellis commented that "You can only save after completing a level [...] which is not so good when you're forced to slog through the same sequences over and over again." Critics also complained about the unskippable cut scenes, occasionally unclear objectives and relatively short length. The GBA version also received good reviews. GameZone's Steve Hopper found it very similar to the GBA version of Two Towers, but wrote "all in all this is solid action game that I can wholeheartedly recommend for gamers who loved The Two Towers and want more of the same brand of hack and slash action." IGN's Craig Harris wrote "the enhancements to the gameplay definitely enhance an already solid action game, and it's also a very recommended two player experience as well. The Return of the King is a nice compliment to a great film, and a decent follow-up to an already enjoyable action title on the handheld." GameSpot's Frank Provo called it "more satisfying and ultimately more playable" than Two Towers, and praised the differentiation between the characters, the graphics and the experience system. GameSpy's Matt Chandronait was less impressed, criticizing the game's "technical flaws," especially its collision detection. He called it a "repetitive beat-'em-up that require[s] dozens of hours of devotion to unlock every last item, level, and character." ### Sales and awards In the United States, the Windows version of The Return of the King sold 240,000 copies and earned \$5.5 million by August 2006, after its release in November 2003. It was the country's 86th best-selling computer game during this period. In the United Kingdom, the PlayStation 2 version received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies. The wireless version of Return of the King, developed by JAMDAT, won IGN's "Wireless Game of the Year" award for 2003. At the 2003 Spike Video Game Awards, Return of the King was nominated for two awards; "Best Animation" and "Best Game Based on a Movie". It lost in both categories, to Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and Enter the Matrix, respectively. During the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded the game in two categories: "Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance - Male" (for Elijah Wood's voice role as Frodo) and "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design"; it also received a nomination for "Computer Action/Adventure Game of the Year". In 2014, IGN included the game in their list of the "5 Best Lord of the Rings Video Games." ### Peter Jackson reaction Despite the game's receiving general critical acclaim and selling well, Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, stated that the video game tie-in for his next film, King Kong, would not be developed by EA, but by Ubisoft. Jackson's manager claimed that despite EA saying the filmmakers were heavily involved in the making of the game, the developers were not interested in Jackson's input on the game. Additionally, Jackson had played Beyond Good & Evil, and wanted to work with producer Michel Ancel, who was at Ubisoft.
1,756,737	Palace Theatre (New York City)	1,172,756,124	Broadway theater in Manhattan, New York	[ "1913 establishments in New York City", "Broadway (Manhattan)", "Broadway theatres", "Movie palaces", "Nederlander Organization", "New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan", "New York City interior landmarks", "Relocated buildings and structures in New York City", "Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)", "Theater District, Manhattan", "Theatres completed in 1913", "Times Square buildings", "Vaudeville theaters" ]	The Palace Theatre is a Broadway theater at 1564 Broadway, facing Times Square, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Milwaukee architects Kirchhoff & Rose, the theater was funded by Martin Beck and opened in 1913. From its opening to about 1929, the Palace was considered among vaudeville performers as the flagship of Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Franklin Albee II's organization. The theater had 1,743 seats across three levels as of 2018. The modern Palace Theatre consists of a three-level auditorium at 47th Street, which is a New York City designated landmark. The auditorium contains ornately designed plasterwork, boxes on the side walls, and two balcony levels that slope downward toward the stage. When it opened, the theater was accompanied by an 11- or 12-story office wing facing Broadway, also designed by Kirchhoff & Rose. The Palace was most successful as a vaudeville house in the 1910s and 1920s. Under RKO Theatres, it became a movie palace called the RKO Palace Theatre in the 1930s, though it continued to host intermittent vaudeville shows in the 1950s. The Nederlander Organization purchased the Palace in 1965 and reopened the venue as a Broadway theater the next year. The theater closed for an extensive renovation from 1987 to 1991, when the original building was partly demolished and replaced with the DoubleTree Suites Times Square Hotel; the theater was reopened within the DoubleTree in 1991. The DoubleTree Hotel was mostly demolished in 2019 to make way for the TSX Broadway development. As part of this project, the Palace closed again in 2018 and was lifted 30 feet (9.1 m) in early 2022. As of 2022, the renovation is scheduled to be completed in 2023. ## Buildings The Palace Theatre is at 1568 Broadway, at the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue and 47th Street, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It faces Duffy Square, the northern end of Times Square. The theater's site abuts the I. Miller Building and Embassy Theatre to the south. The Palace Theatre was designed by Milwaukee architects Kirchhoff & Rose and was completed in 1913. The theater was funded by Martin Beck, a vaudeville entrepreneur. The theater has been housed in three buildings over the years. While the interior space dates to the 1913 design by Kirchhoff & Rose, the original theater building was partly demolished in 1988 and the theater space was renovated inside the DoubleTree Suites Times Square Hotel, completed between 1990 and 1991. The DoubleTree Hotel was itself demolished in 2019 to make way for the TSX Broadway development. ### Original building The Palace Theatre was originally composed of an office wing along Times Square, as well as the theater wing on 47th Street that contained the auditorium. The original building's site was assembled from ten land lots at 1564–1566 Broadway and 156–170 West 47th Street, which were arranged in an "L" shape. The Broadway lots collectively measured 40 by 80 feet (12 by 24 m), while the 47th Street lots measured 137 by 100 feet (42 by 30 m). This structure was designed by Kirchhoff & Rose, with James J. F. Gavigan as an associate architect. The steelwork was constructed by the George A. Just Company. The office wing was an 11-story or 12-story structure, which served as the theater's main entrance. In the original building's later years, the entrance had a marquee. The office wing had an ornate marble facade, as well as two passenger elevators and one private elevator inside. The theater entrance was 40 feet (12 m) wide and contained an outer lobby with either Pavanazzo or yellow Carrara marble and a Siena-marble inner lobby. The lobbies were accessed by two sets of stained-glass, bronze-framed screen doors. There were stairs to the upper floors in the inner lobby. Past the two lobbies was a foyer that led directly to the auditorium (see ). The theater wing measured 88 by 125 feet (27 by 38 m). It had a brick or terracotta facade on 47th Street. The interior had French decorations. The auditorium originally had a seating capacity of 1,820, with double balcony levels and 20 boxes arranged in tiers. It was characterized as having an ivory-and-bronze color scheme. Five massive girders spanned the auditorium; each measured 86 feet (26 m) long and 8 feet (2.4 m) deep, weighing 30 short tons (27 long tons; 27 t). There were also 32 or 36 dressing rooms. ### DoubleTree Suites An Embassy Suites hotel (later a DoubleTree Suites), designed by Fox & Fowle, was built on the site between 1987 and 1991, replacing the office wing on Broadway. The hotel had 460 suites and was 43 stories tall. The theater's facade was almost entirely hidden behind 10,000 square feet (930 m<sup>2</sup>) of billboards for the first 120 feet (37 m) of the hotel's height, as per zoning regulations governing buildings on Times Square. The hotel leased the unused air rights above the Palace Theatre to achieve a greater height than would normally be allowed under zoning regulations. The hotel was placed above and around the theater's original auditorium and stage house. The hotel rooms were supported by four steel-and-concrete "super columns", which each measured 145 feet (44 m) tall and were placed to the west and east of the auditorium. Resting on the columns were two concrete-encased steel trusses, measuring 130 feet (40 m) long by 57 feet (17 m) tall and connected by 17 crossbeams. The theater's lobby, as well as the hotel's entrance and some retail shops, were on the ground story. The entrance to the theater was at approximately the same location as in the original building, and the lobby from the old office wing was preserved. The theater lobby was divided into two sections leading into a foyer. Above that was a five-story atrium with some of the hotel's public spaces, which were placed between the beams, and 36 guestroom stories. A 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) emergency exit was preserved on the eastern side of the theater. Within the theater itself, mezzanine restrooms, an air-conditioning system, and an elevator to the second balcony were installed. Furthermore, the backstage facilities were enlarged. The Palace Theatre's original facade on 47th Street, consisting of rusticated limestone blocks at the first floor and brick on the upper stories, still remained but was not protected as a New York City landmark. The theater's lobby was also not protected as a landmark. ### TSX Broadway As of 2019, the DoubleTree/Palace site is being redeveloped as part of TSX Broadway, a \$2 billion mixed-use structure with a 669-room hotel, which is being built around, above, and below the Palace's auditorium. To meet city building codes, the new structure retains the lowest 16 stories of the DoubleTree structure, with new concrete slabs being poured around the old ones. The area occupied by the 1987 lobby is being replaced with retail space, extending three levels below ground. This requires the auditorium to be raised by about 30 feet (9.1 m). The auditorium will be supported by columns that, in turn, rest on caissons extending 45 feet (14 m) deep. The new ground-story space includes 4,000 square feet (370 m<sup>2</sup>) of outdoor entertainment space and 75,000 square feet (7,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of retail. In addition, about 10,000 square feet (930 m<sup>2</sup>) of back of house space would be created. The plans also include relocating the main entrance to 47th Street, where the facade has been raised and a marquee sign measuring 75 feet (23 m) long will be installed. Escalators along 47th Street will connect the new entrance to a new orchestra-level lobby next to the raised auditorium. The new development includes about 51,000 square feet (4,700 m<sup>2</sup>) of exterior signage. In total, the theater will be expanded from 40,000 to 80,000 square feet (3,700 to 7,400 m<sup>2</sup>). ## Auditorium The auditorium, which the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has protected as a city landmark, is the only portion of the original theater that survives. It is placed in a rigid enclosure that is structurally separate from the buildings within which it has been housed. The auditorium has boxes, two balconies above an orchestra level, and a large stage behind an oversized proscenium arch. The auditorium's width is slightly greater than its depth. The foyer and lobby were designed with plaster decorations in high relief, which alluded to the vaudeville presented at the Palace, while the stage itself was originally sloped. Though the auditorium's orchestra level was originally at the ground story, it will be on the third story when TSX Broadway is completed. ### Seating areas Prior to its closure in 2018, the auditorium had 1,743 seats. The orchestra level has a raked floor that slopes downward toward the stage. Both balcony levels have curved fronts and cantilever above the orchestra, sloping downward toward the stage. All three levels contain promenades, which have cornices on their ceilings. Staircases behind each promenade connect the three levels of seating. When the theater reopens in the early 2020s, it will have about 1,657 seats. The first balcony level extends half the depth of the orchestra and contains two staircases about halfway through. The front of the balcony has decorative moldings with classical masks, while its underside contains plaster moldings of ropes. The second balcony contains rope moldings on its underside, which form a rectangular pattern. The front edge of the second balcony's underside contains guilloche moldings interspersed with oak branches, above which are decorative moldings with masks. The second balcony's side walls have decorative pilasters that support a frieze, as well as exit doors with curved pediments. The ceiling of the second balcony has ventilation grates, which are not part of the original design. The orchestra level has boxes on either side, divided by white-marble barriers with black-marble baseboards. On either side of the proscenium are arched niches with a doorway at orchestra level and a box at the first balcony level. Each niche's box contains a doorway with pilasters on either side, which are topped by console brackets that support a curved pediment with a tympanum. The niches are topped by a recessed lunette that resembles a shell or sunburst. The niches originally contained three boxes each, but these were extensively altered in a 1965 renovation. Additional boxes exist on both sides of both balcony levels. The first balcony level has one additional box behind each niche. The second balcony level has five curved boxes on each side in a terraced arrangement, with higher boxes being further from the stage. The fronts of the balcony-level boxes have decorative moldings, while the undersides of these boxes contain foliate ornamentation. Originally there were 20 boxes at orchestra level, 23 at the first balcony, and 12 at the second balcony. ### Other design features Pendentives at each corner of the auditorium support a wide coved ceiling. The cove is divided into a set of panels with different types of scrolls and floral moldings. The front of the cove, near the sounding board, has a cartouche with putti. There is a flat ceiling surface with a pair of curved triangular panels, as well as a dome with modillions, rosettes, and fruit-and-flower moldings. There was originally an old-ivory bronze chandelier measuring 14 feet (4.3 m) across, which hung from a pendant on the ceiling. The chandelier is being restored as part of the theater's early-2020s renovation. The proscenium arch measures 44 feet (13 m) across. It contains pellet, egg-and-dart, and acanthus-leaf moldings surrounding a band of acanthus leaves. The top of the arch consists of a keystone with a molding of a child's head. A sounding board rises above the proscenium arch, with foliate bands at the perimeter. At the center of the sounding board, above the stage, is a circular panel depicting a lyre. The orchestra pit is at the front of the orchestra seating level, in front of the proscenium. It dates from a 1965 renovation and contains high walls. The stage is behind the proscenium arch and orchestra pit. The stage historically had a Wurlitzer Opus 303 organ. ## History The vaudevillian Martin Beck was the operator of the Orpheum Circuit, which in the early 20th century was the dominant vaudeville circuit on the West Coast of the United States. Its East Coast complement was the Keith–Albee circuit, composed of Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Albee, who operated venues both by themselves and through their United Booking Office. The Orpheum and Keith–Albee circuits had proposed a truce in 1906, wherein Orpheum would control vaudeville west of Chicago and Keith–Albee would control vaudeville east of Chicago, including New York City. This truce was implemented in 1907. ### Development Beck and Herman Fehr announced in December 1911 that they had leased the site with plans to construct a venue, the Palace Theatre. Beck's representatives initially said the Palace would not be part of the Orpheum interests and, therefore, would not be used to show vaudeville. Beck subsequently recanted, saying he would use the Palace for vaudeville. In February 1912, Kirchhoff & Rose and Gavigan filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings for a theater building at Broadway and 47th Street. Due to the truce between Orpheum and Keith–Albee, Edward Albee initially said any vaudeville act that played the Palace would not be allowed on the Keith–Albee circuit. Albee demanded that Beck turn over three-quarters ownership to use acts from the Keith–Albee circuit, to which Beck acquiesced. Albee moved the B. F. Keith office to the fifth floor, and the UBO office moved to the office wing as well. Furthermore, Willie Hammerstein held the exclusive franchise to vaudeville performances around Times Square. Because of the vaudeville restriction, Werba & Luescher obtained an option on the new theater in mid-1912. Hammerstein initially refused to sell his exclusive vaudeville franchise to Albee, but Hammerstein agreed to a \$200,000 settlement in May 1913, after the theater had opened. The Palace's programming was still unknown to the public until February 1913, when The New York Times announced the theater would be "something along the lines of English music halls", with events such as ballets, rather than "strict vaudeville". ### Vaudeville The theater finally opened on March 24, 1913, with headliner Ed Wynn. Tickets cost \$1.50 for matinees and \$2.00 for nighttime performances. The screenwriter Marian Spitzer wrote of opening day: "The theatre itself, living up to advance publicity, was spacious, handsome and lavishly decorated in crimson and gold. But nothing happened that afternoon to suggest the birth of a great theatrical tradition." Rather, the public mostly considered its \$2 admission fees to be expensive. The media widely mocked the opening bill; four days after the Palace opened, Variety magazine printed an article entitled "Palace \$2 Vaudeville a Joke: Double-Crossing Boomerang". Also problematic was the presence of Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre, a much more successful and established vaudeville venue. The Variety article noted that, while the Victoria had played to capacity two days in a row, the Palace had to give out free coupons to half the guests and still struggled to fill the balcony seats. The Palace's first success was the one-act play Miss Civilization, featuring Ethel Barrymore, six weeks after the theater opened. It was only after an appearance by French actress Sarah Bernhardt on May 5, 1913, that the Palace became popular. Except for a period from May to December 1913, the Palace had performances every day for the next two decades. By December 1914, Variety was characterizing the Palace as "the greatest vaudeville theater in America, if not the world". The death of Willie Hammerstein the same year, and the subsequent closure of the Victoria, contributed to the Palace's popularity. Keith also died in 1914, giving Albee even more control of the Palace. Albee sometimes traded on the performers' desire for this goal by forcing acts to accept smaller profits. To "play the Palace" meant that entertainers had reached the pinnacles of their vaudeville careers. The theater itself was nicknamed the "Valhalla of Vaudeville". Performer Jack Haley wrote: > Only a vaudevillian who has trod its stage can really tell you about it ... only a performer can describe the anxieties, the joys, the anticipation, and the exultation of a week's engagement at the Palace. The walk through the iron gate on 47th Street through the courtyard to the stage door, was the cum laude walk to a show business diploma. A feeling of ecstasy came with the knowledge that this was the Palace, the epitome of the more than 15,000 vaudeville theaters in America, and the realization that you have been selected to play it. Of all the thousands upon thousands of vaudeville performers in the business, you are there. This was a dream fulfilled; this was the pinnacle of Variety success. A typical bill would have nine acts, who would perform twice a day. The bills were rotated every Monday. Consequently, the Monday matinee was generally considered among vaudevillians to be the most important of any given week, with the harshest audience. A failed act would generally be eliminated from the evening shows. Because of the constant rotations of acts, Variety observed in 1914 that the theater was "using up headliners at an alarming rate". At its peak, the Palace's annual profit was \$500,000, and the average bill was paid \$12,000. About three-quarters of revenue was from subscriptions, and many patrons who regularly visited the Monday afternoon shows were subscription holders. Performing comedians would select "stooges" from the Palace's box seats. The audience members in the right-side first-balcony boxes would generally assist the performers. #### Vaudeville headliners Throughout vaudeville's heyday, the headliners (usually billed next to the closing act) included: - Ed Wynn (1913) - Ethel Barrymore (1913) - Nora Bayes (1914) - Fritzi Scheff (1914) - Nan Halperin (1915) - Will Rogers (1916) - Blossom Seeley (1917) - Lillian Russell (1918) - Leon Errol (1919) - Marie Cahill (1919) - Olga Petrova (1919) - The "Dixie Duo" (Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake) (1919) - Bert Williams (1919) - Marie Dressler (1919) - Aileen Stanley (1920, 1926, 1930, 1931) - The Marx Brothers (1920) - Lou Clayton and Cliff Edwards (1921) - Bessie Clayton (1921) - Fanny Brice (1923) - Isabella Patricola ("Miss Patricola") (1923, 1926, 1927, 1938) - Cecilia Loftus (1923) - Trixie Friganza (1924) - Florence Mills (1924) - Cliff Edwards (1924) - Doc Rockwell (1925) - Weber and Fields (1925) - Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce (the Three X Sisters) and Jerry and Her Baby Grands (1925 or 1926) - Eva Tanguay (1926) - Barto and Mann (1927, 1929) - Ethel Waters (1927) - Julian Eltinge (1927) - the Duncan Sisters (1927) - Clark and McCullough (1928) - Clayton, Jackson & Durante (1928) - Buck and Bubbles (1928, 1929) - Harry Langdon (1929) - Mary Hay and Clifton Webb (1929) - Phil Baker (1930, 1931, 1932) - George Jessel (1930) - Adelaide Hall (1930, 1931, 1933) #### Other performers Other performers appearing at the Palace included: - Burns and Allen - Jack Benny - Sarah Bernhardt - Eddie Cantor - Vernon and Irene Castle - Gus Edwards - Frank Fay - Benny Fields - Bob Hope - Eddie Leonard - George Jessel - Helen Kane - Bert Lahr - Ethel Merman - Bill Robinson - Blossom Seeley - Kate Smith - Sophie Tucker #### Decline The circuit became Keith–Albee–Orpheum in 1925 and it acquired film companies the following year. With the Great Depression came a rise in the popularity of film and radio, and vaudeville saw a steep decline. The Paramount Theatre of 1926 and Roxy Theatre of 1927, in particular, were major competitors to the Palace. Many bills were held at the Palace for several consecutive weeks due to their popularity, which turned away subscription holders who wished for more variety; furthermore, many acts demanded increased salaries. After Keith–Albee–Orpheum merged with RCA and the Film Booking Office to form RKO Pictures in 1928, the circuit's vaudeville houses became movie houses. In 1929, the Keith's booking office relocated from the fifth floor of the office wing to the sixth. To attract vaudeville-goers, the Palace added an electric piano in the lobby and colored lights in the auditorium during the late 1920s. Vaudeville was still popular as late as 1931, when Kate Smith had a ten-week-long run. After considering a three-a-day production, the Palace moved to four shows a day in May 1932 and lowered its admission prices. A fifth show was subsequently added, but this failed to increase the number of attendees. ### Post-vaudeville #### Movie palace use The last week of straight vaudeville at the Palace premiered July 9, 1932, featuring Louis Sobol. Afterward, the Palace instituted a mixed policy of vaudeville before a feature film, which continued for several months. The last vaudeville accompaniment took place on November 12, 1932, with Nick Lucas and Hal Le Roy appearing on the closing bill. Thereafter, the Palace was converted to a movie palace, showing films exclusively under RKO Pictures. The film-only policy was not initially successful because many major studios already operated their own theaters in Times Square. Theatrical historian Louis Botto said that "from the 1930s on, it was a constant struggle for survival" for the Palace, which frequently flipped between film-only, vaudeville/film, and live performance formats. The Palace reverted to a vaudeville-before-film policy on January 7, 1933, two months after it started showing films exclusively. The venue spent the next two years alternating between film-only and vaudeville-before-film formats. For fourteen years beginning in 1935, the Palace showed movies almost exclusively. The booking office in the Palace Theatre's office wing moved several blocks away to Radio City Music Hall. There was a brief return to a live revue format in 1936, when Broadway producer Nils Granlund staged a series of variety shows, beginning with "Broadway Heat Wave" featuring female orchestra leader Rita Rio. Among the films shown at the RKO Palace was the RKO picture Citizen Kane, which had its world premiere at the theater in 1941. In preparation for the 1939 New York World's Fair, RKO began to erect a 40-by-25-foot (12.2 by 7.6 m) marquee in front of the office wing in April 1939. The next month, RKO announced the Palace would be renovated. The alterations included renovating the outer lobby with black-and-white granite walls and the inner lobby with zebra wood and black marble walls. Additionally, aluminum and bronze frames were installed in the outer lobby. The work also included installing doors between the inner and outer lobbies. The renovations were finished in August 1939. Further renovations followed in the early 1940s, when some of the boxes were removed since they did not have a good view of the cinema screen. #### Attempted revival of vaudeville The RKO Palace was closed for a \$60,000 renovation in early 1949. It received new seats and carpets; upgraded acoustic features and stage; and a new ticket booth in the lobby. Beginning in May 1949, under RKO vice president Sol Schwartz, the RKO Palace tried to revive vaudeville with a slate of eight acts before a feature film. Within two months of vaudeville being reintroduced, Schwartz said patronage was "very encouraging". The Palace was closed for a two-week renovation in October 1951. After the Palace reopened, Judy Garland staged a 19-week comeback at the venue, supported by acts such as Max Bygraves. This was the first occurrence of two-a-day vaudeville at the Palace in nearly 18 years. The Palace also attracted acts including Lauritz Melchior, José Greco, Betty Hutton, Danny Kaye, Dick Shawn, and Phil Spitalny. Garland returned for a successful run in 1956, this time with Alan King. While the shows were successful, they did not lead to a revival of the vaudeville format. According to theatrical historian Ken Bloom, the Palace "limped along into the fifties with an occasional good week", but the popularity of television had restricted the profitability of the Palace's vaudeville. Performances by Jerry Lewis and Liberace, in 1957, failed to attract enough audience members. As a result, the Palace dropped its vaudeville policy in July 1957. Its film screenings began with James Cagney's Man of a Thousand Faces on August 13, 1957. The films included The Diary of Anne Frank, which premiered in 1959. The Palace hosted one more vaudeville performance by Harry Belafonte in December 1959. ### Broadway theater #### Nederlander conversion The RKO Palace was no longer profitable as a cinema by March 1965, and RKO considered selling it to Sherman S. Krellberg for conversion into a Broadway theater. That July, the Nederlander Organization agreed to purchase the Palace from RKO for about \$1.4 million or \$1.6 million. The Nederlanders also acquired the ground lease, which had 52 years remaining in its term. The last film to play the RKO Palace was Harlow in August 1965, and the Nederlanders formally acquired the theater the same month. The Nederlanders incorporated the All State Amusement Corporation to operate the theater. For the Palace to break even, each production would have to gross \$65,000 a week. The Nederlanders spent \$500,000 to renovate the venue into a legitimate theater. Many of the decorations that were added after the theater's opening were removed, revealing the original design. Among the decorations uncovered were ironwork, marble balustrades, and the molded ceiling of the lobby. In the basement, workers found a gold vault that was filled with paint cans, as well as crystal chandeliers. The auditorium was outfitted with red decorations and gold-and-cream walls, while the basement was renovated to include a dressing room for the primary performer. Two bars were installed: one in the lobby and one in the basement. The renovations made the Palace the only Broadway theater that was actually on Broadway, and, with 1,732 seats, the largest Broadway house. Ralph Alswang oversaw the restoration of the Palace. The Stage magazine printed the Palace Theatre's programs, competing with Playbill magazine, the traditional publisher of stage programs. On January 29, 1966, the Palace opened as a Broadway venue with the original production of the musical Sweet Charity. The production ran at the Palace for 608 performances. The Nederlanders wished to keep the Palace Theatre open even when there was no theatrical engagement. For some time, the Palace showed films and presented concert performances between engagements. Judy Garland's performance in July 1967 was recorded for a live album, Judy Garland at Home at the Palace: Opening Night; it was followed the same year by a double bill with Eddie Fisher and Buddy Hackett. Later in 1967, the musical Henry, Sweet Henry had a relatively short run of 80 performances. More successful was George M!, which opened in 1968 and ran over 400 performances. During the 1970s, the Palace hosted live performances from Josephine Baker, Bette Midler, Vikki Carr, Shirley MacLaine, and Diana Ross. The Palace additionally hosted the 25th Tony Awards in 1971. During this time, the theater hosted the musical Applause, which had opened in 1970 and ran for 896 performances over two years. The next hit was the musical Lorelei, which opened in 1974 and lasted ten months. The musical Man of La Mancha ran at the Palace for three months in 1977; it was followed in 1979 by the musical Oklahoma!, which had 301 performances. Yet another musical, Woman of the Year, opened in 1981 and stayed for two years. The Palace's most successful production in its first two decades was La Cage aux Folles, which opened in 1983 and ran for more than four years. #### 1980s renovation to 2010s Developer Larry Silverstein had planned to build a skyscraper on the Palace Theater's site since the mid-1980s. Such a development was contingent on his ability to acquire a Bowery Savings Bank branch at the corner of 47th Street and Seventh Avenue, surrounded by the original Palace Theatre building. Even after acquiring that site, he had to wait until after the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) reviewed the theater for city-landmark status in 1987. If the landmark status was approved, Silverstein would have to build around the theater. This was part of the LPC's wide-ranging effort in 1987 to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters. Ultimately, only the interior was designated as a landmark; a similar status for the exterior was denied. In late 1987, the theater closed after the last performance of La Cage aux Folles. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the landmark designation in March 1988. The Nederlanders, the Shuberts, and Jujamcyn collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters, including the Palace, on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which the theaters could be modified. The lawsuit was escalated to the New York Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, but these designations were ultimately upheld in 1992. Meanwhile, the office wing was demolished (except for the lobby), as were two stories above the auditorium and two ancillary structures. Silverstein developed a 43-story Embassy Suites hotel on the site. The theater received a \$1.5 million renovation as part of the \$150 million hotel project. The hotel was completed in September 1990. The Will Rogers Follies opened in the renovated theater on May 1, 1991, running until 1993. The Palace then showed Beauty and the Beast from 1994 to 1999, before it transferred to the Lunt-Fontanne. Aida, which ran from 2000 through 2004, had 1,852 performances. The theater also staged Legally Blonde: The Musical from 2007 to 2008; West Side Story from 2009 to 2011; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert from 2011 to 2012; and Annie from 2012 to 2014. As part of a settlement with the United States Department of Justice in 2014, the Nederlanders agreed to improve disabled access at their nine Broadway theaters, including the Palace. Also in early 2014, the orchestra seating was rearranged as part of a \$200,000 renovation prior to the opening of Holler If Ya Hear Me; that musical opened in June 2014 and ran for six weeks. An American in Paris, a stage adaptation of the 1951 MGM film, opened in April 2015 for an 18-month run. The Illusionists: Turn of the Century ran a limited engagement from November 2016 to January 2017, and Sunset Boulevard also had a limited engagement from February to June 2017. #### 2010s and 2020s renovation In 2015, the Nederlander Organization and Maefield Development announced another renovation in conjunction with the TSX Broadway development. The project would include a new lobby and entrance on 47th Street as well as dressing rooms and other patron amenities. The landmark interior would be raised 30 feet (9.1 m) to accommodate ground-floor retail spaces. The LPC approved the plan in November 2015, even as many preservationists expressed concern over the idea. The New York City Council approved the plan in June 2018, allowing the redevelopment to progress. The musical SpongeBob SquarePants was the last show to play at the theater prior to the renovation, running from December 2017 to September 2018. Demolition of the existing structure began in late 2019. The reconstruction was originally estimated to keep the Palace closed until 2021. The renovation was delayed during 2019 because the contractors needed to inspect an adjacent building, but the property's owners did not grant permission for the inspection for over a year. The old 1568 Broadway building was being demolished by early 2020. Work was only interrupted for three weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, as the TSX Broadway project had hotel rooms and was thus classified as an "essential jobsite". Construction of TSX Broadway's superstructure began the next year. The theater also underwent a \$50 million renovation, which involved restoring the plasterwork and original chandelier; adding sound insulation; and erecting a new box office and new restrooms. The auditorium was raised starting in January 2022. During the lift, the bottom of the auditorium was cushioned by a 5-foot-thick (1.5 m) layer of concrete, installed by foundation engineer Urban Foundation Engineering. The lift was conducted using 34 hydraulic posts, which were sunk 30 feet (9.1 m) into the ground. The posts consisted of telescoping beams, which moved the auditorium by 0.25 inches (6.4 mm) an hour. After the theater had been raised 16 or 17 feet (4.9 or 5.2 m), in March 2022, the lifting process was temporarily paused while the new structural frame was installed. The lifting process was completed on April 5, 2022, though the formal celebration was held the next month. Afterward, the permanent supports under the auditorium were installed. At the time, TSX Broadway was planned to be completed in 2023. ## Alleged haunting The ghost of acrobat Louis Bossalina allegedly haunts the theater. Observers have said that the ghost is a white-clothed figure swinging in the air before emitting a "blood-curdling scream" and falling. Bossalina, who was a member of the acrobatic act the Four Casting Pearls, was injured when he fell 18 feet (5.5 m) during a performance on August 28, 1935, before 800 theatergoers. Bossalina's act was not a trapeze but rather fixed towers in which the acrobats were "cast from one to the other". Comedian Pat Henning started his act in front of a curtain that was pulled right after the accident. Bossalina (who was incorrectly identified as "Borsalino" in The New York Times) died in 1963. According to television channel NY1, sightings of Bossalina only occurred through the 1980s, though another source cited a sighting in the 1990s during a showing of Beauty and the Beast. ## Notable productions Productions are listed by the year of their first performance. This list only includes Broadway shows; it does not include vaudeville shows or films. - 1966: Sweet Charity - 1967: Henry, Sweet Henry - 1968: George M! - 1970: Applause - 1973: Cyrano - 1974: Lorelei - 1975: Goodtime Charley - 1976: Home Sweet Homer - 1976: Shirley MacLaine Live at the Palace - 1976: An Evening with Diana Ross - 1977: Man of La Mancha - 1979: The Grand Tour - 1979: Beatlemania - 1979: Oklahoma! - 1981: Woman of the Year - 1983: La Cage aux Folles - 1991: The Will Rogers Follies - 1994: Beauty and the Beast - 1999: Minnelli on Minnelli: Live at the Palace - 2000: Aida - 2005: All Shook Up - 2006: Lestat - 2007: Legally Blonde - 2008: Liza's at The Palace.... - 2009: West Side Story - 2011: Priscilla Queen of the Desert - 2012: Annie - 2014: Holler If Ya Hear Me - 2014: The Temptations and the Four Tops on Broadway - 2015: An American in Paris - 2016: The Illusionists: Turn of the Century - 2017: Sunset Boulevard - 2017: SpongeBob SquarePants ## See also - List of Broadway theaters - List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
6,426,627	Tim Lincecum	1,173,324,057	American baseball player (born 1984)	[ "1984 births", "American baseball players of Filipino descent", "Baseball players from King County, Washington", "Baseball players from Marin County, California", "Cy Young Award winners", "Fresno Grizzlies players", "Golden Spikes Award winners", "Harwich Mariners players", "Living people", "Los Angeles Angels players", "Major League Baseball pitchers", "National League All-Stars", "National League strikeout champions", "People from Issaquah, Washington", "People from Sausalito, California", "Round Rock Express players", "Salem-Keizer Volcanoes players", "Salt Lake Bees players", "San Francisco Giants players", "San Jose Giants players", "Sportspeople from Bellevue, Washington", "Sportspeople from Renton, Washington", "Washington Huskies baseball players" ]	Timothy Leroy Lincecum (/ˈlɪnsəkʌm/ LIN-sə-kum; born June 15, 1984), nicknamed "The Freak", "The Franchise", "The Freaky Franchise" and "Big Time Timmy Jim", is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants (2007 to 2015) and Los Angeles Angels (2016). A two-time Cy Young Award winner, Lincecum helped the Giants win three World Series championships from 2010 through 2014. A graduate of Liberty Senior High School in Renton, Washington, Lincecum played college baseball at the University of Washington, where he won the 2006 Golden Spikes Award. That year, Lincecum became the first Washington Husky to be selected in the first round of an MLB Draft when the San Francisco Giants selected him tenth overall. Nicknamed "The Freak" for his ability to generate powerful pitches despite his slight physique (5 feet 11 inches, 170 pounds), the power pitcher led the National League in strikeouts for three consecutive years in a span from 2008 to 2010. He also led the league in shutouts in 2009 and won the Babe Ruth Award in 2010 as the most valuable player of the MLB postseason. Lincecum won consecutive Cy Young Awards in 2008 and 2009, becoming the first MLB pitcher to win the award in his first two full seasons. He also appeared in four consecutive All-Star Games from 2008 through 2011 and pitched no-hitters in 2013 and 2014. Lincecum won World Series rings with the Giants in 2010, 2012, and 2014. After an injury-plagued 2015 season, he made nine starts for the Angels in 2016. Lincecum is one of only three pitchers in Major League history to win multiple World Series championships, win multiple Cy Young Awards, throw multiple no-hitters, and earn multiple All-Star selections; the others are Justin Verlander and Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. ## Early life Lincecum's mother, Rebecca Asis, is the daughter of Filipino immigrants. His father, Chris, worked at Boeing and is distantly related by marriage to actress Natalie Wood. From the age of four, Chris helped his son refine his pitching motion, filming his practices and games and analyzing the video. Lincecum attended Liberty Senior High School in Renton, Washington, where he played two seasons of varsity baseball. As a senior, he was named the state's Player of the Year and led his school to the 2003 3A Kingco Athletic Conference title. He was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 48th round (1,408th overall) of the 2003 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft, but he did not sign, opting to attend the University of Washington instead. ## College career In both 2004 and 2006, Lincecum was named the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year for the Washington Huskies. He was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 42nd round (1,261st overall) upon re-entering the draft in 2005. Again, he did not sign, rejecting an offer including a \$700,000 signing bonus as he had been holding out for a larger signing bonus so that his father could retire. He finished 2006 with a 12–4 win–loss record and a 1.94 earned run average (ERA), 199 strikeouts, and three saves in 125+1⁄3 innings. He was the recipient of the 2006 Golden Spikes Award, which is awarded annually to the best amateur baseball player. In 2005, Lincecum played collegiate summer baseball for the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League. He was named a league all-star for Harwich, and posted a 2–2 record with a league-leading 0.69 ERA, striking out 68 batters in 39 innings. ## Professional career ### Drafts and minor leagues Lincecum was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 48th round (1,408th overall) of the 2003 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft, but he did not sign, opting to attend the University of Washington instead. In 2006, Lincecum was drafted tenth overall by the San Francisco Giants, becoming the first player from the University of Washington to be taken in the first round. His \$2.025 million signing bonus was, at the time, the most the organization had ever paid to any amateur player. Lincecum made his professional debut in 2006 with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes of the Single-A short season Northwest League. Going into 2007, he was ranked as the \#11 prospect in baseball and the \#1 prospect in the San Francisco Giants organization by Baseball America. In the spring of 2007, Colorado Rockies prospect Ian Stewart described Lincecum as tough to face, saying "You can't see the ball at all until it's right on top of you. It gets on you real quick...Guys on our club who have been in the big leagues said he's the toughest guy they ever faced too." Lincecum spent the first month of the season pitching for the Fresno Grizzlies, the Giants' Triple-A affiliate in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). In 31 innings across five starts with the Grizzlies, he allowed just one run, 12 hits, and 11 walks while striking out 46 batters and going 4–0. During his 2006 and 2007 minor league campaigns, Lincecum struck out 30.9% of batters, the highest ratio of any minor league pitcher in the previous ten years. ### San Francisco Giants (2007–2015) #### Rookie year (2007) After starter Russ Ortiz suffered an inflamed elbow, the Giants called Lincecum up to make his first major league start on May 6, 2007, against the Philadelphia Phillies. Lincecum struck out three batters in his first inning, the first being Chase Utley. Lincecum earned his first major league win five days later against the Rockies. His next two starts were against the Houston Astros, on May 17 and 22. After the first match-up, Astros third baseman Mike Lamb said, "The stuff he was throwing out there tonight was everything he's hyped up to be. He was 97 mph (156 km/h) with movement. You just don't see that every day. He pitched very much like the pitcher he is compared to and out-dueled him throughout the night." After recording a no decision in the first game, Lincecum pitched eight innings and got the win the second time. In July, Lincecum went 4–0 with a 1.62 ERA. On July 1, in a seven-inning performance against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he recorded 12 strikeouts and allowed just three hits in a 13–0 victory. Lincecum pitched into the ninth inning for the first time on August 21 against the Cubs, holding a 1–0 lead. He had allowed just two hits and one walk through the first eight, while throwing only 88 pitches. Cubs shortstop Ryan Theriot said after the game, "He's got electric stuff. The best stuff I've seen all year." Lincecum was benched in September as a precaution due to the high number of innings he had pitched in his first full year of professional baseball. Between the minors and the majors, he pitched a total of 177+1⁄3 innings in the 2007 season. #### Consecutive Cy Young Awards (2008–2009) The Giants asked Lincecum not to throw bullpen sessions like the ones other pitchers typically throw during the off-season. Bruce Bochy, the manager of the Giants, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the team was being careful with Lincecum because of studies showing that pitchers who throw 200 innings in a season early in their careers are more susceptible to injuries. From April 2 through April 24, Lincecum won his first four decisions of the 2008 season. On May 15, Lincecum struck out 10 Astros in six innings. Houston first baseman Lance Berkman offered his view of Lincecum: "He has three almost unhittable pitches...When he throws those off-speed pitches where he wants, you've got no chance." After his team fell to Lincecum and the Giants 6–3 on May 27, Diamondbacks first baseman Conor Jackson gave his impression of facing Lincecum: "From what I saw tonight, that's the best arm I've seen all year, no doubt. You've got to almost hit a ball right down the middle. You're going to pop up the ball at your bellybutton, which we all did tonight, and the one down, it's coming in at 98 mph (158 km/h), you're not going to put too much good wood on it. Even the ones down the middle are coming at 98. He's good, man." Lincecum was on the cover of the July 7, 2008, issue of Sports Illustrated. He was selected his first All-Star Game, but he was unavailable to play in it because he was hospitalized the day of the game due to flu-like symptoms. In a July 26 game against the Diamondbacks, he struck out 13 batters in seven innings while allowing seven hits, two earned runs, and no walks. On September 13, Lincecum pitched his first major league shutout against the San Diego Padres. In nine innings, he threw 138 pitches, gave up four hits and struck out 12 batters. Facing the Rockies on September 23, he recorded his 252nd strikeout of the season, breaking Jason Schmidt's 2004 single-season strikeout record. Lincecum finished the season with 265 strikeouts, making him the first San Francisco pitcher to win the National League (NL) strikeout title and the first Giant to do so since Bill Voiselle in 1944. Lincecum won 18 games, losing just five. On November 11, 2008, Lincecum was awarded the NL Cy Young Award, making him the second Giant (after Mike McCormick in 1967) to win the award. He finished 23rd in that year's NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award voting. After losing his first decision of 2009 on April 12 against the Padres, Lincecum won six in a row, not losing again until June 17. On June 2 at Nationals Park, Lincecum became the quickest Giants' pitcher to reach 500 strikeouts when he struck out the Washington Nationals' Cristian Guzmán. In his six June starts, he went 4–1 with a 1.38 ERA and pitched three complete games. On July 3, Lincecum was announced as the NL Pitcher of the Month for June. He and fellow Giants starter Matt Cain were selected to the NL All-Star Team. Lincecum started the game for the NL, allowing two runs (one earned) in two innings pitched in the NL's eventual 4–3 loss. Through 20 starts in 2009, Lincecum had amassed an 11–3 record with a 2.30 ERA, 183 strikeouts, four complete games, and two shutouts. Lincecum also had a scoreless inning streak of 29 innings, the third-longest streak since the Giants moved to San Francisco from New York City prior to the 1958 season. On July 27, in a 4–2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at AT&T Park, Lincecum pitched a complete game and struck out a career-high 15 batters, the second most in San Francisco history (Schmidt struck out 16 in a 2006 game). On August 3, Lincecum was named the NL Player of the Week. Against the Padres on September 8, Lincecum missed a regularly scheduled start for the first time in his major league career, due to back spasms. Lincecum finished the 2009 season with a 15–7 record, 2.48 ERA and 261 strikeouts. Following the season, Lincecum was named the Sporting News NL Pitcher of the Year for the second consecutive year. On November 19, Lincecum was awarded his second consecutive Cy Young Award, narrowly edging out St. Louis Cardinals pitchers Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. In doing so, he became the first pitcher in MLB history to be awarded the Cy Young in each of his first two full seasons. He finished 18th in NL MVP voting. #### First World Series championship (2010) Lincecum started the 2010 season with a 5–0 record, recording 10 or more strikeouts in three of his first six games. However, from May 15 through May 31, he walked five batters in each of four consecutive starts. In June, he improved, striking out 10 hitters again on June 16 in a 6–3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. For the third year in a row, Lincecum was selected to the NL All-Star Team. As of the All-Star break, Lincecum was 9–4 with a 3.16 ERA over 116+2⁄3 innings pitched. During the season's first half, he defeated Houston's Roy Oswalt three times in three months. All three games were pitchers' duels. After a disappointing August in which he experienced a five-game losing streak, Lincecum had a strong outing on September 1. Facing one of the league's top pitchers, Ubaldo Jiménez, Lincecum pitched eight innings of one-run ball for his first win since July 30. He won five games in September, finishing the month 5–1. For the third year in a row, Lincecum won the NL strikeout title; he also set a record for most strikeouts by an MLB pitcher in his first four seasons. Lincecum finished the 2010 regular season with a 16–10 record, a 3.43 ERA and 231 strikeouts. On October 7, in Game 1 of the NL Division Series (NLDS), Lincecum pitched a complete-game two-hit shutout to defeat the Atlanta Braves in his first career postseason game. In his next postseason start, Lincecum outdueled fellow Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay in a 4–3 victory over the Phillies in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series (NLCS). The two squared off again in Game 5 on October 21, in which Lincecum gave up three runs (two earned) over seven innings but suffered the loss in the 4–2 defeat. In Game 6 on October 23, with the Giants clinging to a one-run lead, Lincecum was summoned from the bullpen on one day's rest to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning. He struck out Jayson Werth before surrendering singles to the next two batters. Brian Wilson stranded the runners to end the eighth, and the Giants won the game 3–2, advancing to the World Series. In Game 1 of the series against the Texas Rangers, Lincecum committed what he called a "brain fart" in the first inning. With runners at first and third and one out, Lincecum caught Michael Young in a rundown between third base and home. However, instead of throwing towards Pablo Sandoval as he pursued Young to the bag, Lincecum kept the ball himself, allowing Young to scamper back safely. A double play helped him end the inning with only one run scoring, and though he ran into trouble in the next inning, Texas only managed to score one more run. The Giants tied the game in the third, then added six runs in the sixth, taking an 8–2 lead before Lincecum allowed two more runs in the sixth and departed. He earned the win in an eventual 11-7 triumph. With the Giants leading the series three games to one on November 1, Lincecum started Game 5. He recorded 10 strikeouts in eight innings while giving up only three hits en route to a 3–1 victory. The win ended the Giants' 56-year drought between World Series championships and also gave San Francisco its first baseball world championship. #### Setting records and Second World Series championship (2011–2012) On May 4, Lincecum struck out twelve New York Mets, becoming the Giants franchise record holder for most games pitched with 10 or more strikeouts. Lincecum's total of 29 such games surpassed Hall of Fame "first five" inaugural member Christy Mathewson. While Mathewson accumulated his 28 ten-plus-strikeout games in 551 starts over 17 seasons with the Giants, Lincecum recorded 29 such games in 129 starts over five seasons. On May 21, he threw a three-hit shutout against the Oakland Athletics as San Francisco won 3–0. He recorded his 1,000th career strikeout on June 6, against Jerry Hairston Jr. of the Nationals. Despite having the fourth-lowest ERA in the NL (2.74), including a second-half ERA of 2.31, Lincecum finished the 2011 season with a 13-14 record. Lincecum's so-so win–loss record was largely due to his receiving the worst run support in the major leagues; the Giants scored no runs in ten of his outings and scored two runs or fewer in 21 of them, making Lincecum one of only six pitchers in modern major league history to have at least 200 strikeouts, an ERA of less than 2.75, and a losing record. Lincecum reportedly rejected San Francisco's offer of a five-year, \$100 million extension before the 2012 season. In January 2012, he instead signed a two-year, \$40.5 million deal with the Giants, leaving him eligible for free agency after the 2013 season. Lincecum's career began a downturn in 2012. After winning back-to-back games on April 23 (against the Mets) and 28 (against the Padres), he lost six decisions in a row, not winning again until he threw seven shutout innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 22. At the All-Star break, he had a 3–10 record and a 6.42 ERA. However, Lincecum improved in the second half of the season, winning seven of his last 12 decisions and posting a 3.83 ERA. In his first game after the All-Star break, he pitched eight shutout innings and struck out 11. Closer Santiago Casilla gave up two runs in the 9th inning, but the Giants won 3-2. He finished the season with a 10–15 record and 190 strikeouts. The 190 strikeouts were 10th-best in the NL, but Lincecum also led the league in losses (15) and wild pitches (17; highest total in MLB). His 5.18 ERA for the season was nearly double what it had been the year before. With the Giants only needing four starters for the playoffs, Lincecum was used as a relief pitcher in the postseason. In Game 2 of the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds, Lincecum threw two shutout innings, though the Giants would lose 9–0. He picked up the win in Game 4 of the NLDS, throwing 4+1⁄3 innings of relief and allowing just one run as the Giants won 8–3 to force a deciding Game 5, which they would also win. After Lincecum pitched two hitless innings in Game 1 of the NLCS against the Cardinals, Bochy decided to give him the start in Game 4. Lincecum gave up four runs in 4+2⁄3 innings, taking the loss in San Francisco's 8–3 defeat. That loss put the Giants down three games to one in the series, but they won the next three games, advancing to the World Series for the second time in three years. In Game 1 of the World Series, Lincecum relieved Barry Zito with two outs in the sixth inning, getting the last out and throwing two further scoreless innings as the Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers by a score of 8–3. Lincecum relieved Ryan Vogelsong with two outs in the sixth inning of Game 3, again throwing 2+1⁄3 scoreless innings, this time in a 2–0 victory. The Giants swept the Series for their second title in three seasons. #### No-hitters and Third World Series championship (2013–2015) During the 2012 offseason, Lincecum used a conditioning program to improve his coordination. His performance in spring training in 2013 was lackluster, as he posted a 10.57 ERA. Cain and Madison Bumgarner were both ahead of him in the rotation to start the season. On July 13, Lincecum no-hit the Padres 9–0 at Petco Park, the first no-hitter ever pitched in that stadium and the first of his career. He struck out 13 batters and walked four while throwing a career-high 148 pitches. Lincecum finished the first half of his season with a losing record (5–9), but his 4.26 ERA was lower than what it had been in the first half of 2012 (6.42). Lincecum pitched to an ERA of 4.54 in the second half of the 2013 season; however, the Giants bullpen accounted for an unusually high 12 earned runs charged to Lincecum. In 32 starts in 2013, Lincecum went 10–14 with a 4.37 ERA, striking out 193 in 197+2⁄3 innings. By the end of the year, he had 1,510 strikeouts, the third-highest total by a pitcher over his first seven years (behind Tom Seaver's 1,655 and Bert Blyleven's 1,546). On October 22, Lincecum signed a two-year, \$35 million contract, which prevented him from becoming a free agent. With Tim Hudson joining the Giants in 2014, Lincecum fell to fourth in the Giants rotation to start the year. On May 12, Lincecum struck out 11 in 7+2⁄3 one-run innings as the Giants defeated the Braves 4–2. He had a no-hitter going against the Cubs on May 28 but was removed after five innings, partly because a blister was forming on his middle finger. The no-hitter lasted until the seventh, when John Baker recorded a hit against Jeremy Affeldt, but the Giants still won 5–0. On June 25, Lincecum pitched his tenth career complete game and second career no-hitter. It was his second against the Padres and the third no-hitter in the short history of AT&T Park. With his second no-hit performance against the Padres, Lincecum became the second player in MLB history to throw two no-hitters against the same team (joining Hall of Famer Addie Joss) and the first in Major League history to do it in back-to-back seasons. Against the Phillies on July 22, Lincecum inherited runners at second base and third base with only one out in the 14th inning of a game the Giants led 9–5 over the Phillies. Only the runner at third scored, as Lincecum recorded the final two outs. With the save, Lincecum became the fifth pitcher since 1976 to pitch a no-hitter and record a save in the same season, joining Matt Garza, Chris Bosio, Jerry Reuss, and John Candelaria. After posting a 9.49 ERA in six games from July 25 through August 23, Lincecum was replaced in the Giants rotation by Yusmeiro Petit. Bochy initially indicated that the move might only be for one start, but Lincecum would spend the rest of the season in the bullpen. On September 25, Lincecum threw two pitches, retiring Alexi Amarista to end the seventh inning, then became the pitcher of record as the Giants took the lead in the bottom of the inning. He won his 100th career game in a 9–8 victory over the Padres at AT&T Park. In 33 games (but only 26 starts), he had a 12–9 record, a 4.74 ERA, and 134 strikeouts in 155+2⁄3 innings pitched. Lincecum was the only player on the Giants' 25-man roster who was not used during the NLDS and the NLCS. He finally made an appearance in Game 2 of the 2014 World Series against the Kansas City Royals, entering to start the bottom of the seventh inning and retiring all five batters he faced. Lincecum left the game in the eighth inning with lower back tightness. He did not pitch again in the series, but the Giants defeated the Royals in seven games, giving Lincecum the third World Series championship of his career. Through May 3, 2015, Lincecum posted a 2–2 record, a 2.40 ERA, 20 strikeouts, and 11 walks in 30 innings pitched. He threw eight shutout innings in a victory over the Los Angeles Angels on May 3, then struck out eight over six shutout innings in a win over the Miami Marlins on May 8. On May 20, in a 4–0 win over the Dodgers, Lincecum pitched seven shutout innings and passed Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell for fourth place in franchise history on the Giants all-time career strikeouts list. On June 27, Lincecum was hit in his pitching elbow with a line drive off the bat of DJ LeMahieu and left the game with an injury. He was diagnosed with a degenerative condition in both hips in July and was given cortisone shots. Still not having pitched since June 27, Lincecum underwent season-ending hip surgery on September 3. For the season, he was 7–4 with a 4.13 ERA and 60 strikeouts. He became a free agent after the season. ### Los Angeles Angels (2016) On May 20, 2016, Lincecum signed a one-year, \$2.5 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels. He was optioned to the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees of the PCL on May 22 for a rehab assignment. On June 18, after being called up to start in Oakland, Lincecum gave up one run in six innings to earn a victory in his Angels debut. However, he would only win one more game for the Angels all season, allowing five runs (three earned) in five innings on July 19 in an 8–6 victory over the Rangers. Facing the Seattle Mariners on August 5, he allowed nine hits and six runs in 3+1⁄3 innings, taking the loss in the 6–4 defeat. The Angels designated Lincecum for assignment the next day, and he accepted an option to Salt Lake on August 9. In September, even though major league rosters expanded from 25 to 40 players, the Angels decided not to recall Lincecum. He finished his major league season with a 2–6 record and a 9.16 ERA, allowing 68 hits and 23 walks over 38+1⁄3 innings pitched. With the Bees, he had an 0–3 record and a 3.76 ERA in seven starts. He became a free agent after the season. ### Texas Rangers After sitting out the 2017 season, Lincecum signed a one-year contract with the Texas Rangers on March 7, 2018. Rangers' general manager Jon Daniels said the team planned to use him as a relief pitcher. Lincecum began the season on the 60-day disabled list after suffering a blister on his right middle finger during spring training. Eventually, he made 10 appearances for the Round Rock Express of the PCL, posting a 5.68 ERA and walking nine batters in 12+2⁄3 innings. He was released by the Rangers on June 5, 2018. In September 2019, Lincecum appeared at a postgame ceremony held by the Giants to mark Bochy's final game as the team's manager. In an interview at the ceremony, Lincecum acknowledged that he had not formally retired from baseball and was "trying to transition". He added, "I think the hardest part was coming to grips with who I was after baseball, and I haven't even done it fully yet". ## Pitching style When pitching, Lincecum would start with his back slightly to the plate, his left leg raised, and his glove held over his head. Then, he would take a step of about seven feet forward, maneuvering his hips over the place his left foot was now planted as he released the ball. This helped him to generate high velocity despite his slight build. The power behind the throws was generated not just from the arm, but also from the long stride and the hip muscles. Sportswriters Bob Nightengale and Robert Falkoff both thought that Lincecum was a similar pitcher to Roy Oswalt. Lincecum threw a four-seam fastball, but mostly used a two-seam fastball which he threw for more sinking movement to get more ground balls. This pitch had little lateral movement due to his overhand delivery and the speed at which the pitch was thrown. He had a curveball which broke away from right-handed hitters. These were his primary pitches when he first reached the major leagues, but as his career progressed, he added two more. In 2007, he added a changeup with a grip similar to that of a split-finger fastball. A fast pitch, his changeup appeared similar to his fastball for the first 30 feet (9.1 m), but then dove down sharply and tailed away from left-handed batters. The changeup was his favorite pitch to throw with two strikes. He had thrown a slider in college, and he started using it again in 2008, throwing it far more often by 2011. The slider was a pitch he used when ahead in the count, as he preferred to rely on his fastball when he was behind. The fastball averaged 94.1 miles per hour (151.4 km/h) in 2008 and 92.4 miles per hour (148.7 km/h) in 2009, but by 2014 it was averaging less than 90 miles per hour (140 km/h). His other pitches were typically in the high-70/low-80 mph range (approximately 128.75 km/h); these also slowed slightly as his career progressed. ## Career highlights ### Awards \| Award / Honor \| Time(s) \| Date(s) \| \|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\|---------\|------------------------\| \| World Series Champion \| 3 \| , , \| \| Babe Ruth Award \| 1 \| 2010 \| \| NL Champion \| 3 \| 2010, 2012, 2014 \| \| NL Cy Young Award \| 2 \| 2008–2009 \| \| The Sporting News''' NL Pitcher of the Year Award \| 2 \| 2008–2009 \| \| NL strikeouts leader \| 3 \| 2008–2010 \| \| NL shutouts leader \| 1 \| 2009 \| \| NL All-Star \| 4 \| 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 \| \| MLB All-Star Game NL Starting Pitcher \| 1 \| 2009 \| \| NL Pitcher of the Month \| 1 \| June 2009 \| \| NL Player of the Week \| 3 \| 2009, 2013–2014 \| \| Major League Baseball Starter of the Year \| 1 \| 2008 \| \| Players Choice Award for NL's Outstanding Pitcher \| 1 \| 2008 \| \| San Francisco Giants Opening Day starting pitcher \| 4 \| 2009–2012 \| \| Major League Baseball 2K9 and Major League Baseball 2K9 Fantasy All-Stars Cover Athlete \| 1 \| 2008 \| \| Golden Spikes Award \| 1 \| 2006 \| \| Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Freshman of the Year \| 1 \| 2004 \| \| Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year \| 2 \| 2004, 2006 \| \| Pac-10 Freshman of the Year \| 1 \| 2004 \| \| Pac-10 Pitcher Of The Week \| 1 \| 2005 \| \| Gatorade Washington State Baseball Player of the Year \| 1 \| 2003 \| Lincecum was included on the ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame class of when it was announced on November 22, 2021. ### Records - No-hit repeat against the same franchise/team (San Diego Padres) in back-to-back seasons. (2013–2014) - No-hit repeat against the same franchise/team (tied with Addie Joss). - Multiple no-hitters thrown, multiple Cy Young Awards won, multiple All-Star selections (shared with Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, Justin Verlander, and Roy Halladay). - Multiple no-hitters thrown, multiple Cy Young Awards won, multiple All-Star selections, multiple World Series championship titles (shared with Sandy Koufax and Justin Verlander). ## Personal life While he was with the Giants, Lincecum lived in the Mission District area of San Francisco, steps away from the old Seals Stadium site. During the off-season, he lived in Seattle. He has owned property in Paradise Valley, Arizona. He has a French bulldog named Cy. In 2014, the Sacramento Bee described Lincecum as the most beloved San Francisco sports figure since Joe Montana. Because of his "small size and unorthodox pitching delivery, he is an unlikely figure to have reached the pinnacle of his sport", which the Bee'' believes reflects the success of the Giants. Fox Sports in 2014 called him a "local legend and crowd favorite, now and forever." Lincecum was nicknamed "The Freak" by his University of Washington teammates because of his athletic abilities and his ability to generate powerful pitches from his athletic but slight physique. Giants fans continued to refer to him by the moniker during his time with the team. On October 30, 2009, a police officer pulled Lincecum over in Washington for speeding and discovered the pitcher with 3.3 grams (0.12 oz) of marijuana, which was still illegal under state law at the time. He was cited for marijuana possession that November. Lincecum appeared in a 2010 This is SportsCenter commercial. In it, he attempted to record a voicemail greeting on his phone, telling callers that they had reached "The Freak", "The Franchise", "The Freaky Franchise", and "Big Time Timmy Jim", respectively. He was dissatisfied with each attempt, particularly the last because "No one calls me that." Finally, he decided to record one beginning simply "This is Tim Lincecum" – only to be interrupted by Karl Ravech walking by and saying "Hey, Big Time Timmy Jim!" Lincecum's brother, Sean, died unexpectedly in 2018 at age 37. To honor his late brother, Lincecum announced plans to wear No. 44 — Sean's number — in his comeback attempt with the Rangers. Lincecum's wife, Cristin Coleman, was a school teacher and principal. She died of cancer in June 2022 at age 38. ## See also - List of World Series champions - List of World Series starting pitchers - List of Major League Baseball annual strikeout leaders - List of Major League Baseball annual shutout leaders - List of Major League Baseball no-hitters - List of San Francisco Giants Opening Day starting pitchers - List of San Francisco Giants no-hitters - List of San Francisco Giants seasons - List of San Francisco Giants team records
19,333,613	Sea anemone	1,172,518,587	Marine animals of the order Actiniaria	[ "Actiniaria", "Anthozoan orders", "Hexacorallia", "Negligibly senescent organisms", "Symbiosis" ]	Sea anemones are a group of predatory marine invertebrates constituting the order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the Anemone, a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classified in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, subclass Hexacorallia. As cnidarians, sea anemones are related to corals, jellyfish, tube-dwelling anemones, and Hydra. Unlike jellyfish, sea anemones do not have a medusa stage in their life cycle. A typical sea anemone is a single polyp attached to a hard surface by its base, but some species live in soft sediment, and a few float near the surface of the water. The polyp has a columnar trunk topped by an oral disc with a ring of tentacles and a central mouth. The tentacles can be retracted inside the body cavity or expanded to catch passing prey. They are armed with cnidocytes (stinging cells). In many species, additional nourishment comes from a symbiotic relationship with single-celled dinoflagellates, with zooxanthellae, or with green algae, zoochlorellae, that live within the cells. Some species of sea anemone live in association with clownfish, hermit crabs, small fish, or other animals to their mutual benefit. Sea anemones breed by liberating sperm and eggs through the mouth into the sea. The resulting fertilized eggs develop into planula larvae which, after being planktonic for a while, settle on the seabed and develop directly into juvenile polyps. Sea anemones also breed asexually, by breaking in half or into smaller pieces which regenerate into polyps. Sea anemones are sometimes kept in reef aquariums; the global trade in marine ornamentals for this purpose is expanding and threatens sea anemone populations in some localities, as the trade depends on collection from the wild. ## Anatomy A typical sea anemone is a sessile polyp attached at the base to the surface beneath it by an adhesive foot, called a basal or pedal disc, with a column-shaped body topped by an oral disc. Most are from 1 to 5 cm (0.4 to 2.0 in) in diameter and 1.5 to 10 cm (0.6 to 3.9 in) in length, but they are inflatable and vary greatly in dimensions. Some are very large; Urticina columbiana and Stichodactyla mertensii can both exceed 1 metre (3.3 ft) in diameter and Metridium farcimen a metre in length. Some species burrow in soft sediment and lack a basal disc, having instead a bulbous lower end, the physa, which anchors them in place. The column or trunk is generally more or less cylindrical and may be plain and smooth or may bear specialised structures; these include solid papillae (fleshy protuberances), adhesive papillae, cinclides (slits), and small protruding vesicles. In some species the part immediately below the oral disc is constricted and is known as the capitulum. When the animal contracts, the oral disc, tentacles and capitulum fold inside the pharynx and are held in place by a strong sphincter muscle part way up the column. There may be a fold in the body wall, known as a parapet, at this point, and this parapet covers and protects the anemone when it is retracted. The oral disc has a central mouth, usually slit-shaped, surrounded by one or more whorls of tentacles. The ends of the slit lead to grooves in the wall of the pharynx known as siphonoglyphs; there are usually two of these grooves, but some groups have a single one. The tentacles are generally tapered and often tipped by a pore, but in some species they are branched, club-tipped, or reduced to low knobs. The tentacles are armed with many cnidocytes, cells that are both defensive and used to capture prey. Cnidocytes contain stinging nematocysts, capsule-like organelles capable of everting suddenly, giving the phylum Cnidaria its name. Each nematocyst contains a small venom vesicle filled with actinotoxins, an inner filament, and an external sensory hair. A touch to the hair mechanically triggers a cell explosion, which launches a harpoon-like structure that attaches to the organism that triggered it, and injects a dose of venom in the flesh of the aggressor or prey. At the base of the tentacles in some species lie acrorhagi, elongated inflatable tentacle-like organs armed with cnidocytes, that can flail around and fend off other encroaching anemones; one or both anemones can be driven off or suffer injury in such battles. The venom is a mix of toxins, including neurotoxins, that paralyzes the prey so the anemone can move it to the mouth for digestion inside the gastrovascular cavity. Actinotoxins are highly toxic to prey species of fish and crustaceans. However, Amphiprioninae (clownfish), small banded fish in various colours, are not affected by their host anemone's sting and shelter themselves from predators among its tentacles. Several other species have similar adaptions and are also unaffected (see Mutualistic relationships). Most sea anemones are harmless to humans, but a few highly toxic species (notably Actinodendron arboreum, Phyllodiscus semoni and Stichodactyla spp.) have caused severe injuries and are potentially lethal. ### Digestive system Sea anemones have what can be described as an incomplete gut; the gastrovascular cavity functions as a stomach and possesses a single opening to the outside, which operates as both a mouth and anus. Waste and undigested matter is excreted through this opening. The mouth is typically slit-like in shape, and bears a groove at one or both ends. The groove, termed a siphonoglyph, is ciliated, and helps to move food particles inwards and circulate water through the gastrovascular cavity. The mouth opens into a flattened pharynx. This consists of an in-folding of the body wall, and is therefore lined by the animal's epidermis. The pharynx typically runs for about one third the length of the body before opening into the gastrovascular cavity that occupies the remainder of the body. The gastrovascular cavity itself is divided into a number of chambers by mesenteries radiating inwards from the body wall. Some of the mesenteries form complete partitions with a free edge at the base of the pharynx, where they connect, but others reach only partway across. The mesenteries are usually found in multiples of twelve, and are symmetrically arranged around the central lumen. They have stomach lining on both sides, separated by a thin layer of mesoglea, and include filaments of tissue specialised for secreting digestive enzymes. In some species, these filaments extend below the lower margin of the mesentery, hanging free in the gastrovascular cavity as thread-like acontial filaments. These acontia are armed with nematocysts and can be extruded through cinclides, blister-like holes in the wall of the column, for use in defence. ### Musculature and nervous system A primitive nervous system, without centralization, coordinates the processes involved in maintaining homeostasis, as well as biochemical and physical responses to various stimuli. There are two nerve nets, one in the epidermis and one in the gastrodermis; these unite at the pharynx, the junctions of the septa with the oral disc and the pedal disc, and across the mesogloea. No specialized sense organs are present, but sensory cells include nematocytes and chemoreceptors. The muscles and nerves are much simpler than those of most other animals, although more specialised than in other cnidarians, such as corals. Cells in the outer layer (epidermis) and the inner layer (gastrodermis) have microfilaments that group into contractile fibers. These fibers are not true muscles because they are not freely suspended in the body cavity as they are in more developed animals. Longitudinal fibres are found in the tentacles and oral disc, and also within the mesenteries, where they can contract the whole length of the body. Circular fibers are found in the body wall and, in some species, around the oral disc, allowing the animal to retract its tentacles into a protective sphincter. Since the anemone lacks a rigid skeleton, the contractile cells pull against the fluid in the gastrovascular cavity, forming a hydrostatic skeleton. The anemone stabilizes itself by flattening its pharynx, which acts as a valve, keeping the gastrovascular cavity at a constant volume and making it rigid. When the longitudinal muscles relax, the pharynx opens and the cilia lining the siphonoglyphs beat, wafting water inwards and refilling the gastrovascular cavity. In general, the sea anemone inflates its body to extend its tentacles and feed, and deflates it when resting or disturbed. The inflated body is also used to anchor the animal inside a crevice, burrow or tube. ## Life cycle Unlike other cnidarians, anemones (and other anthozoans) entirely lack the free-swimming medusal stage of their life cycle; the polyp produces eggs and sperm, and the fertilized egg develops into a planula larva, which develops directly into another polyp. Both sexual and asexual reproduction can occur. The sexes in sea anemones are separate in some species, while other species are sequential hermaphrodites, changing sex at some stage in their life. The gonads are strips of tissue within the mesenteries. In sexual reproduction, males may release sperm to stimulate females to release eggs, and fertilization occurs, either internally in the gastrovascular cavity or in the water column. The eggs and sperm, or the larvae, usually emerge through the mouth, but in some species, such as Metridium dianthus, may be swept out from the body cavity through the cinclides. In many species the eggs and sperm rise to the surface where fertilisation occurs. The fertilized egg develops into a planula larva, which drifts for a while before sinking to the seabed and undergoing metamorphosis into a juvenile sea anemone. Some larvae preferentially settle onto certain suitable substrates; the mottled anemone (Urticina crassicornis) for example, settles onto green algae, perhaps attracted by a biofilm on the surface. The brooding anemone (Epiactis prolifera) is gynodioecious, starting life as a female and later becoming hermaphroditic, so that populations consist of females and hermaphrodites. As a female, the eggs can develop parthenogenetically into female offspring without fertilisation, and as a hermaphrodite, the eggs are routinely self-fertilised. The larvae emerge from the anemone's mouth and tumble down the column, lodging in a fold near the pedal disc. Here they develop and grow, remaining for about three months before crawling off to start independent lives. Sea anemones have great powers of regeneration and can reproduce asexually, by budding, fragmentation, or longitudinal or transverse binary fission. Some species such as certain Anthopleura divide longitudinally, pulling themselves apart, resulting in groups of individuals with identical colouring and markings. Transverse fission is less common, but occurs in Anthopleura stellula and Gonactinia prolifera, with a rudimentary band of tentacles appearing halfway up the column before it splits horizontally. Some species can also reproduce by pedal laceration. In this process, a ring of material may break off from the pedal disc at the base of the column, which then fragments, the pieces regenerating into new clonal individuals. Alternatively, fragments detach separately as the animal creeps across a surface. In Metridium dianthus, fragmentation rates were higher in individuals living among live mussels than among dead shells, and all the new individuals had tentacles within three weeks. The sea anemone Aiptasia diaphana displays sexual plasticity. Thus asexually produced clones derived from a single founder individual can contain both male and female individuals (ramets). When eggs and sperm (gametes) are formed, they can produce zygotes derived from "selfing" (within the founding clone) or out-crossing, which then develop into swimming planula larvae. Anemones tend to grow and reproduce relatively slowly. The magnificent sea anemone (Heteractis magnifica), for example, may live for decades, with one individual surviving in captivity for eighty years. ## Behaviour and ecology ### Movement A sea anemone is capable of changing its shape dramatically. The column and tentacles have longitudinal, transverse and diagonal sheets of muscle and can lengthen and contract, as well as bend and twist. The gullet and mesenteries can evert (turn inside out), or the oral disc and tentacles can retract inside the gullet, with the sphincter closing the aperture; during this process, the gullet folds transversely and water is discharged through the mouth. ### Locomotion Although some species of sea anemone burrow in soft sediment, the majority are mainly sessile, attaching to a hard surface with their pedal disc, and tend to stay in the same spot for weeks or months at a time. They can move, however, being able to creep around on their bases; this gliding can be seen with time-lapse photography but the motion is so slow as to be almost imperceptible to the naked eye. The process resembles the locomotion of a gastropod mollusc, a wave of contraction moving from the functionally posterior portion of the foot towards the front edge, which detaches and moves forwards. Sea anemones can also cast themselves loose from the substrate and drift to a new location. Gonactinia prolifera is unusual in that it can both walk and swim; walking is by making a series of short, looping steps, rather like a caterpillar, attaching its tentacles to the substrate and drawing its base closer; swimming is done by rapid movements of the tentacles beating synchronously like oar strokes. Stomphia coccinea can swim by flexing its column, and the sea onion anemone inflates and casts itself loose, adopting a spherical shape and allowing itself to be rolled about by the waves and currents. There are no truly pelagic sea anemones, but some stages in the life cycle post-metamorphosis are able, in response to certain environmental factors, to cast themselves off and have a free-living stage that aids in their dispersal. The sea onion Paranthus rapiformis lives on subtidal mud flats and burrows into the sediment, holding itself in place by expanding its basal disc to form an anchor. If it gets washed out of its burrow by strong currents, it contracts into a pearly glistening ball which rolls about. Tube-dwelling anemones, which live in parchment-like tubes, are in the anthozoan subclass Ceriantharia, and are only distantly related to sea anemones. ### Feeding and diet Sea anemones are typically predators, ensnaring prey of suitable size that comes within reach of their tentacles and immobilizing it with the aid of their nematocysts. The prey is then transported to the mouth and thrust into the pharynx. The lips can stretch to aid in prey capture and can accommodate larger items such as crabs, dislodged molluscs and even small fish. Stichodactyla helianthus is reported to trap sea urchins by enfolding them in its carpet-like oral disc. A few species are parasitic on other marine organisms. One of these is Peachia quinquecapitata, the larvae of which develop inside the medusae of jellyfish, feeding on their gonads and other tissues, before being liberated into the sea as free-living juvenile anemones. ### Mutualistic relationships Although not plants and therefore incapable of photosynthesis themselves, many sea anemones form an important facultative mutualistic relationship with certain single-celled algae species that reside in the animals' gastrodermal cells, especially in the tentacles and oral disc. These algae may be either zooxanthellae, zoochlorellae or both. The sea anemone benefits from the products of the algae's photosynthesis, namely oxygen and food in the form of glycerol, glucose and alanine; the algae in turn are assured a reliable exposure to sunlight and protection from micro-feeders, which the sea anemones actively maintain. The algae also benefit by being protected by the sea anemone's stinging cells, reducing the likelihood of being eaten by herbivores. In the aggregating anemone (Anthopleura elegantissima), the colour of the anemone is largely dependent on the proportions and identities of the zooxanthellae and zoochlorellae present. The hidden anemone (Lebrunia coralligens) has a whorl of seaweed-like pseudotentacles, rich in zooxanthellae, and an inner whorl of tentacles. A daily rhythm sees the pseudotentacles spread widely in the daytime for photosynthesis, but they are retracted at night, at which time the tentacles expand to search for prey. Several species of fish and invertebrates live in symbiotic or mutualistic relationships with sea anemones, most famously the clownfish. The symbiont receives the protection from predators provided by the anemone's stinging cells, and the anemone utilises the nutrients present in its faeces. Other animals that associate with sea anemones include cardinalfish (such as Banggai cardinalfish), juvenile threespot dascyllus, incognito (or anemone) goby, juvenile painted greenling, various crabs (such as Inachus phalangium, Mithraculus cinctimanus and Neopetrolisthes), shrimp (such as certain Alpheus, Lebbeus, Periclimenes and Thor), opossum shrimp (such as Heteromysis and Leptomysis), and various marine snails. Two of the more unusual relationships are those between certain anemones (such as Adamsia, Calliactis and Neoaiptasia) and hermit crabs or snails, and Bundeopsis or Triactis anemones and Lybia boxing crabs. In the former, the anemones live on the shell of the hermit crab or snail. In the latter, the small anemones are carried in the claws of the boxing crab. ### Habitats Sea anemones are found in both deep oceans and shallow coastal waters worldwide. The greatest diversity is in the tropics, although there are many species adapted to relatively cold waters. The majority of species cling on to rocks, shells or submerged timber, often hiding in cracks or under seaweed, but some burrow into sand and mud, and a few are pelagic. ## Relationship with humans Sea anemones and their attendant anemone fish can make attractive aquarium exhibits, and both are often harvested from the wild as adults or juveniles. These fishing activities significantly impact the populations of anemones and anemone fish by drastically reducing the densities of each in exploited areas. Besides their collection from the wild for use in reef aquaria, sea anemones are also threatened by alterations to their environment. Those living in shallow-water coastal locations are affected directly by pollution and siltation, and indirectly by the effect these have on their photosynthetic symbionts and the prey on which they feed. In southwestern Spain and Sardinia, the snakelocks anemone (Anemonia viridis) is consumed as a delicacy. The whole animal is marinated in vinegar, then coated in a batter similar to that used to make calamari, and deep-fried in olive oil. Anemones are also a source of food for fisherman communities in the east coast of Sabah, Borneo, as well as the Thousand Islands (as rambu-rambu) in Southeast Asia. ## Fossil record Most Actiniaria do not form hard parts that can be recognized as fossils, but a few fossils of sea anemones do exist; Mackenzia, from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of Canada, is the oldest fossil identified as a sea anemone. ## Taxonomy Sea anemones, order Actiniaria, are classified in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, subclass Hexacorallia. Rodriguez et al. proposed a new classification for the Actiniaria based on extensive DNA results. Suborders and superfamilies included in Actiniaria are: - Suborder Anenthemonae - Superfamily Edwardsioidea - Superfamily Actinernoidea - Suborder Enthemonae - Superfamily Actinostoloidea - Superfamily Actinioidea - Superfamily Metridioidea ## Phylogeny ### External relationships Anthozoa contains three subclasses: Hexacorallia, which contains the Actiniaria; Octocorallia; and Ceriantharia. These are monophyletic, but the relationships within the subclasses remain unresolved. †= extinct ### Internal relationships The relationships of higher-level taxa in Carlgren's classification are re-interpreted as follows: ## See also - AETX - Cangitoxin - Halcurin - Sea anemone dermatitis - Sea anemone neurotoxin
33,029,141	Clare Nott	1,163,007,256	Australian wheelchair basketball player (born 1986)	[ "1986 births", "Australian women's wheelchair basketball players", "Basketball players from New South Wales", "Living people", "Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics", "Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics", "Paralympic bronze medalists for Australia", "Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball", "Paralympic silver medalists for Australia", "Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for Australia", "People with paraplegia", "Point guards", "Sportspeople from Newcastle, New South Wales", "Sportswomen from New South Wales", "Western Australian Institute of Sport alumni", "Wheelchair basketball players at the 2008 Summer Paralympics", "Wheelchair basketball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics" ]	Clare Nott (née Burzynski, born 11 August 1986) is an Australian 1.0 point wheelchair basketball player who plays for the Kilsyth Cobras in the Women's national Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) and for the Red Dust Heelers in the mixed National Wheelchair basketball League (NWBL). She participated in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, where she won a bronze medal, and the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where she won a silver medal. A paraplegic as a result of a car crash, Nott was named the WNWBL's Best New Talent in 2005. She was the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the 1 point class and a member of its All Star Five in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015. She has also won four National League premierships with the Wheelcats and two National Women's League premierships with the Western Stars (2013) and the Kilsyth Cobras (2015). She made her debut with the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, in a tournament in Canada in 2005, and has since played 141 international games. She won gold medals at the 2009, 2010 and 2012 Osaka Cups in Japan. ## Personal life Clare Louise Burzynski was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, on 11 August 1986, the daughter of Eddie and Barbara Burzynski. She has an older sister, Lauren. All four members of the family were injured in a car accident on 28 June 1989, while holidaying in Queensland. Clare was treated at the hospital in Nambour, Queensland and then at the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane. It was discovered that her spinal cord was severed at the T8 spinal nerve, rendering her a paraplegic. Burzynski was educated at Tranby College from 1996 to 2000, and at Ormiston College from 2000 to 2004. As of 2013 lives in Landsdale, Western Australia, and attended Murdoch University, where she graduated in 2013 with a Bachelor of Legal Studies and Criminology degree. She is married to Lee Nott, and works as a legal secretary. Before becoming a basketball player, she competed in swimming from 1998 to 2004. ## Basketball Nott is a 1.0 point player, who plays point guard. The Australian Sports Commission gave her a A\$20,000 grant in financial year 2012/2013, and \$11,000 in 2011/2012 as part of its Direct Athlete Support (DAS) program. She was a Western Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder from 2009 to 2012. ### Club Nott plays club basketball for the Kilsyth Cobras in the Women's national Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) and for the Red Dust Heelers in the mixed National Wheelchair basketball League (NWBL). In the WNWBL she played for the Queensland Comets from 2005 to 2006, the Western Stars since 2007 to 2014, and the Kilsyth Cobras since 2015. She won two Women's National League premierships with the Western Stars (2013) and the Kilsyth Cobras (2015). In the NWBL she played for the Brisbane Spinning Bullets in 2006, the Perth Wheelcats from 2007 to 2011, and the Red Dust Heelers since 2014. She has won four National League premierships with the Wheelcats. In 2005 Nott was named the WNWBL's Best New Talent. She was the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the 1 point class and a member of the WNWBL All Star Five in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015. She was the first female to be named in a NWBL All Star 5 in 2014 while representing the Red Dust Heelers. She was also WNWBL Final Series MVP in 2015 while representing the Kilsyth Cobras. She names Alison Mosely, who helped her in the early stages of her basketball career, as her sporting heroine. ### National team Nott made her debut with the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, in a tournament in Canada in 2005. She also won gold medals at the 2009, 2010 and 2012 Osaka Cups in Japan. She was part of the bronze medal-winning Gliders team at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, and the fourth-place finishing team at the 2010 World Championships. As of 2013, has played 141 international games. Nott was part of the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. The Gliders posted wins in the group stage against Brazil, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, but lost to the Canada. This was enough to advance the Gliders to the quarter-finals, where they beat Mexico. The Gliders then defeated the United States by a point to set up a final clash with Germany. The Gliders lost 44–58, and earned a silver medal. ## Statistics
326,528	Trevor Pinnock	1,167,994,008	English harpsichordist and conductor	[ "1946 births", "21st-century British conductors (music)", "21st-century British male musicians", "Academics of the Royal Academy of Music", "Alumni of the Royal College of Music", "British choral conductors", "British male conductors (music)", "British performers of early music", "Commanders of the Order of the British Empire", "Deutsche Grammophon artists", "English harpsichordists", "Fortepianists", "Founders of early music ensembles", "Handel Prize winners", "Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music", "Living people", "Musicians from Canterbury", "People educated at Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys", "Virginal players", "Washington University in St. Louis people" ]	Trevor David Pinnock CBE (born 16 December 1946 in Canterbury, England) is a British harpsichordist and conductor. He is best known for his association with the period-performance orchestra The English Concert, which he helped found and directed from the keyboard for over 30 years in baroque and classical music. He is a former artistic director of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra and founded The Classical Band in New York. Since his resignation from The English Concert in 2003, Pinnock has continued his career as a conductor, appearing with major orchestras and opera companies around the world. He has also performed and recorded as a harpsichordist in solo and chamber music and conducted and otherwise trained student groups at conservatoires. Trevor Pinnock won a Gramophone Award for his recording of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos with the European Brandenburg Ensemble, an occasional orchestra formed to mark his 60th birthday. ## Biography and career ### Early life Trevor Pinnock was born in Canterbury, where his grandfather had run a Salvation Army band. His father was Kenneth Alfred Thomas Pinnock, a publisher, and his mother, Joyce Edith, née Muggleton, was an amateur singer. In Canterbury, the Pinnock family lived near the pianist Ronald Smith, from whose sister Pinnock had piano lessons. He became a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral when he was seven, attending the choir school from 1956 to 1961 and subsequently Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys. After receiving instruction in piano and organ, he served as a church organist; by the time he was 15, he began to play the harpsichord. At age 19, he won a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music to study organ and he also studied harpsichord, winning prizes for performance on both instruments. His teachers were Ralph Downes and Millicent Silver. A strong early influence was Gustav Leonhardt, though he did not study with him. ### Instrumentalist As a harpsichordist, Pinnock toured Europe with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. While a student at the RCM, he was told by the registrar, John Stainer, that it would be impossible to make a living as a harpsichordist. He made his London debut at the Royal Festival Hall in 1966 with the Galliard Harpsichord Trio, which he co-founded with Stephen Preston, flute, and Anthony Pleeth, cello. At this stage, they were playing baroque music on modern instruments. His solo harpsichord debut was in 1968 at the Purcell Room in London. To maximise his possibilities for work early on in his career, he included in his repertoire not only the regular baroque repertoire, but also modern harpsichord concertos, including Roberto Gerhard's concerto for harpsichord, percussion and strings, Manuel de Falla's concerto for harpsichord, Frank Martin's Petite symphonie concertante for harp, harpsichord, piano and double string orchestra and Francis Poulenc's Concert Champêtre. Pinnock and Maxim Vengerov toured together in 2000, with Vengerov taking up the baroque violin for the first time and Pinnock taking up the modern grand piano. These concerts consisted of a first half of harpsichord and baroque violin, followed by a second half of piano and modern violin. ### The English Concert In November 1972 the Galliard Trio expanded to become The English Concert, an orchestra specialising in performances of baroque and classical music on period instruments. The orchestra initially started with seven members but soon grew in size. The decision to move to period performance was taken for a number of reasons: > What I really had in mind was a journey of discovery into the unknown. Although I felt there were excellent interpretations of baroque music performed on modern instruments, I sensed that we'd come to the end of the road – and yet I knew that there were still discoveries to be made. I was thinking about the interesting experiments made by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt, although I knew we'd have to experiment in our own way. It was a huge challenge; playing period instruments wasn't as easy as it is today, and finding out their secrets was a difficult process. Nowadays an extraordinarily high technical level has been achieved and the upcoming generations don't have any of the problems we pioneers faced. We cleared the way. Pinnock was at the forefront of the period performance movement and the revitalisation of the baroque repertoire; the reaction of Leonard Bernstein to his performances is typical: "In my opinion, the work of the conductor Trevor Pinnock in this area is particularly exciting – his performances of Bach and Handel make me jump out of my seat!" The English Concert's London debut was at the English Bach Festival in 1973. In 1975, Pinnock played the harpsichord in the first-ever performance of Rameau's last opera, Les Boréades, under John Eliot Gardiner. He toured North America with The English Concert for the first time in 1983; he had earlier spent two periods as Artist in Residence at Washington University in St. Louis. His debut at The Proms was in 1980; he later directed Handel's oratorio Solomon in 1986 and many other large-scale works with his orchestra. They toured worldwide and made numerous recordings, Pinnock directing "with a characteristic energy and enthusiasm which are readily communicated to audiences." The Choir of the English Concert was at first an ad-hoc group of singers assembled as needed, originally in 1983 for the first 20th-century performance of Rameau's Acante et Céphise; it became an established choir for a period from the mid-1990s at the time they were performing Bach's Mass in B minor. This allowed the ensemble to regularly perform baroque operas, oratorios and other vocal works; a series of Bach's major choral works followed. He directed The English Concert, usually from the harpsichord or chamber organ, for over 30 years, deciding, with the other orchestra members, to hand it over to violinist Andrew Manze in 2003. He explained the decision as follows: > There are other things I want to develop – or rather come back to. Having done The English Concert for 18–20 weeks per year, and guest conducting the rest of the time, I'd sacrificed playing the harpsichord rather more than I wanted to. I had to make a decision to move forward: there were certain solo projects I wanted to do, and I wanted to make the decision now rather than wait until after I am 60 and it's too late to do half of them. [...] There's a wealth of keyboard repertoire I want to revisit. I especially want to go back to the rich English repertoire such as Tomkins, Byrd, Bull and Gibbons. ### Other conducting projects In 1989 Pinnock founded The Classical Band in New York, signing an 18-disc recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon before the ensemble's first rehearsal. He led the group in performances of the classical and romantic repertoire from Haydn to Mendelssohn on period instruments, including playing as fortepiano soloist. After a disappointing series of concerts, he resigned in 1990 and was succeeded by Bruno Weil. From 1991 to 1996 he was artistic director and principal conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, a group he had first directed in 1985. He subsequently served as its artistic advisor during the 1996–1997 and 1997–1998 seasons, including a tour of the US with the performance and recording of Beethoven's 1st and 5th piano concertos with Grigory Sokolov as soloist. He has made occasional return visits to the orchestra since relinquishing his formal position with them. #### Guest conducting He has appeared frequently as a guest conductor with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Boston, City of Birmingham, San Francisco and Detroit symphony orchestras, the Saint Paul, Los Angeles and Mito chamber orchestras, the Freiburger Barockorchester, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, Berlin Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart and Salzburg festivals. He is a regular guest conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1988 conducting Handel's opera Giulio Cesare, the same year he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with Handel's Messiah. He conducted Opera Australia and Michael Chance in Handel's Rinaldo at the Sydney Opera House in 2005. He also played William Babell's virtuoso harpsichord transcriptions with some of the arias (which Babell claimed were of Handel's actual improvisations). ### Recent years Since resigning his position with The English Concert, Pinnock has divided his time between performing as a harpsichordist and conducting both modern- and period-instrument orchestras. He has also taken an interest in educational projects. In 2004 he commissioned modern harpsichord music by English composer John Webb, whose Surge (2004) "is built up over an implacable rhythmic repeat-figure. Though neither is explicitly tonal, each skilfully avoids the merely percussive effect that the harpsichord's complex overtones can all too easily impart to more densely dissonant music." He has also played the same composer's Ebb (2000), which "comprises a spasmodic discourse against a manic background of descending scale patterns like a kind of out-of-kilter change-ringing". He toured Europe and the Far East in 2007 with the European Brandenburg Ensemble, a baroque orchestra, formed to mark his 60th birthday by recording Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and performing popular baroque music. Its recording of the concertos won the Gramophone Award for Baroque Instrumental in 2008. The band was not a permanent orchestra, but planned to reconvene in 2011 when Bach's St John Passion was to be the focus of their work. Pinnock's educational work takes place both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. It includes being principal guest conductor of the Royal Academy of Music's Concert Orchestra, taking masterclasses or workshops at other British universities, and conducting the orchestras of such establishments as Mozarteum University of Salzburg and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He has also taught a handful of harpsichordists including Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Nicholas Parle, Carole Cerasi and Julian Perkins. ## Degrees and honours Pinnock gained ARCM Hons (organ) (1965), FRCM (1996), and Hon. FRAM (1988). His honorary doctorates include those from the University of Ottawa (D. University) in 1993, the University of Kent (DMus) in 1995, and the University of Sheffield (DMus) in 2005. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1992 and an Officier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998. ## Recordings Each original release is listed. Years are those of recording. ### Solo harpsichord #### By composer - J. S. Bach: toccatas 910 & 912, prelude and fugue in A minor BWV 894, fantasia in C minor BWV 906, Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903 (1978) - J. S. Bach: toccatas 911, 913–916 (1977) - J. S. Bach: Partitas for harpsichord BWV 825–830 (1985) - J. S. Bach: Partitas for harpsichord BWV 825–830, Hänssler Classics (1998–1999) - J. S. Bach: Goldberg Variations BWV 988 (1980) - J. S. Bach: Italian Concerto BWV 971, concerto after Vivaldi (op.3 no.9) BWV 972 and French Overture BWV 831 (1979) - J. S. Bach: French suite no.5 BWV 816, English suite no.3 BWV 808, chromatic fantasia and fugue BWV 903 and preludes and fugues BWV 846, 876, 881 from The Well-Tempered Clavier (1992) - J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier I, DG (2020) - J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier II, DG (2022) - Handel: harpsichord suites and chaconne HWV 434, 441, 436, 438, 435 - Rameau: Complete harpsichord works, CRD records - Rameau: Les Cyclopes (Suites in A minor and E minor), Avie records (2005) - Scarlatti: Sonatas Kk. 46, 87, 95, 99, 124, 201, 204a, 490, 491, 492, 513, 520, 521; CRD 3368 (1997; 1981 as LP) - Scarlatti: Sonatas Kk. 460, 461, 478, 479, 502, 516, 517, 518, 519, 529, 544, 545, 546, 547 (1986) - Gibbons: The Woods So Wild (Vanguard 72021) #### Collections - 16th Century English Keyboard Music, CRD (1976) - A Choice Collection of Lessons and Ayres (17th and 18th Century English Keyboard Music), CRD - at the Victoria and Albert Museum, CRD (1974) - The Harmonious Blacksmith: Favourite Harpsichord Works (1983) - Suites by Purcell and Handel and Sonatas by Haydn, Wigmore Hall Live (2009) ### Harpsichord concertos - J. S. Bach: harpsichord concertos BWV 1052–1058, concertos for 2, 3 and 4 harpsichords 1060–1065 (Kenneth Gilbert, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Nicholas Kraemer, harpsichords 2–4) (1979–1981) - J. S. Bach: concerto for harpsichord, violin and flute BWV 1044 (on the recording 3 concerti) (1984) - J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 BWV 1050 (on his two recordings of the Brandenburg concertos) (1979–1982 and 2006) - Sons of Bach harpsichord concertos: C. P. E. Bach: Wq.14, Wq.43; J. C. Bach/Mozart: concerto in D major; CRD (1974) - Arne: Harpsichord concerto no.5 in G minor (on A Grand Concert of Musick) (1979) - Haydn: Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra Hob. XVIII:11 (on Haydn: concertos and Pachelbel: Canon and Gigue) (1985) - Leigh: Concertino for Harpsichord and String Orchestra with Nicholas Braithwaite conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra; he also plays in Leigh's Midsummer Night's Dream suite; Lyrita records (1980) - Poulenc: Concert champêtre with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra (live recording), Deutsche Grammophon (1991) ### Chamber music - J. C. Bach: 3 Quintets, Sextet (also playing fortepiano and square piano) with members of The English Concert (1988) - J. S. Bach: sonatas for flute and harpsichord BWV 1030–1032 with Stephen Preston (baroque flute) and sonatas for flute and continuo BWV 1033–1035 with the addition of Jordi Savall (viola da gamba), CRD - J. S. Bach: sonatas for flute and harpsichord BWV 1020, 1030–1032 with Jean-Pierre Rampal (modern flute) and sonatas for flute and continuo BWV 1033–1035 with the addition of Roland Pidoux (cello), CBS Records (1985) - J. S. Bach: sonatas for flute BWV 1020, 1030, 1032 and sonata for flute and harpsichord BWV 1031 with Emmanuel Pahud, sonatas for flute BWV 1033–1035 with the addition of Jonathan Manson (cello); sonata for two flutes BWV 1039 with the further addition of Silvia Careddu (flute), EMI Classics (2008) - J. S. Bach: sonatas for violin and harpsichord BWV 1014–1019 with Rachel Podger (violin) and BWV 1019a and the sonatas for violin and continuo BWV 1021, 1023 with the addition of Jonathan Manson (viola da gamba), Channel Classics (2000) - J. S. Bach: sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV 1027–1029, 1030b (an early version of the flute sonata) with Jonathan Manson, Avie (2006) - Corelli: Trio Sonatas with members of The English Concert (1987) - Handel: Trio Sonatas with members of The English Concert (1985) - Rameau: Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts with Rachel Podger and Jonathan Manson, Channel Classics (2002) - Soler: Six Concertos for Two Keyboard Instruments (playing harpsichord and fortepiano) with Kenneth Gilbert (1979) - Wesley: Duet for Organ in C major with Simon Preston on his recording Early English Keyboard Music (1986) - The Punckes Delight and other seventeenth-century English music for viol and keyboard (virginal and chamber organ) with Jordi Savall, Argo Records (1978) - The Flute King: Music from the court of Frederick the Great. Featuring Emmanuel Pahud on flute. One disc of flute concertos and one of flute sonatas; Trevor Pinnock directs the Kammerakademie Potsdam [de] orchestra and plays harpsichord continuo. Jonathan Manson plays cello continuo. EMI Classics (2011). ### Orchestral works with The English Concert Trevor Pinnock generally directs while playing harpsichord continuo. Recordings on Archiv Produktion unless otherwise indicated. #### By composer - C. P. E. Bach: 6 symphonies for strings, Wq.182 (1979) - C. P. E. Bach: flute concertos Wq.166 and Wq.167 (Stephen Preston, flute) (1980) - J. S. Bach: Brandenburg concertos (1982) - J. S. Bach: Orchestral Suites nos. 1 & 3 (1978) - J. S. Bach: Orchestral Suite no. 2 and concerto for harpsichord, violin and flute BWV 1044 (Simon Standage, violin; Stephen Preston, flute) (1978) - J. S. Bach: Orchestral Suite no. 4 and Brandenburg concerto no. 5 (1979) - J. S. Bach: Orchestral Suites (Lisa Beznosiuk, flute) and cantata sinfonias BWV 110, 174, 249, 42, 52 (1993) - J. S. Bach: single and double violin concertos (Simon Standage, Elizabeth Wilcock, violins) (1983) - J. S. Bach: 3 concerti: concerto for oboe d'amore BWV 1055, concerto for oboe and violin BWV 1060 and concerto for harpsichord, violin and flute BWV 1044 (1984) - Boyce: 8 Symphonies, op.2 (1986) - Corelli: 12 concerti grossi op.6 (1988) - Fasch: Concertos and Orchestral Suite (1995) - Handel: 6 concerti grossi op.3 (1984) - Handel: 12 concerti grossi op.6 (1985) - Handel: Water Music (1983) - Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks and concerti a due cori nos.2 and 3 (no.1 is on Christmas Concertos) (1985) - Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks (original version of 1749), concertos, occasional suite (1995) - Handel: Concerto grosso Alexander's Feast HWV 318, sonata à cinque HWV 288, concertos for oboe HWV 287, 301, 302a (Simon Standage, violin; David Reichenberg, oboe) (1984) - Handel: Overtures from Samson, il pastor fido, Agrippina, Alceste, Saul and Teseo (1986) - Handel: Organ concertos op.4, op.7 and HWV 295, 296, 304 (Simon Preston, organ) (1984) - Handel: Coronation Anthems (with Simon Preston conducting the choir of Westminster Abbey) (1982) - Handel: Dettingen Te Deum, Dettingen Anthem (with Simon Preston conducting the choir of Westminster Abbey) (1984) - Handel: Ode for St. Cecilia's Day (Felicity Lott, soprano; Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor) (1985) - Handel: Italian cantatas: Silete venti HWV 242; Cecilia, vogli un sguardo HWV 89 (Jennifer Smith, soprano; John Elwes, tenor) (1987) - Handel: Messiah (Arleen Auger, soprano; Anne Sofie von Otter, contralto; Michael Chance, countertenor; Howard Crook, tenor; John Tomlinson, bass) (1988) - Handel: Belshazzar (1990) - Handel: Acis and Galatea in Mozart's arrangement K.566 (1991) - Handel: Tamerlano (2001); CD: Avie records (live recording, London), DVD: Arthaus Musik (live recording, Halle) - Haydn: concertos for oboe, trumpet and harpsichord (Hob.XVIII:11) (Paul Goodwin, oboe; Mark Bennett, trumpet; Trevor Pinnock, harpsichord) (1985) - Haydn: violin concertos; Salomon: Romance for violin (Simon Standage, violin) (1989) - Haydn: Stabat mater (1990) - Haydn: missa in angustiis (Nelson mass), te deum (1987) - Haydn: missa sancti Nicolai, Theresienmesse (1993) - Haydn: symphonies le matin, le midi, le soir, (nos. 6, 7, 8) (1987) - Haydn: Sturm und Drang symphonies (nos. 26, 35, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 58, 59, 65) (1989–1991) - Mozart: complete symphonies (1992–1995) - Mozart: Krönungsmesse "Coronation Mass", Exsultate jubilate and Vesperae solennes de confessore (1994) - Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (1991) - Purcell: Timon of Athens and Dioclesian (1995) - Purcell: King Arthur (1991) - Purcell: Odes: Come, ye sons of art, away; Ode for St. Cecilia's Day; Of old, when heroes thought it base (the Yorkshire feast song) (1989) - Purcell: choral works with the choir of Christ Church, Oxford, conducted by Simon Preston - Telemann: 3 Orchestral Suites for 3 oboes and bassoon TWV 55: C6 and B10, for 2 hunting horns TWV 55: D19 (1993) - Telemann: Suites, Concerto in D Major for 3 oboes & bassoon TWV 55: g4 and D1, for 3 trumpets TWV 54: D4 (1994) - Vivaldi: 12 concertos il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione op.8 (Simon Standage, violin); flute concerto RV 429, cello concerto RV 424; CRD records (1978) - Vivaldi: le quattro stagioni (Simon Standage, violin) (1982) - Vivaldi: 12 concertos for 1,2 and 4 violins l'estro Armonico op.3 (Simon Standage, Micaela Comberti, Elizabeth Wilcock, Miles Golding, violins) (1987) - Vivaldi: 12 concertos for violin la stravaganza op.4 (Simon Standage, violin) (1990) - Vivaldi: 7 concerti for woodwind and strings (1995) - Vivaldi: Concerto alla rustica (1986) - Vivaldi: concerti l'amoroso (1987) - Vivaldi: 6 concerti for flute op.10 (Lisa Beznosiuk, flute) (1988) - Vivaldi: Gloria; A. Scarlatti: dixit dominus (1988) - Vivaldi: stabat mater, salve regina, nisi dominus (Michael Chance, countertenor); sinfonia for strings RV 169 (1995) #### Collections - Christmas Concertos (1988) - Pachelbel: Canon and Gigue (1990) - A Grand Concert of Musick: English Baroque Concertos (1979) - Christmas in Rome: Vivaldi: Gloria; Corelli: Christmas Concerto; A. Scarlatti: O di Betlemme altera povertà (on video and CD) (1992) - Opera Arias by Mozart, Haydn and Gluck (Anne-Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano) (1995) - Oboe Concertos: C. P. E. Bach, Wq.165; Lebrun, no.1; Mozart, K.314. (Paul Goodwin, oboe) (1990) ### Conducting - Exquisite Fires: Music of Linda Bouchard with the National Arts Centre Orchestra; Marquis Classics (1998) - Renée Fleming: Sacred Songs in Concert from Mainz Cathedral with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Mainzer Domchor; Decca records (2005) (on DVD only) - J. S. Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos with the European Brandenburg Ensemble, (2007), Avie
32,072,115	German aviso Grille	1,163,352,767	Adolf Hitler's yacht	[ "1934 ships", "Auxiliary ships of the Kriegsmarine", "Captured ships", "Ships built in Hamburg", "World War II naval ships of Germany" ]	Grille was an aviso built in Nazi Germany for the Kriegsmarine (War Navy) in the mid-1930s for use as a state yacht by Adolf Hitler and other leading individuals in the Nazi regime. The ship received a light armament of three 12.7-centimeter (5 in) guns and was fitted to be capable of serving as an auxiliary minelayer. Completed in 1935, her experimental high-pressure steam turbines, which were installed to test them before they were used in destroyers, required significant modifications and the ship finally entered service in 1937. Over the next two years, she was used in a variety of roles, including as a training vessel and a target ship, in addition to her duties as a yacht. After the start of World War II in September 1939, Grille was used as a minelayer and as a patrol vessel in the Baltic Sea, tasked with searching for enemy merchant vessels. She collided with a German transport ship in January 1940 and after repairs, resumed minelaying duties in the North Sea, thereafter being used as a gunnery training ship. She was briefly assigned to the minelaying unit tasked with supporting Operation Sea Lion in September before the planned invasion of Britain was cancelled, and she was reassigned to the Baltic during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Gunnery training duties followed from August 1941 until March 1942, when she was reduced to a headquarters ship for the commander of naval forces based in occupied Norway; she served in this capacity for the rest of the war. Seized by British forces as war reparations in 1945, she was later sold either to a Lebanese businessman who intended to use the ship as a yacht or a Lebanese shipping company for use as a passenger vessel. During this period, she was involved in a collision in March 1947, and in November 1948, she was attacked by a Jewish saboteur with limpet mines after the intelligence arm of the Haganah incorrectly assessed the vessel as having been intended to attack the Jewish fleet. After repairs were completed, the owner instead brought the ship to the United States in 1949 in an unsuccessful attempt to find a buyer. He ultimately sold Grille for scrap in 1951. ## Design Grille was 115 meters (377 ft) long at the waterline and 135 m (443 ft) long overall. She had a beam of 13.5 m (44 ft) and a draft of 4.2 m (14 ft). Her standard displacement was 2,560 long tons (2,600 t), and at full load, her displacement rose to 3,430 long tons (3,490 t). The ship had a crew of 248 officers and men. The ship's propulsion system consisted of two high-pressure geared turbines manufactured by Blohm & Voss, with steam provided by two Benson water-tube boilers that were ducted into a single raked funnel. Grille was equipped with these turbines to test them before they were installed in new destroyers. The engines were rated at 22,000 shaft horsepower (16,000 kW), for a top speed of 26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph). She had a cruising radius of 9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km; 10,900 mi). She was armed with three 12.7 cm (5 in) SK C/34 naval guns in individual mountings, one forward and two aft. She also carried four 3.7 cm (1.5 in) SK C/30 anti-aircraft guns in two dual mounts and four 2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 anti-aircraft guns in a single quadruple mount. Grille had provisions to carry up to 228 naval mines for service as an auxiliary minelayer. ## Service history ### Construction and prewar career The ship was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg; her keel was laid down in June 1934 under the provisional name "Flottentender 'C'" (fleet tender). She was launched on 15 December that year and was named Grille after the old aviso Grille; Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Eugen Lindau gave a speech at her launching ceremony. Following builder's sea trials off Helgoland, she was commissioned into the Kriegsmarine (War Navy) on 19 May 1935. Her first commander was Fregattenkapitän (Frigate Captain) Helmuth Brinkmann. The experimental high-pressure turbines with the Benson boilers proved to be unacceptable for use in warships, and Grille returned to Blohm & Voss to have the boilers replaced with a different type of boiler and control equipment for the turbines. The work was carried out between 3 October 1936 and 13 March 1937, after which the ship conducted a long-range test cruise to Iceland in July, which was completed without problems. For the next three years, Grille served in a variety of roles: she represented Adolf Hitler as the head of state of Nazi Germany and the Oberkommando der Marine (Naval High Command), as a navigational training ship, and as a target ship during training exercises. Throughout this period, she was based in Kiel in the Baltic Sea. In May 1936, she embarked Hitler and Admiral Erich Raeder, the commander of the Kriegsmarine, and carried them to Laboe for the dedication of the Laboe Naval Memorial and observe a naval review. In October, she carried Generalfeldmarschall (General Field Marshal) Werner von Blomberg, the Minister of War on a visit to Norway, cruising as far north as Nordkapp. On the way back to Germany, she stopped in Narvik, Norway, where Blomberg and his entourage disembarked and traveled by train. Grille next carried the Wehrmacht (Defense Force) delegation to represent Germany for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in mid-May 1937. The ship visited Southampton and Spithead during the voyage. In early June, she served as the flagship for Admiral Rolf Carls, the commander of the German fleet, during exercises with the fleet's scouting force in the North Sea. Blomberg again boarded the vessel in October for a cruise into the Atlantic, which included visits to a series of ports, including Funchal, Madeira and Ponta Delgada in the Azores, Portugal. In May 1938, Kapitän zur See (KzS—Captain at Sea) Günther von der Forst replaced Brinkmann as the ship's captain. Another naval review was held on 22 August for the launching ceremony for the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, during which Grille hosted Hitler and his entourage, which included Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary, who was visiting Germany at the time. Toward the end of 1938, Grille was used as a torpedo target for the aircraft of 3. Staffel, Group 506. The ship was then assigned to the Befehlshaber der Sicherung der Ostsee (BSO—Commander of the Defense of the Baltic Sea) to support the planned Invasion of Poland. During the Kiel Week sailing regatta in June 1939, Grille hosted Raeder and several foreign naval officers. ### World War II At the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, Grille was mobilized wartime service. She was initially used for minelaying operations, and from 1 to 9 September, Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Wilhelm Marschall used her as a temporary flagship. Marschall was at that time the Befehlshaber der Panzerschiffe (Commander of Armored Ships). Grille was transferred back to the BSO in mid-September, where she was used to patrol for enemy merchant shipping in the Baltic. She accidentally collided with the German steamer SS Axel on 10 January 1940, sinking the latter. Grille's bow was damaged in the incident and required repairs that were concluded on 5 February. The ship was then transferred to the North Sea to assist in the laying of minefields to guard against British attacks. She embarked on two operations to lay Minensperre (mine barrier) 16 in company with the light cruiser Köln and several destroyers, the first on 17–18 May and the second on 19–20 May. Grille was then attached to the gunnery school for training purposes. For Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of Great Britain in September 1940, Grille was assigned as the flagship of KzS Walter Krastel, the deputy commander of mine warfare vessels under Marinegruppenkommando Nord (Navy Group Command North). She led the Eastern Group to Ostend, Belgium in early September; the Eastern Group was tasked with covering the landing beaches by laying minefields on either side to prevent the British Royal Navy from intervening. The invasion was postponed "until further notice" on 17 September, and three days later Grille and the other vessels were moved to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The next day, the German high command cancelled the operation outright and Grille was immediately transferred back to the gunnery school. During Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which began in June 1941, Grille was again assigned to the minelayer command. She assisted in the laying of a minefield in the Baltic in late June, and she served as the unit flagship from 5 July to 15 August. She was transferred back to the gunnery school on 15 August, where she served for the next seven months. During this period, she was also used as a target ship for U-boat crews. She was decommissioned in March 1942 and on 24 August, was assigned as a stationary headquarters ship for the commander of naval forces in occupied Norway. She arrived in Narvik, where on 2 October, KAdm Otto Klüber came aboard. The ship was moved from Narvik to Ankenes between 25 and 31 July 1943. She had her crew reduced there on 10 January 1944; she was still capable of going to sea, but lacked crew for her weapons. In March, the staff for the commander was reduced, and Grille was then used as a headquarters ship for the commander of U-boats in Norway, KzS Rudolf Peters. She remained in Norwegian waters until the end of the war in May 1945, when she was seized by British forces. They set up one of the rooms as "Eva Braun's bedroom", but she had never visited the ship. According to the naval historians J. J. Colledge and Ben Warlow, Grille returned to northern Germany at some point after the war, and it was there that she was occupied by British forces, in August 1945. ### Postwar The ship's postwar fate is uncertain; according to the naval historians Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz, Grille was sold in 1946 to a Lebanese shipping company for use as a passenger ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Others, including a contemporary report of the vessel's disposal in 1951, state that a Lebanese businessman named George Arida purchased the vessel for use as his personal yacht in September 1946. In March 1947, the ship was involved in a collision and repairs were completed in Beirut by November 1947, when she was re-launched from the dry dock. In either event, the ship had been disarmed and any equipment with military use was removed by the British before the sale. The intelligence service of the Haganah incorrectly suspected that Arida or the Lebanese company intended to use the vessel for the Lebanese Navy to attack Haifa, so they sent a saboteur to attack it with limpet mines in November 1948. The mines exploded a few days later and blew a hole in the hull below the waterline, but did little serious damage and Grille was quickly repaired. According to reports that indicate Arida purchased the ship, after he realized the very high cost involved in keeping the ship in service, he brought the ship to the United States in 1949 in an attempt to sell her. He was unable to secure a buyer, and Grille was instead moored in New York and left idle for the next two years. While there, the ship became a tourist attraction. In April 1951, she was sold for scrap to the North American Smelting and Refining Company and was transferred to the Doan Salvage Yard in Bordentown, New Jersey. The ship was broken up later that year. Before the scrapping began, souvenir hunters removed artifacts from the vessel. The yacht's toilet was one of many relics scattered throughout New Jersey, before it was purchased by British military memorabilia collector, Bruce Crompton. A blood transfusion kit taken from the Grille forms part of the permanent collection of the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds, Britain. In October 2020 a Maryland auctioneer announced they would offer for sale a large aluminum globe-shaped bar with five barstools from the yacht.
1,853,045	Sangay	1,169,308,948	Active stratovolcano in central Ecuador	[ "Active volcanoes", "Andean Volcanic Belt", "Five-thousanders of the Andes", "Holocene stratovolcanoes", "Quaternary South America", "Stratovolcanoes of Ecuador" ]	Sangay (also known as Macas, Sanagay, or Sangai) is an active stratovolcano in central Ecuador. It exhibits mostly strombolian activity. Geologically, Sangay marks the southern boundary of the Northern Volcanic Zone, and its position straddling two major pieces of crust accounts for its high level of activity. Sangay's approximately 500,000-year-old history is one of instability; two previous versions of the mountain were destroyed in massive flank collapses, evidence of which still litters its surroundings today. Due to its remoteness, Sangay hosts a significant biological community with fauna such as the mountain tapir, giant otter, Andean cock-of-the-rock and king vulture. Since 1983, its ecological community has been protected as part of the Sangay National Park. Although climbing the mountain is hampered by its remoteness, poor weather conditions, river flooding, and the danger of falling ejecta, the volcano is regularly climbed, a feat first achieved by Robert T. Moore in 1929. ## Geological setting Lying at the eastern edge of the Andean cordillera, Sangay was formed by volcanic processes associated with the subduction of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate at the Peru–Chile Trench. It is the southernmost volcano in the Northern Volcanic Zone, a subgroup of Andean volcanoes whose northern limit is Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia. The next active volcano in the chain, Sabancaya, is in Peru, 1,600 km (990 mi) to the south. Sangay is above a seismogenic tectonic slab about 130 km (80 mi) beneath Sabancaya, reflecting a sharp difference in the thermal character of the subducted oceanic crust, between older rock beneath southern Ecuador and Peru (dated more than 32 million years old), and younger rock under northern Ecuador and Colombia (dated less than 22 million years old). The older southern rock is more thermally stable than the northern rock, and to this is attributed the long break in volcanic activity in the Andes; Sangay occupies a position at the boundary between these two bodies, accounting for its high level of activity. ## Legend Many say that gold lies under Sangay. ## Geology Sangay developed in three distinct phases. Its oldest edifice, formed between 500,000 and 250,000 years ago, is evidenced today by a wide scattering of material opening to the east, defined by a crest about 4,000 m (13,120 ft) high, pockmarked by secondary ridges; it is thought to have been 15–16 km (9–10 mi) in diameter, with a summit 2 to 3 km (1 to 2 mi) southeast of the present summit. The curved shape of the remnants of this first structure shows that it suffered a massive flank collapse, scattering the nearby forest lowlands with debris and causing a large part of its southern caldera wall to slide off the mountain, forming an embayment lower on its slopes. This 400 m (1,312 ft) thick block, the best-preserved specimen of Sangay's early construction, consists of sequentially layered breccias, pyroclastic flows, and lahar deposits. Acidic andesites with just under 60% silicon dioxide dominate these flows, but more basic andesites can be found as well. Sangay's second edifice began to form anew after the massive sector collapse that damaged the first, being constructed between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago. Remnants of its second structure are within the southern and eastern parts of the debris from its first collapse; some remnants of the volcano lie to the west and north as well. Sangay's second structure is believed to have had an east-to-west elongated summit, and like its first summit structure, it suffered a catastrophic collapse that created a debris avalanche 5 km (3 mi) wide and up to 20 km (12 mi) in length. It was likely less voluminous than the volcano's first version, and its summit lay near Sangay's current summit. Sangay currently forms an almost perfect glacier-capped cone 5,286 m (17,343 ft) high, with a 35° slope and a slight northeast-southwest tilt. Its eastern flank marks the edge of the Amazon Rainforest, and its western flank is a flat plain of volcanic ash, sculpted into steep gorges up to 600 m (1,970 ft) deep by heavy rainfall. It has a west-east trending summit ridge, capped by three active craters and a lava dome. Sangay has been active in its current form for at least 14,000 years, and is still filling out the area left bare by its earlier incarnations, being smaller than either of them. Uniquely, in its 500,000 years of activity, its magma plume has never changed composition or moved a significant distance. Mainly andesitic in composition, Sangay is highly active. The earliest report of a historical eruption was in 1628; ash fell as far away as Riobamba, located 50 km (31 mi) northwest of Sangay, and was severe enough to cover pastures and starve local livestock. The volcano erupted again in 1728, remaining essentially continuously active through 1916, with particularly heavy activity in 1738–1744, 1842–1843, 1849, 1854–1859, 1867–1874, 1872, and 1903. After a brief pause, it erupted again on August 8, 1934, and has not completely quelled ever since, with heavy eruptive periods occurring in 1934–1937 and 1941–1942. Eruptions at Sangay exhibit strombolian activity, producing ashfall, lava flows, pyroclastic flows, and lahars. All known eruptions at the volcano have had a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 3. Despite its activity, Sangay is located in a remote, uninhabited region; only a large Plinian eruption could threaten occupied areas 30–100 km (19–62 mi) to its west. Nonetheless, a flank collapse on its eastern side, possible given the volcano's construction and history, could displace nearby forest and possibly affect settlements. Access to the volcano is difficult, as its current eruptive state constantly peppers the massif with molten rock and other ejecta. For these reasons it is not nearly as well-studied as other, similarly active volcanoes in the Andes and elsewhere; the first detailed study of the volcano was not published until 1999. ## Ecology Sangay is one of two active volcanoes in the Sangay National Park, the other being Tungurahua to the north. As such it has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. The area's isolation has allowed it to maintain a pristine ecology relatively untouched by human interaction, and the park hosts a biome ranging from alpine glaciers on the volcanoes' peaks to tropical forest on their flanks. Altitude and rainfall are the most significant local factors affecting fauna, and therefore the lushest ecosystems are found on the wetter parts of the volcano's eastern slope. The highest level below the snowline is dominated by lichen and bryophytes. Below this lies a zone of small trees and shrubs which develops into montane forest, principally in western valleys and on well-irrigated eastern slopes, which occurs below 3,750 m (12,303 ft). Tree heights develop from 5 m (16 ft) near the top to up to 12 m (39 ft) below 3,000 m (9,843 ft); below 2,000 m (6,562 ft), subtropical rainforest is present, with temperatures between 18 and 24 °C (64 and 75 °F) and up to 500 cm (196.9 in) of rainfall. Fauna is similarly distributed, with distinct altitudinal zonation present. The highest altitudes support the endangered mountain tapir, cougar, guinea pig, and Andean fox. Lower down, the spectacled bear, jaguar, ocelot, margay, white-tailed deer, brocket deers, northern pudú, and endangered giant otter can all be found. Bird species common in the area include the Andean condor, Andean cock-of-the-rock, giant hummingbird, torrent duck, king vulture, and swallow-tailed kite. ## Recreation Sangay can and has been climbed. It was first ascended in 1929 by Robert T. Moore, prior to its current eruption beginning in 1934. However, the volcano's current active state presents dangers to mountaineers in the form of falling ejecta; in 1976, two members of an expedition on the volcano were struck and killed by falling debris. In addition, the volcano is located in a remote region with poor roads and is difficult to access, and periods of heavy rainfall can flood rivers and cause landslides, rendering the mountain routes impassable. Nonetheless, the Instituto Ecuatoriano Forestal y de Areas Naturales, which maintains an office near the mountain, facilitate such activities by providing local guides and rooms for rent to visitors. Ascension takes between 7 and 10 days from Quito. Conditions on the volcano are usually very wet and foggy, which may impair visibility significantly during the ascent. ## Recent Activity Sangay has erupted at least eleven times during the Holocene epoch. Its most recent eruption began on 26 March 2019, and it has remained in continuing eruption status (intermittent eruptive events without a break of 3 months or more) as of 15 October 2021. On 15 June 2022, the National Weather Service issued an ashfall advisory as the volcano went into a state of unrest, producing a plume of volcanic ash. Mariners traveling in the vicinity were cautioned about the possibility of debris. ## See also - Lists of volcanoes - List of volcanoes in Ecuador
3,141,603	Interstate 194 (Michigan)	1,167,492,304	Interstate Highway in Michigan	[ "Auxiliary Interstate Highways", "Interstate 94", "Interstate Highways in Michigan", "Sojourner Truth", "Transportation in Calhoun County, Michigan" ]	Interstate 194 (I-194) is a 3.4-mile-long (5.5 km), north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway between downtown Battle Creek and I-94 in the southern portion of the city. The highway has been designated the Sojourner Truth Downtown Parkway by the state after the abolitionist Sojourner Truth, who was active in the Battle Creek area. Locals refer to the freeway by its semi-official nickname, "The Penetrator". I-194 is the only three-digit spur or loop route off I-94 in the state of Michigan and runs concurrently throughout its length with M-66, which continues both north and south from the termini of I-194. The freeway was initially opened in 1961 and completed in its current form in 1966. The highway was named in 1976 for Truth in honor of her local connections to the area. ## Route description Part of the much longer highway, I-194 starts when M-66 widens out to a full freeway just south of I-94 near Beckley Road. The start of I-194 is marked by the full cloverleaf interchange. It is numbered as exit 98 along I-94 and exit 1 using I-194's mileage along the I-194/M-66 freeway. The roadway crosses Minges Creek north of the I-94 interchange. To the west of the freeway are residential subdivisions; the eastern side is marked by gently-rolling, wooded terrain. This section of I-194 carries 26,300 vehicles on average day according to surveys done by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) in 2007. Of these vehicles, 1,200 trucks were included in the totals. After crossing Golden Avenue, I-194 curves to the northwest to meet the M-96 (Columbia Avenue) interchange. The freeway runs underneath the Columbia Avenue overpass before running parallel to the west bank of the Kalamazoo River. The freeway crosses the river at the southern end of Lower Mill Pond. Curving back around to the northeast, I-194 meets Business Loop I-94 (BL I-94, Dickman Road). Here the traffic averages 24,400 vehicles a day. The freeway ends at an at-grade intersection with Hamblin Avenue, and continuing north of the intersection, the highway becomes just M-66. BL I-94 runs east of the freeway end on Hamblin Avenue to connect to Michigan Avenue. All of I-194 is listed on the National Highway System, a system of strategically important highways, and it is concurrent with M-66 for the length of the freeway. ## History From its initial opening in 1961 until 1964, I-194 also carried the BL I-94 and M-78 designations. BL I-94 was rerouted in Battle Creek to Martin Luther King Drive and M-78 in 1964, and M-78 was replaced by M-66 in 1965. The last change to the I-194 routing was the extension of the northern end of the freeway from Columbia Avenue to Michigan Avenue in 1966. At the time, MDOT's predecessor, the Michigan State Highway Department, called all auxiliary Interstate Highways "Penetrator" when planning the freeway network in the state; a name which stuck to I-194. Born Isabella Baumfree in 1797, Sojourner Truth settled in the Battle Creek area in the 1840s. She travelled through the Midwest and New England speaking against slavery and for women's rights. She lived in the area until her death in 1883. Her connection to the state of Michigan was honored by the state American Revolution Bicentennial Commission in 1976 which urged the Michigan Legislature to name a highway in her honor. Public Act 93 of 1976 named all of M-66 in Calhoun County as the Sojourner Truth Memorial Highway. The highway was dedicated to her on May 21, 1976. The Cereal City Development Corporation (CCDC) asked the Legislature to amend the memorial designation in 1993. They felt the highway was better known to locals as The Penetrator, and they wished to restore emphasis to Truth, they asked for the "Sojourner Truth Downtown Parkway" name to be applied to "M-66 between Interstate 94 and Hamblin". The Legislature passed Public Act 208 of 1993 to affect the change, restoring "the link between Sojourner Truth and the City of Battle Creek, which was once the center of abolitionist sentiment in the state". ## Exit list ## See also
984,310	Battle of Long Tan	1,170,209,414	1966 battle of the Vietnam War	[ "1966 in Vietnam", "August 1966 events", "Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1966", "Battles involving Vietnam", "Battles of the Vietnam War involving Australia", "Battles of the Vietnam War involving New Zealand", "Battles of the Vietnam War involving the United States", "Conflicts in 1966", "History of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province" ]	The Battle of Long Tan (18 August 1966) took place in a rubber plantation near Long Tân, in Phước Tuy Province, South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. The action was fought between Viet Cong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) units and elements of the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF). Australian signals intelligence (SIGINT) had tracked the VC 275th Regiment and D445 Battalion moving to a position just north of Long Tan. By 16 August, it was positioned near Long Tan outside the range of the 1 ATF artillery at Nui Dat. Using mortars and recoilless rifles (RCLs), on the night of 16/17 August, the VC attacked Nui Dat from a position 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the east, until counter-battery fire made it stop. The next morning D Company, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6 RAR), departed Nui Dat to locate the firing positions and determine the direction of the VC withdrawal. D Company found weapon pits and firing positions for mortars and RCLs, and around midday on 18 August made contact with VC elements. Facing a larger force, D Company called in artillery support. Heavy fighting ensued as the VC attempted to encircle and destroy the Australians, who were resupplied several hours later by two UH-1B Iroquois from No. 9 Squadron RAAF. With the help of strong artillery fire, D Company held off a regimental assault before a relief force of M113 armoured personnel carriers and infantry from Nui Dat reinforced them that night. Australian forces then pulled back to evacuate their casualties and formed a defensive position; when they swept through the area next day, the VC had withdrawn and the operation ended on 21 August. Although 1 ATF initially viewed Long Tan as a defeat, the action was later re-assessed as a strategic victory since it prevented the VC moving against Nui Dat. The VC also considered it a victory, due to the political success of an effective ambush and securing of the area around the village. Whether the battle impaired the capabilities of the VC is disputed. ## Background The 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) began arriving in Phước Tuy Province of South Vietnam between April and June 1966. Following the establishment of its base at Nui Dat in Operation Hardihood, standing patrols were established outside the base in the evening and clearing patrols sent out every morning and evening along the 12-kilometre (7.5 mi) perimeter. Daily platoon patrols and ambushes were initially conducted out to Line Alpha (4,000 metres (4,400 yd)), which was the range of the Viet Cong (VC) mortars, but were later extended out to Line Bravo (10,000 metres (11,000 yd)) to counter the threat from artillery. All inhabitants of Long Phước and Long Hải villages within Line Alpha were removed, and resettled nearby. A protective security zone was established and a free-fire zone declared. Although unusual for allied installations in Vietnam, many of which were located near populated areas, the Australians hoped to deny the VC observation of Nui Dat, and afford greater security to patrols entering and exiting the area. While adding to the physical security of the base through disrupting a major VC support area and removing the local population from danger, such measures may have been counter-productive. The resettlement resulted in widespread resentment. The VC continued to observe the base from the Nui Dinh hills. Movement was heard around the perimeter over the first few nights as they attempted to locate the Australian defences under the cover of darkness and heavy rain. Although no clashes occurred and the reconnaissance soon ceased, they were believed to be preparations for an attack. On 10 June reports indicated that a VC regiment was moving towards Nui Dat from the north west and was about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away. The same day three 120 mm mortar rounds landed just outside the base. That night Australian artillery fired on suspected movement along Route 2, but no casualties were found the next day. Further warnings of an attack hastened the call-forward of 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6 RAR), which arrived from Vũng Tàu 30 kilometres (19 mi) to the south on 14 June. No attack occurred, and the initial reaction to 1 ATF's lodgement proved unexpectedly limited. ### Opposing forces #### Communist forces The principal communist units in Phước Tuy were main forces from the 274th and 275th Regiments of the VC 5th Division. Under command of Senior Colonel Nguyen The Truyen, the division was headquartered in the Mây Tào Mountains. Operating in Phước Tuy, Biên Hòa and Long Khánh Provinces, it comprised both South Vietnamese VC guerrillas and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) units. Given the task of isolating the eastern provinces from Saigon by interdicting the main roads and highways, including National Routes 1 and 15 and provincial routes 2 and 23, it proved a major challenge to Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) units that ventured into the province, demonstrating a capacity to mount regimental-size ambushes. The 274th Regiment was the stronger and better trained of the two. Based in the Hát Dịch in north west Phước Tuy with three battalions—D800, D265 and D308—it numbered 2,000 men. The 275th Regiment was based in the Mây Tào Mountains and mainly operated in the east of the province. Commanded by Senior Captain Nguyen Thoi Bung (aka Ut Thoi), it consisted of three battalions—H421, H422 and H421—with a total of 1,850 men. In support was an artillery battalion equipped with 75 mm recoilless rifles (RCLs), 82 mm mortars, and 12.7 mm heavy machine-guns, an engineer battalion, a signals battalion and a sapper reconnaissance battalion, as well as medical and logistic units. Local forces included D445 Battalion, which normally operated in the south and in Long Khánh. Under command of Bui Quang Chanh (alias Sau Chanh), it consisted of three rifle companies—C1, C2, C3—and a weapons company, C4; a strength of 550 men. Recruited locally and operating in familiar terrain, they possessed an intimate knowledge of the area. Guerrilla forces numbered 400 men operating in groups of five to 60, with two companies in Châu Đốc district, one in Long Dat, and a platoon in Xuyên Mộc. In total, VC strength was estimated to have been around 4,500 men. #### Allied Forces ARVN forces included the 52nd Ranger Battalion, a unit that had previously earned a US Presidential Unit Citation defeating the 275th Regiment the year before, and relatively weak territorial forces of 17 Regional Force (RF) companies and 47 Popular Force (PF) platoons, in total some 4,500 men. Most villages were garrisoned by an RF company operating from a fortified compound, and PF platoons guarded most hamlets and important infrastructure, but their value was questionable. RF companies were technically available for tasks throughout the province, while PF platoons were mostly restricted to operating around their village. While RF and PF units occasionally defended themselves successfully they rarely conducted offensive operations, and when they did they were usually limited. Mostly recruited from the same population as their opponents, they often suffered equally at the hands of the VC and a largely inept government. Poorly trained and unable to rely on being reinforced, they provided little opposition to the VC. A US Advisory Team operated in support, as did a few Australians from the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV); despite their efforts, the capabilities of the ARVN remained limited. The arrival of 1 ATF further restricted their ability to operate in Phước Tuy as it increasingly came to dominate the province. Initially, 1 ATF, under the command of Brigadier Oliver David Jackson, consisted of two infantry battalions: the 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR), commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Warr, and 6 RAR under Lieutenant Colonel Colin Townsend. Other units included the 1st Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron operating M113 armoured personnel carriers (APCs); 1st Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, consisting of the New Zealand 161st Battery, two Australian batteries equipped with eighteen 105 mm L5 Pack Howitzers, and six 155 mm M109 self-propelled howitzers from the US A Battery, 2nd Battalion, 35th Artillery Regiment; 3rd SAS Squadron; 1st Field Squadron and 21st Engineer Support Troop; 103rd Signals Squadron; 161st Reconnaissance Flight operating Cessna 180s and Bell H-13 Sioux light observation helicopters; and an intelligence detachment. Support was provided by the 1st Australian Logistic Support Group (1 ALSG) at Vũng Tàu, and eight UH-1B Iroquois helicopters from No. 9 Squadron RAAF. US forces provided considerable support including artillery, close air support, helicopter gunships, and utility, medium and heavy lift helicopters. The largest Australian force deployed since the Second World War, it had been rapidly assembled. Although many of its officers and non-commissioned personnel had extensive operational experience, it included many National Servicemen. Few had direct experience of counter-insurgency operations, or first-hand understanding of the situation in Vietnam. The task force was unable to train together before departure. ### Preliminary operations With 1 ATF established at Nui Dat, subsequent operations included a search and destroy missions to gain control over Phước Tuy. Seeking to extend its influence beyond Line Alpha, in early July 5 RAR patrolled north through Nui Nghệ, while 6 RAR cleared Long Phước to the south, removing the former inhabitants who had returned since May. 5 RAR then began operations along Route 2, cordoning and searching Dục Mỹ on 19–20 July in preparation for the clearance of Bình Ba, while the SAS conducted long-range patrols to the edge of the Tactical Area of Operations (TAOR) to provide early warning of VC concentrations. With the 5th Division believed able to concentrate anywhere in Phước Tuy within 24 to 48 hours, it was a significant threat. As 1 ATF began to impact the VC's freedom of action, a response was expected. Mortar fire and small probes on the Nui Dat perimeter occurred, with such activity considered a possible prelude to an attack. Assessments of VC intentions changed from those of May and June. Whereas previously a full-scale assault was expected, as Nui Dat's defences were strengthened an attack against an isolated company or battalion was considered more likely. Other possibilities included skirmishes or ambushes during routine patrolling, or an attempt to interdict a resupply convoy from Vũng Tàu. By the end of July, a large VC force had been detected by SAS patrols east of Nui Dat, near the abandoned village of Long Tân. In response, 6 RAR launched a battalion search and destroy operation. In a series of fire-fights on 25 July, a company from D445 Battalion attacked C Company, and in the process of retreating assaulted B Company occupying a blocking position. Over the following days, further clashes occurred around Long Tan, resulting in 13 VC killed and 19 wounded, and Australian losses of three killed and 19 wounded. Yet with the inhabitants resettled, the village fortified and the perimeter regularly patrolled, the Australians considered the area secure. Believing VC sympathisers had returned to Long Tân, they searched the area again on 29 July. That afternoon, as 6 RAR commenced a detailed search following its initial sweep, Jackson ordered its immediate return to Nui Dat in response to South Vietnamese reports of a large VC presence close to the base. Although the warnings were unconfirmed and an attack against Nui Dat was considered unlikely, 1 ATF was re-postured. Company patrols were sent out in each direction over the following days, but found little of significance. Jackson had seemed to over-react, and his requests for assistance from US II Field Force, Vietnam (II FFV) were denied. Later intelligence discredited the original reporting and the crisis subsided, but it was indicative of the alarms experienced during the first months of 1 ATF's lodgement, and their effect. After two months, 1 ATF had moved beyond the initial requirements of establishing itself and securing its immediate approaches, and commenced operations to open the province. The task force had penetrated the VC base areas to the east and clashed with D445 Battalion. Operations had been conducted in the Núi Dinh hills to west, Bình Ba had been cleared of VC influence and Route 2 opened to civilian traffic. Yet the ongoing need to secure Nui Dat reduced the combat power available to the task force commander, and it was evident that with only two battalions—rather than the usual three—1 ATF lacked operational flexibility, as while one battalion carried out operations the other was required to secure the base and provide a ready reaction force. Significant logistic problems also plagued the task force, as 1 ALSG struggled to become operational amid the sand dunes at Vũng Tàu, resulting in shortages of vital equipment. By the middle of August, the Australian troops were growing tired from constant day and night patrolling with no respite from base defence duties. A rest and recreation program began, with many granted two days leave in Vũng Tàu, but this further stretched the limited forces available to 1 ATF. Meanwhile, in response to the growing threat posed by the Australians, the commander of the VC 5th Division finally ordered the 275th Regiment to move against Nui Dat. For several weeks, Australian signals intelligence (SIGINT) had used direction finding to track a VC radio transmitter from the headquarters of the 275th Regiment westwards to a position just north of Long Tân. Extensive patrolling failed to find the unit. The reports began on 29 July at the height of the false alarm, with the radio detected moving towards Nui Dat from a position north of Xuyên Mộc. The movement continued at a rate of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) a day and by 13 August was located near the Nui Dat 2 feature, a hill in the vicinity of Long Tân, 5,000 metres (5,500 yd) east of Nui Dat. While direction finding indicated the movement of the radio, no actual communications had been intercepted. However it suggested the presence of the 275th Regiment or at least a reconnaissance party of that unit. Jackson could not rule out deception and therefore took the threat seriously when he decided to send company patrols out. The existence of a SIGINT capability was a closely guarded secret, and knowledge of the source of the reports was limited to Jackson, his two intelligence officers, and the 1 ATF operations officer; neither battalion commander had access. On 15 August D Company, 6 RAR patrolled to Nui Dat 2 and returned through the Long Tân rubber plantation. The following day A Company, 6 RAR departed on a three-day patrol on a route which included Nui Dat 2 and the ridge to the north west. Any sizeable VC force in the vicinity would have been located, but neither patrol found anything of significance. SAS patrols focused on the Núi Dinh hills to the west. By 16 August, the VC force was positioned east of the Long Tân rubber plantation, just outside the range of the artillery at Nui Dat. The Australians thought that Colonel Nguyen Thanh Hong, a staff officer from the VC 5th Division who was likely in overall control, planned the operation. Although VC intentions have been debated in the years since, the aim was likely both a political and military victory to prove their strength to the local population, and undermine Australian public support for the war. They would probably have known one of 1 ATF's battalions was involved in the search of Bình Ba, and may have considered Nui Dat weakly defended as a result. Undetected, it likely consisted of three battalions of the 275th Regiment with approximately 1,400 men, possibly reinforced by at least one regular PAVN battalion, and D445 Battalion with up to 350 men. Well armed, they were equipped with AK-47 and SKS assault rifles, RPG-2 rocket-propelled grenades, light machine-guns, mortars and RCLs. Large quantities of ammunition were carried, with each man issued two or three grenades, and grenadiers up to ten or twelve, and a reserve of small arms, mortar bombs and rounds for their crew-served weapons. The 274th Regiment was probably located 15 to 20 kilometres (9.3 to 12.4 mi) north west, occupying a position on Route 2 to ambush a squadron of the US 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which they anticipated would move down the inter-provincial highway from Long Khánh to support the Australians. ## Battle ### Opening moves, 16/17 August 1966 #### Initial assault At 02:43 on the night of 16/17 August Nui Dat was bombarded by the VC, and hit by over 100 rounds from several 82 mm mortars, 75 mm RCLs and an old Japanese 70 mm howitzer fired from a position 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the east. Most of the infantry were deployed at the time, with 5 RAR still engaged on Operation Holsworthy while a small party remained at the base. A Company, 6 RAR was on patrol in the north-east of the TAOR, while a platoon from C Company was manning a night ambush to the south-east. The bombardment lasted for 22 minutes, damaging vehicles, tents and wounding 24 men, one of whom later died. The impact was spread over the south and south-east, with the 103rd Field Battery heaviest hit. The 1st Field Regiment commenced counter-battery fire at 02:50. As the artillery locating radar was suspected of being faulty, the enemy firing position was located manually using compass bearings on sound and flash. With the likely firing point plotted, 240 rounds were fired that made the mortaring cease. The Australians remained alert in case of a ground assault, but this did not occur. The Australian artillery continued to shell suspected VC firing positions and withdrawal routes until 04:10. Although the VC were expected to have withdrawn, several company patrols were dispatched the following morning to search the area east of Nui Dat in response. #### Pursuing the Vietcong Townsend ordered B Company under Major Noel Ford to prepare for a patrol to locate the firing points which were believed to be in the area between the abandoned villages of Long Tân, Long Phước, and the Nui Dat 2 feature. Having done so, it was to establish the direction of the VC withdrawal. Meanwhile, a platoon from C Company mounted in armoured personnel carriers was to investigate a suspected mortar location south-west of Nui Dat. A Company would continue its patrol in the vicinity of Nui Dat 2, while 7 Platoon, C Company, already conducting a night ambush on the southern edge of the TAOR, would search some sites as it returned that morning. No SAS patrols were deployed as a result of the attack, although several previously had been planned to the north between Bình Ba and the Courtenay plantation in preparation for upcoming operations went ahead. Another patrol was inserted near the Song Rai, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) north-east of Nui Dat, on the morning of 17 August. The patrol located several tracks about six hours old and headed in a westerly direction that were possibly made by a VC logistics unit. Radio interference and faulty equipment meant that the company was unable to report the information until extraction two days later. Australian intelligence continued to assess a ground attack against Nui Dat as unlikely, with the bombardment an indicator of further offensive action against 1 ATF, Jackson felt he would be unable to adequately respond with only one battalion. 5 RAR was therefore ordered to return to Nui Dat, and was expected back by 18 August. Although SIGINT had earlier alerted Jackson to the possible presence of a strong VC force in the vicinity of Nui Dat 2, patrols of the area revealed nothing, and as a consequence B Company did not expect to meet significant opposition. Stepping off early on 17 August with just 80 men—some due on leave the following day—they were significantly under-strength, lacking provisions. Crossing the Suối Da Bang creek, the firing point of the mortars was soon located, as were signs of the VC withdrawal. Meanwhile, A Company, 6 RAR under Captain Charles Mollison continued its patrol north of Nui Dat 2, and was involved in three minor clashes, killing one VC and wounding two. B Company was subsequently given the task of remaining in the area and searching to the north and east the following day, and was met by porters that afternoon to supply them with rations. 9 Platoon, C Company returned to Nui Dat with nothing to report, leaving A and B Company in their night locations. Speculation about the size of the VC in the area increased. Captain Bryan Wickens, the 6 RAR Intelligence Officer, assessed that the presence of medium mortars, RCLs and artillery likely indicated a significant force. Due to growing uncertainty about VC intentions, Jackson agreed the patrol scheduled for 18 August should be increased from platoon to company size. D Company, 6 RAR under command of Major Harry Smith had previously been detailed for a three-day patrol south-east of Nui Dat and was instead ordered to relieve B Company the next day to continue the search. Neither Townsend nor Smith were warned of the possible presence of the 275th Regiment. ### Patrolling east of Nui Dat, 18 August 1966 B Company were due to go on leave, and therefore returned to Nui Dat on the morning of the 18th. At 07:05 the depleted company—reduced to a single platoon and Company Headquarters—continued the search east as far as the edge of the rubber plantation, while A Company searched down the Suối Da Bang towards them. They located several weapon pits and the firing positions of the mortars and RCLs, while discarded stained clothing nearby confirmed the accuracy of the Australian artillery. At Nui Dat D Company, 6 RAR prepared for its patrol; despite the earlier bombardment, they did not take any extra ammunition with them. Wickens briefed Smith, who assessed that the VC would be incapable of mounting an ambush because of the effectiveness of the Australian counter-battery mortar fire. While the size of the VC force was unknown, the Australians could not discount the possibility it was part of a larger force preparing to move against Nui Dat. The VC were believed able to attack a company-sized force and to launch mortar attacks similar to that the previous morning. Smith then discussed the patrol with Townsend. If B Company located the withdrawal route used by the mortar crews, he was to follow it with the aim of interdiction; otherwise he was to continue the search until it was located. Assuming D445 Battalion to be the only unit in the area, Smith believed they were looking for that unit's heavy weapons platoon of approximately 30 to 40 men. He briefed his platoon commanders accordingly, although he also felt the VC would have long since left the area. Meanwhile, 5 RAR (minus one company) returned to Nui Dat. #### Troop support and pursuit D Company departed Nui Dat at 11:00 on 18 August led by Smith. They were accompanied by a three-man New Zealand artillery forward observer party under Captain Maurice Stanley, making up a 108-man company. Already behind schedule and with B Company having been out for longer than expected, Smith wanted to relieve Ford and then follow the VC tracks to continue the pursuit that afternoon. Opting for speed, he adopted single file, with 12 Platoon under Second Lieutenant David Sabben in the lead. Despite the heat the company moved at a fast pace, traversing the low scrub, swamp and paddy fields as they closed in on B Company's position. Meanwhile, the rock and roll acts Little Pattie and Col Joye and the Joy Boys had flown into Nui Dat and were setting up for an afternoon concert. Many of the Australians were disappointed at the prospect of missing the entertainment, and as they patrolled east they occasionally heard the music through the trees. At 13:00 D Company met up with B Company on the edge of the Long Tân rubber plantation, approximately 2,500 metres (2,700 yd) from Nui Dat. D Company moved into all-round defence and posted sentries. While the soldiers had lunch, Smith and Ford inspected the area with a small protection party. The position appeared to have been used by the VC as a staging area prior to the bombardment two nights before, and there were signs that they had evacuated their casualties by cart. The Australians found blood stains and a quantity of equipment and sandals, and examined the mortar and RCL firing locations. After briefing Smith, Ford and the remainder of B Company turned for Nui Dat. D Company subsequently took over the pursuit. Smith decided to follow signs of a fresh track leading north-east. Setting off at 15:00, D Company paralleled a well-defined track running slightly uphill. Second Lieutenant Gordon Sharp's 11 Platoon was in the lead, followed by Company Headquarters, with 10 Platoon on the left under Second Lieutenant Geoff Kendall, and 12 Platoon on the right. Each platoon moved in open formation, with two sections forward in arrowhead and one back, on a frontage of approximately 160 metres (170 yd). Moving deeper into the plantation, there were select areas with less visibility. After 200 metres (220 yd) the track divided into two which ran roughly east-south-east in parallel, 300 metres (330 yd) apart. At the junction, D Company found evidence of the VC mortars having been prepared for firing, while more scattered equipment was found which again indicated the accuracy of the counter-battery fire and a rapid withdrawal. Unable to cover both tracks, Smith radioed Townsend to discuss the situation. It was decided D Company would take the more easterly track, towards the limit of the range of their covering artillery. Smith adopted a "two up, one back" formation, with 10 Platoon on the left and 11 Platoon on the higher ground to the right. Company Headquarters was in the centre, with 12 Platoon following to the rear. Well dispersed with about 10 metres (11 yd) between each man, the company had a total frontage of 400 metres (440 yd) and was about the same in depth. Amid the trees observation was 150 to 200 metres (160 to 220 yd), allowing visual contact between Smith and his platoons. While standard for Australian infantry in such terrain, this spacing was larger than that usually adopted by ARVN or US units. ### Initial contact #### First contact with Vietcong D Company moved off again. Shortly after 11 Platoon's lead section crossed a dirt road running south-west to north-east. Straight, well-established and sunken with a clearing on either side, it was 20 to 30 metres (22 to 33 yd) wide and required them to complete an obstacle-crossing drill to traverse it. At 15:40, just as the forward sections entered the tree line on the other side, but before platoon headquarters could follow, a group of six to eight VC approached their right flank along the track from the south. Unaware of their presence, the VC squad continued into the middle of the platoon. One was hit in a brief action after the platoon sergeant, Sergeant Bob Buick, engaged them, while the remainder scattered. They rapidly moved south-east, and although the Australians believed it just another fleeting contact, artillery was called onto their likely withdrawal route 500 metres (550 yd) south. After pausing to reorganise, 11 Platoon moved into extended line, sweeping the area and recovering an AK-47 and the body of a VC soldier. Sharp reported to Smith that the VC had been dressed in khaki uniforms and were carrying automatic weapons, yet D445 Battalion soldiers typically wore black and were equipped with US-origin bolt-action rifles or carbines. At the time only main force units were so equipped, but the significance was not immediately apparent. With the area clear following the initial contact, Smith ordered D Company to continue the advance. Meanwhile, Second Lieutenant David Harris was at Headquarters 1 ATF at Nui Dat when the first reports came in. As Jackson's aide he was aware of the intelligence being received and believed D Company had clashed with a main force regiment. Harris alerted Jackson, before telephoning Major Bob Hagerty—officer commanding 1st APC Squadron—to warn him of the possible requirement for his standby troop. Moving forward again, D Company continued east. 11 Platoon's rapid follow-up had opened a 500-metre (550 yd) gap with Company Headquarters, while the two lead platoons were also widely dispersed. 11 Platoon penetrated further into the plantation, widening the gap with 10 Platoon to more than 300 metres (330 yd). Although 12 Platoon in the rear covered most of the ground bypassed by the forward platoons, the gap was such that their flanking sections had lost sight of each other, while Smith was unable to see them in the dense vegetation. At that distance, the spacing between the Australians was now greater than the maximum effective range of their weapons. Meanwhile, 11 Platoon had moved forward approximately 250 metres (270 yd) from the first engagement. As Smith reached the site of the contact, the sound of firing continued to the front as Sharp manoeuvred his sections in pursuit of the withdrawing force. Still in extended line, 11 Platoon came across a rubber tapper's hut. Believing sounds coming from it were from VC hiding there, Sharp launched a platoon attack, but the VC had already fled, and the assaulting sections found only two grenades as they swept through the area. Advancing with three sections abreast—6 Section on the left, 4 Section in the centre and 5 Section on the right—they pushed on through the rubber towards a clearing. This formation allowed them to cover a broad front, but offered little flank security. At 16:08, shortly after resuming the advance, 11 Platoon's left flank was engaged by machine-gun fire from a previously undetected VC force, killing and wounding several men from 6 Section. They went to ground and adopted firing positions, only to be engaged by a second machine-gun firing tracer. The firing lasted two to three minutes then stopped, and Sharp then ordered 5 Section to sweep across the front of the platoon from the right. Yet just as they began to move, they came under heavy small-arms and RPG fire from their front and both flanks. Pinned down by the weight of fire, and under threat of being overrun, the isolated platoon was forced to fight for their lives. Over the next 10 to 15 minutes the VC engaged 11 Platoon with heavy fire, putting their left flank out of action. At that moment a heavy monsoon rain began which reduced visibility to just 50 metres (55 yd) and turned the ground to mud. Assessing the VC to be in greater strength than previously thought and believing they were preparing to assault his position, Sharp called for artillery fire as he moved to bring his exposed section back into line and then gradually withdraw his platoon into all-round defence. He subsequently reported being under fire from a force estimated to be platoon-sized. The Australians had started the contact thinking they were numerically superior and would attack the VC, yet far from clashing with a small force which would try to withdraw before being decisively engaged, 11 Platoon had run into the forward troops of a main force regiment. Beginning as an encounter battle, heavy fighting ensued as the advancing battalions of the 275th Regiment and D445 Battalion clashed with D Company, 6 RAR and attempted to encircle and destroy them. ### 11 Platoon isolated Amid the noise of machine-gun and rifle fire and the VC bugle calls, Stanley brought the 161st Battery, Royal New Zealand Artillery into action to support the Australian infantry. Yet as he was unable to see them, for safety reasons the initial rounds were directed a distance from 11 Platoon's known location, before "walking" the fire in to between 200 and 300 metres (220 and 330 yd) of their position, aided by D Company's favourable location between the VC and the gunline at Nui Dat, which allowed the rounds to pass over their heads and fall away from them. Landing beyond 11 Platoon, the rounds exploded amid the VC as they began to form up for an assault. But with 11 Platoon engaged from its left, front and right, it became clear the VC force was stronger than a platoon, and was probably at least company-sized. Supported by heavy machine-guns, they launched a series of assaults against 11 Platoon, only to be held off by small arms and artillery fire. As the fighting continued, Stanley realised a single artillery battery was insufficient, and at 16:19 requested a regimental fire mission using all 24 guns of the 1st Field Regiment. The VC continued their assault, surging around the flanks of 11 Platoon. The Australians responded with controlled small arms fire, picking off VC soldiers as the rain and artillery continued to fall. After making the required corrections, Stanley requested another regimental fire mission at 16:22, yet still unable to see the rounds land he had to work entirely from radio communications with 11 Platoon, adjusting the fire over an area of 200 metres (220 yd) using just a map. Less than 20 minutes after the first contact more than a third of 11 Platoon had been killed or wounded. Several 60mm light mortar rounds were fired towards the D Company position and although they landed to the east they further separated the remainder of the company from 11 Platoon, putting the main body behind a slight rise. At 16:26 Smith reported to Townsend that D Company was facing a force using mortars, and called for artillery support. Shortly afterwards Sharp was shot and killed after he raised himself to observe the fall of shot. With the platoon commander dead, Buick took charge of 11 Platoon, directing the artillery through Stanley. Unable to extricate itself, 11 Platoon was almost surrounded. Taking heavy casualties and running short of ammunition, Buick radioed for assistance. Soon after the aerial of the platoon's radio was shot away and communications lost. Meanwhile, Smith requested an air-strike to deal with the mortars. In response, Stanley organised counter-battery fire from the American 155 mm self-propelled howitzers at Nui Dat, which appeared to silence them. Meanwhile, 10 Platoon was approximately 200 metres (220 yd) to the north and Smith ordered it to move up on the left of 11 Platoon to try to relieve pressure on them and allow a withdrawal back to the company defensive position. Dropping their packs, Kendall's platoon wheeled to the south-east in extended line, advancing towards 11 Platoon. As they came over a small rise, through the rain they observed a VC platoon of 30 to 40 men advancing south, firing on 11 Platoon as they attempted to outflank them. Advancing to close range before dropping to their knees to adopt firing positions, 10 Platoon engaged them from the rear, hitting a large number and breaking up the attack. As the surviving VC withdrew, Kendall pushed on. Yet shortly after 10 Platoon was engaged on three sides from a heavy machine-gun firing tracer from the high ground of the Nui Dat 2 feature 400 metres (440 yd) to their left, wounding the signaller and damaging the radio, putting it out of action. Now also without communications, and still 100 to 150 metres (110 to 160 yd) from 11 Platoon, 10 Platoon moved into a defensive position, fighting to hold on. Finally, a runner arrived from Company Headquarters with a replacement radio, having moved 200 to 300 metres (220 to 330 yd) through heavy fire as he tried to locate the platoon, killing two VC with his Owen gun on the way. With the wounded starting to arrive back at Smith's position and communications with 10 Platoon restored, he ordered Kendall to pull back under cover of the artillery. 10 Platoon was ultimately forced back to its start point. ### Reaction at Nui Dat It appeared the VC would shortly overrun D Company if they were not soon reinforced but no quick reaction force was prepared to deploy at short notice. Consequently, it took several hours to organise a relief force. Although essentially a sub-unit battle fought by a rifle company supported by artillery and co-ordinated by Townsend from the 6 RAR command post at Nui Dat, Jackson was concerned. Not only was D Company in trouble, but the entire force might be under threat. VC radio jamming on the battalion command net forced them to switch frequencies to communicate with D Company. Such a jamming capability was rarely found below divisional-level. Intending to lead the company out himself and take command of the battle, at 16:30 Townsend ordered A Company to prepare to reinforce them, despite themselves only having returned from a three-day patrol an hour prior, and 3 Troop, 1st APC Squadron under Lieutenant Adrian Roberts was warned to be ready to lift the relief force. US ground attack aircraft at Bien Hoa Air Base were also placed on alert by Headquarters 1 ATF. Meanwhile, on hearing the sounds of the fighting while returning to Nui Dat, B Company halted 2,300 metres (2,500 yd) short of the base and was ordered to rejoin D Company. Apparently under close observation by the VC, they were engaged by two 60 mm mortars as they turned around, but took no casualties. Requiring the task force commander's permission to send out the relief force and to accompany it, Townsend telephoned Jackson. Concerned for the safety of the entire force, Jackson was initially reluctant to authorise its dispatch should it weaken the position at Nui Dat. Although he was unsure of the size of the VC facing D Company, from Smith's reports it appeared to be at least a regular battalion. Intelligence suggested it was likely from the 275th Regiment, although the location of its remaining two battalions were unknown, as was that of D445 Battalion. The whereabouts of the 274th Regiment was equally unclear. While radio direction finding suggested it may have been near Phước Tuy's northern border, three weeks earlier it had been reported close to the western side of the Australian TAOR, and one of its battalions had (incorrectly) been believed involved in an attack on Phú Mỹ in the south-west of the province on 11 August. Consequently, Jackson reasoned that if the battle unfolding near Long Tân was the opening phase of an attack on Nui Dat, the main assault was still to come, and he would need the bulk of his forces to defend the base. He considered the commitment of A Company would tie up the bulk of 6 RAR and the artillery. Yet Townsend believed Nui Dat's defences sufficient to deter such an attack, even if they remained incomplete, while the strategic reserve held by US II FFV could also be called upon if required. Ultimately Jackson gave in-principle support to the plan, but would not release the relief force until he thought it was warranted. ### Fighting continues By 16:50, it was apparent to Smith that he was facing a force of at least battalion-strength. Yet with his two forward platoons still separated and unable to support each other, D Company was badly positioned for a defensive battle. 10 Platoon had been prevented from engaging the VC attacking 11 Platoon, and was unable to support its withdrawal. Meanwhile, 11 Platoon had gone to ground in extended line following the initial contact, leaving its flanks vulnerable, while its aggressive push forward prior to the engagement also complicated the application of artillery support, which had to be switched to support each platoon as required rather than allowing it to be concentrated. Unable to see either platoon, the D Company forward observer was unsure of 11 Platoon's exact position. As a consequence 10 and 11 Platoons were each forced to fight their own battles, and despite the weight of the indirect fire increasingly becoming available to support the Australian infantry, the VC were able to apply superior firepower as they tried to isolate and attack each platoon in turn. To retrieve the situation, Smith planned to pull his company into an all-round defensive position, enabling his platoons to support each other fighting a co-ordinated battle and care for the wounded until a relief force could arrive. The VC moved to overrun the beleaguered force, but the dispersal of the Australian platoons made it difficult for them to find D Company's flanks and roll them up, and may have led the VC commander to believe he was engaging a much larger force. In the meantime, Buick repaired the 11 Platoon radio and re-established communications with company headquarters, and with Stanley, who was again able to adjust the artillery by radio. The VC succeeded in closing to within 50 metres (55 yd) of 11 Platoon's position, and much of the artillery was beginning to fall behind them. Although the fire was probably impacting the VC rear area and causing casualties there, these assault troops had deliberately closed with the Australians to negate its effect. Buick estimated 11 Platoon was being assaulted by at least two companies; down to the last of their ammunition and with just 10 of its 28 men still able to fight, he feared they would soon be overrun, and were unlikely to survive beyond the next 10 to 15 minutes. Confident the rest of D Company would be attempting to reach them, but unable to see how that might occur, Buick requested artillery fire onto his own position despite the danger this entailed. Stanley refused, but after confirming 11 Platoon's precarious situation, he was able to walk the artillery in closer. Landing 50 to 100 metres (160 to 330 ft) to their front, the artillery detonated among a large concentration of VC troops, destroying an entire assault line as they formed up. At 17:00, three US F-4 Phantoms arrived on station for an airstrike arranged by battalion headquarters. #### Ammunition shortage and urgent request for support of D Company At 17:02, Smith reported D Company was running low on ammunition and required aerial resupply. With just three magazines carried by each rifleman, they were only lightly equipped prior to the battle. This was a standard load calculated on 1 RAR usage rates which had been enough during previous actions, but it proved insufficient for sustained fighting. Due to the thick vegetation, the ammunition boxes would need to be dropped through the trees, and intending on moving his headquarters behind a low knoll, Smith nominated a point 400 metres (440 yd) west. This position would afford greater protection, while the helicopters would be less likely to attract ground fire. Yet with their casualties now unable to be moved, D Company would have to remain where it was. Townsend passed the ammunition demand to Headquarters 1 ATF. In response, Jackson requested two UH-1B Iroquois from No. 9 Squadron RAAF to deliver it; however, the senior RAAF officer at Nui Dat, Group Captain Peter Raw, was not prepared to risk aircraft hovering at tree-top height in the heavy rain where they would be exposed to ground fire, citing Department of Air regulations. Relations between the Army and RAAF over the use of the helicopters had become increasingly bitter in the preceding months, and were still tenuous despite recent improvements. Jackson requested American assistance, and when the US Army liaison officer responded more favourably, Raw felt no alternative than to accede to the original request, offering to effect the resupply instead. By coincidence, two RAAF Iroquois were available at Nui Dat, having been used for the concert. Smith called for the waiting aircraft to drop napalm across 11 Platoon's eastern frontage. The Phantoms soon arrived, but the rain and low cloud obscured the coloured smoke the Australians had thrown to mark their position through the trees. Stanley was forced to halt the artillery while the aircraft flew overhead, but as Smith was unable to establish communications with the forward air observer he wanted the aircraft to move out of the area so it could resume firing. Townsend directed the aircraft to attack the forward slopes of Nui Dat 2 instead, believing the VC command element to be located there. The artillery fire recommenced as the VC formed assault waves. Major Harry Honnor—officer commanding 161st Battery, RNZA attached to 6 RAR in direct support—served as Townsend's artillery advisor at Nui Dat and during the battle controlled the fires of the three field batteries and the American medium artillery. Stanley called down the fire or relayed the direction of the assault, from which Honnor selected targets and ordered the fire, which was then adjusted by Stanley using sound ranging to bring it closer. Although the rain and the soft ground reducing the impact of the artillery, its effectiveness was aided by otherwise favourable conditions: the location of the infantry between the guns and the assaulting VC, the convenient range of 5,000 to 6,000 metres (5,500 to 6,600 yd) at which the engagement occurred, good communications afforded by the newly issued AN/PRC-25 radios, the air burst effect created by rounds exploding in the trees, and the large supply of rounds stock-piled at Nui Dat. ### 12 Platoon attempts to link up with Buick Having been repulsed on the left, Smith tried the right flank. Pushing his headquarters forward, he ordered Sabben to move 12 Platoon—until then held in reserve—to support 11 Platoon. As new radio traffic was received, Smith was again forced to ground to work on fresh orders, while the arrival of casualties required the establishment of an aid post in the dead ground, which effectively tied them in location and prevented further manoeuvre. After more than an hour of fighting, D Company was still widely dispersed; 10 Platoon had been unable to break through to 11 Platoon from the north, and there remained only a slight chance 12 Platoon would have more success from the north-west. With the VC enjoying a considerable numerical advantage, Smith feared his platoons would be defeated in detail and that it was only a matter of time before his entire company was overrun, despite the devastating effect of the artillery on the VC assault formations. 12 Platoon departed at 17:15, moving south-east in an attempt to retrieve the now cut-off 11 Platoon, but having been forced to leave 9 Section behind to protect Company Headquarters and support the wounded, with just two sections it was significantly under-strength. Smith requested an airmobile assault to reinforce his position, but due to the bad weather, poor visibility and lack of a suitable landing zone this was considered impossible. Instead, Townsend informed him an infantry company mounted in APCs would be dispatched as a relief force. At 17:05 Roberts had arrived at the 6 RAR headquarters at Nui Dat with his troop of 10 APCs, and was briefed by the Operations Officer on the situation before departing to pick up A Company from their lines. Yet Jackson was reluctant to reduce the defences at Nui Dat, considering the attack a possible feint. Consequently, although Smith repeatedly pressed Townsend, there was a delay of more than an hour from when the relief force was ordered to ready themselves until Roberts was allowed to move. Townsend finally ordered the relief force to move at 17:30, having received Jackson's approval. A Company, 6 RAR and 3 Troop were on standby in the company lines and departed fifteen minutes later. With the route largely dictated by the terrain, the possibility of the relief force being ambushed concerned Townsend and Jackson, but given the dire situation, they saw no alternative, and considered it unlikely, given the ground had been covered by frequent patrols, the proximity of D Company's position to Nui Dat, the open country between the base and rubber plantation, and that it was not yet dark. With 5 RAR back at Nui Dat, Jackson ordered it to take over the defensive positions normally occupied by 6 RAR, while deploying a platoon to the 1st APC Squadron lines, and placing D Company, 5 RAR on one hour's notice to move if required. The remainder of the battalion prepared to repel any attack on Nui Dat or to pursue the VC if they withdrew. Meanwhile, after departing D Company's position, the two sections from 12 Platoon moved south towards the sound of firing heard approximately 400 metres (440 yd) away. Unaware of the exact position of 11 Platoon, Sabben instead located the rubber tapper's hut previously assaulted by Sharp in the opening phases of the battle. As they advanced, they were forced to fight off an attack on their right flank, before eventually pushing forward another 100 metres (110 yd). By this time, the VC had succeeded in pushing behind 11 Platoon in an effort to outflank them, and a large force clashed with 12 Platoon as they attempted to come to their aid. Advancing from the north, two VC platoons then assaulted the Australians, who were now heavily engaged from three directions. Meeting a similar fate to 10 Platoon, Sabben's men were forced to ground 150 metres (160 yd) short of their objective, and were themselves in danger of being encircled. Sustaining increasing casualties, they clashed with several groups of VC trying to move around their western flank to get between 11 and 12 Platoon and form a cut-off force prior to mounting a frontal assault. In so doing, 12 Platoon succeeded in opening a path to 11 Platoon, yet after 45 minutes under fire Sabben was unable to advance any further, and with the rain reducing visibility to just 70 metres (77 yd) he was unsure of Buick's location. At 18:00 two RAAF UH-1B Iroquois piloted by Flight Lieutenants Cliff Dohle and Frank Riley arrived over D Company's location with the ammunition resupply, and guided by red smoke thrown by the infantry, they hovered in the heavy rain just above the rubber trees near a small clearing. Because they were to be dropped from some height, the wooden outer crates were wrapped in blankets for the wounded. Aboard the helicopters the 6 RAR Regimental Sergeant Major, Warrant Officer Class One George Chinn, Private Bob Service of RAOC and the Administration Company commander, Major Owen O'Brien, pushed the crates out to the soldiers waiting below, many of whom were now very low on ammunition. The boxes landed in the centre of the position and the RAAF pilots were later praised for their skill and daring. Without tools to cut the metal straps on the crates, the infantry had to smash them open using machetes or the butts of their rifles. Under heavy fire, the Company Sergeant Major (CSM) Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) Jack Kirby, and Sergeant Neill Rankin, the 12 Platoon sergeant, began to distribute the ammunition. However, while the machine-gun rounds were pre-loaded in belts, the rifle rounds were still in bandoliers, complicating Kirby's job and forcing the soldiers to reload their own magazines as they struggled to keep the ammunition clean in the mud and rain. The resupply renewed the situation for D Company. Prior to its arrival they had been down to their last 100 rounds, but now the Australians resumed firing, forcing the VC back for a third time. ### D Company regroups Despite being exposed to heavy fire from three sides, 11 Platoon had maintained its position for over two hours, narrowly holding off the VC with small arms fire and massive artillery support. However, many of the platoon had been killed or wounded, and most of the survivors were now out of ammunition. To their rear Sabben threw yellow smoke in the hope it would be seen through the trees by the beleaguered platoon. Finally, with the close artillery fire causing heavy casualties among the assaulting VC, Buick decided to take advantage of a temporary lull in the fighting to achieve a clean break. Intending to withdraw 100 to 150 metres (110 to 160 yd) west to regroup, on his signal the platoon rose to their feet. One of the Australians was immediately shot and killed as he did so, while two more were wounded before they reached a position of temporary safety. From this location Buick could see yellow smoke 75 to 100 metres (82 to 109 yd) away, and believing it to be Smith's headquarters, 11 Platoon moved towards it in what Buick described as a "mad scramble" in his autobiography, calling out to identify themselves as they approached. Locating 12 Platoon instead, but still finding themselves heavily engaged, the two platoons then moved back to the company position covered by the artillery and torrential rain. By 18:10 D Company had reformed, and the VC appeared to have momentarily broken contact. Having concentrated his company, Smith began to re-organise it into a position of all-round defence. Smith attempted to place his depleted platoons into a defensible position, but D Company's location had been dictated by the actions of the VC and the need to care for the wounded, and as a result they had little choice of where to make their stand. However, with the Australians occupying a shallow fold in the ground on a reverse slope the terrain proved decisive. The VC found it difficult to use their heavy calibre weapons effectively and could only engage at close range. The jungle covered Nui Dat 2 feature lay 1,000 metres (1,100 yd) to the north-east, and an impenetrable wall of thick bamboo and scrub abutted the lower slopes to the west. The remainder of the position faced the relatively open rubber plantation. Believing the northern approach unsuitable for a major assault, Smith assessed the most likely VC courses of action to be a frontal assault from the east, or a flanking attack from either the south or south-west. As a consequence, he placed 10 and 12 Platoons in positions on the southern and eastern flanks, while the badly mauled 11 Platoon was allocated a position to the north-west. Company Headquarters was located in the south-west. During the lull, Smith walked around the position to gain an understanding of the situation and check the wounded. With one platoon almost destroyed, and the other two at approximately 75 per cent strength, D Company had been battered but morale remained high. Kirby completed the distribution of ammunition and Stanley plotted new defensive fire tasks for the artillery. The respite proved brief as the VC soon located the Australian position. At 18:20 they re-engaged D Company with concentrated machine-gun fire from the east and south-east as they reorganised for a further attack. Movement was soon detected through the trees; however, at a distance of 150 to 200 metres (160 to 220 yd) the Australians thought they may have been B Company, and only engaged the VC as they moved out of range to the north. By following up the withdrawal of 12 Platoon and conducting probes, the attackers succeeded in confirming D Company's position. A company-sized VC force formed up to the south on a broad frontage which threatened to engulf them. The assault commenced at 18:35, with several bugle blasts marking the beginning of a series of attacks against D Company. Well spaced, the assault force stepped-off at a fast walk supported by a company in reserve which moved 90 metres (98 yd) to their rear. Yet as they did so an accurate barrage from the Australian artillery fell among them, effectively destroying the rear echelon. The assault force continued on, only to be engaged with small arms just 50 metres (55 yd) from the forward Australian positions. Lacking any reserve, the assault was halted, although many of unwounded attackers attempted to crawl around the D Company perimeter, and snipers fired from the trees. A second assault soon advanced over the same ground, only to again be hit by artillery, with those unscathed going to ground among the dead and wounded. As they moved forward, they were joined by survivors of the first assault and together attempted to roll over the Australians. The VC then tried to site another heavy machine-gun 50 metres (55 yd) from the D Company perimeter, but Kirby killed the crew. Despite the casualties, attacks continued, supported by machine-guns. The main attacks came from the east, south-east and south, falling on 10 and 12 Platoons, with smaller ones elsewhere. However, due to the slope of the ground, much of the fire passed over the heads of the defenders. The slope likewise screened the advancing VC, preventing either side from effectively firing on the other until the VC closed within 50 metres, but few survived the artillery fire to get that close. Meanwhile, the VC had set up a light and a heavy machine-gun on the forward slopes of Nui Dat 2 and these continued to engage the Australians. While they were able to achieve plunging fire from this vantage point, they were unable to observe D Company's position through the rubber trees and so were reduced to sweeping a broad area. Australian casualties included four killed and several wounded during this period, the majority from head and chest wounds. ### A Company and 3 Troop fight through By 18:45, D Company had succeeded in moving into an all-round defensive position, throwing back heavy attacks With D Company unable to manoeuvre, the initiative lay with the VC, the 1 ATF's artillery holding them at bay, with the main role of the infantry increasingly becoming one of protecting their forward observer. Stanley's efforts remained crucial to the survival of D Company, with the ability to strike artillery more precisely in closer combat. The close fire devastated the VC ranks, however a mistake led to the wounding of a member of D Company. Nonetheless, D Company was heavily outnumbered, unlikely to survive another assault; a simultaneous attack would completely overrun them. The battle's outcome rested on whether they could keep the VC at bay long enough for reinforcements. A fresh force was observed moving to the west, likely an attempt to encircle and cut off D Company. #### Initial delays of the relief force The relief force had been delayed by several factors, including flooding from the heavy rain, VC action, poor equipment, limited communications and an ambiguous command relationship between the armour and infantry. 3 Troop was exceedingly exposed, with their APC strength reduced from 13 to seven, with the remainder undergoing maintenance, many of the remainder marred with mechanical errors. In an attempt to supplement their APC's, three vehicles from 2 Troop, devoid of gun shields, were used leaving the crew commander exposed. Mounted in the carriers, 100 men from A Company 6 RAR departed Nui Dat ordered to relieve pressure on D Company by attacking from the south and then to reinforce them and secure the area to allow the evacuation of the wounded. With few gaps in the Nui Dat perimeter wide enough for the APCs, a longer route was taken, and a diverted exit led to further delays until an alternative was located. At 17:55, after finally clearing the wire, Roberts was ordered to send two APCs back for Townsend and to wait until he came up, as he intended to accompany the carriers rather than move by helicopter. Detaching two APCs, Roberts ignored the second part of the order and the remainder of the troop proceeded, leaving Nui Dat at 18:00. As the rain began, Roberts moved along the edge of the rubber plantation north-east of Long Phước in column towards the heavily swollen Suối Da Bang. The terracing of the paddy fields resulted in a steep drop to the creek and a difficult climb out; however, using a bullock track alongside a dam, Roberts swam the carriers across the water, despite the threat of fast flowing water At 18:10, Roberts was ordered for a second time to halt and wait for Townsend. Continuing to monitor D Company's situation over the radio, he again chose to disregard the order. After crossing without incident, Roberts left one carrier and its infantry to secure the point (and to act as a guide for Townsend), while the remaining seven APCs moved towards the battle. Advancing another kilometre, by 18:20 they reached the junction leading directly to the fighting; using it as his centre axis, Roberts deployed one section of three APCs on the right commanded by Sergeant Ron Richards and one on the left under Sergeant Leslie O'Reilly, each with two vehicles forward and one back evenly spaced approximately 40m apart, while he remained in the centre moving astride the road. They rapidly began to advance on a 300m frontage. Despite being again ordered to wait by Townsend, Roberts once more decided to press on. #### Battle with D445 Battalion and further small battles The relief force moved into the plantation in open formation, unaware of the location of D Company or the VC. With visibility limited by the low vegetation of the young rubber trees and the heavy rain, they suddenly encountered a company moving west in arrowhead dressed in greens, cloth hats and webbing. Realising they were VC attempting to outflank D Company, Lieutenant Peter Dinham ordered the crew commander to engage. The rain had masked their approach and the VC (D445 Battalion), initially caught by surprise, returned fire. Dinham ordered the rear door open and the remainder of the men in the APC—consisting of platoon headquarters and one section—disembarked to protect him. Moving into extended line, they advanced, engaging the VC and causing heavy casualties. The spontaneous assault caught them by surprise, adding to their growing disorder. All serving to delay the relief force. After re-embarking the infantry, 3 Troop resumed the advance, breaking into the VC force as it streamed west, firing their .50 calibre machine-guns and small arms. D445 Battalion was forced to withdraw east, having lost an estimated 40 killed, while one Australian was wounded. 3 Troop continued forward in assault formation, moving deeper into the plantation, with improved visibility allowing them to increase speed. By 18:30. B Company was also drawing near on foot, and observed the VC moving around the western flank, likely to escape the APCs. Shortly after, they were accidentally engaged by the APCs and lost one man wounded. After moving a further 200m, the relief force came out of the tree-line and were confronted by groups of 8 to 10 VC moving east, in total about 100 men, believed to be the lead elements of the force that had just been struck, now withdrawing after abandoning its attempt to outflank D Company. The APCs opened fire, engaging their flank with heavy machine-guns. A number were hit while others turned to engage the APCs as it closed with them. A 57 mm RCL then fired on one of the APCs at close range with the round narrowly missing and blowing apart a tree which fell across the vehicle. The crew commander, Corporal John Carter, engaged the anti-armour team from the top of the APC as they reloaded, but his .50 calibre machine-gun jammed as they fired again, and he killed two of them with his Owen gun from just 15 to 20 metres (16 to 22 yd). The second RCL round subsequently detonated against the fallen tree, saving both the vehicle and its occupants. Despite being dazed, Carter killed three more VC soldiers as he scrambled back into the carrier, which was now without communications following the destruction of its aerial. By drawing further fire he allowed the remainder of the troop to advance. The potential presence of a second RCL team sited in mutual support forced the APCs to halt, once again. Concerned about the danger of bypassing an anti-armour weapon only to be engaged from the rear, Roberts ordered the troop to scan the area. Frustrated by the delay, Mollison demanded Roberts continue the advance, and an argument broke out between the two. As commander of the APCs, Roberts ignored the senior ranking Mollison, refusing to continue until he either located the weapon or was confident the threat did not exist. After a five-minute delay, with no weapon located, the Australians moved off again. A machine-gun engaged three APCs without gun shields. Under heavy fire, the troop sergeant ran between the carriers to take command of the APC, after Roberts ordered him to return to Nui Dat due to the mistaken belief some of the infantry on board had also been wounded. Despite Mollison's objections, the vehicle departed, taking the headquarters of one of the infantry platoons with it. Still uncertain of the location of D Company, Roberts was forced to closely control the fire of the troop due to the concern any survivors might be hit by overshoots from the armoured vehicle's heavy machine-guns. At the same time, the infantry continued to engage from the rear of the vehicles. A further 45 VC were estimated to have been killed during this action. ### D Company reinforced Unaware of the hold up on the left flank, the right hand section of APCs continued to advance. Pressing on, the section moved through the friendly artillery fire targeting the D445 Battalion as it had attempted to outflank D Company. As they moved closer to D Company the carriers were engaged by small arms and RPGs, continuing through and returning fire. The arrival of the carriers led to the men from D Company to stand and cheer. At the same time, Dinham's platoon dug in at the Eastern flank of D Company, awaiting the arrival of the remainder of A Company. To the west Roberts and the three remaining carriers of 3 Troop had resumed the advance and linked up with Richards at a junction in the road 300 metres (330 yd) south-west of D Company. Townsend arrived with elements of his headquarters aboard three more M113s at 18:50. Following a number of uncoordinated manoeuvres by the APCs Townsend took command, and with the light failing he ordered Roberts to assault from the west into the flank of the main VC force. #### Arrival of the APCs and turning tide of the battle Bolstered to nine M113s, 3 Troop again moved forward through the artillery fire with Roberts spreading the additional APCs across the rear of his formation for depth. Utilising a track as a guide he reformed the troop into a wide assault formation. Beginning the advance at 18:55, 3 Troop prepared for a frontal assault on the VC force. Continuing past D Company to their left, the APCs moved forward rapidly, firing their machine-guns. A brief but heavy engagement occurred, with the VC responding with automatic fire, including tracer and explosive rounds, mostly missing. Arriving at a crucial point in the fighting, the APCs turned the tide of the battle. The VC had been massing for another assault which would likely have destroyed D Company, yet the additional firepower and mobility of the APCs broke their will to fight, forcing them to break contact and begin to withdraw as night approached. At 19:00 the 32 men from B Company finally entered D Company's position, even as the APCs continued to assault the VC. After a long approach under mortar fire and the threat of ambush by a superior force, Smith placed Ford on the western side of the D Company defensive position to act as a screen to allow them to treat their wounded and prepare to resist a counter-attack. 3 Troop swept forward with the APCs continuing to assault a further 500 metres (550 yd) before Townsend ordered their return. Turning north-west, Roberts moved back to the company location at 19:10. Yet even as they did so the VC continued to attack from the north-east, although this too was soon broken off. Linking up with D Company, the APCs moved through the company position. Around the perimeter the Australians engaged the withdrawing VC, while the APCs moved into a line from north to south on the eastern side of the company position. A Company disembarked and took up firing positions between the vehicles, joining 2 Platoon. The artillery had been almost constant throughout the battle and had prevented D Company from being destroyed. By 19:15 the firing had ceased and as darkness fell they prepared for the VC to mount another attack. Although snipers continued to engage the Australians there were no further assaults and the battle came to a conclusion. The APCs formed a hollow square around D Company. With the VC at least temporarily driven off, the Australian position was now more strongly held and additional ammunition had been brought in by the APCs, but it was now dark and they would be unable to receive further reinforcement, while the ability of the VC to mount a night attack was unknown. Meanwhile, the expenditure of artillery ammunition had been high and an urgent demand for 1,000 rounds was submitted by 1st Field Regiment, RAA at 19:30 in case the fighting continued. However, with arrangements for the emergency aerial resupply of Nui Dat by night still being worked out, and with a road resupply by 1 ALSG in danger of being ambushed, it took several hours for the rounds to be loaded and delivered by CH-47 Chinook from Vũng Tàu. #### Townsend assuming command of D Company Townsend assumed command as the defenders regrouped, while Kirby co-ordinated the collection of the dead and wounded. In total, one of the platoons had been destroyed and D Company was "non-effective", with five dead, 16 wounded and 16 men still missing. VC losses were believed to have been heavy; but with no confirmed casualty figures it looked to the Australians like they had suffered a defeat. The two officers agreed it would be impossible to secure the battlefield or to attempt to locate the missing from 11 Platoon in the darkness, and after it became clear the VC were not going to counter-attack, Townsend ordered a withdrawal to a position 750 metres (820 yd) to the west from whence their casualties could be evacuated. Handling the dead and wounded proved a slow process but with the casualties finally loaded onto the carriers D Company left at 22:45, while B and A Companies departed on foot 45 minutes later. Roberts established a landing zone by forming a square and illuminated it with the interior lights of the APCs by opening their top hatches. The artillery fire ceased as the evacuation commenced with the first casualties taken out by a US Army Dustoff helicopter, while the remainder were extracted by six UH-1Bs from No. 9 Squadron RAAF. Despite being slowed by the requirement for the helicopters to land without lights, the operation went smoothly and was completed after midnight. The last casualties were taken out by 00:34, and flown to the Australian hospital at Vũng Tàu. During the night the artillery continued to fire on likely VC forming-up points, although 11 Platoon's final position was avoided for fear of hitting any survivors, while US aircraft bombed likely withdrawal routes to the east. Forming a defensive position ready to repulse an expected attack the Australians remained overnight, enduring the cold and heavy rain. Although they were now in a better position to hold off an attack, further reinforcement from 1 ATF at night was difficult and was therefore unlikely. Yet with the VC spent no further attack was mounted. Smith and Townsend spent the night in the back of one of the carriers planning the clearance of the battlefield and pursuit of the VC, which was scheduled for the following day under the codename Operation Smithfield. Jackson stipulated the force was to remain within artillery range, but would otherwise have freedom of action to complete the exploitation over the next two to three days. Townsend requested the remaining APCs bring out 6 RAR headquarters, C Company and a section of mortars the following morning, while D Company, 5 RAR would also be placed under his command for the operation. However, with a company from 5 RAR still in Bình Ba, the bulk of 1 ATF's remaining combat power would be deployed as part of the clearance, leaving just two companies from 5 RAR to defend Nui Dat. Smith was determined to recover the missing from 11 Platoon, and despite its losses, D Company would lead the assault. ### Clearing the battlefield, 19–21 August 1966 By morning the weather had cleared. At 06:55 the remainder of 6 RAR departed Nui Dat with 2 Troop, 1st APC Squadron, while D Company, 5 RAR departed at the same time aboard US Army helicopters. Meanwhile, at 07:40 Jackson arrived at 6 RAR's night location to observe the clearance, flying in as Townsend gave orders for the operation. Stepping off at 08:45, the Australians returned to the battlefield in strength, while artillery and airstrikes continued to hit the area. The battalion group moved in a "two up" formation with D Company, 5 RAR and D Company, 6 RAR both mounted in APCs as the forward left and forward right assault companies, followed by A, B and C Companies in depth, each dismounted. The assault companies planned to sweep the area then dismount and commence a detailed search, while the others would clear the surrounding features and begin the follow-up. Moving cautiously in case the VC launched a counter-attack, they advanced along the route used by D Company, 6 RAR the previous day. The battlefield was a scene of devastation, with rubber trees stripped of leaves and branches and bleeding sap, while the area around D Company's final position was heavily cratered. At 09:21 D Company, 5 RAR reported finding the body of a dead VC soldier; while half an hour later D Company, 6 RAR found 12 to 15 more. A large number of VC dead were found, including a 60 mm mortar crew. At 10:20 a bulldozer was requested to bury the bodies of approximately 100 VC soldiers. #### Scale of Vietcong defeat and treatment of wounded Vietcong By late morning, a total of 113 bodies and two wounded had been found, while numerous drag marks and blood trails indicated many more casualties had been moved the previous night. With the clearance continuing, two wounded VC still bearing arms were killed by D Company, 6 RAR after they moved to engage them, while in a separate incident another wounded soldier was also killed. A third wounded VC was later captured; and all three wounded were given first aid then being evacuated. These events later caused controversy when journalist Ian Mackay published claims in 1968 that the Australians had deliberately killed unarmed VC wounded, citing a "witness" to the alleged incident; while a major newspaper stated they had killed wounded "civilians". An official investigation determined the allegations were exaggerated and based on hearsay, with the soldier claimed as the source found not to have been present during the fighting and those killed confirmed to have been armed. Similar accusations were made in 1986 by Terry Burstall, a former D Company soldier, who claimed up to 17 wounded VC had been executed, although they were also refuted, and his credibility challenged. In 2000, Buick admitted in his memoirs to having killed a mortally wounded soldier the day after the battle as an act of mercy. Burstall argued this may have constituted a breach of the Geneva Convention; while Buick's decision to publish was questioned by John Heslewood, the President of the Australian Long Tan Association and a private in 11 Platoon during the battle. Mollison later also criticised Buick's actions. In his 2015 autobiography, Harry Smith states that two mortally wounded VC soldiers were killed on 19 August out of compassion, one by Buick and another by a soldier from A Company, 6 RAR. #### Recovery of lost Australian troops At 11:00 6 RAR reported they had located the missing men from 11 Platoon, their bodies found lying in a straight line where they had been killed, largely undisturbed and still holding their weapons. The majority were from 6 Section, which had been the first to be hit. One man was found to have survived despite his wounds, having spent the night on the battlefield in close proximity to the VC as they attempted to evacuate their own casualties. Another wounded soldier had been found nearby, leaning against a tree but still alive. Both were evacuated, and later recuperated in hospital. Thirteen Australian dead were also recovered, accounting for all the missing. As the search continued, VC dead were found up to 500 metres (550 yd) south-east of the position reached by 11 Platoon. A large bunker complex was uncovered consisting of 200 pits with overhead protection sufficient for a battalion, but its layout suggested it had been constructed as a defensive position rather than for an ambush. Another position of 100 pits was found to the east. By 14:35, the total number of VC dead was reported as 168. A large amount of weapons and equipment were uncovered, including assault rifles, mortars, light machine guns, submachine guns, an RCL, plus ammunition and grenades. By 18:10, the figure had risen to 188 VC dead, with shallow graves dug by the Australians to bury them where they were found. Due to the likely presence of a significant force nearby, the Australians remained cautious as they searched for the VC. Over the next two days, they continued to clear the battlefield, uncovering more dead as they did so. Yet, with up to two VC battalions still believed to be in the area and the continued vulnerability of Nui Dat to attack from the 274th Regiment, Jackson lacked the resources to pursue the withdrawing force. Company patrols searched up to 1,500 metres (1,600 yd) east, and to the north of Nui Dat 2. The search area was subsequently expanded to include that contested during Operation Hobart. Several tracks were found with telephone cables running along them, as well as more drag marks, blood stains, discarded equipment, fresh graves and evidence of use by heavy cart and foot traffic. The main VC withdrawal route was discovered after midday on 19 August. Townsend requested permission to follow it, believing he had sufficient forces, but Jackson would only permit 6 RAR to advance a further 1,000 metres (1,100 yd), remaining within artillery cover, and would not allow the guns to move forward to increase the range of their protective fire. By 20 August, the Australians had counted 245 VC dead, while scores more were found later. Up to four weeks after the battle, decomposed bodies were still found in the area, while numerous graves were also located, none of which were included in the estimates of VC losses. The bodies found later brought the total to about 300 dead. D Company, 5 RAR returned to Nui Dat early on 21 August, while D Company, 6 RAR was withdrawn for two days leave in Vung Tau. The rest of 6 RAR continued the search, with A Company discovering a series of freshly built and recently abandoned hides along the VC withdrawal route, which were believed to have been prepared as delay positions. An older defensive position of approximately 40 pits was also found, while C Company located a makeshift hospital close by containing 14 graves. Both had recently been occupied. Later, an Australian OH-13 reported the presence of scattered groups of civilians, with the largest numbering 30 to 40 people—mostly women with baskets and bags, while others had ox carts—believed to be carrying medical supplies. These reports were followed up by the 1st APC Squadron and a number of military age males were detained for questioning. The infantry companies completed their search by midday, moving to the edge of the rubber plantation, 500 metres (550 yd) north-east of Long Tân. Smithfield concluded at 17:00, with the Australians returning to Nui Dat by helicopter and APC by 17:30. They had hoped to catch the remnants of the VC force before they could reach their mountain sanctuaries, but the operation failed to prevent their withdrawal. Some Australian officers later questioned the caution with which it was conducted. Jackson felt unable to mount a pursuit due to the continued threat posed by the 274th Regiment, which was still believed to be in the area. With 1 ATF lacking the resources required for such an operation, the opportunity to trap and destroy the VC while they were still vulnerable was lost and they made good their escape. ## Aftermath ### Casualties VC and PAVN casualties were claimed by the Australians to have numbered 245 dead left on the battlefield and three captured, with many more were thought to have been removed as they withdrew. Others were so badly mutilated their remains were unidentifiable. Approximately half were believed to have been caused by artillery and the remainder by small arms. The initial estimate was given by an Australian Army spokesman, and some participants in the battle regarded them as inflated. They were disputed by many individuals present at the battle, with reports by a D Company commander stating actual body counts as no more than 50. The official history of the D445 Battalion and 275th Regiment records either 30 or 47 were killed in total, primarily by artillery fire. Another estimate was 150 according to Colonel Bao who was overall district commander, but did not directly participate. The Australians estimated the VC had evacuated up to a further 350 casualties, including an unknown number of dead buried along the withdrawal route. With such losses representing the operational strength of two battalions, Australian intelligence assessed that the 275th Regiment, which had borne the brunt of the fighting, would be incapable of mounting a regimental-sized operation for several months, but the 275th Regiment carried out attacks against the ARVN 18th Division a week later. D445 Battalion, thought to have played a supporting role and to have suffered less heavily, was assessed as still capable of engaging forces up to company size, with a remaining strength of 300 men. McNeill states that this was based on the capture of the diary of the battle commander Nguyen Thoi Bung, who later became the Deputy Defense Minister of Vietnam; but according to Ernest Chamberlain this has not been corroborated. A captured soldier stated D445 Battalion's casualties had been 70 killed and 100 wounded. Whether the combat effectiveness of D445 and the 275th Regiment was eroded is in dispute, as the D445 were redeployed in September and October against the newly deployed 11th Armored Cavalry Taskforce, while the 275th were combat-capable a week later. Weapons captured included 33 AK-47s, seven RPD light machine-guns, five SKS rifles, four RPG-2 launchers, two 57 mm RCLs, two M1 carbines, a PPSh-41, Thompson submachine-gun, Browning Automatic Rifle, M1 Garand and an SGM heavy machine-gun. More than 10,500 rounds of small arms ammunition was recovered, as well as 300 hand grenades, 40 mortar bombs, 28 RPG-2 rockets and 22 RCL rounds. Australian losses were 17 killed, one died of wounds and 24 wounded: approximately one third of the initial force engaged. A high proportion were National Servicemen, drawing criticism in Australia where conscription for overseas service was increasingly controversial. The government later limited the number of conscripts to no more than 50 per cent of a unit, requiring a rapid and disruptive reorganisation within 1 ATF. ### Recognition In the aftermath, both sides claimed success. Heralded as an Australian victory against overwhelming odds, the battle was widely covered in the Western press, making headlines in Australia and the United States. 1 ATF received congratulatory messages from the US, South Vietnamese and Australian military commands in Vietnam, and from Prime Minister Harold Holt, while General William Westmoreland considered it one of the more spectacular allied victories to that point in the war. Despite their losses, the VC claimed to have inflicted a heavy defeat on the Australians. Shortly afterwards, leaflets circulated the province stating that "700 Australians were killed, one battalion and two companies were destroyed and two squadrons of APCs". Similar claims were repeated on Radio Hanoi on 27 August 1966, and the day after on Radio Peking. In contrast, the Vietnamese history of Dong Nai Province published in 1986 gave the battle little attention, claiming to have "eliminated 500 Australians and destroyed 21 tanks" while their own losses were not recorded. D445 Battalion later received a PAVN heroic unit citation, and the 275th Regiment may have been given a similar award. Many VC soldiers were also awarded Certificates of Commendation for their role in the fighting. D Company, 6 RAR was awarded a US Presidential Unit Citation by President Lyndon Johnson on 28 May 1968. The Royal Australian Regiment and 3rd Cavalry Regiment were later awarded the battle honour "Long Tan", one of only five presented to Australian units during the war. Commonwealth decorations were made to 17 Australians and New Zealanders, including Smith who received the Military Cross (MC), Carter and Kirby the Distinguished Conduct Medal, Stanley the Member of the Order of the British Empire, Buick the Military Medal, Riley was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and Dohle, Roberts, Kendall and Sabben were mentioned in despatches. Both Townsend and Jackson later received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), although these were on the basis of their entire period in command, not solely for actions during the battle. South Vietnamese gallantry medals were also awarded to 22 Australians, but due to official policy regarding foreign awards they were not permitted to wear them until 2004. The limited number of awards later became the subject of considerable criticism. At the time, the allocation of medals under the Imperial honours system was based on a quota, resulting in many of the original recommendations being downgraded or not awarded, with Smith initially nominated for the DSO, Sabben and Kendall the MC, and Sharp a posthumous mention in despatches. In 2008, a review recommended awards made to three officers be upgraded to the equivalent medals in the modern Australian honours system. Smith was subsequently awarded the Star of Gallantry, and Kendall and Sabben the Medal for Gallantry (MG). Following further review in 2009, Dohle received the Distinguished Service Medal, while D Company, 6 RAR was presented a Unit Citation for Gallantry on 18 August 2011. Another review in 2016 led to awards to ten more soldiers, including Roberts, Alcorta and Lance Corporal Barry Magnussen who received the MG, and Sharp and six others a Commendation for Gallantry. On 18 August 1969, 6 RAR erected the Long Tan Cross on the battlefield. ### Assessment Initial estimates of the VC force ranged from several companies to a battalion, yet following the battle Australian intelligence assessed it as having totalled between 1,500 and 2,500 men, while 1,000 were believed to have directly engaged D Company. The fighting left one-third of D Company killed or wounded. Long Tân proved a local setback for the VC, forestalling movement against Nui Dat. Although there were other large-scale encounters in later years, 1 ATF was not fundamentally challenged again. The battle established the task force's dominance over the province, and allowed it to pursue operations to restore government authority. Yet such actions were atypical of the Australian experience, and although 1 ATF invariably inflicted heavy casualties on the VC when encountered in large numbers, they were less important than routine patrolling in separating the guerrillas from the population and maintaining constant pressure, coupled with pacification operations to extend South Vietnamese control. Nonetheless, Long Tân represented a watershed in the campaign, increasing the confidence of the Australians in their ability to defeat the VC and enhancing their military reputation. The reasons for D Company's survival included superior radio communications which had allowed Stanley to co-ordinate the fire of the guns at Nui Dat, the weight of the artillery which repeatedly broke up the assaulting formations, its timely aerial resupply which prevented them running out of ammunition, and the mobility and firepower of the APCs in the relief force which broke the VC's will to fight. The battle highlighted the power of modern weapons and the importance of sound small-unit tactics, and has since been cited as an example of the effect of combined arms, demonstrating the effective coordination of infantry, armour, artillery and aviation. Artillery was the mainstay of the defence, with D Company supported by 24 guns of the 1st Field Regiment, RAA and A Battery, US 2/35th Artillery Battalion. Indirect fire provided close protection to the infantry, allowing D Company to hold their line and repulse any VC that succeeded in getting through the barrage. Likely forming-up positions and withdrawal routes had also been heavily engaged throughout the battle. In total 3,198 rounds of 105 mm ammunition were fired by the Australian and New Zealand field guns and 242 rounds of 155 mm high explosive by the Americans. The VC made the error of attacking within range of the artillery at Nui Dat and had to withstand the fire of three field batteries and one medium battery as a result. Long Tân also confirmed the importance of armoured support to infantry, even in dense jungle. In the wake of the battle the Australians were left to speculate on the reason it occurred. One hypothesis was that the VC had intended to attack and overwhelm Nui Dat, with the initial plan to mortar the base to draw a response force into an ambush after which the base would be attacked and captured, but that they had been prevented from doing so after clashing with D Company. A second possibility was that they may have had the more limited aim of drawing an Australian force into an ambush to destroy it and secure a small victory over an isolated force. Finally, it was possible no ambush was planned at all, and that the VC had been moving on Nui Dat in regimental strength when they unexpectedly ran into D Company, resulting in an encounter battle. The evidence suggested they intended an attack on Nui Dat in some form, while the lack of prepared positions from which to mount an ambush made this unlikely. McNeill argues though that too many facts may be missing to make a conclusive assessment of VC intentions and to date no definitive Vietnamese account is available. In the years since the battle the intentions of the VC have been widely discussed, including by both participants and historians, with debate about it continuing until the present. Yet although there remains divided opinion about whether the VC had intended to attack the base at Nui Dat or to ambush an Australian element, according to Coulthard-Clark what is certain was that the force that clashed with D Company, 6 RAR "had been preparing a decisive action against 1 ATF". The outcome prevented them achieving a politically important victory so soon after the Australian deployment, and "placed Viet Cong plans in the province on the back foot for some time". Long-standing disputes include the size of the PAVN/VC attacking force, the number of casualties they suffered, how the battle had unfolded and issues around alleged documentation. Some of the documents assessing casualties or impacts on the PAVN/VC were uncorroborated diaries and anecdotal evidence from "Chinese Generals". There were also issues with the size of the attacking PAVN/VC forces and communist dead by several authors and by the Red Dunes Film Group, which has received criticism from an Australian Vietnam War veteran and later historian and Vietnamese-language linguist Ernie Chamberlain. In 2015, Harry Smith published Long Tan, The Start of a Lifelong Battle in which he accused senior officers including Jackson and Townsend of fabricating claims about the battle, and alleged that the official history was disingenuous and self-serving. This included deliberate inflation of communist dead by Army Spokesmen and others, and embellishing the roles of officers at the battle at the expense of their men. ### Lessons learned by the Australians After Long Tân a rifle company with armoured support was dedicated to provide a rapid reaction force, on standby to respond to an attack or exploit any opportunity. The VC had been armed with weapons at least equal to those used by the Australians. Most had carried modern Soviet assault rifles, as well as a large quantity of ammunition, which allowed them to sustain a high rate of fire. In contrast, the amount of ammunition carried by the Australians had been insufficient, and following the battle the minimum load was increased to 140 rounds per rifle and 500 for each machine-gun. The aerial resupply of D Company had been delayed because no prepacked ammunition was available. This also changed, with rounds loaded in magazines for quick use. The VC had used 60 mm mortars, but they were no longer standard equipment for Australian rifle companies, and although battalions were issued 81 mm mortars they were controlled by Support Company. Such weapons would afford integral fire support in situations where their opponents had closed within the safety distance of the artillery, and consideration was given to their re-issue. Yet the added weight would limit the ability of sub-units to patrol and M-79 grenade launchers were issued instead, while some APCs were modified as mortar carriers. Despite detecting a transmitter from the 275th Regiment moving west towards Nui Dat, such intercepts were unable to predict VC intentions with certainty, and patrols through the area also failed to find it. Jackson had responded by maintaining patrols at company strength when outside Line Alpha, while ensuring a level of base security. Townsend had not been given access to this intelligence and some officers were later critical of the restrictions placed on it. Although it would not have altered the requirement for a company-sized patrol it might have changed the way the battle was fought, and afterwards both battalion commanders were regularly briefed on such intercepts. The value of patrolling in depth and in sufficient strength to prevent the VC concentrating their forces had been reinforced, and while there was no change to the pattern of Australian operations, when a significant engagement was possible patrols would be a minimum of a company and would operate close enough to rapidly support each other to stop them becoming isolated. Lastly, the command relationship between the infantry and APCs had been problematic during the battle and changes to standard operating procedures were implemented to provide clearer direction in such circumstances. ### Subsequent operations A week following the battle US II FFV launched a large-scale corps-sized sweep of Phước Tuy on 23 August. Operation Toledo saw the deployment of two brigades of the US 1st Infantry Division, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, and two ARVN Ranger battalions in an attempt to destroy the 274th and 275th Regiments. 1 ATF involvement included both 5 and 6 RAR and supporting units. It lasted until 8 September and despite the intensity of the previous fighting little contact occurred, with no evidence of a large force having been in the area uncovered. Poorly planned, it failed to trap the VC, while 5 RAR's involvement resulted in only two VC killed, one wounded and one captured without loss, although several tunnels were discovered in Long Tân village and destroyed. In the months that followed 1 ATF conducted further search and destroy, village cordon and search and route security operations to extend its control and to separate the local people from the influence of the VC. Such operations usually resulted in contacts between the Australians and small groups of VC, while during cordon and search operations of Bình Ba and Hòa Long a number of villagers suspected of sympathising with the VC were apprehended and handed over to the South Vietnamese authorities. Several search operations were also conducted in areas suspected of containing VC base camps, and these often resulted in the discovery of recently used and quickly evacuated camps, hospitals and logistic bases which were then destroyed. Meanwhile, 1 ATF continued an extensive patrolling and ambushing program around Nui Dat. ## 50th anniversary Celebrated in Australia ever since, in time the battle became part of the legend of its involvement in the war. The best known of the Australian Army's actions in Vietnam, it has assumed a similar significance as battles such as Gallipoli, Kokoda and Kapyong. The date it was fought is observed annually as Long Tan Day and is also known as Vietnam Veterans' Remembrance Day, the national day of commemoration of the Vietnam War. For the 50th anniversary of the battle the Vietnamese government permitted Australians to hold a 'low-key ceremony', but the unexpected booking of 3,500 individuals to attend as well as a concert by Little Pattie led to the Vietnamese government cancelling the event. Following late-night talks by Malcolm Turnbull with the prime minister of Vietnam, a low-key ceremony was once again permitted. On 18 August 2016 a ceremony was held on the battlefield; more than 1,000 Australian veterans and their families travelled to Vietnam to participate in the 50th anniversary commemoration. In Australia hundreds attended the Australian War Memorial and Vietnam Forces National Memorial in Canberra. Commemorations were also held at Sydney's Cenotaph, Brisbane's ANZAC Square, Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance and elsewhere. The events in Canberra included a four-gun salute and flyover by Vietnam-era aircraft, including Iroquois helicopters, Hercules and Caribou transports and two B-52 bombers. A Last Post Ceremony was held at the War Memorial, with a reading by Victoria Cross-recipient Mark Donaldson. In 2017, Turnbull negotiated for the repatriation of the original Long Tan cross, and the Prime Minister of Vietnam donated it to the Australian government on conditions of no publicity surrounding the transfer. The original cross was installed at the Australian War Memorial following the transfer.
35,659,147	Patterns in nature	1,171,073,685	Visible regularity of form found in the natural world	[ "Applied mathematics", "History of science", "Nature", "Pattern formation", "Patterns", "Recreational mathematics" ]	Patterns in nature are visible regularities of form found in the natural world. These patterns recur in different contexts and can sometimes be modelled mathematically. Natural patterns include symmetries, trees, spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tessellations, cracks and stripes. Early Greek philosophers studied pattern, with Plato, Pythagoras and Empedocles attempting to explain order in nature. The modern understanding of visible patterns developed gradually over time. In the 19th century, the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau examined soap films, leading him to formulate the concept of a minimal surface. The German biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel painted hundreds of marine organisms to emphasise their symmetry. Scottish biologist D'Arcy Thompson pioneered the study of growth patterns in both plants and animals, showing that simple equations could explain spiral growth. In the 20th century, the British mathematician Alan Turing predicted mechanisms of morphogenesis which give rise to patterns of spots and stripes. The Hungarian biologist Aristid Lindenmayer and the French American mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot showed how the mathematics of fractals could create plant growth patterns. Mathematics, physics and chemistry can explain patterns in nature at different levels and scales. Patterns in living things are explained by the biological processes of natural selection and sexual selection. Studies of pattern formation make use of computer models to simulate a wide range of patterns. ## History Early Greek philosophers attempted to explain order in nature, anticipating modern concepts. Pythagoras (c. 570–c. 495 BC) explained patterns in nature like the harmonies of music as arising from number, which he took to be the basic constituent of existence. Empedocles (c. 494–c. 434 BC) to an extent anticipated Darwin's evolutionary explanation for the structures of organisms. Plato (c. 427–c. 347 BC) argued for the existence of natural universals. He considered these to consist of ideal forms (εἶδος eidos: "form") of which physical objects are never more than imperfect copies. Thus, a flower may be roughly circular, but it is never a perfect circle. Theophrastus (c. 372–c. 287 BC) noted that plants "that have flat leaves have them in a regular series"; Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) noted their patterned circular arrangement. Centuries later, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) noted the spiral arrangement of leaf patterns, that tree trunks gain successive rings as they age, and proposed a rule purportedly satisfied by the cross-sectional areas of tree-branches. In 1202, Leonardo Fibonacci introduced the Fibonacci sequence to the western world with his book Liber Abaci. Fibonacci presented a thought experiment on the growth of an idealized rabbit population. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) pointed out the presence of the Fibonacci sequence in nature, using it to explain the pentagonal form of some flowers. In 1658, the English physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne discussed "how Nature Geometrizeth" in The Garden of Cyrus, citing Pythagorean numerology involving the number 5, and the Platonic form of the quincunx pattern. The discourse's central chapter features examples and observations of the quincunx in botany. In 1754, Charles Bonnet observed that the spiral phyllotaxis of plants were frequently expressed in both clockwise and counter-clockwise golden ratio series. Mathematical observations of phyllotaxis followed with Karl Friedrich Schimper and his friend Alexander Braun's 1830 and 1830 work, respectively; Auguste Bravais and his brother Louis connected phyllotaxis ratios to the Fibonacci sequence in 1837, also noting its appearance in pinecones and pineapples. In his 1854 book, German psychologist Adolf Zeising explored the golden ratio expressed in the arrangement of plant parts, the skeletons of animals and the branching patterns of their veins and nerves, as well as in crystals. In the 19th century, the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau (1801–1883) formulated the mathematical problem of the existence of a minimal surface with a given boundary, which is now named after him. He studied soap films intensively, formulating Plateau's laws which describe the structures formed by films in foams. Lord Kelvin identified the problem of the most efficient way to pack cells of equal volume as a foam in 1887; his solution uses just one solid, the bitruncated cubic honeycomb with very slightly curved faces to meet Plateau's laws. No better solution was found until 1993 when Denis Weaire and Robert Phelan proposed the Weaire–Phelan structure; the Beijing National Aquatics Center adapted the structure for their outer wall in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) painted beautiful illustrations of marine organisms, in particular Radiolaria, emphasising their symmetry to support his faux-Darwinian theories of evolution. The American photographer Wilson Bentley took the first micrograph of a snowflake in 1885. In the 20th century, A. H. Church studied the patterns of phyllotaxis in his 1904 book. In 1917, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson published On Growth and Form; his description of phyllotaxis and the Fibonacci sequence, the mathematical relationships in the spiral growth patterns of plants showed that simple equations could describe the spiral growth patterns of animal horns and mollusc shells. In 1952, the computer scientist Alan Turing (1912–1954) wrote The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis, an analysis of the mechanisms that would be needed to create patterns in living organisms, in the process called morphogenesis. He predicted oscillating chemical reactions, in particular the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction. These activator-inhibitor mechanisms can, Turing suggested, generate patterns (dubbed "Turing patterns") of stripes and spots in animals, and contribute to the spiral patterns seen in plant phyllotaxis. In 1968, the Hungarian theoretical biologist Aristid Lindenmayer (1925–1989) developed the L-system, a formal grammar which can be used to model plant growth patterns in the style of fractals. L-systems have an alphabet of symbols that can be combined using production rules to build larger strings of symbols, and a mechanism for translating the generated strings into geometric structures. In 1975, after centuries of slow development of the mathematics of patterns by Gottfried Leibniz, Georg Cantor, Helge von Koch, Wacław Sierpiński and others, Benoît Mandelbrot wrote a famous paper, How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension, crystallising mathematical thought into the concept of the fractal. ## Causes Living things like orchids, hummingbirds, and the peacock's tail have abstract designs with a beauty of form, pattern and colour that artists struggle to match. The beauty that people perceive in nature has causes at different levels, notably in the mathematics that governs what patterns can physically form, and among living things in the effects of natural selection, that govern how patterns evolve. Mathematics seeks to discover and explain abstract patterns or regularities of all kinds. Visual patterns in nature find explanations in chaos theory, fractals, logarithmic spirals, topology and other mathematical patterns. For example, L-systems form convincing models of different patterns of tree growth. The laws of physics apply the abstractions of mathematics to the real world, often as if it were perfect. For example, a crystal is perfect when it has no structural defects such as dislocations and is fully symmetric. Exact mathematical perfection can only approximate real objects. Visible patterns in nature are governed by physical laws; for example, meanders can be explained using fluid dynamics. In biology, natural selection can cause the development of patterns in living things for several reasons, including camouflage, sexual selection, and different kinds of signalling, including mimicry and cleaning symbiosis. In plants, the shapes, colours, and patterns of insect-pollinated flowers like the lily have evolved to attract insects such as bees. Radial patterns of colours and stripes, some visible only in ultraviolet light serve as nectar guides that can be seen at a distance. ## Types of pattern ### Symmetry Symmetry is pervasive in living things. Animals mainly have bilateral or mirror symmetry, as do the leaves of plants and some flowers such as orchids. Plants often have radial or rotational symmetry, as do many flowers and some groups of animals such as sea anemones. Fivefold symmetry is found in the echinoderms, the group that includes starfish, sea urchins, and sea lilies. Among non-living things, snowflakes have striking sixfold symmetry; each flake's structure forms a record of the varying conditions during its crystallization, with nearly the same pattern of growth on each of its six arms. Crystals in general have a variety of symmetries and crystal habits; they can be cubic or octahedral, but true crystals cannot have fivefold symmetry (unlike quasicrystals). Rotational symmetry is found at different scales among non-living things, including the crown-shaped splash pattern formed when a drop falls into a pond, and both the spheroidal shape and rings of a planet like Saturn. Symmetry has a variety of causes. Radial symmetry suits organisms like sea anemones whose adults do not move: food and threats may arrive from any direction. But animals that move in one direction necessarily have upper and lower sides, head and tail ends, and therefore a left and a right. The head becomes specialised with a mouth and sense organs (cephalisation), and the body becomes bilaterally symmetric (though internal organs need not be). More puzzling is the reason for the fivefold (pentaradiate) symmetry of the echinoderms. Early echinoderms were bilaterally symmetrical, as their larvae still are. Sumrall and Wray argue that the loss of the old symmetry had both developmental and ecological causes. ### Trees, fractals The branching pattern of trees was described in the Italian Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci. In A Treatise on Painting he stated that: > All the branches of a tree at every stage of its height when put together are equal in thickness to the trunk [below them]. A more general version states that when a parent branch splits into two or more child branches, the surface areas of the child branches add up to that of the parent branch. An equivalent formulation is that if a parent branch splits into two child branches, then the cross-sectional diameters of the parent and the two child branches form a right-angled triangle. One explanation is that this allows trees to better withstand high winds. Simulations of biomechanical models agree with the rule. Fractals are infinitely self-similar, iterated mathematical constructs having fractal dimension. Infinite iteration is not possible in nature so all 'fractal' patterns are only approximate. For example, the leaves of ferns and umbellifers (Apiaceae) are only self-similar (pinnate) to 2, 3 or 4 levels. Fern-like growth patterns occur in plants and in animals including bryozoa, corals, hydrozoa like the air fern, Sertularia argentea, and in non-living things, notably electrical discharges. Lindenmayer system fractals can model different patterns of tree growth by varying a small number of parameters including branching angle, distance between nodes or branch points (internode length), and number of branches per branch point. Fractal-like patterns occur widely in nature, in phenomena as diverse as clouds, river networks, geologic fault lines, mountains, coastlines, animal coloration, snow flakes, crystals, blood vessel branching, Purkinje cells, actin cytoskeletons, and ocean waves. ### Spirals Spirals are common in plants and in some animals, notably molluscs. For example, in the nautilus, a cephalopod mollusc, each chamber of its shell is an approximate copy of the next one, scaled by a constant factor and arranged in a logarithmic spiral. Given a modern understanding of fractals, a growth spiral can be seen as a special case of self-similarity. Plant spirals can be seen in phyllotaxis, the arrangement of leaves on a stem, and in the arrangement (parastichy) of other parts as in composite flower heads and seed heads like the sunflower or fruit structures like the pineapple and snake fruit, as well as in the pattern of scales in pine cones, where multiple spirals run both clockwise and anticlockwise. These arrangements have explanations at different levels – mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology – each individually correct, but all necessary together. Phyllotaxis spirals can be generated from Fibonacci ratios: the Fibonacci sequence runs 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13... (each subsequent number being the sum of the two preceding ones). For example, when leaves alternate up a stem, one rotation of the spiral touches two leaves, so the pattern or ratio is 1/2. In hazel the ratio is 1/3; in apricot it is 2/5; in pear it is 3/8; in almond it is 5/13. In disc phyllotaxis as in the sunflower and daisy, the florets are arranged along Fermat's spiral, but this is disguised because successive florets are spaced far apart, by the golden angle, 137.508° (dividing the circle in the golden ratio); when the flowerhead is mature so all the elements are the same size, this spacing creates a Fibonacci number of more obvious spirals. From the point of view of physics, spirals are lowest-energy configurations which emerge spontaneously through self-organizing processes in dynamic systems. From the point of view of chemistry, a spiral can be generated by a reaction-diffusion process, involving both activation and inhibition. Phyllotaxis is controlled by proteins that manipulate the concentration of the plant hormone auxin, which activates meristem growth, alongside other mechanisms to control the relative angle of buds around the stem. From a biological perspective, arranging leaves as far apart as possible in any given space is favoured by natural selection as it maximises access to resources, especially sunlight for photosynthesis. ### Chaos, flow, meanders In mathematics, a dynamical system is chaotic if it is (highly) sensitive to initial conditions (the so-called "butterfly effect"), which requires the mathematical properties of topological mixing and dense periodic orbits. Alongside fractals, chaos theory ranks as an essentially universal influence on patterns in nature. There is a relationship between chaos and fractals—the strange attractors in chaotic systems have a fractal dimension. Some cellular automata, simple sets of mathematical rules that generate patterns, have chaotic behaviour, notably Stephen Wolfram's Rule 30. Vortex streets are zigzagging patterns of whirling vortices created by the unsteady separation of flow of a fluid, most often air or water, over obstructing objects. Smooth (laminar) flow starts to break up when the size of the obstruction or the velocity of the flow become large enough compared to the viscosity of the fluid. Meanders are sinuous bends in rivers or other channels, which form as a fluid, most often water, flows around bends. As soon as the path is slightly curved, the size and curvature of each loop increases as helical flow drags material like sand and gravel across the river to the inside of the bend. The outside of the loop is left clean and unprotected, so erosion accelerates, further increasing the meandering in a powerful positive feedback loop. ### Waves, dunes Waves are disturbances that carry energy as they move. Mechanical waves propagate through a medium – air or water, making it oscillate as they pass by. Wind waves are sea surface waves that create the characteristic chaotic pattern of any large body of water, though their statistical behaviour can be predicted with wind wave models. As waves in water or wind pass over sand, they create patterns of ripples. When winds blow over large bodies of sand, they create dunes, sometimes in extensive dune fields as in the Taklamakan desert. Dunes may form a range of patterns including crescents, very long straight lines, stars, domes, parabolas, and longitudinal or seif ('sword') shapes. Barchans or crescent dunes are produced by wind acting on desert sand; the two horns of the crescent and the slip face point downwind. Sand blows over the upwind face, which stands at about 15 degrees from the horizontal, and falls onto the slip face, where it accumulates up to the angle of repose of the sand, which is about 35 degrees. When the slip face exceeds the angle of repose, the sand avalanches, which is a nonlinear behaviour: the addition of many small amounts of sand causes nothing much to happen, but then the addition of a further small amount suddenly causes a large amount to avalanche. Apart from this nonlinearity, barchans behave rather like solitary waves. ### Bubbles, foam A soap bubble forms a sphere, a surface with minimal area (minimal surface) — the smallest possible surface area for the volume enclosed. Two bubbles together form a more complex shape: the outer surfaces of both bubbles are spherical; these surfaces are joined by a third spherical surface as the smaller bubble bulges slightly into the larger one. A foam is a mass of bubbles; foams of different materials occur in nature. Foams composed of soap films obey Plateau's laws, which require three soap films to meet at each edge at 120° and four soap edges to meet at each vertex at the tetrahedral angle of about 109.5°. Plateau's laws further require films to be smooth and continuous, and to have a constant average curvature at every point. For example, a film may remain nearly flat on average by being curved up in one direction (say, left to right) while being curved downwards in another direction (say, front to back). Structures with minimal surfaces can be used as tents. At the scale of living cells, foam patterns are common; radiolarians, sponge spicules, silicoflagellate exoskeletons and the calcite skeleton of a sea urchin, Cidaris rugosa, all resemble mineral casts of Plateau foam boundaries. The skeleton of the Radiolarian, Aulonia hexagona, a beautiful marine form drawn by Ernst Haeckel, looks as if it is a sphere composed wholly of hexagons, but this is mathematically impossible. The Euler characteristic states that for any convex polyhedron, the number of faces plus the number of vertices (corners) equals the number of edges plus two. A result of this formula is that any closed polyhedron of hexagons has to include exactly 12 pentagons, like a soccer ball, Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome, or fullerene molecule. This can be visualised by noting that a mesh of hexagons is flat like a sheet of chicken wire, but each pentagon that is added forces the mesh to bend (there are fewer corners, so the mesh is pulled in). ### Tessellations Tessellations are patterns formed by repeating tiles all over a flat surface. There are 17 wallpaper groups of tilings. While common in art and design, exactly repeating tilings are less easy to find in living things. The cells in the paper nests of social wasps, and the wax cells in honeycomb built by honey bees are well-known examples. Among animals, bony fish, reptiles or the pangolin, or fruits like the salak are protected by overlapping scales or osteoderms, these form more-or-less exactly repeating units, though often the scales in fact vary continuously in size. Among flowers, the snake's head fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris, have a tessellated chequerboard pattern on their petals. The structures of minerals provide good examples of regularly repeating three-dimensional arrays. Despite the hundreds of thousands of known minerals, there are rather few possible types of arrangement of atoms in a crystal, defined by crystal structure, crystal system, and point group; for example, there are exactly 14 Bravais lattices for the 7 lattice systems in three-dimensional space. ### Cracks Cracks are linear openings that form in materials to relieve stress. When an elastic material stretches or shrinks uniformly, it eventually reaches its breaking strength and then fails suddenly in all directions, creating cracks with 120 degree joints, so three cracks meet at a node. Conversely, when an inelastic material fails, straight cracks form to relieve the stress. Further stress in the same direction would then simply open the existing cracks; stress at right angles can create new cracks, at 90 degrees to the old ones. Thus the pattern of cracks indicates whether the material is elastic or not. In a tough fibrous material like oak tree bark, cracks form to relieve stress as usual, but they do not grow long as their growth is interrupted by bundles of strong elastic fibres. Since each species of tree has its own structure at the levels of cell and of molecules, each has its own pattern of splitting in its bark. ### Spots, stripes Leopards and ladybirds are spotted; angelfish and zebras are striped. These patterns have an evolutionary explanation: they have functions which increase the chances that the offspring of the patterned animal will survive to reproduce. One function of animal patterns is camouflage; for instance, a leopard that is harder to see catches more prey. Another function is signalling — for instance, a ladybird is less likely to be attacked by predatory birds that hunt by sight, if it has bold warning colours, and is also distastefully bitter or poisonous, or mimics other distasteful insects. A young bird may see a warning patterned insect like a ladybird and try to eat it, but it will only do this once; very soon it will spit out the bitter insect; the other ladybirds in the area will remain undisturbed. The young leopards and ladybirds, inheriting genes that somehow create spottedness, survive. But while these evolutionary and functional arguments explain why these animals need their patterns, they do not explain how the patterns are formed. ## Pattern formation Alan Turing, and later the mathematical biologist James Murray, described a mechanism that spontaneously creates spotted or striped patterns: a reaction–diffusion system. The cells of a young organism have genes that can be switched on by a chemical signal, a morphogen, resulting in the growth of a certain type of structure, say a darkly pigmented patch of skin. If the morphogen is present everywhere, the result is an even pigmentation, as in a black leopard. But if it is unevenly distributed, spots or stripes can result. Turing suggested that there could be feedback control of the production of the morphogen itself. This could cause continuous fluctuations in the amount of morphogen as it diffused around the body. A second mechanism is needed to create standing wave patterns (to result in spots or stripes): an inhibitor chemical that switches off production of the morphogen, and that itself diffuses through the body more quickly than the morphogen, resulting in an activator-inhibitor scheme. The Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction is a non-biological example of this kind of scheme, a chemical oscillator. Later research has managed to create convincing models of patterns as diverse as zebra stripes, giraffe blotches, jaguar spots (medium-dark patches surrounded by dark broken rings) and ladybird shell patterns (different geometrical layouts of spots and stripes, see illustrations). Richard Prum's activation-inhibition models, developed from Turing's work, use six variables to account for the observed range of nine basic within-feather pigmentation patterns, from the simplest, a central pigment patch, via concentric patches, bars, chevrons, eye spot, pair of central spots, rows of paired spots and an array of dots. More elaborate models simulate complex feather patterns in the guineafowl Numida meleagris in which the individual feathers feature transitions from bars at the base to an array of dots at the far (distal) end. These require an oscillation created by two inhibiting signals, with interactions in both space and time. Patterns can form for other reasons in the vegetated landscape of tiger bush and fir waves. Tiger bush stripes occur on arid slopes where plant growth is limited by rainfall. Each roughly horizontal stripe of vegetation effectively collects the rainwater from the bare zone immediately above it. Fir waves occur in forests on mountain slopes after wind disturbance, during regeneration. When trees fall, the trees that they had sheltered become exposed and are in turn more likely to be damaged, so gaps tend to expand downwind. Meanwhile, on the windward side, young trees grow, protected by the wind shadow of the remaining tall trees. Natural patterns are sometimes formed by animals, as in the Mima mounds of the Northwestern United States and some other areas, which appear to be created over many years by the burrowing activities of pocket gophers, while the so-called fairy circles of Namibia appear to be created by the interaction of competing groups of sand termites, along with competition for water among the desert plants. In permafrost soils with an active upper layer subject to annual freeze and thaw, patterned ground can form, creating circles, nets, ice wedge polygons, steps, and stripes. Thermal contraction causes shrinkage cracks to form; in a thaw, water fills the cracks, expanding to form ice when next frozen, and widening the cracks into wedges. These cracks may join up to form polygons and other shapes. The fissured pattern that develops on vertebrate brains is caused by a physical process of constrained expansion dependent on two geometric parameters: relative tangential cortical expansion and relative thickness of the cortex. Similar patterns of gyri (peaks) and sulci (troughs) have been demonstrated in models of the brain starting from smooth, layered gels, with the patterns caused by compressive mechanical forces resulting from the expansion of the outer layer (representing the cortex) after the addition of a solvent. Numerical models in computer simulations support natural and experimental observations that the surface folding patterns increase in larger brains. ## See also - Developmental biology - Emergence - Evolutionary history of plants - Mathematics and art - Morphogenesis - Pattern formation - Widmanstätten pattern
33,742,091	Carl Eytel	1,168,264,083	German-American painter (1862–1925)	[ "1862 births", "1925 deaths", "20th-century American male artists", "20th-century American painters", "American Impressionist painters", "American illustrators", "American landscape painters", "American male painters", "Artists from Palm Springs, California", "Artists from Stuttgart", "Artists of the American West", "Burials in Riverside County, California", "Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States", "German illustrators", "German landscape painters", "Painters from California" ]	Carl Eytel (September 12, 1862 – September 17, 1925) was a German American artist who built his reputation for paintings and drawings of desert subjects in the American Southwest. Immigrating to the United States in 1885, he settled in Palm Springs, California in 1903. With an extensive knowledge of the Sonoran Desert, Eytel traveled with the author George Wharton James as he wrote the successful Wonders of the Colorado Desert, and contributed over 300 drawings to the 1908 work. While he enjoyed success as an artist, he lived as an ascetic and would die in poverty. Eytel's most important work, Desert Near Palm Springs, hangs in the History Room of the California State Library. ## Life ### Early life and immigration Carl Eytel was born as Karl Adolf Wilhelm Eytel in Maichingen, Böblingen to Tusnelda (née Schmid) and Friederick Hermann Eytel, a Lutheran minister in the Kingdom of Württemberg (now the state of Baden-Württemberg, near Stuttgart), Germany. As a boy, he became a ward of his grandfather when his father died. Eytel was well educated in the German gymnasium and became enamored of the American West while reading the works of Prussian natural science writer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, which he found in the Stuttgart Royal Library. From 1880 to 1884 he studied forestry in Tübingen and then was drafted into the German Army. He first traveled to the United States in 1885 aboard the Suevia and worked as a ranch hand in Kansas. Later he worked at a slaughterhouse for 18 months to earn his living and to study cattle. In 1891, he read an article about the Palm Springs area in the San Francisco Call and was "incited" to visit the California desert. ### Palm Springs Eytel returned to Germany to study art for 18 months (1897–1898) at the Royal Art School Stuttgart and then re-immigrated to the United States. Wanting to be a cowboy, he worked as a cowhand in the San Joaquin Valley and in 1903 he would settle in Palm Springs. Living in small cabins he built himself, Palm Springs would remain his home. Eytel often walked on his travels, covering 400 miles in the Colorado Desert on foot. On one of his travels, he was nearly lynched as a horse thief, and in 1918, during a trip to northern Arizona, he was threatened with lynching as a German spy. ## Work While living for the most part as a "desert rat" and starving artist, he both traveled alone throughout the American Southwest and accompanied author J. Smeaton Chase and painter Jimmy Swinnerton on their travels. Serving as George Wharton James' guide to "every obvious and obscure location of importance", he illustrated James' two volume The Wonders of the Colorado Desert. The work was successful and received generally favorable reviews. The collaboration on the book lasted from 1903 to 1907. Eytel's illustrations were also used by James in his 1906 article "The Colorado Desert: As General Kearney Saw It". ### Successes By 1908 Eytel was exhibiting works in Pasadena and enjoying the patronage of socialite Martha M. Newkirk. He was also planning to build a bungalow in Beaumont, California. And, in 1909, his work was being exhibited in major art venues and the Kanst gallery in Los Angeles. Later, in 1911, after traveling with Chase on horseback, he contributed 21 realistic line art drawings to Chase's book, Cone-bearing Trees of the California Mountains. Besides his work in Wonders of the Colorado Desert and Cone-bearing Trees, Eytel contributed (both drawings and articles) to the best periodicals, including the Los Angeles Times and, for nearly 14 years, the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung. (During his travels in the southwest he became friends with Los Angeles Times city editor Charles Lummis.) A stone wall in the dining room of Dr. Welwood Murray's early hotel was covered with an Eytel mural of Palm Canyon. His hundreds of drawings of native palms were his trademark and he became known as "The Artist of the Palms". His work helped publicize early Palm Springs. In 1977 his works were selling for \$10,000 and under. ### "Creative Brotherhood" Along with naturalist Edmund C. Jaeger, and authors Chase and Charles Francis Saunders, Eytel was a core member of what University of Arizona Professor Peter Wild called a "Creative Brotherhood" that lived in Palm Springs in the early 20th century. Other Brotherhood members included cartoonist and painter Swinnerton, author James, and photographers Fred Payne Clatworthy and Stephen H. Willard. The men lived near each other (like Eytel, Jaeger built his own cabin), traveled together throughout the Southwest, helped with each other's works, and exchanged photographs which appeared in their various books. The Brotherhood lasted from 1915 when Jaeger, who was the teacher in the Palm Springs one-room school house, met Eytel and Chase. It ended in 1923 when Chase died. (In 1924, after completing his studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Jaeger began a 30-year teaching career at Riverside Junior College in Riverside, California.) Jaeger wrote the initial eulogy for Eytel upon his death and in 1948, recalling his time with him, Jaeger said: > As an artist Eytel was largely self-taught.... Not widely schooled, but widely read. Eytel possessed a knowledge not only of the Greek and Roman classics but of the best literature of England, America and his native Germany. I never knew Eytel to sleep indoors. Trying to inure himself to hardships in the belief it would toughen his constitution.... Over the years it was Eytel who served as their "spiritual figurehead". Even after Jaeger left to complete his studies and Chase married the wealthy Isabel White (1917), the three, plus Saunders, often exchanged letters. `Suffering from a "hacking and persistent cough", Eytel remained in Palm Springs, impoverished, and Swinnerton would buy art supplies for him. Later Eytel became a recluse.` ### Smoketree School Journalist Ann Japenga has characterized Eytel's work as "Smoketree School" – a school which is named after a favorite desert art subject, the smoketree. The school has origins with Alson S. Clark and Jack Frost, who were influenced by French impressionist Claude Monet. Other Smoketree artists include Carl Bray, Fred Chisnall, Maynard Dixon, Clyde Forsythe, Sam Hyde Harris, John Hilton, R. Brownell McGrew, Agnes Pelton, Hanson Puthuff and Swinnerton. ### Style and subjects Like many artists of the desert southwest, Eytel's style was impressionistic. His subjects were varied and included the Mission San José de Tumacácori, in the Tumacácori National Historical Park near Nogales, Arizona (pre-restoration), and California Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and Mission San Juan Capistrano Spanish missions. His drawings for Cone-bearing Trees of the California Mountains and Wonders of the Colorado Desert were especially detailed and included Desert Bighorn Sheep, desert reptiles, and cattle. (His Mirage in the Desert (1905), painted for Wonders, depicts cattle and cowboys.) Eytel depicted the life of Navajo, Hopi, Cahuilla, Serrano and Kamia peoples, including landscapes of the New Mexico Eight Northern Pueblos in San Ildefonso, Laguna, Tesuque and Taos Pueblo. The Walpi Pueblo on First Mesa, Hopi Reservation, Arizona, and Cocopah people near Calexico, California were drawn as well. Prospectors working the Anaconda (Dale District) and Manana (Colorado River) mines in Arizona and the famous Picacho gold mine were drawn, as were the Rancho Guajome Adobe near Encinitas, California, the Sierra Bonita Ranch near Fort Grant, Arizona, turn of the century Tucson, Arizona, and the Yuma Territorial Prison, Yuma, Arizona. His scenes from early Palm Springs included the stagecoach station and William Pester – "The Hermit of Palm Springs". Eytel's landscapes and mountain scenes in Wonders included: - Ehrenberg, Arizona - Algodones, including the Pilot Knob landmark, Imperial County, California - Palo Verde, Arizona - San Jacinto National Forest, California - Oak Creek Canyon, within Coconino National Forest, Arizona - Mt. San Gorgonio, California - Mt. San Jacinto, California - Royal Gorge, Colorado - San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona - Sentinel Rock and Cathedral Spires in Yosemite Valley, California - Tahquitz Peak, near Idyllwild, California - Twin Buttes, Navajo County, Arizona ## Honors Eytel was a friend of the Cahuilla people and they allowed him to be buried in their cemetery in Palm Springs after he died of tuberculosis in a Banning, California sanatorium. His funeral and burial were arranged by Nellie Coffman, who had established the original Desert Inn in the Palm Springs village in 1909. Eytel received the following eulogy from Saunders writing in August 1926: > But to Carl Eytel, pioneer of Palm Springs artists, working there long before the world of fashion had heard of the place, Palm Springs was his home, and the desert his life. He knew it in all seasons, in all moods, and he painted it with a sort of religious ardor springing from unfailing love, in season and out. Others have been better draughtsmen than he, but when you look at a canvas by Eytel at his best you are looking into what seems the desert’s heart. His painting Desert near Palm Springs (1914) is displayed in the California History Room of the California State Library. The Palm Springs Art Museum has a set of Eytel's sketches and displays various of his paintings. The desert shrub amphipappus fremontii was given the common name "eytelia" in his honor. The short "Via Eytel" in Palm Springs is named in his honor, as is the short "Eytel Road" in nearby Cathedral City. ## See also Art topics: - En plein air – painting in the open air, which Eytel usually did - California Plein-Air Painting – early 20th century movement, a regional variation on American Impressionism - California Art Club – a Plein-Air arts organization founded in 1909, but Eytel was not a member - California Plein-Air Revival – which began in the 1980s - Tonalism – painting of landscapes with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist, although Eytel's work does not have dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue - California Tonalism - Tonal Impressionism Literature topics: - Outdoor literature - Travel literature Desert topics: - Coachella Valley – part of the "low desert" in which Eytel lived - Deserts of California - Little San Bernardino Mountains, which contain the Joshua Tree National Monument, are north of the Coachella Valley – some of Eytel's travels took him into this area below the California "high desert" (Mojave Desert) - Puebloan people – Native Americans in the Southwestern pueblos - Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains – where Eytel painted many of his mountain scenes - Southwest Museum of the American Indian – founded by Eytel's friend Charles Fletcher Lummis in 1905
5,302,839	Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral	1,170,914,666	null	[ "1534 establishments in New Spain", "19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Mexico", "Aztec sites", "Baroque church buildings in Mexico", "Burial sites of the House of Iturbide", "Colonial Mexico", "Gothic architecture in Mexico", "Historic center of Mexico City", "History of Mexico City", "National Monuments of Mexico", "Neoclassical church buildings in Mexico", "Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico (city)", "Roman Catholic cathedrals in Mexico", "Roman Catholic churches completed in 1813", "Roman Catholic churches in Mexico City" ]	The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven (Spanish: Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de la Bienaventurada Virgen María a los cielos) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico. It is situated on top of the former Aztec sacred precinct near the Templo Mayor on the northern side of the Plaza de la Constitución (Zócalo) in the historic center of Mexico City. The cathedral was built in sections from 1573 to 1813 around the original church that was constructed soon after the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, eventually replacing it entirely. Spanish architect Claudio de Arciniega planned the construction, drawing inspiration from Gothic cathedrals in Spain. Due to the long time it took to build it, just under 250 years, virtually all the main architects, painters, sculptors, gilding masters and other plastic artists of the viceroyalty worked at some point in the construction of the enclosure. The long construction time also led to the integration of a number of architectural styles in its design, including the Gothic, Baroque, Churrigueresque, Neoclassical styles, as they came into vogue over the centuries. It furthermore allowed the cathedral to include different ornaments, paintings, sculptures and furniture in its interior. The project was a point of social cohesion, because it involved so many generations and social classes, including ecclesiastical authorities, government authorities, and different religious orders. The influence of the Catholic Church on public life has meant that the building was often the scene of historically significant events in New Spain and independent Mexico. These include the coronations of Agustin I and his wife Ana María Huarte in 1822 by the President of the Congress, and Maximilian I and Empress Carlota of Mexico as emperors of Mexico by the Assembly of Mexican notables; the preservation of the funeral remains of the aforementioned first emperor; burial, until 1925, of several of the independence heroes, such as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and José María Morelos; the disputes between liberals and conservatives caused by the separation of the church and the state in the Reform; the closure of the building in the days of the Cristero War; and the celebrations of the bicentennial of independence, among others. The cathedral faces south. It is approximately 59 metres (194 ft) wide by 128 metres (420 ft) long, with a height of 67 metres (220 ft) to the tip of the towers. It consists of two bell towers, a central dome, and three main portals. It has four façades which contain portals flanked with columns and statues. It has five naves consisting of 51 vaults, 74 arches and 40 columns. The two bell towers contain 25 bells. The tabernacle, adjacent to the cathedral, contains the baptistery and serves to register the parishioners. There are five large, ornate altars, a sacristy, a choir, a choir area, a corridor and a capitulary room. Fourteen of the cathedral's sixteen chapels are open to the public. Each chapel is dedicated to a different saint or saints, and each was sponsored by a religious guild. The chapels contain ornate altars, altarpieces, retablos, paintings, furniture and sculptures. The cathedral is home to two of the largest 18th-century organs in the Americas. There is a crypt underneath the cathedral that holds the remains of many former archbishops. The cathedral has approximately 150 windows. Over the centuries, the cathedral has suffered damage. A fire in 1967 destroyed a significant part of the cathedral's interior. The restoration work that followed uncovered a number of important documents and artwork that had previously been hidden. Although a solid foundation was built for the cathedral, the soft clay soil it is built on has been a threat to its structural integrity. Dropping water tables and accelerated sinking caused the structure to be added to the World Monuments Fund list of the 100 Most Endangered Sites. Restoration working beginning in the 1990s stabilized the cathedral and it was removed from the endangered list in 2000. ## History ### Background: The Major Church After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and after Hernán Cortés returned from exploring what is today Honduras, the conquistadors decided to build a church on the site of the Templo Mayor of the Aztec City of Tenochtitlan in order to consolidate Spanish power over the newly conquered territory. There is evidence of the existence of a great major temple dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl, a temple dedicated to the god Huītzilōpōchtli and other minor buildings. The architect Martín de Sepúlveda was the first director of the project between 1524 and 1532, while Juan de Zumárraga was the first bishop of the episcopal see in the New World. The cathedral of Zumárraga was located in the northeastern part of what is now the cathedral. It had three naves separated by Tuscan columns, the central ceiling had intricate engravings made by Juan Salcedo Espinosa and gilded by Francisco de Zumaya and Andrés de la Concha. The main door was probably Renaissance style. The choir had 48 ceremonial chairs made by hand by Adrián Suster and Juan Montaño in pinus ayacahuite wood. For the construction, they used the stones of the destroyed temple of the god Huītzilōpōchtli, god of war and principal deity of the Aztecs. In spite of everything, this temple was soon considered insufficient for the growing importance of the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This first church was elevated to a cathedral by King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Pope Clement VII according to the bull of 9 September 1534 and, later, named Metropolitan by Pope Paul III in 1547. This small, poor church, vilified by all the chroniclers who judged it unworthy of such famous new city, rendered its services well that badly for long years. Soon it was ordered that a new temple be erected, proportionate sumptuousness to the greatness of the colony more, but this new factory encountered so many obstacles for its beginning, with so many difficulties for its continuation, that the old cathedral saw passing in its narrow sumptuous ceremonies of the viceroyalty; and only when the fact that motivated them was of great importance would he prefer another church, like that of San Francisco, to raise in its huge chapel of San José de los Indios the burial mound for the funeral ceremonies of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Seeing that the conclusion of the new church was long, its factory was already beginning, in 1584 it was decided to completely repair the Old Cathedral, which would certainly be little less than ruinous, to celebrate in it the Third Mexican Provincial Council. The church was a little longer than the front of the new cathedral; its three naves were not 30 meters wide and were covered, the central one with a step-scissors armour, those on the sides with horizontal beams. In addition to the puerta del Perdón door had another call puerta de los Canónigos door, and perhaps a third was left to the Placeta del Marqués. Years later, the cathedral was small for its function. In 1544, the ecclesiastical authorities had already ordered the construction of a new and more sumptuous cathedral. ### Start of the work > Almost all the American cathedrals of this first Renaissance period follow the model of that of Jaén, whose first stone was laid in 1540. With a rectangular plan and, at most with the main chapel octagonal, are the cathedrals of Mexico City, Puebla ... (...) It was mainly inspired by the Cathedral of Jaén in 1540, with a rectangular plan and a flat chevet, although it is probable that it was also seduced by the Herrerian model of that of Valladolid, the relationship of the Valladolid Cathedral, projected in 1580, with the [Hispanic] American cathedrals has not been sufficiently taken into account. In 1552, an agreement was reached whereby the cost of the new cathedral would be shared by the Spanish Crown, the Comendadores and the Indians under the direct authority of the Archbishop of New Spain. The initial plans for the foundation of the new cathedral began in 1562, as part of the project for the construction of the work, then archbishop Alonso de Montúfar would have proposed a monumental construction composed of seven naves and based on the design of the Seville Cathedral; a project that, according to Montúfar himself, would take 10 or 12 years. The weight of a work of such dimensions in a subsoil of swampy origin would require a special foundation. Initially, cross beams were placed to build a platform, which required high costs and constant draining, in the end this project would be abandoned not only for the aforementioned cost, but for the floods suffered by the city center. It is then that, supported by indigenous techniques, solid wooden logs are injected at great depth, about twenty thousand of these logs in an area of six thousand square meters. The project is reduced from the original seven naves to only five: one central, two processional and two lateral for the 16 chapels. The construction began with the designs and models created by Claudio de Arciniega and Juan Miguel de Agüero, inspired by the Spanish cathedrals of Jaén and Valladolid. In 1571, with some delay, the viceroy Martín Enríquez de Almanza and the archbishop Pedro Moya de Contreras placed the first stone of the present church. The cathedral began to be built in 1573 around the existing church which was demolished when the works advanced sufficiently to house the basic functions of the church. The work began with a north–south orientation, contrary to that of most cathedrals, due to the waterfalls of the subsoil that would affect the building with a traditional east–west orientation, decision taken 1570. First the chapter house and the sacristy were built; the construction of the vaults and the naves took a hundred years. ### Construction development The beginning of the works was met with a muddy and unstable terrain that complicated the works, because of this, the Tezontle and the Chiluca Stone were favored as building materials in several areas, on the quarry, as these are lighter. In 1581, the walls began to be erected and in 1585 the works began in the first chapel, at that time the names of the stonemasons who worked on the work were: in the chapels were carved by Juan Arteaga and the niches Hernán García de Villaverde, who also worked on the Toral pillars whose mediums were sculpted by Martín Casillas. In 1615, the walls reached half its total height. The works of the interior began in 1623 by the sacristy, and the early church was demolished at its conclusion. What is now the vestry was where Mass was conducted after the first church was finally torn down. On the 21st September 1629, the works were interrupted by the flood suffered by the city, in which the water reached two meters in height, causing damage in the main square, today called Plaza del Zócalo, and other parts of the city. Due to the damage, a project was started to build the new cathedral in the Tacubaya hills, west of the city but the idea was discarded and the project continued at the same location, under the direction of Juan Gómez de Trasmonte, the interior was finished and consecrated in 1667. The archbishop Marcos Ramírez de Prado y Ovando made the second dedication on 22 December 1667, the year in which the last vault was closed. The date of consecration, (lacking, at that time, of bell towers, main façade and other elements built in the 18th century), the cost of construction was equivalent to 1 759 000 pesos. This cost was covered in good part by the Spanish kings Philip II, Philip III, Philip IV and Charles II. Annexes to the central core of the building would be added over the years the Seminary College, the Chapel of the Animas, and the buildings of the Tabernacle and the Curia. In 1675, the central part of the main façade was completed, the work of the architect Cristóbal de Medina Vargas, which included the figure of the Assumption of Mary, the title to which the cathedral is dedicated, and the sculptures of James the Great and Andrew the Apostle guarding it. During the remainder of the 17th century, the first body of the east tower was built, by the architects Juan Lozano and Juan Serrano. The main portal of the building and portals on the east side were built in 1688 and that of the west in 1689. The six buttresses that support the structure on the side of its main facade and the bottoms that support the vaults of the main nave were completed. During the 18th century little was done to advance in the completion of the construction of the cathedral; largely because, now completed in its interior, and handy for all the ceremonies that were offered, there had not the urgent need to continue working on what was missing. Although the work had in fact been suspended, some works in the interior continued; by 1737 it was the master builder Domingo de Arrieta. He made, in the company of José Eduardo de Herrera, master of architecture, the stands that surround the choir. In 1742 Manuel de Álvarez, master of architecture, ruled with Herrera himself about the presbytery project presented by Jerónimo de Balbás. In 1752, on 17 September, a cross of iron, with more than three varas, with its vane, was placed on the crown of the lantern tower of this church, engraved on one side and on the other side the prayer of the Sanctus Deus, and in the middle of it a fourth-by-fourth oval, in which a wax of Agnus was placed on one side with its window and on the other side a sheet in which Saint Prisca, lawyer of the rays, was sculpted. The ear of the cross is of two varas, and all its weight is of fourteen arrobas; it is nailed to a quarry base. In 1787, the architect José Damián Ortiz de Castro was appointed, after a competition in which it imposed the projects of José Joaquín García de Torres and Isidro Vicente de Balbás, to direct the construction works of the bell towers, the main facade and the dome. For the construction of the towers, the Mexican architect Ortiz de Castro designed a project to make them effective against earthquakes; a second body that looks piercing and a bell-shaped finishing. His direction in the project continued until his death in 1793. When he was replaced by Manuel Tolsá, architect and sculptor driver of the Neoclassical, who arrived in the country in 1791. Tolsá is in charge of completing the work of the cathedral. He reconstructs the dome that was low and disproportionate, designs a project that consists of opening a larger ring on which builds a circular platform, to lift from there a much higher roof lantern. Integrates the torches, statues and balustrades. He crown the facade with figures symbolizing the three theological virtues (faith, hope and charity). ## Exterior ### Facades and portals The main facade of the cathedral faces south. The main portal is centered in the main facade and is the highest of the cathedral's three portals. Statues of Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle stand between the columns of the portal, while Saint Andrew and James the Just are depicted on the secondary doorway. In the center of this doorway is a high relief of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, to whom the cathedral is dedicated. This image is flanked by images of Saint Matthew and Saint Andrew. The coat of arms of Mexico is above the doorway, with the eagle's wings outstretched. There is a clock tower at the very top of the portal with statues representing Faith, Hope and Charity, which was created by sculptor Manuel Tolsá. The west facade was constructed in 1688 and rebuilt in 1804. It has a three-section portal with images of the Four Evangelists. The west portal has high reliefs depicting Jesus handing the Keys of Heaven to Saint Peter. The east facade is similar to the west facade. The reliefs on the east portal show a ship carrying the four apostles, with Saint Peter at the helm. The title of this relief is The ship of the Church sailing the seas of Eternity. The northern facade, built during the 16th century in the Renaissance Herrera style, is oldest part of the cathedral and was named after Juan de Herrera, architect of the El Escorial monastery in Spain. While the eastern and western facades are older than most of the rest of the building, their third level has Solomonic columns which are associated with the Baroque period. All the high reliefs of the portals of the cathedral were inspired by the work of Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. ### Bell towers The bell towers are the work of Xalapan artist José Damián Ortiz de Castro. They are capped with bell-shaped roofs made of tezontle covered in chiluca, a white stone. Ortiz de Castro was in charge of the cathedral's construction in the latter half of the 18th century until he died, unexpectedly. Manuel Tolsá of Valencia, who had built other notable buildings in Mexico City, was hired to finish the cathedral. At this point, the cathedral had already been 240 years in the making. He added the neo-Classic structure housing the clock, the statues of the three theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity), the high balustrade surrounding the building, and the dome that rises over the transept. The cathedral has 25 bells—eighteen hang in the east bell tower and seven in the west tower. The largest bell is named the Santa Maria de Guadalupe and weighs around 13,000 kilograms (29,000 lb). Other major bells are named the Doña Maria, which weighs 6,900 kilograms (15,200 lb), and La Ronca ("the hoarse one"), named so because of its harsh tone. Doña Maria and La Ronca were placed in 1653 while the largest bell was placed later in 1793. The statues in the west tower are the work of José Zacarías Cora and represent Pope Gregory VII, Saint Augustine, Leander of Seville, St. Fulgentius of Écija, St.Francis Xavier, and Saint Barbara. The statues in the east tower are by Santiago Cristóbal Sandoval and depict Emilio, Rose of Lima, Mary (mother of Jesus), Ambrogio, Jerome, Philip of Jesus, Hippolytus of Rome, and Isidore the Laborer. In 1947, a novice bell ringer died in an accident when he tried to move one of the bells while standing under it. The bell swung back and hit him in the head, killing him instantly. The bell was then "punished" by removing the clapper. In the following years, the bell was known as la castigada ("the punished one"), or la muda ("the mute one"). In 2000, the clapper was reinstalled in the bell. In October 2007, a time capsule was found inside the stone ball base of a cross, in the southern bell tower of the cathedral. It was placed in 1742, supposedly to protect the building from harm. The lead box was filled with religious artifacts, coins and parchments and hidden in a hollow stone ball. The ball was marked with the date of 14 May 1791, when the building's topmost stone was laid. A new time capsule will be placed in the stone ball when it is closed again. ### Tabernacle Situated to the right of the main cathedral, the Metropolitan Tabernacle (Spanish: Sagrario Metropolitano) was built by Lorenzo Rodríguez during the height of the Baroque period between 1749 and 1760, to house the archives and vestments of the archbishop. It also functioned and continues to function as a place to receive Eucharist and register parishioners. The first church built on the cathedral site also had a tabernacle, but its exact location is unknown. During the construction of the cathedral, the tabernacle was housed in what are now the Chapels of San Isidro and Our Lady of Agony of Granada. However, in the 18th century, it was decided to build a structure that was separate, but still connected, to the main cathedral. It is constructed of tezontle (a reddish porous volcanic rock) and white stone in the shape of a Greek cross with its southern facade faces the Zócalo. It is connected to the main cathedral via the Chapel of San Isidro. The interiors of each wing have separate uses. In the west wing is the baptistry, in the north is the main altar, the main entrance and a notary area, separated by inside corner walls made of chiluca stone and tezontle. Chiluca, a white stone, covers the walls and floors and the tezontle frames the doors and windows. At the crossing of the structure is an octagonal dome framed by arches that form curved triangles where they meet at the top of the dome. The principal altar is in the ornate Churrigueresque style and crafted by indigenous artist Pedro Patiño Ixtolinque. It was inaugurated in 1829. The exterior of the Baroque styled tabernacle is almost entirely adorned with decorations, such as curiously shaped niche shelves, floating drapes and many cherubs. Carvings of fruits such as grapes and pomegranates have been created to in the shape of ritual offerings, symbolizing the Blood of Christ and the Church. Among the floral elements, roses, daisies, and various types of four-petalled flowers can be found, including the indigenous chalchihuite. The tabernacle has two main outside entrances; one to the south, facing the Zócalo and the other facing east toward Seminario Street. The southern façade is more richly decorated than the east façade. It has a theme of glorifying the Eucharist with images of the Apostles, Church Fathers, saints who founded religious orders, martyrs as well as scenes from the Bible. Zoomorphic reliefs can be found along with the anthropologic reliefs, including a rampaging lion, and the eagle from the coat of arms of Mexico. The east facade is less ambitious, but contains figures from the Old Testament as well as the images of John Nepomucene and Ignacio de Loyola. Construction dates for the phases of the tabernacle are also inscribed here. ## Interior ### Altars #### High Altar This disappeared in the 1940s. In 2000, a new altar table was made to replace the previous one. This was built in modernist style by the architect Ernesto Gómez Gallardo. #### Altar of Forgiveness The Altar of Forgiveness (Spanish: Altar del perdón) is located at the front of the central nave. It is the first aspect of the interior that is seen upon entering the cathedral. It was the work of Spanish architect Jerónimo de Balbás, and represents the first use of the estípite column (an inverted triangle-shaped pilaster) in the Americas. There are two stories about how the name of this altar came about. The first states that those condemned by the Spanish Inquisition were brought to the altar to ask for forgiveness in the next world before their execution. The second relates to painter Simon Pereyns, who despite being the author of many of the works of the cathedral, was accused of blasphemy. According to the story, while Pereyns was in jail, he painted such a beautiful image of the Virgin Mary that his crime was forgiven. This altar was damaged by fire in January 1967 but has been completely restored. #### Altar of the Kings In New Spain, it was customary to dedicate the main chapel of any Spanish cathedral to the ruling king, giving it the greatest importance and artistic wealth. The Altar of the Kings (Spanish: Altar de los Reyes) was also the work of Jerónimo de Balbás, in Mexican Baroque or Churrigueresque style. Balbás constructed it in cedar from 1718 to 1725. It was gilded and finished by Francico Martínez in 1736 and completed in 1737. It is located at the back of the cathedral, beyond the Altar of Forgiveness and the choir, a space known as "royal chapel", although it does not have any grille that delimits and closes the space in the manner of similar chapels. This altar is 13.75 metres (45.1 ft) wide, 25 metres (82 ft) tall and 7.5 metres (25 ft) deep, so it presides over the main nave of the temple because it is located behind the presbytery. There are three main vertical bodies formed by high estipite pilasters. Its size and depth gave rise to the nickname la cueva dorada ("the golden cave"). Additional sculptures were created by Sebastián de Santiago. It takes its name from the statues of saintly royalty which form part of its decoration, and is the oldest work in churrigueresque style in Mexico, taking 19 years to complete. At the bottom, from left to right, are six female royal saints: Saint Margaret of Scotland, Helena of Constantinople, Elisabeth of Hungary, Elizabeth of Aragon, Empress Cunegunda and Edith of Wilton. In the middle of the altar are six canonized kings: Hermenegild, a Visigoth martyr; Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor; Edward the Confessor; and Casimir of Poland below, and Saints Louis of France and Ferdinand III of Castile above them. In between these kings an oil painting of the Adoration of the Magi by Juan Rodriguez Juarez shows Jesus as the King of kings. The top portion features a painting of the Assumption of Mary as celestial queen flanked by oval bas reliefs, one of Saint Joseph carrying the infant Jesus and the other of Saint Teresa of Ávila with a quill in her hand and the Holy Spirit above her, inspiring her to write. In the upper part above this, there are angels carrying the attributes of the Virgin Mary such as the Sealed Fountain, the House of Gold, the Well of Living Water, and the Tower of David, and at the top is an image of God, the Father. The altar was damaged due to a fire in 1967. This altar has been under restoration since 2003. ### Sacristy The Herrera door opens into the sacristy, the oldest part of the cathedral. It is a mixture of Renaissance and Gothic styles. The walls hold large canvases painted by Cristóbal de Villalpando, such as The Apotheosis of Saint Michael, The Triumph of the Eucharist, The Church Militant and the Church Triumphant, and The Virgin of the Apocalypse. The Virgin of the Apocalypse depicts the vision of John of Patmos. Two other canvases, Entering Jerusalem and The Assumption of the Virgin, painted by Juan Correa, are also here. An additional painting, attributed to Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, hangs in the Sacristy. On the north wall, there is a niche that holds a statue of the crucifix with a Christ image sculpted in ivory. Behind this, is another mural that depicts the Juan Diego's of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Sacristy used to house Juan Diego's cloak, upon which the Virgin's image purportedly appears, but after massive flooding in 1629, it was removed from the Sacristy to better protect it. A cabinet on the west wall of the Sacristy, under the Virgin of the Apocalypse painting, once held golden chalices and cups trimmed with precious stones, as well as other utensils. In 1957, The wooden floor and platform around the perimeter of the Sacristy were replaced with stone. ### Chapels The cathedral's sixteen chapels were each assigned to a religious guild, and each is dedicated to a saint. Each of the two side naves contain seven chapels. The other two were created later on the eastern and western sides of the cathedral. These last two are not open to the public. The fourteen chapels in the east and west naves are listed below. The first seven are in the east nave, listed from north to south, and the last seven are in the west nave. #### Chapel of Our Lady of the Agonies of Granada The Chapel of Our Lady of the Agonies of Granada (Spanish: Capilla de Nuestra Señora de las Angustias de Granada) was built in the first half of the 17th century and originally served as the sacristy. It is a medieval-style chapel with a ribbed vault and two relatively simple altarpieces. The narrow altarpiece contains an oval painting of Saint Raphael, Archangel and the young Tobias, a 16th century painting attributed to Flemish painter Maerten de Vos. At the top of this altarpiece is a painting of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and above this is a painting of the Last Supper. At the back of the chapel is a churrigueresque painting of Our Lady of the Agonies of Granada. #### Chapel of Saint Isidore The Chapel of Saint Isidore (Spanish: Capilla de San Isidro) was originally built as an annex between 1624 and 1627, and was once used as the baptistery. Its vault contains plaster casts representing Faith, Hope, Charity, and Justice, considered to be basic values in the Catholic religion. After the Tabernacle was built, it was converted into a chapel and its door was reworked in a churrigueresque style. #### Chapel of the Immaculate Conception The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception (Spanish: Capilla de la Inmaculada Concepción) was built between 1642 and 1648. It has a churrigueresque altarpiece which, due to the lack of columns, most likely dates from the 18th century. The altar is framed with molding—instead of columns—and a painting of the Immaculate Conception presides over it. The altar is surrounded by paintings by José de Ibarra relating to the Passion of Christ and various saints. The chapel also contains a canvas of Saint Christopher painted by Simon Pereyns in 1588, and the Flagellation by Baltasar de Echave Orio, painted in 1618. The altarpiece on the right side is also dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and was donated by the College of Saints Peter and Paul. This chapel holds the remains of Franciscan friar Antonio Margil de Jesús who was evangelized in what is now the north of Mexico. #### Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe The Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish: Capilla de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) was built in 1660. It was the first baptistery of the cathedral and for a long time was the site for the Brotherhood of the Most Holy Sacrament, which had many powerful benefactors. It is decorated in a 19th century neo-classic style by the architect Antonio Gonzalez Vazquez, director of the Academy of San Carlos. The main altarpiece is dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe and the sides altars are dedicated to John the Baptist and San Luis Gonzaga. #### Chapel of Our Lady of Antigua The Chapel of Our Lady of Antigua (Spanish: Capilla de Nuestra Señora de La Antigua) was sponsored and built between 1653 and 1660 by a brotherhood of musicians and organists, which promoted devotion to this Virgin. Its altarpiece contains a painting of the Virgin, a copy of one found in the Cathedral of Seville. This copy was brought to New Spain by a merchant. Two other paintings show the birth of the Virgin and her presentation. Both were painted by Nicolás Rodriguez Juárez. This chapel is home to the Niño Cautivo (Captive Child) a Child Jesus figure that was brought to Mexico from Spain. It was sculpted in the 16th century by Juan Martínez Montañez in Spain and purchased by the cathedral. However, on its way to Veracruz, pirates attacked the ship it was on and sacked it. To get the image back, a large ransom was paid. Today, the image is in the Chapel of San Pedro or De las Reliquias. Traditionally, the image has been petitioned by those seeking release from restrictions or traps, especially financial problems or drug addiction or alcoholism. The cult to the Niño Cautivo is considered to be "inactive" by INAH. However, this particular image has made a comeback since 2000 as one to petition when a family member is abducted and held for ransom. ##### Chapel of Saint Peter The Chapel of Saint Peter (Spanish: Capilla de San Pedro) was built between 1615 and 1620, and contains three highly decorated Baroque altarpieces from the 17th century. The altar at the back is dedicated to Saint Peter, whose sculpture presides over the altar. It is surrounded by early 17th century paintings relating to his life, painted by Baltasar de Echave Orio. To the right is an altarpiece dedicated to the Holy Family, with two paintings by Juan de Aguilera of Florence called The Holy Family in the workshop of Saint Joseph and Birth of the Savior. The altarpiece to the left of the main altarpiece is dedicated to Saint Theresa of Jesus whose image also appears in the chapel's window. It includes four paintings on sheets of metal that depict scenes from the birth of Jesus. Five oil paintings illustrate scenes from the life of Saint Theresa, and above this is a semi-circular painting of the coronation of Mary. All these works were created in the 17th century by Baltasar de Echave y Rioja. #### Chapel of Christ and of the Reliquaries The Chapel of Christ and of the Reliquaries (Spanish: Capilla del Santo Cristo y de las Reliquias) was built in 1615 and designed with ultra-Baroque details which are often difficult to see in the poorly lit interior. It was originally known as the Christ of the Conquistadors. That name came from an image of Christ that was supposedly donated to the cathedral by Emperor Charles V. Over time, so many reliquaries were left on its main altar that its name was eventually changed. Of 17th century ornamentation, the main altarpiece alternates between carvings of rich foliage and small heads on its columns in the main portion and small sculptures of angels on its telamons in the secondary portion. Its niches hold sculptures of saints framing the main body. Its crucifix is from the 17th century. The predella is finished with sculptures of angels, and also contains small 17th paintings of martyred saints by Juan de Herrera. Behind these paintings, hidden compartments contain some of the numerous reliquaries left here. Its main painting was done by Jose de Ibarra and dated 1737. Surrounding the altar is a series of paintings on canvas, depicting the Passion of Christ by Jose Villegas, painted in the 17th century. On the right-hand wall, an altar dedicated to the Virgin of the Confidence is decorated with numerous churrigueresque figurines tucked away in niches, columns and top pieces. #### Chapel of the Holy Angels and Archangels The Chapel of the Holy Angels and Archangels (Spanish: Capilla de los Ángeles) was finished in 1665 with Baroque altarpieces decorated with Solomonic columns. It is dedicated to the Archangel Michael, who is depicted as a medieval knight. It contains a large main altarpiece with two smaller altarpieces both decorated by Juan Correa. The main altarpiece is dedicated to the seven archangels, who are represented by sculptures, in niches surrounding images of Saint Joseph, Mary and Christ. Above this scene are the Holy Spirit and God the Father. The left-hand altarpiece is of similar design and is dedicated to the Guardian Angel, whose sculpture is surrounded with pictures arranged to show the angelic hierarchy. To the left of this, a scene shows Saint Peter being released from prison, and to the right, Saul, later Saint Paul, being knocked from his horse, painted by Juan Correa in 1714. The right-hand altarpiece is dedicated to the Guardian Angel of Mexico. #### Chapel of Saints Cosme and Damian The Chapel of Saints Cosme and Damian (Spanish: Capilla de San Cosme y San Damián) was built because these two saints were commonly invoked during a time when New Spain suffered from the many diseases brought by the Conquistadors. The main altarpiece is Baroque, probably built in the 17th century. Oil paintings on wood contain scenes from physician saints, and are attributed to painter Sebastian Lopez Davalos, during the second half of the 17th century. The chapel contains one small altarpiece which came from the Franciscan church in Zinacantepec, to the west of Mexico City, and is dedicated to the birth of Jesus. #### Chapel of Saint Joseph The Chapel of Saint Joseph (Spanish: Capilla de San José), built between 1654 and 1660, contains an image of Our Lord of Cacao, an image of Christ most likely from the 16th century. Its name was inspired from a time when many indigenous worshipers would give their alms in the form of cocoa beans. Churrigueresque in style and containing a graffito statue of Saint Joseph, patron saint of New Spain, the main altarpiece is Baroque and is from the 18th century. This once belonged to the Church of Our Lady of Monserrat. This altar contains statues and cubicles containing busts of the Apostles, but contains no paintings. #### Chapel of Our Lady of Solitude The Chapel of Our Lady of Solitude (Spanish: Capilla de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad) was originally built in honor of the workers who built the cathedral. It contains three Baroque altarpieces. The main altarpiece is supported by caryatids and small angels as telamons, to uphold the base of the main body. It is dedicated to the Virgin of Solitude of Oaxaca, whose image appears in the center. The surrounding 16th century paintings are by Pedro Ramírez, and depict scenes from the life of Christ. #### Chapel of Saint Eligius The Chapel of Saint Eligius (Spanish: Capilla de San Eligio), also known as the Chapel of the Lord of Safe Expeditions (Spanish: Capilla del Señor del Buen Despacho), was built by the first silversmith guild, who donated the images of the Conception and Saint Eligius to whom the chapel was formerly dedicated. The chapel was redecorated in the 19th century, and the image of Our Lord of Good Sending was placed here, named thus, since many supplicants reported having their prayers answered quickly. The image is thought to be from the 16th century and sent as a gift from Charles V of Spain. #### Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows The Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows (Spanish: Capilla de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores), formerly known as the Chapel of the Lord's Supper (Spanish: Capilla de la Santa Cena), was built in 1615. It was originally dedicated to the Last Supper since a painting of this event was once kept here. It was later remodeled in a Neo-classical style, with three altarpieces added by Antonio Gonzalez Velazquez. The main altarpiece contains an image of the Virgin of Sorrows sculpted in wood and painted by Francisco Terrazas, at the request of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. On the left-hand wall a ladder leads to a series of crypts which hold most of the remains of past archbishops of Mexico. The largest and grandest of these crypts contains the remains of Juan de Zumarraga, the first archbishop of Mexico. #### Chapel of the Lord of Good dispatch The Chapel of the Lord of Good dispatch (Spanish: Capilla del Señor del Buen Despacho) was premiered on December 8, 1648, and was dedicated to the silversmiths' guild, who placed two images of solid silver, one of the most pure conception and another of San Eligio or Eloy. The decoration of the entire chapel is neoclassical style belongs to the first half of the nineteenth century. #### Chapel of Saint Philip of Jesus The Chapel of Saint Philip of Jesus (Spanish: Capilla de San Felipe de Jesús) was completed during one of the earliest stages of the construction of the cathedral. It is dedicated to Philip of Jesus, a friar and the only martyr from New Spain, who was crucified in Japan. The chapel is topped with a Gothic-style dome and has a Baroque altarpiece from the 17th century. A statue of the saint is located in a large niche in the altarpiece. The altar to the left is dedicated to Saint Rose of Lima, considered a protector of Mexico City. To the right is an urn which holds the remains of Agustín de Iturbide, who briefly ruled Mexico from 1822 to 1823. Next to this chapel is a baptismal font, in which it is believed Philip of Jesus was baptised. The heart of Anastasio Bustamante is preserved here. In this chapel is a sculpture alluding to the first Mexican saint: San Felipe de Jesús. This work, as seen by many art critics, is the best elaborated, carved and polychrome sculptured sculpture from Latin America. ### Organs The cathedral has had perhaps a dozen organs over the course of its history. The earliest is mentioned in a report written to the king of Spain in 1530. Few details survive of the earliest organs. Builders names begin to appear at the end of the sixteenth century. The earliest disposition that survives is for the Diego de Sebaldos organ built in 1655. The first large organ for Mexico City Cathedral was built in Madrid from 1689 to 1690 by Jorge de Sesma and installed by Tiburcio Sanz from 1693 to 1695. It now has two, which were made in Mexico by José Nassarre of Spain, and completed by 1736, incorporating elements of the 17th-century organ. They are the largest 18th-century organs in the Americas; they are situated above the walls of the choir, on the epistle side (east) and the gospel side (west). Both organs, damaged by fire in 1967, were restored in 1978. Because both organs had fallen into disrepair again, the gospel organ was re-restored from 2008 to 2009 by Gerhard Grenzing; the restoration of the epistle organ, also by Grenzing, was completed in 2014, and both organs are now playable. ### Choir The choir is where the priest and/or a choral group sings the psalms. It is located in the central nave between the main door and the high altar, and built in a semicircular fashion, much like Spanish cathedrals. It was built by Juan de Rojas between 1696 and 1697. Its sides contain 59 reliefs of various saints done in mahogany, walnut, cedar and a native wood called tepehuaje. The railing that surrounds the choir was made in 1722 by Sangley Queaulo in Macao and placed in the cathedral in 1730. ### Crypt The Crypt of the Archbishops is located below the floor of the cathedral beneath the Altar of the Kings. The entrance to the crypt from the cathedral is guarded by a large wooden door behind which descends a winding yellow staircase. Just past the inner entrance is a Mexica-style stone skull. It was incorporated as an offering into the base of a cenotaph to Juan de Zumárraga, the first archbishop of Mexico. Zumárraga was considered to be a benefactor of the Indians, protecting them against the abuses of their Spanish overlords. There is also a natural-sized sculpture of the archbishop atop the cenotaph. On its walls are dozens of bronze plaques that indicate the locations of the remains of most of Mexico City's former archbishops, including Cardinal Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada. The floor is covered with small marble slabs covering niches containing the remains of other people. The cathedral contains other crypts and niches where other religious figures are buried, including in the chapels. ## Restoration The sinking ground and seismic activity of the area have had an effect on the cathedral's construction and current appearance. Forty-two years were required simply to lay its foundation when it was first built, because even then the Spaniards recognized the danger of constructing such a huge monument in soft soil. However, for political reasons, much, but not all, of the cathedral was built over the remains of pre-Hispanic structures, leading to uneven foundation from the beginning. ### Fire of 1967 On 17 January 1967 at 9 pm, a fire caused by an electrical short circuit caused extensive damage to the cathedral. On the Altar of Forgiveness, much of the structure and decoration were damaged including the loss of three paintings; The Holy Face by Alonso López de Herrera, The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian by Francisco de Zumaya and The Virgin of Forgiveness by Simon Pereyns. The choir section lost 75 of its 99 seats as well a painting by Juan Correa along with many stored books. The two cathedral organs were severely damaged with the partial melting of their pipes. Paintings by Rafael Jimeno y Planas, Juan Correa and Juan Rodriguez Juarez were damaged in other parts of the cathedral. After the fire, authorities recorded the damage but did nothing to try to restore what was damaged. Heated discussions ensued among historians, architects and investigations centering on the moving of the Altar of Forgiveness, as well as eliminating the choir area and some of the railings. In 1972, ecclesiastical authorities initiated demolition of the choir area without authorization from the Federal government, but were stopped. The government inventoried what could be saved and named Jaime Ortiz Lajous as director of the project to restore the cathedral to its original condition. Restoration work focused not only on repairing the damage (using archived records and photographs), but also included work on a deteriorating foundation (due to uneven sinking into the ground) and problems with the towers. The Altars of Forgiveness and of the Kings were subject to extensive cleaning and restorative work. To replace the lost portions on the Altar of Forgiveness, several paintings were added; Escape from Egypt by Pereyns, The Divine Countenance and The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. The organs were dismantled with the pipes and inner workings sent to the Netherlands for repair, while the cases were restored by Mexican craftsmen with work lasting until 1977. Reconstruction of the choir area began in 1979 using the same materials as existed before the fire. In addition, any statues in the towers that received more than 50% damage from city pollution were taken out, with replicas created to replace them. Those with less damage were repaired. Some interesting discoveries were made as restoration work occurred during the 1970s and early 1980s. 51 paintings were found and rescued from behind the Altar of Forgiveness, including works by Juan and Nicolas Rodriguez Juarez, Miguel Cabrera and José de Ibarra. Inside one of the organs, a copy of the nomination of Hernán Cortés as Governor General of New Spain (1529) was found. Lastly, in the wall of the central arch of the cathedral was found the burial place of Miguel Barrigan, the first governor of Veracruz. ### Late 20th-century work The cathedral, along with the rest of the city, has been sinking into the lakebed from the day it was built. However, the fact that the city is a megalopolis with over 18 million people drawing water from underground sources has caused water tables to drop and the sinking to accelerate during the latter half of the 20th century. Sections of the complex such as the cathedral and the tabernacle were still sinking at different rates, and the bell towers were tilting dangerously despite work done in the 1970s. For this reason, the cathedral was included in the 1998 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund. Major restoration and foundation work began in the 1990s to stabilize the building. Engineers excavated under the cathedral between 1993 and 1998. They dug shafts under the cathedral and placed shafts of concrete into the soft ground to give the edifice a more solid base to rest on. These efforts have not stopped the sinking of the complex, but they have corrected the tilting towers and ensured that the cathedral will sink uniformly. ### 21st-century work Since the earthquake in 2017, the cathedral is undergoing a reconstruction to restore the damages caused by the earthquake. During the reconstruction, the workers found 23 lead boxes that contain religious relics such as small paintings and wood or palm crosses. The boxes contained written inscriptions dedicated to specific saints and also indicated that the boxes were found previously by a group of masons and painters in 1810, and reburied. ## Cultural value The cathedral has been a focus of Mexican cultural identity, and is a testament to its colonial history. People often gather there to worship and attend religious services. Researcher Manuel Rivera Cambas reported that the cathedral was built on the site sacred precinct of the Aztecs and with the very stones of their temples so that the Spaniards could lay claim to the land and the people. Hernán Cortés supposedly himself laid the first stone of the original church. It once was an important religious center, used exclusively by the prominent families of New Spain. At the beginning of Mexican independence, during the First Mexican Empire, Emperor Agustin I was crowned Emperor of Mexico in the cathedral in the presence of the bishops of Puebla, Guadalajara, Durango, and Oaxaca. In 1864, during the Second Mexican Empire, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and his consort Empress Carlota, formerly Archduke of Austria and Princess of Belgium, were also crowned with the Imperial Crown of Mexico at the cathedral after their magnificent arrival in the capital of their reign. Located on the Zocalo it has, over time, been the focus of social and cultural activities, most of which have occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries. The cathedral was closed for four years while President Plutarco Elías Calles attempted to enforce Mexico's anti-religious laws. Pope Pius XI closed the church, ordering priests to cease their public religious duties in all Mexican churches. After the Mexican government and the papacy came to terms and major renovations were performed on the cathedral, it reopened in 1930. The cathedral has been the scene of several protests both from the church and to the church, including a protest by women over the Church's exhortation for women not to wear mini-skirts and other provocative clothing to avoid rape, and a candlelight vigil to protest against kidnappings in Mexico. The cathedral itself has been used to protest against social issues. Its bells rang to express the Archdiocese's opposition to the Supreme Court upholding of Mexico City's legalization of abortion. Probably the most serious recent event occurred on 18 November 2007, when sympathizers of the Party of the Democratic Revolution attacked the cathedral. About 150 protesters stormed into Sunday Mass chanting slogans and knocking over pews. This caused church officials to close and lock the cathedral for a number of days. The cathedral reopened with new security measures, such as bag searches, in place. ## See also - Cruz de Mañozca - List of colonial churches in Mexico City - List of colonial non-religious buildings in Mexico City - Catholic Church in Mexico - History of Mexico City
40,144,235	Tuscan Leather	1,122,106,300	2013 song performed by Drake	[ "2013 songs", "Drake (musician) songs", "Song recordings produced by 40 (record producer)", "Songs written by 40 (record producer)", "Songs written by Anthony Palman", "Songs written by David Foster", "Songs written by Drake (musician)", "Songs written by Linda Thompson (actress)" ]	"Tuscan Leather" is a song by Canadian recording artist Drake for his third studio album, Nothing Was the Same (2013). It was written by Drake along with Anthony Palma and Noah Shebib, who produced the song under his production name "40" along with Nathan Sessoms. The song heavily samples "I Have Nothing" performed by Whitney Houston and written by David Foster and Linda Thompson-Jenner, who received writing credits on "Tuscan Leather". Noted for its unique song structure devoid of any choruses, it is a hip hop song which utilizes influences of R&B and ambient throughout its composition. "Tuscan Leather" received critical acclaim from music critics, who highlighted the song's production and praised Drake's growing confidence. The song was a source of controversy due to the song's lyrics describing Drake's deteriorating relationship with label mate Nicki Minaj. Despite not being released as a single, "Tuscan Leather" managed to chart due to the release of the album, with its highest peak being at number 23 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Songs. ## Background "Tuscan Leather" was written by Drake, Anthony Palman and Noah Shebib, and was produced by Drake's longtime collaborator Noah "40" Shebib. It borrows its name from the Tom Ford fragrance of the same name, which generally ranges from \$220-\$535. The song utilizes a vocal sample from "I Have Nothing", written by David Foster and Linda Thompson-Jenner, who receive writing credits, and performed by Whitney Houston. It also contains interpolations of "Serious", written by Warren McGlone and Lawrence Parker, and samples "When Seasons Change" (live) by Curtis Mayfield. It was recorded at Noble Street Studios in Toronto and Metalworks Studios in Missisauga, Ontario, along with Tree Sound Studios in Atlanta, Georgia and Marvin's Room in Hollywood, California. "Tuscan Leather" was recorded by Shebib and Noel Cadastre, while the pair received assistance from Luke Neveille, Jeff Crake, Miguel Scott, and John Nettlesbey. Lindsey Warner assisted Noel "Gadget" Campbell Toronto's Studio 306 in mixing the song. Background vocals for the song were provided by Cappadonna, while Shebib handled all the instrumentation. However, Adrian "X" Eccleston played the guitar, and additional drum programming was done by Matthew "Boi-1da" Samuels and Nineteen85. ## Composition Musically, "Tuscan Leather" is an atmospheric and free-form hip hop song, which contains elements of R&B and ambient, and features "woozy" synth washes, big drum sounds, and an expansive, engrossing beat. Structurally, "Tuscan Leather" revolves around a distorted sample of "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston chopped, sped-up, and reversed three different ways. Will Lavin of Gigwise said the song sounded "like a Heatmakerz-produced track circa 2001, the three key beat changes keeps listeners plugged in to the transparent mood Drake finds himself in." "Tuscan Leather" has a unique song structure, with three distinct sections and no choruses. The first section features Drake intensely rapping while Houston's voice, described as "ghostly and beautiful", floats as if on helium through the chaotic production, noted to be "nostalgic, new, exuberant and menacing" all at once. After a brief pause, the section showcases a shift in both the beat and the lyrics, becoming more sinuous and personal, while a gentle keyboard riff rises underneath the music. During the third verse, the music transforms into a "soft, ambient landscape" which includes crowd noise, before the song finishes with the voice of Curtis Mayfield addressing fans at the end of a 1987 concert in Montreux: > As hell below, I'll see you when you get there > Are you enjoying yourself? > If we may we'd just like to close off with something a bit inspirational > Hopefully something a bit relevant as to us all > Are having the same fears, shedding similar tears > And of course dying in so many years > It don't mean that we can't have a good life > So we'd like to just maybe close out with something, some food for thought According to Andrew Unterberger of Popdust, "Tuscan Leather" is a hyper-focused state-of-the-union address about where he is at in his life. During the song he discusses his ever-expanding ambitions in lines such as "On a mission tryna shift the culture", while also dismissing those who try to challenge his supremacy: "Just give it time, we’ll see who's still around a decade from now". During the song Drake makes multiple pop culture references including Dwight Howard, University of Nevada, Las Vegas basketball, comparisons to Guy Pearce in Memento, and details of dates with Tatyana Ali. The song's lyrics also allude to a strained relationship with his label YMCMB, while some critics noted a subliminal diss towards J. Cole. ## Controversy "Tuscan Leather" generated controversy with label mate Nicki Minaj for the line: "Not even talkin' to Nicki, communication is breakin' / I dropped the ball on some personal shit, I need to embrace it / I'm honest, I make mistakes, I'd be the second to admit it / Think that's why I need her in my life, to check me when I'm trippin'". Speaking of the line, Drake said in an interview with MTV News: "That line in 'Tuscan Leather' isn't exactly where I am in my life right now, but like a year ago...eight months, seven months ago, it was how I felt, I'd done something wrong, and I wasn't speaking to her." Throughout their careers Drake and Minaj maintained a close personal and business relationship, and were frequent collaborators. However, while recording Nothing Was the Same, Drake did not work with Minaj or anyone from Cash Money Records, leading her to say: "I'm Young Money 'til the death of me, Drake can do what Drake do, but Nicki Minaj is a whole different person. I think your team is your team. Who gives a fuck about trying to be different? I'm always going to want my team to be a part of my project, no matter what, in some way." Speaking of their strained relationship during an interview with Hot 97.5, Minaj said: "It gets a little hard to have a real connection when people are on different sides of the world, working on different things. You just never know who people got in their ear or what they're feeling or maybe they felt wronged in some way. I don't know. I just know that Drake is my baby, and Wayne is my everything." However, Drake said their relationship has improved, and credited the song as opening up a new dialogue, saying: "I think the dialogue actually between us was already opened up, I had already solved that issue. I wrote that a while ago, and I kinda felt guilty changing it. It was a sentiment that I had when I started this album and felt like that's how it should be. The album should start one place and end in another...I haven't talked to her since it's been out. I'm not sure. I haven't spoke to her." ## Critical reception Upon release, "Tuscan Leather" received widespread critical acclaim from music critics, with it being recognized as one of the most powerful intros to a hip-hop album in years. In her review of the album, Erika Ramirez of Billboard said of the song: "Drake is aware of his greatness, and makes sure listeners are just as aware from the jump." Andrew Unterberger of Popdust commended the song for being a strong opener, similar to his other album opener's; "Fireworks" and "Over My Dead Body". Unterberger praised the use of the Whitney Houston sample, and finished his review as saying: "How much time is Drake spending on the intro? As much time as he goddamn pleases, and if he wants to go an hour on the beat, we’ll listen for the whole thing and not check our watch once." Writing for Spin, Brandon Soderberg included "Tuscan Leather" as one of the "Rap Songs of the Week", calling it "expertly conceptualized" and praised it as properly introducing the album. Will Lavin of Gigwise gave the song a positive review, noting Drake's in depth discussions about his label, his friends, and his peers. Lavin went on to say: "For Drake, when it comes to album openers, his track record is thought provokingly flawless." Thomas Britt of PopMatters praised the production on "Tuscan Leather" and noted a rare self-aware "utterance" that positions Drake next to a movie character". The A.V. Club's Evan Rytlewski said the song: "opens the record with a six-minute rush of beat flips and kinetic spitting, a reminder of how well Drake can rap when a track demands it." The Globe and Mail reviewer Brad Wheeler said that Drake was "rewriting the rules" by including no choruses, and called Shebib and Drake's work on the track "bodacious". David Berry of the National Post called "Tuscan Leather" the best song on Nothing Was the Same, praising Drake's smart wordplay and Shebib "going Picasso" on a Whitney Houston sample. Writing for Idolator, Bianca Gracie said the song showed a more confident Drake, noting that he channels Jay-Z with "bold lyrics" and a "dizzying production" reminiscent of Kanye West circa 2004. Robert Copsy of Digital Spy also noted a significant growth in confidence, and called the song: "a piece of atmospheric self-reflection that sets up his current mindset: an artist with plenty of ambition but with a constant nagging fear about losing his way." ## Credits and personnel Recording - Recorded at Noble Street Studios in Toronto, Metalworks Studios in Missisauga, Ontario, Tree Sound Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, and Marvin's Room in Hollywood, California. - Mixed at Studio 306 in Toronto, Ontario. Sample - Contains a sample of "I Have Nothing" performed by Whitney Houston and written by David Foster and Linda Thompson-Jenner. - Contains interpolations of "Serious" written by Warren McGlone and Lawrence Parker. - Contains samples from "When Seasons Change (Live)" by Curtis Mayfield. Personnel - Songwriting – Aubrey Graham, Anthony Palman, Noah Shebib, David Foster, Linda Thompson-Jenner - Production – Noah "40" Shebib - Recording – Noah Shebib, Noel Cadastre - Recording assistant – Luke Leveille, Jeff Crake, Miguel Scott, John Nettlesbey - Mixing – Noel "Gadget" Campbell - Mixing assistant – Lindsey Warner - Vocals – Drake - Background vocals – Cappadonna - Instruments – Noah Shebib - Guitar – Adrian "X" Eccleston - Additional drum programming – Matthew "Boi-1da" Samuels, Nineteen85 Credits adapted from the liner notes of Nothing Was the Same, OVO Sound, Young Money, Cash Money, Republic. ## Charts Despite not being released as a single, "Tuscan Leather" managed to enter a handful of charts worldwide. During the week of October 5, 2013, the song debuted and peaked at number 183 the UK Singles Chart. In the United States, "Tuscan Leather" debuted and peaked at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 33 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
3,035,900	Caché (film)	1,172,514,251	2005 European film	[ "2000s French films", "2000s French-language films", "2000s German films", "2005 films", "2005 psychological thriller films", "Algerian War films", "Austrian thriller films", "European Film Awards winners (films)", "Films about adoption", "Films about memory", "Films about police misconduct", "Films about security and surveillance", "Films about stalking", "Films about television people", "Films directed by Michael Haneke", "Films set in Paris", "Films shot in Paris", "Films shot in Vienna", "French psychological thriller films", "German psychological thriller films", "Italian psychological thriller films", "Sony Pictures Classics films" ]	Caché (), also known as Hidden, is a 2005 psychological thriller film written and directed by Michael Haneke and starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche. The plot follows an upper-middle-class French couple, Georges (Auteuil) and Anne (Binoche), who are terrorised by anonymous tapes that appear on their front porch and seem to show the family is under surveillance. Clues in the videos point to Georges's childhood memories, and his resistance to his parents' adopting an Algerian orphan named Majid, who was sent away. The tapes lead him to the now-grown Majid (Maurice Bénichou). Shot in Paris and Vienna in 2004, the film is an international co-production of France, Austria, Germany and Italy. Haneke wrote the screenplay with Auteuil and Binoche in mind, and with a concept of exploring guilt and childhood. When he learned of the French government's decades-long denial of the 1961 Seine River massacre, he incorporated memories of the event into his story. Caché opened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim for the performances and Haneke's direction. Its plot ambiguities raised considerable discussion. The film has been interpreted as an allegory about collective guilt and collective memory, and as a statement on France's Algerian War and colonialism in general. While presented as a mystery, the film does not explicitly reveal which character sends the tapes. Haneke regarded that as of secondary importance to the exploration of guilt and left the question up to viewer interpretation. The film won three awards at Cannes, including Best Director; five European Film Awards, including Best Film; and other honours. It was controversially disqualified for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Caché has been regarded in the years since its release as one of the great films of the 2000s, included in BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century. ## Plot An affluent Parisian couple, Anne and Georges Laurent, discover a videotape left on their property without explanation that shows hours of footage of their residence, implying they are under surveillance. Puzzled about its origin, they debate its purpose, considering whether it might be a practical joke played by friends of their 12-year-old son, Pierrot, or the work of fans of Georges, who hosts a literary television show. A second tape arrives, accompanied by a childlike drawing of a person with blood streaming out of his mouth. Similar drawings are mailed to Georges's workplace and Pierrot's school. Disturbed, the Laurents turn to the police, who determine the tapes are too harmless to be considered criminal activity. The Laurents host a dinner party that is interrupted by the delivery of another videotape, with a crude drawing of a chicken bleeding at its neck. When Anne discloses the stalking to their friends, Georges puts the tape in the VCR and finds it shows the estate where he grew up. Georges begins to have vivid dreams about Majid, a boy he knew in childhood. Majid's Algerian parents worked as farmhands on Georges's family estate but disappeared in the Paris massacre of 1961. Feeling responsible for Majid, Georges's parents intended to adopt him, but the process was never finalised. Suspecting Majid might be responsible for the tapes, Georges visits his ailing mother, who surprisingly professes not to remember Majid well. When the Laurents receive another tape, revealing a low-income housing apartment, Georges tells Anne he has a suspect in mind, but will not say who until he can confirm his suspicion. Anne responds with shock at what she sees as his lack of trust. Following the last tape's clues, Georges locates the apartment off Avenue Lénine in Romainville and finds Majid there. Majid denies knowledge of the tapes or drawing, but Georges does not believe him and threatens him. A hidden camera recorded the conversation with Majid, who breaks down crying after Georges leaves, and tapes of the encounter are sent to Anne and Georges's employer. Georges explains to Anne that he was six when his parents were planning to adopt Majid and that he did not want it to happen; he told lies about Majid, who was sent away. When Pierrot disappears, the Laurents frantically contact the police, who check Majid's apartment and arrest Majid and Majid's son, though they deny involvement in kidnapping. Pierrot returns to his family, having spent time with friends, and hints to Anne that he thinks she is too close to Pierre, a family friend. Majid calls Georges and asks him to come back to the apartment. When Georges arrives, Majid denies having sent the tapes, says he wanted Georges present, and kills himself by slashing his throat. Georges confesses to Anne that as a boy, he had claimed Majid was coughing up blood and convinced Majid to kill the family's rooster, falsely claiming his father wanted him to. The police confirm the cause of death as suicide, but Majid's son appears at Georges's workplace to confront him. Believing the son is responsible for the tapes, Georges threatens him to cease surveillance, but the son replies he was not involved with the tapes and wanted to know how Georges felt about being responsible for a death. Later, Majid's son converses with Pierrot after school. ## Production ### Historical background A basis for the story was the massacre that took place in Paris on 17 October 1961, referenced by the character Georges: > In October '61, the FLN called all Algerians to a demonstration in Paris. October 17, 1961. Enough said. Papon. The police massacre. They drowned about 200 Arabs in the Seine. Including Majid's parents most likely. They never came back. Dad went to Paris to look for them. They said he should be glad to be rid of a couple of jigaboos. During the Algerian War, the National Liberation Front responded to the French right's attacks on France's Arabs, and as many as 200 protesters in Paris may have been shot or drowned in the Seine River. Maurice Papon was prefect of the Paris police, and previously served Vichy France; a book about Vichy is visible on Georges's shelf. In the aftermath of the massacre, the French government suppressed many of the facts by restricting police archives and delaying and cancelling public investigations, until allowing three historians to review the archives in 1998. The media reported three deaths in 1961; the massacre was not revisited until 1997 when Papon went to trial for his Vichy record. While planning the production of Caché, Haneke learned about the massacre, and how information about it was withheld for years, after seeing a television documentary on Arte. He remarked, given France's free press, "I was totally shocked that I had never heard of this event before". He decided to work it into his story. ### Development Haneke began writing the screenplay by September 2001. He described a starting point: "I had been toying with the idea of writing a script in which someone is confronted with his guilt for something he did in childhood". In planning the film, he chose the thriller genre as a model but intended the true point to be an exploration of guilt; he deliberately left the question of who sent the tapes ambiguous: > I'm not going to give anyone this answer. If you think it's Majid, Pierrot, Georges, the malevolent director, God himself, the human conscience – all these answers are correct. But if you come out wanting to know who sent the tapes, you didn't understand the film. To ask this question is to avoid asking the real question the film raises, which is more: how do we treat our conscience and our guilt and reconcile ourselves to living with our actions? > > People are only asking, "whodunnit?" because I chose to use the genre, the structure of a thriller, to address the issues of blame and conscience, and these methods of narrative usually demand an answer. But my film isn't a thriller and who am I to presume to give anyone an answer on how they should deal with their own guilty conscience? Haneke also left it ambiguous whether the young Georges's claim that Majid coughed blood was a lie, but said he viewed the depiction of Majid menacing Georges with an ax as a mere nightmare. While the Paris massacre inspired the plot, Haneke said the story was not about a "French problem" as something unusual, remarking, "This film was made in France, but I could have shot it with very few adjustments within an Austrian – or I'm sure an American – context". Another inspiration was a story he had heard from a friend, similar to that which Denis Podalydès's character tells when claiming to have a scar matching the wound of a dog killed on the day the character was born. Haneke explained, "I wrote it down when I got home and always wanted to use it. I think it sits well here because it makes people ask if it's true or not". While the filmmakers intended the production to be entirely French, they discovered they could not raise the funds in the one country. It received international backing from Films du Losange, Wega-Film, Bavaria Film and BIM Distribuzione which are respectively based in France, Austria, Germany and Italy. Haneke also secured funds from ORF in his native Austria, for a budget of €8 million. ### Casting Haneke stated that "Daniel Auteuil was the reason I wrote this script" and that he envisioned Auteuil and Binoche in the lead roles and had "almost all the actors in mind" while working on the screenplay. Haneke had never worked with Auteuil before, but chose him because he felt Auteuil always played his roles as if keeping a secret. Auteuil had learned of the 1961 massacre only after reading about it in L'Obs circa 1995; he accepted the role, interested in exploring the national conscience surrounding the incident, which made an impression on him. Juliette Binoche had previously starred in Haneke's 2000 Code Unknown, where her character was also named Anne Laurent. She joined the cast, along with Auteuil, in fall 2002. Child actor Lester Makedonsky was cast as Pierrot, and because of his swimming skills, the filmmakers chose swimming as Pierrot's sport. Haneke had also worked with Maurice Bénichou before on Code Unknown and Time of the Wolf (2003), Walid Afkir [fr] on Code Unknown. and Annie Girardot in The Piano Teacher. Nathalie Richard previously played a character named Mathilde in Code Unknown, both being friends of the two versions of Anne Laurent. ### Filming Principal photography took place at Rue des Iris and Rue Brillat-Savarin, Paris, where Haneke ordered parked vehicles arranged and rearranged to match his vision and prepare for tracking shots. Majid's neighbourhood was filmed on location at Avenue Lénine in Romainville. Interior scenes at the Laurent residence were shot in Vienna, Austria in August 2004. Interior scenes for Majid's apartment were also shot in Vienna, with Paris largely used for outdoor scenes, and stairs from Paris replicated in Vienna. Haneke said most of the filming likely took place in Vienna. It was the first film he made using high-definition video cameras; it also has no score, due to Haneke's belief that music conflicts with realism. For the scene in which a rooster is beheaded, a real chicken was used and actually killed. In the suicide scene, Haneke sought to create a realistic effect, remarking "if the suicide scene is not plausible then the entire film is spoiled". In the final scene, Lester Makedonsky and Walid Afkir are speaking dialogue Haneke scripted, but Haneke chose not to publish it and left it inaudible, and instructed the actors to never disclose it. Haneke chose a wide shot and positioned the extras so that viewers might not notice Makedonsky and Afkir. He described post-production as marked by arduous work on fixing the sound. ## Themes and interpretations ### Colonialism Themes of collective memory and guilt over colonialism run through Caché. When Majid commits suicide, Haneke connects "the personal and collective conscience", and how neither Georges nor his society has acknowledged the violence of colonialism, according to professor Ipek A. Celik. Scholar Susannah Radstone argues that while critics focused on the film as a statement on the Algerian War in particular, the story is generally about "the trauma of violence perpetuated upon the colonized and the guilt that now ought rightfully to be acknowledged by the colonial power". The French people refusing to accept the full truth of a moment of shame, the Paris massacre, underlines the scene where Georges tells Anne about Majid, according to academic Elsie Walker, with the pauses punctuating Georges's monologue belying the shame. After stating the date, Georges adds "Enough said", indicating the event was better-known by 2005, but also seemingly affirming silence about it; Walker points out that Georges ironically follows this with details. Professor Russell J.A. Kilbourn writes that Georges had suppressed his memories and his sense of guilt and that for Haneke, trauma is lived in the present through memory. Georges's dream, in which he sees young Majid kill the rooster, and then menace him with the ax, "presents a spectacle of real death in the place of any simulation or reconstruction of the events of October 1961", author Michael Lawrence writes. Present-day conflicts such as the Iraq War and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict are depicted through a Euronews broadcast seen in the film. Author Patrick Crowley writes these are used to represent "the return of the colonial repressed...within contemporary forms of imperialism", and that they are connected to the Paris massacre and the Holocaust. The film's connection between the Seine River massacre and the Holocaust, including Vichy's collaboration with the Nazis, is through Papon. The violence of colonialism, lasting into the present, is also depicted as entering private homes and the media in "hidden" ways, according to essayist Brianne Gallagher. Radstone argues the focus on surveillance and Georges's confrontation with a black cyclist indicate the perspective is that of "the privileged and anxious white middle class". Academic Eva Jørholt argues the film illustrates how white paranoia in the aftermath of colonialism explains racial discrimination in modern France. According to film studies scholar Maria Flood, Majid is largely kept invisible, and his suicide scene confronts viewers with society's marginal people. Celik added that historical revisionism in denying colonial crimes made Caché well-timed for 2005, with the rise of Jean-Marie Le Pen and the National Front. ### Surveillance Professor Todd Herzog states that after the 11 September 2001 attacks, mass surveillance became commonplace. Herzog adds that Caché follows a tradition of cinema about surveillance, including Blow-Up (1966) and The Conversation (1974), but that Caché is distinctive in being "about being looked at rather than looking at something or someone". Haneke reveals life without privacy, Herzog writes. Qian He of the University of Washington writes the precise question of who is watching is the "question that haunts our daily life"; Caché is one film that explores the question, answers to which have included Google, Big Brother and God. Philosopher William G. Smith tied Haneke's ambiguity as to the sender of the tapes to philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's writings on interpretation, quoting Haneke: "There are 1,000 truths. It's a matter of perspective". The setting of Rue des Iris has symbolic significance, as "iris" refers to a part of the human eye and to a camera diaphragm. Film studies professor Catherine Wheatley also observes a man sitting behind Anne and Pierre in the café and observing them. Lecturer Judit Pieldner observes Georges's shelves are lined with CDs, DVDs and videotapes, amounting to a celebration of media technology. The length of the tapes the Laurents receive is also stated at two hours, a nod to the typical capacity of VHS and Hi-8 videotape. Academic Jehanne-Marie Gavarini notes photography was employed to preserve memory in the 19th and 20th centuries, suggesting the videos in the story serve to assist remembering, as opposed to being evidence of surveillance as a terror tactic. Editors Amresh Sinha and Terence McSweeney also identified Caché as part of a 21st-century trend of films concerned with memory, along with Memento, Mulholland Drive, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Pan's Labyrinth. Gavarini quotes philosopher Martin Heidegger: > The fact that the world becomes picture at all is what distinguishes the essence of the modern age...When, accordingly, the picture character of the world is made clear as the representedness of that which is, then in order fully to grasp the modern essence of representedness we must track out and expose the original naming power of the worn-out word and concept 'to represent'". Drawing on Heidegger's theories, Gavarini concludes Caché is a statement on "the virtual space of the screen". ### Character studies Scholar Hugh S. Manon hypothesises the surveillance represents psychiatrist Jacques Lacan's "le regard – 'the gaze'", as psychoanalysis, which Georges wishes to avoid. Manon suggests that unlike Hidden, the French title Caché has a double meaning, referencing "masks" silent film cinematographers used to block parts of shots to highlight another element. Georges's general paranoia is observed in his failure to be open and forthright with his friends and employer. In his mind, "the enemy is everywhere", Wheatley writes. Smith considers the lack of communication between Georges and Anne originates "from everything that was swept under the rug". Anne's position as "moral compass" is made ambiguous by hints of possible adultery with Pierre, according to Wheatley. While no sex is shown, the characters' closeness in their café scene makes the notion appear possible though uncertain. Film professor Christopher Sharrett judges Pierrot's suspicions to be correct, given how Anne seeks Pierre for comfort, and suggests Pierrot "sees far more" than Anne realises. Pierrot's "mysterious, hostile behaviour", including accusing his mother of adultery, invites suspicion that he is behind the tapes. Wheatley compares Pierrot, as a child rebel against his elders, to the Funny Games murderers and the children in Haneke's 2009 The White Ribbon. Academic Giuseppina Mecchia likened the film to Italian neo-realism in using a child's perspective to reveal adult dishonesty: child characters reveal Georges's dishonesty. Italian director Vittorio De Sica's 1944 The Children Are Watching Us has similar themes. Majid may also be trying to cope with trauma, with Gavarini writing Majid lives in poverty, "still haunted by the disappearance of his parents". There is a class separation between Majid and Georges, as Majid lives in an HLM and the settings reveal "markers of racial, cultural, and class-based polarizations", according to film studies professor Malini Guha. Gavarini identifies him as the guilty party in the tapes, and submits the drawings attached to the tapes are Majid's attempts at understanding his past, and communicating these thoughts to Georges, unable to verbally communicate them. The viewer is invited to ponder what Majid's son has inherited from his father; Georges questions the son on "what dumb obsession [Majid] passed down", though Wheatley argues that if the son is telling the truth that Majid raised him properly, he would not hate Georges. Haneke had previously used the names Anne and Georges Laurent in Code Unknown and Anna and Georg in Funny Games (1997). Binoche played Anne Laurent in Code Unknown and Caché, and Mathilde is Anne's friend in both films. Lawrence suggests Haneke used this character-naming method to downplay "individualization" and allow the audience to see the characters as "multiple versions of a particular type". Haneke himself said that he sought short character names to avoid "any hidden metaphorical meaning" detracting from realism. ## Style Generally, Haneke's style has been described as displaying "an aesthetics of dread"; a feeling of "existential dread" or "ambient dread" is also present in Caché. The story has been described as a "psychological thriller"; the British Film Institute stated it employs "classical suspense strategies" to enter the thriller genre. Wheatley adds the techniques differ from the Hitchcockian style by withholding information from the audience until characters disclose it, and not being clear as to whether the characters are honest and whether the flashbacks are real. According to Radstone, the style is characterised by "its closed-in camerawork, its aesthetic and narrative concerns with surveillance, its claustrophobic interiority". Film studies professor Oliver C. Speck has written that Haneke rejected "pseudo-realism" in its recreations of Georges's childhood. Though it resembles a whodunit, the film does not reveal who sent the tapes. A solution may not be possible, as given the setting and the camerawork, the camera could not record without being seen when Georges looks into it, Herzog writes. This suggests Haneke himself is sending the tapes in the story. Georges has no reason to send the tapes to himself and Anne, and the idea that Georges is unconsciously and psychically producing the tapes contradicts the realistic style. Noting that the opening sequence is characterised by a lengthy take in which the camera is stationary and focused on a street, with a "crowded composition" and a two-storey house in the centre, essayist Jonathan Thomas compares this to a photograph, along with sounds of birds, and described it as "idyllic". Professor Brigitte Peucker calls it "slice-of-life realism", comparing it to the opening of Alfred Hitchcock's similarly surveillance-themed Rear Window (1954). The opening credits appear over the shot, in a style suggesting they are being typed. After two minutes and no cut, the "stillness" starts to "weigh" on the viewer. Pieldner compared this to Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's technique of temps mort, where a shot goes on even after the storytelling seems to have ceased. Wheatley notes the "painstaking arrangement" of the four-minute final shot's mise-en-scène, inviting viewers to seek clues, though many viewers missed the meeting between the sons suggesting they are co-conspirators. The shot is still, with two doors in symmetry, parents wearing brown and beige, and a "content murmur". Throughout the film, images are spliced, from the "dramatic present", "prerecorded video", seeing Georges on television, and flashbacks, according to Thomas. Gavarini asserts that the opening is deceptive as to whether the viewer is seeing from the protagonists' perspective, producing "confusion between the director's camera and the diegetic video" and involving the audience as perpetrators of the surveillance. Speck likens the lengthy takes to "visual rhymes". Thomas writes that the high definition makes them "materially homogeneous", with no grain or noise. Speck adds that the digital film clouds distinctions between the surveillance footage and other scenes, removing "ontological certainty". The colour scheme, observable in the Laurents' apartment, focuses on grey, brown and beige and communicates dissatisfaction; Haneke had employed it before in The Piano Teacher. In the stressful scene where Anne and Georges realise Pierrot is missing, Euronews plays in the background covering Barbara Contini in Iraq and Palestinians being killed in a protest; Walker notes that the background volume remains louder than the Laurent dialogue, while "classical realism" would require the viewer to lose interest in the background news. ## Release By fall 2002, Mars Distribution had signed on as the French distributor. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2005, where distributors purchased release rights, including Sony Pictures Classics for the United States. It subsequently screened at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. In France, Caché opened on 5 October 2005. Its poster featured a blood spray alluding to the suicide scene. It opened in New York City and Los Angeles on 23 December 2005, and in the United Kingdom on 27 January 2006, distributed by Artificial Eye. To market the film, Artificial Eye designed a trailer with no music and heavy dialogue with subtitles, emphasising a complicated plot. By the end of January, Sony expanded the release to Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Montreal, and other cities. The UK Film Council also approved Caché, under the title Hidden, for screenings in multiplexes, based on an assessment it could have commercial appeal. It was released on DVD in Region 1 in June 2006, along with Yves Montmayeur's documentary Hidden Side. That month, Artificial Eye also published a single-disc Region 2 DVD, later including it in its The Essential Michael Haneke DVD boxset in October 2009. ## Reception ### Box office By the beginning of November, Films du Losange found the film was performing "strongly" in France. In the United States and Canada, Sony moved it from 10 to 22 screens by 25 January 2006 to gross \$718,406. It opened in the United Kingdom making £169,000 in its first weekend, reaching £1 million by 24 March 2006. The film finished its run grossing \$3.6 million in the U.S. and £1.1 million in the U.K., more than any previous Haneke film in either country. It grossed US\$16,197,824 worldwide. Peter Cowie and Pascal Edelmann summarised Caché's box-office performance as having "considerable success". ### Critical reception Rotten Tomatoes reported an 89% approval rating based on 135 reviews, with an average rating of 7.85/10. The website's critical consensus reads "A creepy French psychological thriller that commands the audience's attention throughout". On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 83 based on 37 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In Le Monde, Jean-François Rauger wrote that while Haneke may be heavy-handed in his negative outlook and use of news about war in the Middle East playing the background, the atmosphere of terror deserved credit. Le Parisien gave it three out of four stars, declaring it an excellent thriller, citing Annie Girardot for her performance as the mother. For Les Inrockuptibles, Serge Kaganski compared the opening to David Lynch's Lost Highway and wrote the suspense developed from there, and that Binoche and Auteuil convey the anxiety, Auteuil more internally. Variety critic Deborah Young reviewed Haneke's pacing favorably and found themes of responsibility, regarding France and Algeria but tied into the United States and Europe in the Iraq War. The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt credited the film for a thorough exploration of "guilt, communication and willful amnesia", and praised the cinematography. Film Comment contributor Michael Joshua Rowin considered it Haneke's most political work to date, "not merely liberal hand wringing" in its depiction of "passive-aggressive oppression and its manifestation as a slow-building, unresolved societal tension". A.O. Scott wrote that while he could criticise it as a liberal exercise in inducing guilt, it was "hard to deny its creepy, insinuating power". Roger Ebert awarded it four stars, lauding its focus on "paranoia and distrust" rather than providing a whodunit conclusion, and remarking on the way characters hide so much from each other, reflecting the title. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave the film five out of five stars, describing it as "one of the great films of this decade" and "Haneke's masterpiece". For the BBC, Matthew Leyland gave it four stars, citing the mounting suspense over themes of guilt. In a review for The Atlantic, Christopher Orr described Caché as "a broad political allegory about Western guilt and a meditation on the nature of seeing." Film Quarterly critic Ara Osterweil compared Caché to the 1966 Blow-Up in making "challenges naïve assumptions of ocular mastery". Caché's detractors include Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer, who wrote "Too much of the plot's machinery turns out to be a metaphorical mechanism by which to pin the tail of colonial guilt on Georges and the rest of us smug bourgeois donkeys". In the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle called it "a handsome fraud...in its style, technique and ultimate message", becoming dull and "a drab social polemic". The Nation's Stuart Klawans judged it not a statement of "liberal guilt" but "liberal self-regard" in having Majid choose to die for Georges's sake, in Klawans's interpretation. Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Chicago Reader called Caché a "brilliant if unpleasant puzzle without a solution", writing that "Haneke is so punitive toward the couple and his audience that I periodically rebelled against—or went into denial about—the director's rage, and I guess that's part of the plan." Calum Marsh of Slant Magazine writes that in Caché "Haneke’s predilection for deceit served a high-minded, if still somewhat suspect, intellectual purpose". Ebert added the film to his Great Movies list in 2010, expressing disbelief about missing a possible "smoking gun" after two viewings, crediting Juliette Binoche for a naturalistic performance, and pondered the 1961 massacre: "Has France hidden it in its memory?" Also in 2010, Ebert further explored the whodunit question, considering the motives of various characters. Ebert questioned whether the last scene's encounter between Pierrot and Majid's son is the first time they met, or one of many encounters. He concluded Majid's son must be at least partly responsible and that Pierrot is a possible accomplice, as it is not clear where he is in many scenes. In his 2014 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin gave it three stars, calling it "icily meticulous, if protracted". Caché was among the more acclaimed films of the 2000s. In 2009, Caché was named 44th in The Daily Telegraph's list of "The films that defined the noughties", and 36th in The Guardian's "100 best films of the noughties". The film was ranked 73rd in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010. Caché received 19 total votes in the 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made; it is 154th among critics and 75th among directors. In 2016, critics also voted it the 23rd best in BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century. ### Accolades Caché competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, where polled critics and festival audiences considered it a frontrunner. Ultimately, the jury awarded Haneke Best Director. It went on to win numerous other awards. At the European Film Awards, it competed with the Cannes Palme d'Or winner, L'Enfant by the Dardenne brothers, with Caché winning five awards, including Best Film. The film was submitted as Austria's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards, but was disqualified as French is not predominantly the language of Austria. As Haneke is Austrian, it would have also been disqualified if France or any other country had submitted it. The exclusion sparked criticism, with Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker calling it "unfortunate" and saying the story demanded the film be in French. Austria's Fachverband der Audiovisions und Filmindustrie protested the criteria, and Haneke, whose previous French-language The Piano Teacher was not disqualified as the Austrian submission, also called the rules "really stupid". Academy member Mark Johnson responded, "We're in the process right now of considering some very radical changes". ## Legacy The film's French release preceded the 2005 French riots, beginning with three deaths on 27 October; professor Gemma King writes the film offered a progressive perspective in contrast to the real-life divisions in the wake of the riots. According to Walker, the riots' occurrence shortly after the film's release made it seem "uncannily resonant"; Radstone cites the riots to interpret the film as a statement on racial tensions felt by whites. King observes Caché is one of a growing number of French films that take a progressive view of the country's colonial past, and that films about Algeria became more common in later years. Following the film's disqualification at the Academy Awards, the Academy revised its rules so as to emphasise the filmmaker's origin over the country's language for eligibility for Best Foreign Language Film. Subsequently, Haneke's 2012 French-language Amour won the award for Austria. In 2015, IndieWire reporter Ryan Lattanzio reported rumours that U.S. producers had wanted to remake Haneke's film and compared Joel Edgerton's The Gift to a remake. Variety critic Scott Foundas also said The Gift resembled Caché in attempting to explore a "moral and existential minefield". Edgerton cited Caché as an influence on The Gift, and has said Haneke's film illustrates "how unsettled you can be by the thing you never see". He added "The idea of a villain who is able to actively dismantle another person's life from the shadows is often scarier" than a visible threat. ## See also - List of films featuring surveillance - List of Austrian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film - List of submissions to the 78th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
36,809,620	Certificate of division	1,128,846,547	Source of appellate jurisdiction from the circuit courts to the Supreme Court of the United States	[ "History of the Supreme Court of the United States", "United States appellate procedure" ]	A certificate of division was a source of appellate jurisdiction from the circuit courts to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1802 to 1911. Created by the Judiciary Act of 1802, the certification procedure was available only where the circuit court sat with a full panel of two: both the resident district judge and the circuit-riding Supreme Court justice. As Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, he did not have "the privilege of dividing the court when alone." The certificate of division procedure had unique features. Unlike writ of error and certiorari jurisdiction, the certificate of division procedure did not require a federal question. In criminal cases, the certificate of division was the only source of appellate jurisdiction from the circuit courts (save original habeas) until 1889. In civil cases, although ordinary writs of error were authorized, the certificate of division remained important because it permitted appeals without regard to the amount in controversy and interlocutory appeals. Inasmuch as the certificate of division permitted the Supreme Court some measure of control over its docket, it is a precursor to modern certiorari jurisdiction. With regards to criminal cases, the Supreme Court held (in 1896) that Judiciary Act of 1891 operated as an implied repeal of the authorization to hear cases on certificates of division. But, the Court retained its authority to hear civil cases via certificates of division until the abolition of the circuit courts by the Judicial Code of 1911. A different, and rarely used, certified question procedure was adopted in 1925 and is currently codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1254(2). ## Background ### Circuit courts Under the Judiciary Act of 1789, the circuit courts were composed of a stationary district court judge and any two Supreme Court justices riding circuit. The practice of circuit riding was briefly abolished by the soon-repealed Midnight Judges Act of 1801, and then restored by the Judiciary Act of 1802. Under the 1802 Act, the circuit courts were composed of a stationary district judge and one Supreme Court justice assigned to the circuit. Section 4 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 had provided that two judges or justices would constitute a quorum. The practice of sending a single circuit rider was explicitly authorized by the Judiciary Act of 1793, but was already common before 1793. Under the Judicial Act of 1802, a single judge (either the district judge or the circuit rider) could preside alone. ### Early tie-breaking methods In United States v. Daniel (1821), Chief Justice John Marshall recounted the history of tie-breaking methods on the circuit courts. If one judge or justice disagreed with the other two, the majority prevailed. If only one Supreme Court justice could attend, and a division arose between the district judge and the Supreme Court justice, the practice—as required by the Judiciary Act of 1793—was to hold the case over until the next term. If a one-to-one division persisted with a different circuit riding justice, the opinion of the previous circuit rider broke the tie. After 1802, in cases where both judges sat, though, one-to-one divisions were less likely to be resolved by continuing the case until the next term because the circuit-riding justice would be the same (barring a change in membership on the Court). Prior to 1802, there was no way to call upon the Supreme Court to resolve one-to-one ties on the circuit courts. Alexander Dallas, the Supreme Court reporter (and also the reporter of an eclectic assortment of cases from state and federal courts in Pennsylvania), noted in United States v. Worrall (C.C.D. Pa. 1798): The Court being divided in opinion, it became a doubt, whether sentence could be pronounced upon the defendant; and a wish was expressed by the Judges and the Attorney of the District, that the case might be put into such a form, as would admit of obtaining the ultimate decision of the Supreme Court, upon the important principle of the discussion: But the counsel for the prisoner [Dallas himself] did not think themselves authorized to enter into a compromise of that nature. Worrall involved a criminal prosecution of Robert Worrall for bribing Tench Coxe, the Commissioner of Revenue within the Department of the Treasury. After Worrall's conviction by jury, Dallas had moved for a judgment of acquittal on the ground that the Judiciary Act of 1789 did not empower the circuit court to try common law crimes (in 1798, there was no federal statute criminalizing the bribery of the relevant federal official). Despite the divided opinion in the circuit court, Worrall was sentenced to three months imprisonment and fined \$200. The "short consultation" referred to in the official report, prior to the pronouncement of the reduced sentence, may have been with other members of the Supreme Court, which was then resident in Philadelphia. ## Statutory basis The Judiciary Act of 1802 permitted circuit courts to certify questions of law to the Supreme Court if the judges were divided on that question. Specifically, § 6 provided: Whenever any question should occur before a circuit court, upon which the opinions of the judges shall be opposed, the point upon which the disagreement shall happen, shall, during the same term, upon the request of either party, or their counsel, be stated under the direction of the judges, and certified under the seal of the court, to the supreme court, at their next session to be held thereafter; and shall, by said court, be finally decided. And the decision of the supreme court, and their order in the premises, shall be remitted to the circuit court, and be there entered of record, and shall have effect according to the nature of the said judgment and order: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the cause from proceeding, if, in the opinion of the court, farther proceedings can be had without prejudice to the merits: and provided also, that imprisonment shall not be allowed, nor punishment in any case be inflicted, where the judges of the said court are divided in opinion upon the question touching said imprisonment or punishment. An 1872 statute modified the certificate of division procedure to require waiting for a final decision in the circuit court case first. In the interim, the opinion of the presiding judge was to prevail. An 1874 statute repealed the 1872 modification as to criminal cases, but left it in place as to civil cases. While the statute provided only for the certification of "the point upon which the disagreement shall happen," the justices sometimes took the liberty of enlarging the question. For example, in United States v. Hudson (1812), the question certified was "whether the Circuit Court of the United States had a common law jurisdiction in cases of libel?" but the question answered was "whether the Circuit Courts of the United States can exercise a common law jurisdiction in criminal cases?" And, in United States v. Bevans (1818), the Court noted that "[i]t may be deemed within the scope of the question certified to this court" to inquire whether the murder was cognizable under § 3 of the Crimes Act of 1790, even though the defendant had only been indicted under § 8. ## History of use Certificates of division began to fall into disuse as it became increasingly common for the circuit courts to sit with a single judge. The Judiciary Act of 1869 (the "Circuit Judges Act") reduced the circuit-riding duties of the Supreme Court justices and therefore reduced the possibility for certificates of division. As Chief Justice Marshall wrote, he did not have "the privilege of dividing the court when alone." ### In criminal cases In United States v. More (1805), the Court held that the ordinary means of appeal, the writ of error, could not be utilized in criminal cases from the circuit courts. This contributed to the importance of the certificate of division in criminal cases. The Marshall Court (1801–1835) heard thirty-one criminal cases arising from certificates of division; the Taney Court (1836–1864), fifteen; the Chase Court (1864–1873), seventeen; the Waite Court (1874–1888), thirty-eight; and the Fuller Court (1888–1910), fourteen. The Judiciary Act of 1802 plainly contemplated that certificates of division would issue in criminal cases. Section 6 provided that "imprisonment shall not be allowed, nor punishment in any case be inflicted, where judges of the said court are divided in opinion upon the question touching the said imprisonment or punishment." Justice Story—in his opinions for the Court—cautioned against the too frequent use of certificates of division in criminal cases. In United States v. Gooding (1827), for the Court, Justice Story wrote: We take this opportunity of expressing our anxiety, least, by too great indulgence to the wishes of counsel, questions of this sort should be frequently brought before this Court, and thus, in effect, an appeal in criminal cases become an ordinary proceeding to the manifest obstruction of public justice, and against the plain intendment of the acts of Congress. Not every question or every criminal case was eligible for a certificate of division. In United States v. Daniel (1821), the Court held that a motion for a new trial—as authorized by the § 17 of the Judiciary Act of 1789—could not be the subject of a certificate of division; rather, the division would operate a rejection of the motion. Similarly, in United States v. Bailey (1835), the Court held that the question of whether the evidence was legally sufficient to support the offense charged could not be certified. In United States v. Briggs (Briggs I) (1847), the Court further limited its jurisdiction to hear criminal certificates of division by holding that the question of whether a demurrer to an indictment should be sustained was too general to be certified. In United States v. Hamilton (1883), the Court reaffirmed its earlier holdings that certificates could not issue from motions to quash an indictment. And, in United States v. Rosenburgh (1868) and United States v. Avery (1871), the Court held that a motion to quash an indictment could not be so certified, even if the motion called into question the jurisdiction of the circuit court. ### In habeas cases In Ex parte Tom Tong (1883), the Court held that—under 1872 amendments to the certification procedure, which went into effect during the Chase Court era—because habeas corpus was a civil proceeding, questions arising in habeas cases could not be certified to the Supreme Court until a final judgment had been entered. In Ex parte Milligan (1866), after the repeal of those amendments, the Court held that habeas petitions in the circuit courts could be a source of certified questions to the Supreme Court. ### In civil cases Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) is a famous use of the certificate of division procedure in a civil case. In order to insure that the certificate of division procedure would be available in Dartmouth College, "Story was closely involved from the outset with the litigation." Early on, Dartmouth's lawyer, Daniel Webster, sought "to elicit the cooperation of Story in carrying the case to the Marshall Court through a pro forma certificate of division." The Contract Clause question for which Dartmouth College is famous could have been appealed to the Supreme Court even if the case had been brought in the courts of New Hampshire (and it was); but, the "vested rights" argument, which Story and Webster regarded as potentially stronger, was not a matter of federal law and thus could not be appealed by writ of error. In fact, after the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled against the College, in addition to filing an appeal, a new case was filed in the federal circuit court. As Webster wrote in a letter to another lawyer for the College: I have no doubt [that Justice Story] will [be] incline[d] to send up the new cause in the most convenient manner, without giving any opinion, and probably without an argument. If the district judge will agree to divide without argument, pro forma, I think Judge Story will incline so to dispose of the cause. Although Story did as Webster predicted, the certificate of division was never heard by the Supreme Court because the direct appeal was decided first. ## Certificates not decided In addition to the Dartmouth College case (supra), there are other reports of certificates of division that were issued but never decided by the Supreme Court. After the indictment of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, for treason, William Wirt Henry reports that a certificate of division was issued on Davis's motion to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that he owed no allegiance to the United States after the secession of his state. Reportedly, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase sided with Davis, while District Judge John Curtiss Underwood sided with the government. No response from the Supreme Court to that certificate is reported, but Davis's bail was eventually absolved, and he was released. ## Abolition ### Criminal cases In 1889, Congress created a right of ordinary appeal in capital cases. The 1889 act was "[t]he first act of Congress which authorized a criminal case to be brought from the Circuit Court of the United States to this court, except upon a certificate of division of opinion." In 1891, with the Judiciary Act of 1891 (the "Evarts Act"), Congress extended this right to other serious crimes. The 1891 act did not explicitly repeal the authorization to issue certificates of division, but § 14 provided that prior, inconsistent laws were repealed. After the passage of the 1891 act, the Supreme Court initially continued to decide questions presented in criminal cases by certificate of division on the merits. Three such decisions, United States v. Eaton (1892), United States v. Rodgers (1893), and United States v. Thomas (1894), made no mention of the 1891 act. But, in United States v. Rider (1896) and United States v. Hewecker (1896), the Court held that the 1891 act was an implied repeal of the authorization of certificates of division in criminal cases. Rider held: We are of opinion that the scheme of the act of March 3, 1891, precludes the contention that certificates of division of opinion may still be had under sections 651 and 697 of the Revised Statutes. Review by appeal, by writ of error or otherwise, must be as prescribed by the act, and review by certificate is limited by the act to the certificate by the Circuit Courts, made after final judgment, of questions raised as to their own jurisdiction and to the certificate by the Circuit Courts of Appeals of questions of law in relation to which our advice is sought as therein provided, and these certificates are governed by the same general rules as were formerly applied to certificates of division. It is true that repeals by implication are not favored, but we cannot escape the conclusion that, tested by its scope, its obvious purpose, and its terms, the act of March 3, 1891, covers the whole subject-matter under consideration, and furnishes the exclusive rule in respect of appellate jurisdiction on appeal, writ of error or certificate. Hewecker, the last criminal certificate of division case, declined to reconsider the question on the grounds that Rider could have been decided on the narrower ground that a certificate of division could not issue on a matter committed to the district judge's discretion. ### Civil cases Following Rider and Hewecker, certificates of division continued to be issued in civil cases. Felsenheld v. United States (1902) was the last civil certificate of division case. The possibility of civil certificates of division was not completely abolished until the Judicial Code of 1911 abolished the circuit courts. ## Other forms of certification The modern form of Supreme Court certified question jurisdiction was enacted in 1925 and amended in 1949. 28 U.S.C. § 1254 provides: Cases in the courts of appeals may be reviewed by the Supreme Court by the following methods: : (1) By writ of certiorari granted upon the petition of any party to any civil or criminal case, before or after rendition of judgment or decree; : (2) By certification at any time by a court of appeals of any question of law in any civil or criminal case as to which instructions are desired, and upon such certification the Supreme Court may give binding instructions or require the entire record to be sent up for decision of the entire matter in controversy. Section 1254(1) represents the far more common route: certiorari, the source of nearly all the Supreme Court's current docket. Section 1254(2) represents a less common route: certification. Pursuant to § 1254(2), the Supreme Court heard 72 certified question cases between 1927 and 1936; 20 between 1937 and 1946; and only four between 1947 and 2010. In modern jurisprudence, § 1254(2) certification has become very rare. For example, when the en banc Fifth Circuit attempted to certify a question in 2009 (also a rare occurrence), the Supreme Court summarily declined to consider the case. Certified questions are also governed by Supreme Court Rule 19. ## Analysis Several scholars have argued that certificates of division were pro forma, and that the judge and justice would merely agree to disagree, often without writing opposing opinions. For example, with the circuit court decision leading up to United States v. Marchant (1827), the reporter records that "[t]he district judge concurred in this opinion; but as it was a matter of not infrequent occurrence, and important to the practice of the court, the judges afterwards divided in opinion for the purpose of obtaining a solemn decision of the superior court." Similarly, the United States v. Ortega (1826) circuit court opinion notes that the "point was taken to the supreme court upon a proforma certificate of a division of opinion in this court." White writes that "the certificate of division procedure constituted the principal opportunity by which they could control their docket." It was common for Marshall Court justices, while riding circuit or on vacation, to exchange letters about cases in the circuit courts which might be appropriate for certificates of division.
73,500,988	Money Shot: The Pornhub Story	1,172,701,297	2023 Netflix documentary	[ "2020s English-language films", "2023 documentary films", "2023 films", "Documentary films about pornography", "Netflix original documentary films", "Pornhub Network", "Works about child sexual abuse", "Works about sex trafficking" ]	Money Shot: The Pornhub Story is a 2023 Netflix documentary about Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek. It presents interview footage from sex workers, ex-Pornhub employees, journalists, and anti-sex-trafficking figures. The documentary focuses on a 2020 scandal over Pornhub hosting non-consensual pornography, including of children, and how the aftermath affected pornographic performers. Netflix approached Jigsaw Productions about the film Director Suzanne Hillinger wanted to highlight sex workers' opinions because she believed that they had been underrepresented in media coverage. Hillinger said that many figures in the pornographic industry were initially reluctant to participate. Cherie DeVille was skeptical but participated to present the narrative that anti-sex-trafficking groups had right-wing agendas. Ex-MindGeek employee Noelle Perdue worked as an archivist and fact-checker, as well as being interviewed. According to Rotten Tomatoes, most reviews of the documentary were positive. However, reviewers were divided on many topics, including the message, provenance, and pacing. Some critics called it neutral, but others saw it as pro-sex work. The focus on anti-sex-trafficking organizations' political aims was generally seen as a strength, but some reviews criticized the interviews as lacking depth and a viewpoint. Other reviewers concluded that Pornhub's content moderation was lacking and that there are issues with the concentration of money and power in the industry. ## Synopsis The documentary, which presents interview footage without narration, opens with subjects recounting their first memories of watching pornography. It interviews sex workers and individuals associated with the Canadian corporation Pornhub, including former employees, journalists, and legal figures. It also shows the filming, editing, and organization involved in the work of pornographic performers Gwen Adora and Siri Dahl. Pornhub began as a free tube site to watch pirated content, comparable to LimeWire for music or The Pirate Bay for movies. It was founded by three Concordia University students and sold to Fabian Thylmann of MindGeek, a data company, in 2010. After Thylmann was convicted of tax evasion, Pornhub and MindGeek came under the control of Feras Antoon and David Tassillo and investor Bernd Bergmair. Pornhub gained traction through search engine optimization (SEO) and turned a profit through advertisements and promotions. However, pornographic performers were unable to monetize their content on the website until the Modelhub feature in 2018. A civil lawsuit against Pornhub has 30 plaintiffs; it is led by lawyer Michael Bowe. The plaintiffs state that the company is complicit in non-consensual pornography that featured them, including revenge porn, videos of rape, and videos of child sexual abuse. Bowe accuses Pornhub of racketeering. On this subject, Dani Pinter, a representative of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), criticizes child sexual exploitation on Pornhub. The topic of child pornography victims is the subject of a 2020 article for The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof: "The Children of Pornhub". Around the same time, the Christian non-profit Exodus Cry led a campaign, '#Traffickinghub', that opposed sex trafficking content on Pornhub. Sex workers in the documentary characterize Exodus Cry as a far-right organization founded by an Evangelical preacher, whose mission is to end all sex work. They say a similar thing of NCOSE, which was formerly called Morality in Media. Kristof's article and Exodus Cry's campaign led Mastercard and Visa to disallow payment processing with the company and caused Pornhub to ban uploads by unverified users. Kristof's article had suggested three changes to Pornhub: require user verification, prevent user download, and increase content moderation. Dahl said these were "insanely reasonable" measures that sex workers favored. However, according to Michael Stabile, most of Pornhub's income came from banner ads and so the credit card company boycotts primarily affected individual performers. A hearing of the Parliament of Canada investigates non-consensual content on Pornhub. Evidence is presented that, though MindGeek cooperates with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to remove non-consensual content, content moderators have been expected to view at least 700 flagged videos per day—more than they can properly investigate. Stabile notes that, shortly after his location was mentioned in the Parliament of Canada, MindGeek CEO Feras Antoon's mansion was burned down, although the culprit and motive are not known. Noelle Perdue criticizes MindGeek, for whom she worked as a pornographic script writer, producer, and recruiter for three years. She says that not all Pornhub executives were aware of the U.S. bill FOSTA-SESTA (2018), which affected legal sex workers. Additionally, sex workers raise issues they face from other internet companies. For example, in October 2021, OnlyFans said that it would prohibit pornographic material. Adora says this left pornographic actors like her in financially insecure positions. Dahl comments that website censorship is an issue for sex workers: their accounts on Instagram can be shadow banned even if no sexual material is posted, and sites like OnlyFans ban words associated with consensual sexual activity, such as "pegging". Allie Knox describes that changes to Craigslist increased danger to sex workers while making child traffickers harder to identify. ## Interviewees - Gwen Adora, pornographic actress - Asa Akira, pornographic actress and spokesperson for Pornhub - Michael Bowe, legal representative for victims of non-consensual pornography on Pornhub - Whitney Burgoyne, ex-Pornhub employee - Siri Dahl, pornographic actress - Cherie DeVille, pornographic actress - Natassia Dreams, pornographic actress and spokesperson for Pornhub - Wolf Hudson, pornographic actor - Allie Knox, pornographic actress - Nicholas Kristof, journalist for The New York Times - Bree Mills, pornographic director - Martin Patriquin, journalist for The Logic - Noelle Perdue, ex-MindGeek employee - Dani Pinter, spokesperson for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation - Yiota Souras, spokesperson for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children - Michael Stabile, spokesperson for the Free Speech Coalition ## Production The documentary was released on streaming platform Netflix on March 15, 2023, in around 65 countries. It was directed by Suzanne Hillinger and edited by her wife Alexis Johnson. Netflix approached Jigsaw Productions about making a documentary on Pornhub and corporate responsibility. The first scenes shot were with Bowe on the day he filed a legal complaint. Hillinger described the central focus as "what sexuality and consent means when billion-dollar internet platforms thrive on user-generated content". Hillinger aimed for it to facilitate "important conversations about sex and consent". Hillinger said that issues with non-consensual content applied to the entirety of the internet, not just Pornhub. According to Hillinger, NCOSE had "some questionable motives" but Pinter was knowledgeable, persuasive and did not refuse to answer difficult questions. Hillinger chose not to focus on the financial supporters of Exodus Cry or NCOSE, believing it would have distracted from larger themes of privacy, consent, and free speech. Hillinger said that many ex-MindGeek employees had signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with the company and were "really, really scared" to participate in the documentary. Adora put Hillinger into contact with Perdue, who was "rightly suspicious" at first. In addition to being interviewed, Perdue served as an archivist and fact-checker for the documentary. She has written about sex work for newspapers including Slate, The Washington Post and Wired. As a self-described "internet porn historian", Perdue hoped the documentary would cause viewers to feel a "sense of responsibility" and "engage further ... out of curiosity instead of shame or stigma". Perdue began as a script writer for Brazzers, a MindGeek-owned production company, and moved onto writing LGBT stories. After becoming uncomfortable with this, she requested a move to Modelhub. She left in 2020, perceiving the company as ignoring the feedback of pornographic performers. Perdue said that Money Shot should have shown wider context of content moderation on the internet and the nature of trafficking. Hillinger wanted to center sex workers because she felt that they were underrepresented in Kristof's op-ed and media reporting. She did not give interviewees the right to approve the edited footage of them that was used. Hillinger said she opened conversations by acknowledging that subjects would be suspicious of her and stating that the documentary would not have a narrator. She suggested that Adora trusted her after reviewing her filmography and because of their shared queer identity. Dahl gave positive feedback to the final product, saying that it succeeded in presenting the viewpoint of sex workers "in a way they never have been before" and sparked conversations about sex work and porn among the public. DeVille wrote in Rolling Stone that campaigns presenting as anti-sex-trafficking were right-wing, Christian, and anti-porn, and that Hillinger said the film would present this narrative. Though skeptical of being interviewed, DeVille agreed to participate, choosing to use soft colors and wear clothing that covered her skin to mitigate being portrayed as unintelligent or untruthful. Filming took place at a rented cottage outside Los Angeles over four hours. She said that she neither hated nor loved the film and did not regret her role in it. Adora's Instagram account was suspended on the day that Money Shot premiered and Hillinger's was suspended one week later. ## Reception Netflix stated that in its first week, Money Shot was streamed for 13 million hours; it was the fourth-most-watched film on the platform. It reached the top ten in each country it was available in. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, which categorized 31 reviews as either positive or negative, the documentary holds an approval rating of 84%. It was rated 2.5 out of 5 stars by News24 and 2 stars by The Indian Express and The Guardian. Some reviewers criticized the documentary's narrative and scope. The Daily Beast's Nick Schager and News24's Gabi Zietsman felt there was a lack of investigative journalism and that subjects were not covered in sufficient depth. Similarly, in The Indian Express, Rohan Naahar criticized the "loose narrative". Lucy Ford wrote in GQ that the scope was too broad. In a review for Jezebel, however, Rich Juzwiak wrote that it "excels at teasing out the nuances" of the topic. Barry Hertz suggested in The Globe and Mail that it was too slow-paced. Noel Murray of Los Angeles Times thought its runtime was too short, but that it contained irrelevant sexually explicit content. However, reviewers largely found the tone unsalacious and Schager criticised the film for misleadingly depicting pornography as largely softcore. Various comments were made on the overall message of the documentary. The title is a pun, referring both to Pornhub's revenue streams and a cum shot in pornography. Ford lauded the decision to open with "the deeply unsexy reality" of Pornhub's use of data and advertising and the logistics of producing and editing sexual material. Ford suggested that the documentary's message is that pornography is a "capitalist monopoly" dictated by economic factors. Polygon's Katie Rife saw it to have a persuasive opposition to the concentration of unaccountable power in the hands of "tech bros and venture capitalists". Naahar believed, on the other hand, that the documentary has "absolutely nothing new to contribute": he found it obvious that Pornhub had engaged in unethical behaviors, sex workers became "collateral damage", and the company's "damage control" was not virtuous. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that a more interesting, unexplored question is whether Pornhub—and non-pornographic websites—are publishers or platforms, and what responsibility they have for content that they host. Critics differed on the matter of neutrality. Critics such as Zietsman and Variety's Owen Gleiberman viewed the film as neutral, the latter praising the "no-fuss journalistic evenhandedness". Murray approved its perspective as "thoughtful", despite the complicated topic. Hertz believed its neutrality was a negative, as it suffered from unresolved tension between the opposing views it presents. Zietsman commented that the documentary devoted most of its screen time to adult industry workers. Bradshaw believed the documentary presented these workers as "creative entrepreneurs and heroes of consenting sensuality". Rife said that, in the context of a longstanding clash of feminist views on pornography, it centered the underrepresented views of sex workers. Juzwiak wrote that industry workers are given a chance to explain the effects of anti-sex-trafficking measures on their lives and Pornhub was scrutinized for "grossly inadequate" content moderation. On the subject of anti-sex-trafficking campaigners, Rife wrote that the documentary takes a "bold stance": the campaigners overstate the prevalence of child sexual abuse material on Pornhub. Gleiberman said that documentary gives "detached and sobering" analysis of the campaigners claims. Juzwiak opined that the documentary succeeds in showing that "anti-sex operatives" are capitalizing on a legitimate backlash to sexual exploitation with a "narratively compelling" reveal of NCOSE's political agenda, albeit one that "somewhat confuses the message". As well as Juzwiak, Schager was critical of Pinter's commentary on behalf of NCOSE. The lack of contributions from current Pornhub employees or anti-Pornhub campaigners was criticized by Naahar. Similarly, it was conspicuous to Bradshaw that Exodus Cry's Laila Mickelwait was not interviewed. ## See also - Hot Girls Wanted - Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On
5,468,856	Chris Brandon	1,164,007,165	Professional footballer (born 1976)	[ "1976 births", "Blackpool F.C. players", "Bradford (Park Avenue) A.F.C. players", "Bradford City A.F.C. players", "Chesterfield F.C. players", "English Football League players", "English expatriate men's footballers", "English expatriate sportspeople in Thailand", "English men's footballers", "Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand", "Farsley Celtic F.C. players", "Footballers from Bradford", "Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players", "Living people", "Men's association football wingers", "Stafford Rangers F.C. players", "Torquay United F.C. players" ]	Christopher William Brandon (born 7 April 1976) is an English professional footballer who last played in Thailand for BEC Tero Sasana. He is a midfielder who has played more than 300 games during his professional career, which did not start until he was aged 23. After he was released by Bradford City's youth academy as a youngster he followed a non-league career with Bradford Park Avenue, Farsley Celtic and Stafford Rangers. He became a professional in 1999 with Division Three side Torquay United. Torquay were aiming for promotion during Brandon's first season with the club, but they finished two places outside the Division Three play-offs. He only played two games the following season because of a stomach tear, and upon his return Torquay were instead battling against relegation from The Football League, and Brandon left after three seasons with the club. He moved up a division and played for two years with Chesterfield, where he picked up a number of individual awards but spent two seasons fighting against relegation. In 2004, he joined Huddersfield Town where he twice narrowly missed out on promotion. He had a short spell on loan with Blackpool, helping them to the promotion play-offs. However, after a permanent move failed to materialise he returned to Huddersfield for a fourth season. When he was released by new manager Stan Ternent after four years with the club, he rejoined Bradford City, but had two injury-hit seasons before being released early from his contract. At the start of the following year, he moved to Thailand to join BEC Tero Sasana. ## Early life Brandon was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, on 7 April 1976. He attended Yorkshire Martyrs Collegiate School in Bradford and supported the city's Football League team Bradford City. ## Career ### Early career Brandon started his football career as a trainee for Bradford City, but he was dropped by their academy and joined non-league side Bradford Park Avenue. He later played for Farsley Celtic before joining Stafford Rangers. He played 32 times for Rangers over two seasons before returning to play for Bradford Park Avenue. In his two spells with Park Avenue, Brandon played a total of 107 games. ### Torquay United In March 1999, he played as a trialist in a reserve match for Lincoln City, but failed to win a contract. Five months later, he was signed by Division Three side Torquay United. He made his debut in the opening fixture of the 1999–2000 season as Torquay defeated Shrewsbury Town at Gay Meadow. He established himself as a first-team regular and played 50 games in all competitions, scoring a total of five goals, the first of which came in a 2–1 victory against Peterborough United on 19 October 1999. Torquay finished in ninth place in Division Three, just three points outside the play-off places. In July 2000, he signed a new two-year deal with Torquay. However, only two games into the following season, he picked up a stomach tear, which kept him out for the rest of the season. Without Brandon, Torquay could not match their high league position of the previous season, and finished 21st, four points above Barnet who were relegated out of The Football League. He returned from injury in time for the start of the 2001–02 season and once again he became an established member of the team during the start of the campaign. He was dropped from the side for a period of time following an FA Cup defeat to Northampton Town in November 2001, during which he missed an open goal. He returned to the first team in January 2002 and scored on his second game back in the starting eleven as Torquay defeated Bristol Rovers. Two months later, he scored a vital goal in a 2–0 victory over Lincoln City, which helped Torquay to only their second home victory in four months and move them 13 points clear of the relegation zone. Torquay finished the season only two places higher than their previous campaign, but 15 points above relegated Halifax Town. During his disrupted three seasons with Torquay, Brandon amassed 83 appearances with ten goals to his credit, before he moved to Chesterfield in July 2002 on a free transfer. ### Chesterfield Brandon signed a two-year contract with Division Two side Chesterfield, and made his debut against Queens Park Rangers on the first day of the 2002–03 season. Chesterfield lost the game at Loftus Road 3–1. Brandon's first goal for Chesterfield came a week later when he scored a 12-yard overhead kick to give them a late 2–1 victory over Port Vale. He scored again just ten days later as Chesterfield defeated Northampton Town 4–0. His third goal was another volley during a 1–0 victory over Stockport County. However, he was substituted at half-time, and he did not play for another two weeks because of suspension, until he scored again in a League Cup game against West Ham United live on television, which Chesterfield lost on penalties. He scored in both the first and second rounds of the Football League Trophy, but Chesterfield were defeated on penalties by Port Vale in the second round. He finished the season with ten goals but also 11 yellow cards. However, he played only one game during the final month, with his last game coming on 21 April 2003, when Chesterfield finished with just nine players because of serious injuries to Brandon and striker Caleb Folan. Chesterfield picked up four points in their final two games without Brandon, and avoided relegation by just one position, finishing two points above Cheltenham Town. Brandon's ten goals meant he finished as Chesterfield's top goalscorer and also helped Brandon win three awards at the club's end of season awards, as well as reported interest from nearby Nottingham Forest, who had missed out on promotion to the Premier League. Brandon overcame his hamstring problems to return before the start of the following season, at the start of which he maintained his goalscoring form, scoring twice within the space of three days, as Chesterfield drew 3–3 with Wycombe Wanderers, then 1–1 with Plymouth Argyle. He only managed another four goals all season, but they included two against Lincoln City in a Football League Trophy defeat and one goal to help Chesterfield's fight to avoid relegation in a 3–1 victory over local rivals Sheffield Wednesday. He finished the season with six goals, which took his tally for Chesterfield to 16 goals from 88 games. Chesterfield again finished just one place above the relegation zone, and Brandon left in July 2004 to sign for Huddersfield Town under manager Peter Jackson on a free transfer. ### Huddersfield Town Huddersfield had been one of the teams relegated below Chesterfield in 2002–03, but had been immediately promoted back to League One. Brandon made his debut for Huddersfield on the opening day of the 2004–05 season in a 3–2 victory over Stockport County. Chesterfield goalkeeper Carl Muggleton twice denied him a goal in his first home game three days later, but Brandon only had to wait until the following month when he scored in a 4–0 victory against Hull City. Brandon scored a total of six goals in his first season with Huddersfield, but also received the first red card of his professional career in a 1–0 win over Blackpool for a professional foul. Two of Brandon's goals came as Huddersfield pushed for a play-off place with a run of five successive victories, but they could only finish ninth, just one point behind Hartlepool United in the final play-off spot. Jackson praised Brandon for his "workrate and skill" and offered him and captain Jon Worthington each new two-year deals. Huddersfield started the 2005–06 season in the same form. Brandon scored his first goal of the season during a 2–1 win over Doncaster Rovers on 29 August 2008, which gave them their fifth win from seven games during the month. In mid-November, Brandon signed the two-year contract extension, which kept him at Huddersfield until June 2008, and instantly targeted promotion. The following month Brandon scored the only goal of a 1–0 win over non-league Worcester City in the FA Cup second round to earn Huddersfield a tie with Premiership champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Two days later, Brandon received another red card, as both he and David Mirfin were sent off in the final minute of a 2–2 draw with Milton Keynes Dons. Brandon returned to the side following his suspension and helped Huddersfield to win a place in the play-offs. He was an unused substitute in the first leg 1–0 victory over Barnsley, and he played just eight minutes of the second leg, as Huddersfield lost 3–1 to again miss out on promotion. The following season was interrupted by an achilles injury for Brandon. It was not until February 2007, that Brandon scored his first goal of the 2006–07 season, during Huddersfield Town's 2–1 defeat to Crewe Alexandra. He only played one more game for Huddersfield that season, before he joined fellow League One side Blackpool on loan on 21 March 2007, joining another Town teammate, goalkeeper Paul Rachubka. Blackpool were searching for promotion and Brandon helped when he scored two goals during a 4–1 defeat of Northampton Town. However, he was sent off on 28 April 2007 in Blackpool's win at home to Scunthorpe United, which resulted in his missing the Seasiders' play-off games, and therefore not being considered for their successful final at Wembley against Yeovil Town. Brandon played in five games during his loan spell, all of which Blackpool won. It seemed certain that manager Simon Grayson was going to purchase Brandon, but instead Grayson bought Brandon's teammate Gary Taylor-Fletcher. Brandon returned to Huddersfield and was back in first team. However, after he was substituted on 14 October 2007 against Doncaster Rovers, he did not feature again until the New Year. On 5 January 2008, his second game back in the Huddersfield side, Brandon scored another FA Cup winning goal to knock Premier League side Birmingham City out of the competition in a 2–1 defeat at the Galpharm Stadium. He scored his second goal of the season, in the following game against Gillingham, but was sent off in the final minute of a 1–1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion the next week. Brandon's red card meant he was suspended for Huddersfield's fourth round FA Cup tie with Oldham Athletic, but following a 1–0 victory, he returned in time for their visit to Chelsea in the fifth round, which Chelsea won 3–1. Brandon scored just one more goal during the rest of the season, with his last game coming on 15 April 2008 in the Yorkshire derby with Leeds United. With his contract due to expire in the summer, it turned out to be his final game for Huddersfield after 135 league appearances, during which time he scored 12 goals, and a total of 148 games. ### Bradford City After being one of eight players to be released by new Huddersfield manager Stan Ternent in early May 2008, Brandon turned down the chance to join another League One side and instead dropped down a division for the first time in six years to sign a two-year deal at Bradford City on 30 May 2008. Although Bradford were a League Two side, Brandon said it would be the highlight of his career to play for his hometown club. An ankle injury, which Brandon picked up in a pre-season tour game against Scottish side Motherwell kept Brandon out of the side at the start of the 2008–09 season. This included a League Cup game against his old side Huddersfield Town on 12 August 2008, for which he was a spectator as Bradford lost 4–0. When he attempted to make a comeback, he injured his other ankle in a reserve game with Scunthorpe United and was forced to undergo the first operation of his career which kept him out until January 2009. Once he returned to training in January, his first team debut was again delayed after a shoulder injury suffered at home. He returned to action for the reserves against Doncaster Rovers in February, before making his long-awaited debut on 7 March 2009 against Aldershot Town with City three goals ahead in a game which finally finished 5–0. He finished the season playing seven games. However, City missed out on promotion and Brandon's future was cast into doubt because of the size of his contract and budget cuts at the club. Brandon, however, remained at Bradford for the 2009–10 season and he scored his first goal for his hometown club with a late goal in a 2–0 victory against his former side Torquay United in late August. The following month, his second goal for the club again came against one of Brandon's former teams, as he once again came off the substitutes' bench to score in a 3–0 victory over Chesterfield. However, he continued to struggle to hold down a regular first-team place and when new manager Peter Taylor took over, Brandon was one of a number of players released early from his contract. He had played just 31 games during his two seasons with City, scoring three goals. ### BEC Tero Sasana After his release from Bradford, Brandon spent a period of time training with Scottish-side Dundee United, although that was because he was visiting his friend and former teammate Danny Cadamarteri and would not be offered a contract, before he was offered a trial with Port Vale in July 2010. It proved to be an unsuccessful trial, with Brandon spending time away from the game. He later held talks with Conference North side Guiseley, a non-league team from near Bradford. At the start of 2011, he signed for Thai Premier League side BEC Tero Sasana. ## Style of play Brandon is principally a midfielder who plays anywhere in the midfield, but has also been used just behind a pair of strikers or in attack. At Chesterfield, his ability to take on opposition defenders, create openings for teammates and score "wonder goals" helped him to win a number of awards. His former manager, Peter Jackson has also praised Brandon's "workrate and skill". ## Career statistics ## Honours Chesterfield - Player of the season: 2002–03
640,762	Tansy beetle	1,157,233,053	Species of beetle	[ "Beetles described in 1758", "Beetles of Asia", "Beetles of Europe", "Chrysomelinae", "Species endangered by habitat loss", "Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus" ]	The Tansy beetle (Chrysolina graminis) is a species of leaf beetle. The common name derives from its main foodplant, Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), but it can also use other wetland plants such as Gypsywort (Lycopus europaeus) and Water Mint (Mentha aquatica). It measures 7.7–10.5 mm in length and has a characteristic bright metallic green colouration, with pitted elytra and a coppery tinge. In addition to the nominotypical subspecies, which repeats the specific name, C. graminis graminis, there are five further distinct subspecies of Tansy beetle, which, collectively, have a Palearctic distribution, although in the majority of countries where it is found the species is declining. In the United Kingdom it is designated as 'Nationally Rare'. The stronghold population here is located along the banks of the river Ouse in York, North Yorkshire. Other, small, fenland populations exist at Woodwalton Fen and at Welney Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) reserve. ## Taxonomy The tansy beetle was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Chrysomela graminis and was later transferred to the genus Chrysolina. The genus Chrysolina currently contains 39 subgenera. C. graminis (with its several subspecies) is located in the subgenus Euchrysolina which contains only one other species – C. virgata; this subgenus was first established in 1950. Its specific name graminis is a form of the Latin noun gramen, meaning "of grass" or "grass-like". Chrysolina graminis sensu lato has at least three later binomial names which are considered to be synonyms: Chrysomela fulgida Fabricius, 1801, Chrysolina nigrocuprea Mallet, 1924, and Chrysolina taupini Mallet, 1924. There are six subspecies of tansy beetle. The nominotypical subspecies C. graminis graminis was established via the original description of the species in 1758. C. graminis santonici (named after the Italian name, Santonico, for its host plant Artemisia caerulescens) was described by N. B. Contarini in 1847. In 1860 Victor Motschulsky described two subspecies – C. graminis artemisiae and C. graminis auraria. These were added to in the 20th century with C. graminis christianae (Mallet, 1933) and C. graminis mediterranea Bechyné, 1950. The subspecies of C. graminis have localised distributions: C. graminis artemisiae is located in south-east Europe, central Asia, and southern Siberia; C. graminis auraria is located in Dauria, eastern Mongolia, and China; C. graminis christianae is located in France; C. graminis mediterranea is located in Corsica and Spain; C. graminis santonici is located in the central Alps. ## Description All tansy beetles are small, rounded beetles approximately 7–12 mm in length. There are both internal and external morphological differences between the six subspecies. ### Larvae The larvae of C. graminis have four instar stages, though the first instar may not possess the characteristics of the later instars. Larvae are brown, and dorsally convex with spiracles evident on eight segments. They usually have small, indistinct tubercles with very short setae. The head of each larva is a darker brown than the body and has six ocelli on each side. The mandibles have five apical teeth. ### Distinguishing Chrysolina graminis and Chrysolina herbacea Chrysolina graminis and C. herbacea are similar in size and colour and may be confused in UK populations. Distinguishing the two species in the United Kingdom is particularly important as C. graminis is a vulnerable species whereas C. herbacea is much more common. This has previously led to the misidentification of C. herbacea as C. graminis. C. herbacea measures 7–11 mm in length. It is coloured iridescent green on dorsal surface throughout. The punctuation on the pronotum and elytra is distinctly similar, unlike in C. graminis. There is a smooth lip running only half the length of the ventral edge of the elytra, whereas this lip runs the full length on C. graminis. ## Distribution and habitat The tansy beetle has a Palearctic distribution. Evidence from archaeological excavation has shown that its presence in western Europe is confirmed at least as early as the Neolithic period. The beetles may be found on tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and water mint (Mentha aquatica) in fen land and the banks of rivers with broad floodplains in Britain. Larvae are also recorded from other host plants: Achillea ptarmica (sneezewort) in France and various plants of the genus Artemisia in Russia. Adults and larvae feed on the leaves of their host plants. ### Distribution In continental Europe, C. graminis is widespread from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea. It may also be found in central Asia and China. In Russia it may be found in the tundra zone from the Polar Urals to the Kolyma River, and in the nearby countries of Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. It is listed as vulnerable in Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and in Germany it is rare in one district, endangered in another. #### United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, its range is currently restricted to about 45 km of the banks of the River Ouse centred on York, North Yorkshire. Although there are scattered records from across England some of these may represent mis-identifications of the mint beetle, a more widespread species. Tansy beetles had previously been recorded from Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire, where species of mint (Mentha spp.), not Tansy, acted as the host plant. The last accurate record for the beetle at this site was in 1981. In August 2014 a new sighting was made nearby at Woodwalton Fen, following this a translocation programme of Yorkshire beetles was attempted to boost the population. However, this was unsuccessful, likely due to potentially differing biologies between the two populations. As of 2006 there were 19 British hectads (10 km squares) with records of the tansy beetle, but it has only been seen in 11 of these since 1970, six of which are centred around York. In 2015, the total number of individuals estimated from a survey of this area on the banks of the River Ouse was 24,000. In 2016 this number increased significantly to 40,000. Since 2018, the beetle has also been discovered at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) reserve at Welney, west Norfolk. ### Threats to habitat The decline in C. graminis is likely to be due to habitat loss resulting from land improvement and arable conversion, over-grazing, development, drainage and lowering of water-tables due to over-abstraction. Neglect may also lead to loss or degradation of habitat such as through over-shading or competition of food plants with invasive species such as Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera). Flood-bank works may deplete or destroy local sub-populations. Within the York distribution the beetles are dependent on tansy as their sole food source; if a clump disappears the beetles are forced to walk to a new location as they rarely fly, despite having fully working wings and being capable of doing so. The loss of habitat impacts upon the ability of the tansy beetle to find an alternative source of the host plant. Additionally, tansy is a ruderal species and thus has a naturally high rate of turnover of plants, forcing beetles to regularly seek out new tansy patches to colonise. A 2009 study of tansy beetle occupancy amongst 1305 patches (stems separated by no more than 50 cm) of the tansy plant on the banks of the River Ouse (York, UK) intended to establish data on the distribution of tansy plants and relate this to existing tansy beetle populations in order to contribute to the conservation effort of the species. The results were analysed using generalised additive models to conclude that the tansy patches should be managed towards volumes of 3 m<sup>3</sup> and that these patches should be targeted within 200 m of existing beetle subpopulations on the same river bank in order to help the beetle population disperse and survive. ## Life cycle Both adults and larvae use the same host plant during their life cycle. As tansy often grows in discrete clumps, the total population of C. graminis in an area may be divided and individuals may spend their entire life cycle within an area of a few square metres. Adults mate between March and June. In the monitored populations at York, mating of the same pair could last over 24 hours, during which time some pairs moved between tansy patches. Mating in a Russian population of C. graminis is preceded by an elaborate ritual not evident in other populations of the species, involving the male tapping the female's eyes, pronotum and antennae with its antennae. Mated females lay batches of 3–15 elongated, yellow eggs (each 2 mm long) on the underside of the tansy leaves. Eggs hatch into grey larvae. In captivity, one newly mated female produced 561 eggs over 136 days and another produced 158 eggs over 49 days. Females will lay in several locations; the average clutch size is 5–6 eggs. Female C. graminis will cannibalise the eggs of other females. In laboratory conditions, newly hatched larvae have been shown to survive for at least four days without food and thus have a long window of opportunity in which to reach a tansy plant. In July, the final instar larvae burrow underground beneath the plant to pupate, although very little is known about the biology of this process in C. graminis. Between August and September, this new adult population emerges to feed before returning underground to overwinter in October; emergence of adults is from March to April the next year. Long-term monitoring has indicated that survival during winter hibernation is surprisingly high, as autumn and spring population sizes are very similar. This is despite annual winter flooding of the River Ouse, implying that overwintering individuals must be extremely tolerant of long periods of inundation and oxygen deprivation. Approximately 5% of overwintering adults do not emerge from the soil after the winter, but remain underground for the next year in a state of extended diapause and emerge in the following spring. A few adult beetles may overlap between the spring and summer populations, but most adults from the earlier emergence die before the end of summer. Both adult and larval tansy beetles are unable to detect their host plant, or each other, at a distance, either by smell, sight or a combination of the two. Starvation is thus likely to be a major contributor to mortality when beetles wander away from their host and become lost. ## Behaviour and ecology ### Diet Tansy beetles are herbivorous and primarily use tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) as their host plant. The species has, however, also been recorded consuming a wider range of food plants including Lycopus europaeus (gipsywort), Stachys palustris (marsh woundwort), Achillea ptarmica (sneezewort), Mentha aquatica (water mint), Mentha rotundifolia (false apple mint), as well as other species of the genera Chrysanthemum, Scutellaria, and Artemisia. The subspecies C. graminis santonico is associated with Artemisa caerulescens. The tansy plant naturally contains a number of volatile components including 1,8-cineole, trans-thujone, camphor and myrtenol, with the quantities and proportions of each varying seasonally and from plant to plant. 1,8-cineole is a toxin believed to defend the plant leaves against attacks by herbivores. The tansy beetle is resistant to these chemicals. However, tansy is a repellent to other Chrysomelid beetles. For example, the steam distillate of fresh leaves and flowers of tansy contains high levels of camphor and umbellulone and is strongly repellent to the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata). ### Predation Beetle remains bearing what appeared to be the marks of bird attacks have been found by the River Ouse and hardened adults often bear symmetrically indented elytra, interpreted as 'pinch marks' inflicted by a beak whilst newly emerged adults are still hardening. Dead beetles have also been found in the webs of spiders in a captive population. The accidental predation of C. graminis by livestock consuming the tansy plant is also possible. Predation of a larva by the scorpionfly Panorpa germanica has been observed in the field. The tachinid genus Macquartia exclusively parasitizes Chrysolmelid beetles and one species of which, Macquartia dispar, may parasitise C. graminis directly. The adult fly deposits fully incubated eggs or newly hatched larvae into the vicinity of the host larvae. Larvae of other Chrysomelids are predated by birds, coccinellids, predatory bugs, lacewing larvae, syrphid larvae, carabids, ants, wasps, spiders and harvestmen, all of which are common on the tansy around the York population. The pupal stage may be directly predated by the European mole. ### Parasites A mite, Chrysomelobia mahunkai (family Podapolipidae) has been recorded from a single adult specimen of C. graminis, and Eulophus chrysomela (a species of hymenopteran of the family Eulophidae) is recorded as an endoparasite of the pupal stage. ## Relationship with humans ### Conservation in the United Kingdom The species is formally designated as 'Nationally Rare' in the United Kingdom and categorised as a 'Species of Principal Importance' in accordance with the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. The Tansy Beetle Action Group was set up in 2008 to initiate and oversee conservation efforts and comprises representatives from the University of York, North Yorkshire County Council, City of York Council, Environment Agency and the National Trust. A recovery programme started, involving annual surveys of both tansy and beetles, control of tree shading and invasive plants that compete with tansy, such as Himalayan balsam, and limited re-introductions within the current species range. New clumps of tansy have been planted, particularly between isolated existing patches which may be beyond the 200 m walking range of the beetle. In order to publicise the conservation project Rachael Maskell, the Member of Parliament for the constituency of York Central became a 'Tansy Beetle Species Champion' in 2016. That same year, a team of 30 volunteers surveyed a 90 km stretch of the banks of the River Ouse. The surveying has identified an upward trend in population numbers, rising over 60% between 2015 and 2016 to 40,000 individuals. In October 2019 a large mural of a tansy beetle was painted on the side of a house in Queen Street, York by street artist ATM.

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